Is Jesus the Only Way to God?
02/13/09 10:18 PM
Did any of you see the article in this past Tuesday’s paper entitled, Faith Leaders Share Views? Representatives from Islam, Christianity and Judaism gathered at Patrick Henry Community College to discuss religion and answer questions.
The event was called, “Toward a More Perfect Union: An Interfaith Dialogue on Religious Freedom as an American Heritage.” Evidently everything was cruising along pretty smoothly until the Q&A at the end. The paper reported, “The audience seemed tense when one man challenged religions that do not accept the precepts of the New Testament. Thumping a Bible, he boomed, ‘What about the part that says, “I am the way, the Truth and the Light?”’”
I wasn’t present so I can’t personally say whether the guy was a booming Bible thumper or not (although that characterization does appear to be open to interpretation, because according to some who were in attendance, the guy didn’t “boom” anything, he merely asked a sincere question).
And what an insightful question it was! Apparently he was referring to the words of Jesus from John 14:6 where Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Isn’t it interesting, that in an interfaith dialogue on religious freedom, that everybody’s ideas on religion were okay – except, apparently, that one. I mean, everything’s fine until some guy quotes Jesus in John 14:6 and suddenly everybody’s tense.
Jesus’ assertion in that verse definitely seems to rankle people like no other. His claim has even been called arrogant, narrow-minded and snobbish. Why? Why is that claim so controversial? I’ll be tackling that question in the message this Sunday. I’ve decided to put our Ephesians series on hold for a week, so that I can address some of the questions and comments that were raised during this interfaith dialogue, particularly the question, “Is Jesus the Only Way to God?”
The event was called, “Toward a More Perfect Union: An Interfaith Dialogue on Religious Freedom as an American Heritage.” Evidently everything was cruising along pretty smoothly until the Q&A at the end. The paper reported, “The audience seemed tense when one man challenged religions that do not accept the precepts of the New Testament. Thumping a Bible, he boomed, ‘What about the part that says, “I am the way, the Truth and the Light?”’”
I wasn’t present so I can’t personally say whether the guy was a booming Bible thumper or not (although that characterization does appear to be open to interpretation, because according to some who were in attendance, the guy didn’t “boom” anything, he merely asked a sincere question).
And what an insightful question it was! Apparently he was referring to the words of Jesus from John 14:6 where Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Isn’t it interesting, that in an interfaith dialogue on religious freedom, that everybody’s ideas on religion were okay – except, apparently, that one. I mean, everything’s fine until some guy quotes Jesus in John 14:6 and suddenly everybody’s tense.
Jesus’ assertion in that verse definitely seems to rankle people like no other. His claim has even been called arrogant, narrow-minded and snobbish. Why? Why is that claim so controversial? I’ll be tackling that question in the message this Sunday. I’ve decided to put our Ephesians series on hold for a week, so that I can address some of the questions and comments that were raised during this interfaith dialogue, particularly the question, “Is Jesus the Only Way to God?”
