Isn’t Christianity Arrogant?
Jn 14.1-6
I’m sure we all understand the word ‘blasphemy’ – “using the Lord’s name in an inappropriate way” – perhaps as a swear word or a curse, or even just thoughtlessly. But have you ever noticed that it’s only the names of God and Jesus that get used like that?
I mean, you don’t hear a Muslim saying “Oh Allah!” or “Mohammed!” You don’t hear someone kick their toe on a rock and say “Oh Buddha!”, or drop their book and say “Hare Krishna!” The Jews don’t say “Abraham and Isaac!” It’s always “Jesus Christ”, “Oh God”. Have you noticed that?
Christian singer, Barry McGuire, says that there’s a very good reason for that – because the Devil knows who his real enemy is (and it’s not Krishna or Mohammed or Buddha) and he wants to get that name so abused, turned into a swear word, that it loses its power. The name of Jesus, the only name in the universe able to change lives and set people free.
And immediately some people will say: “But isn’t it ARROGANT to say that?”, “How can Christians say that they Christianity is the ONLY WAY?”, “Surely that’s offensive to other faiths?”, “Aren’t all religions EQUAL?” … Have you heard people say that sort of thing? So, ARE we arrogant (… or just … right, perhaps!)? IS Jesus the ONLY way? Are all ways equal? What’s the answer?
Our first approach to this question must be that Jesus himself claimed to be the only way! We didn’t invent the claim! The first time it was made wasn’t by you or me, but by Jesus. It was Jesus who