Dr Tim Keller is the senior minister in a church next to the world trade centre – the Redeemer Church. And he talks about a debate he was in with a Muslim scholar before a university audience. The debate went on as most of those debates do with perfect civility as they expressed their point of view. The Islamic cleric expressed the fact that in his understanding of the universe there is only one God, he doesn’t have a Son and the idea of God having a son and coming to earth is nothing short of blasphemy. And Dr Keller expressed his view that God the father had a son who at one wonderful moment came to earth and walked amongst us. It’s very clearly different, said Dr Keller. The idea that Jesus came to earth as a man is central to his faith, but a blasphemy to Islam.
Having said this, he was quite perplexed when the first question from the floor from one of the students began like this: “It seems obvious that both of you men are saying the same thing. Both you men really believe the same thing.” And both Dr Keller and the Muslim cleric said no, we don’t believe the same thing. In fact, we believe diametrically opposite things. Both of us can’t be right. Jesus coming to earth can’t be both blasphemy and this most wonderful event in history.
But this student insisted. No, you don’t understand. You’re both saying the same thing! Now what’s going on for the student at this point? He’s no fool. Why is it he can hear one man say something is red, another say it is green and then conclude that they’re both saying it’s brown? I’d suggest it’s because he’s an unconscious victim of a religious ideology that’s dominant in the western world. It’s a dogma normally not thought out, normally not supported by logic or arguments but it’s passionately held all the same. It’s called Pluralism.
The word pluralism of course can be used to mean a number of things. One way of using the term is simply to recognise that there are many different ways of thinking and doing in our society. Different races, different cultures – a sort of social pluralism – that in society there are by definition different ways of being and doing. Not that’s not a bad thing. It’s a self-evident truth in many ways. But accepting that sort of pluralism often leads people into accepting something quite different which is called theoretical pluralism, or philosophical pluralism, or religious pluralism. That’s’ the view the student held. It teaches things like this:
All religions are equally valid. There are many different ways to God. They might refer to the fact that there are many roads up a mountain, but the view from the top is the same. That the differences among religions are only superficial. That anyone who has bothered to study them deeply will recognise that at heart they’re all the same. They all lead to the same goal. That’s Pluralism. Many ways of believing all leading to the same God.
They believe that at the ultimate reality, at the heart of everything, there is plurality there. There isn’t just one ultimate reality, there are many. Whatever you believe to be real, is real. No one will be surprised, no one will be disappointed. So, if you believe that God is love as the Bible teaches or if you choose to believe that God is cruel and indifferent, or if there are many gods – that’s all true. That’s pluralism.
The ethical command of pluralism is very simple – it’s tolerance. That’s the basic command in this religion. You can choose to do whatever you want – well don’t hurt anyone, but basically anything you want – and what you need to do is be tolerant. To be intolerant is the great evil. It is a call to humility to admit that we don’t really know. To admit that if we make truth statements they’re actually taste statements. We might not realize it, but they’re just statements about what we like to believe. What we choose to believe, what we’ve been brought up to believe. Intolerance is the great evil.
There’s some truth to that, of course. Bigotry and intolerance is a source of great suffering. You’ve probably experienced it at some time. That’s why people move in that direction. They can see that intolerance can cause suffering and so they conclude that if we can get everyone to be tolerant the world will be a whole lot better. And the way to get them to be tolerant is not to encourage them to hold their views with politeness and love and kindness but simply to claim that all views are the same. So therefore what is forbidden and what will be punished are any claims to know ultimate truth. Any claims to believe that THIS is true and therefore other views are false. Even if you don’t say it, even if it’s just implied, people will quickly pick it up and you will be punished. And the main punishment is shame. You will be spoken of and spoken to as if you should be ashamed of yourself, as if you are ignorant. Don’t you realize that there are millions and millions of other people who don’t see it your way? You’re arrogant. You just happen to prefer your opinion to others. You’re an imperialist. You’re a narrow-minded bigot, You’re an exclusivist. You think you’ve got a monopoly on the truth and in the end that will be violent and you will treat people with disrespect. It is forbidden.
And even if you are a very well educated person who deeply appreciates other religious systems but are simply convinced on good reason that some are true and some are false, you will be the subject of abuse and be made to feel that you are somehow intellectually or morally deficient. That you should be ashamed of yourself for saying such things. That’s the way I was made to feel at university. That’s the way some staff try to make me feel at school.
Like all religions, pluralism has its stories, it has its heroes and its villains. And one of the great stories that is often used is the one of the elephant. It goes like this:
There’s a great rich ruler. He hears people squabbling over their religious beliefs. So in order to teach them wisdom he brings some blind men toward an elephant and they touch the elephant. Then they are asked to describe what they have just touched.
One man who touched a leg said he encountered a tree. Another man said it was the side of building. Another ran into the tail and said it was a very smelly vine. Another ran into the trunk and said it was a very large snake. Another ran into the tusk and I’ve got no idea what he said – but you get the picture. The moral of the story is that they’re all kind of right. But they can’t say that the others are wrong. They’ve just run into different parts of the reality. Therefore, people who hold religious beliefs are all told to show a little bit of humility. Don’t dare to correct anyone else.
That’s pluralism. And it has a massive influence on our culture. It has certainly made some Christian witness harder now in many ways.
John 14, and particularly the famous vs 6 – “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” is often quoted in response to the claims of pluralism. It’s quoted like that because here Jesus leaves the disciples and us as modern day readers in absolutely no doubt. In John 14:6 he comes at this whole pluralist question from both sides – the negative and the positive. I am the way, the truth and the life, he says. The positive affirmation of his unique position using the definite article. But also the reverse – No one comes to the Father except through me.
You might be able to explain away those first statements by saying that Jesus is just using a rhetorical device to emphasise how important he is. He is the way to God – but not to the exclusion of all others. But the second half of the verse doesn’t leave that option open to us. Jesus is claiming a role for himself and then making it clear that no one else can also do that job. He alones fits the criteria.
When you read the words of Jesus, particularly throughout the Gospel of John, you can quickly see that Jesus is not very pluralistic at all. He constantly makes absolute, unique statements about himself. I am the Bread of Life, he says. I am the light of the world. I am the resurrection and the life. I am God! That’s what Jesus claims about himself. Never “a” bread or “a” light or “a” resurrection – Jesus claims that he, uniquely, came into our dark broken world to give us the light of life. Jesus is not a pluralist.
But before we leap into picking apart pluralism and looking at the claims of Jesus let’s briefly touch on the text and context of John 14.
You’ve probably heard a number of talks on John 14:6 before.
More often than not you will have heard John 14:6 quoted out of context – not wrongly, but out of context. It will have been trotted out to demonstrate that Jesus is the only way to be saved, that he is the unique redeemer of mankind, that Christianity alone amongst the religions of the world contains the answers to life’s questions. And John 14 does teach that. It’s not a misuse of the verse.
But Jesus doesn’t come out with this famous line in response to an accusation from a Greek philosopher saying “Well, Yahweh is good for you but Zeus is good for me”. He makes other absolute statements about himself in that sort of context. In John 8 he claims “I am the light of the world” and is immediately set upon by the Pharisees. For the rest of chapter 8 a debate ensues, with the Pharisees resorting to name calling and insults until finally Jesus declares emphatically I AM God at which point they try to stone him to death. The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus’ absolute statements any more than modern day pluralists.
But John 14 isn’t part of some public debate. No, this is right smack in the middle of the upper room narrative that we started last week in John 13. It’s the night before the Passover, the night before Gethsemane, the betrayal, the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion. The twelve are assembled with Jesus in an upper room where they are sharing the last supper. By chapter 14 Judas has already been dismissed to go and do his worst, and Jesus has announced to the remaining eleven that he is about to leave – and they can’t follow him. They want to follow him but they can’t and Jesus even warns Peter that he will disown Jesus three times before the morning breaks. That’s where chapter 13 ends.
And chapter 14 begins with these words: “Do not let you hearts be troubled.” What follows are designed to be words of great comfort to this small band of his closest followers. They’re also words of great acclamation – but that’s not the context in which they are uttered.
Jesus provides comfort and assurance to his disciples by reminding them that he is the saviour. Vs 1-4: JN 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
He says that they can trust him in the same way they trust God. He tells them that while they can’t follow him now, he’s going to his Father’s house to prepare places for them – and there’s plenty of room. And finally he assures them he will come back to get them.
But Thomas doesn’t understand. “We don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?” And in response to that Jesus utters the immortal words that will have been forever impressed upon minds by a Sunday School song. Jesus goes on to explain to them in utterly unambiguous terms that he is God and that’s why they can trust him – “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” and finally he promises them the Counselor, the Holy Spirit who will guide them and strengthen them after he has gone.
That’s the way Jesus comforts his disciples. This chapter isn’t simply some theological treatise - although I think it is that as well. Rather it is the gentle, patient, loving words of the Lord Jesus to his frightened band of followers.
Jesus knows what’s at the heart of pluralism. At the heart of pluralism is a sad admission that we do not know what is at the heart of reality. We don’t know, and therefore anyone’s speculation is worthy of being listened to and treated with respect. Actually, at the heart of pluralism is either despair or atheism. There’s nothing there. But Jesus says you’re not in the dark about all the great questions of life and experience. I’ve come as the way, the truth and the life, he says. Not knowing the way, not being sure that there was an assurance of life was at the heart of the disciples’ fear in John 14 – and that’s all that pluralism offers, and it’s why Jesus comforts them by using those famous words.
I am the way to the Father, says Jesus. I’m the way to my Father’s house which is a lovely, homely, welcoming image of heaven.
I am the truth, says Jesus. I was sent in order to speak the truth, and the truth will set you free. There is no true freedom in lies and deception, says Jesus. You want to know the truth – “I am the truth”, he says. I was borne to bear witness to the truth. And according to John 18 – you remember that great exchange between Jesus and Pontius Pilate? - the litmus test to see if someone is on the side of truth is whether we listen to Jesus. That’s the mark, Jesus says.
And I am the life, says Jesus. Jesus comes to bring us freedom and life. To set us free from the slavery which he says is all there is outside of Jesus himself. He will bring the light of life and the light of truth. The alternative is that we will die in our sins which is an ugly and ominous sort of statement. He warns the people this way in 8:24 – “you will die in your sins unless you listen to me.” To die in your sins is to fall into eternity still ensnared by sin and death.
All the other great religious leaders who supposedly had great insights – in the end they are all flattened by death. Jesus Christ alone says “I can take death on and ultimately defeat it by going right into its guts and coming back out again – coming back alive.” And you can investigate the evidence for the truth of this claim from Jesus by looking at the resurrection. He’s brought back for proof that he is the life.
As a child at the beach I’d always want to go out as far as possible (actually not just as a child). My mother would often be waving from the beach something about sharks that I would ignore. But if I was with some friends we’d go out as long way up the headland and see how far out we could go and still touch the bottom. So you’d dive down and your ear drums would burst and you’d see if you could touch the bottom. And the way to prove that you had touched the bottom was that you’d come up with a handful of sand. You’d show off in this brief moment of triumph. I haven’t been able to hear since then but it was all worth it. The sand was the proof. There is a sense in which by the resurrection Jesus is saying that he has proven his claims. I am the life, he says – and I’ll prove it to you by rising from the dead.
As with most claims you have to make some sort of choice about it. Are you going to ignore it politely or are you going to embrace the light and the life?
You may continue to believe the dogma of pluralism. It very rarely tries to prove itself. It just asserts. No one knows, it says – after all no one’s died and come back. Really? Or Pluralism tries to trivialize Jesus as if he’s just my little private spiritual guru instead of being this magnificent moment when God invades our dark little world. The pluralist dogma is that all religions are the same, and we’ve all got our hands on a little bit of the elephant. It’s a nice appeal to our emotions.
Now we can believe nice lies for a long time. But in the end reality is hard on lies, and because of Jesus’ compassion and kindness and love he corrects lies. You can take this magnificent saviour come down to us from heaven, or you can take the pluralist’s Jesus who might have some wisdom but in the end is not who he claimed to be.
If you stay with Jesus and you refuse to be silenced then you’ll suffer – you’ll be shamed. You’ll be misrepresented.
There’s something incredibly ironic about those two pluralist illustrations that I used earlier. The roads up the mountain and the elephant. They’re often used to say to Christians, “show some humility – you’ve only got one little part of the picture.” But here’s the irony – to be able to know that all these roads lead to the top of the mountain, where do you need to be standing? That’s right – on the top looking down. The person using the elephant story to tell you to be humble is claiming to be the one who can see the whole elephant. Everyone else is blindly grabbing hold of one part but the pluralist can see everything. The billions of religious people are all blind but the pluralist is the only one who can see. All roads lead to the same God at the top of the mountain. And who is that God? It’s the pluralist who must be perched up there looking down. And they dare to accuse Christians of arrogance for following the truth.
As tough as it may be we need to show up how naked this clothes-free emperor actually is. Why is it so impossible that God could have spoken to us? Why amidst all the religious lies can’t there also be religious truth? Particularly if God has come down to reveal himself to us?
The application is straightforward in theory if not in pratice – be cheerful and charitable and confident about Jesus. He brings much cheerful news. He is the bringer of light and life. So be cheerful and gentle - and we do need to be gentle, something which many Christians fail at. We need to sympathise with people’s concerns about religious intolerance because it does cause suffering and conflict. But nonetheless to hold onto the things that are true.
Beware of pluralism. Its intentions seem to be good – it’s pursuing peace after all. But it’s a seemingly innocuous acid which will melt down the uniqueness of Jesus, the divinity of Jesus and his great work for us on the cross – it will make that just optional. It will destroy both Christmas and Easter. G.K. Chesterton, the English author, said this: An open mind is like an open mouth: its purpose is to bite on something nourishing. Otherwise, it becomes like a sewer, accepting everything, rejecting nothing. Pluralism makes our minds full of refuse, theological and philosophical sewers, poisoned and wasting away.
To get some discussion going at school I ask a few true/false questions with my year nine classes. I was doing it just this week. One of them is “There are many true religions, Christianity is just one”. True or false? Without fail, 80-90% will say true and they’ll be shocked when I tell them that the Bible doesn’t teach that. That I as their teacher don’t believe that. Some will be offended at my supposed arrogance – at which point I usually whip out the roads up the mountain illustration – but most of them are just surprised. Pluralism is so ingrained upon them that they take it as a given.
When I come up against opposition to gospel ministry in schools it’s almost always from the secular pluralists. They’ll say you can’t teach Christianity because the Muslims will be offended. But in my experience the Muslims are happy to talk. No it’s pluralists who seem to think that any Christian witness threatens the sacred cow of tolerance that they have set up.
We need to decide as Christians that we will not bow down at the temple of pluralism. We will not be ashamed of things we should glory in. We need to stand bravely with Jesus and proclaim “Jesus said this, Jesus said this, Jesus said this”. Not me – not my opinion. It’s God’s opinion. I can do that in the classroom by reminding myself of the negative in Jesus’ statement – No one comes to the Father except through me. If we don’t combat pluralism then we are condemning our hearers and perhaps even ourselves to life outside of the Father’s house.
For, I am the way, the truth and the life – that’s what Jesus says. And no one comes to the Father except through Him.
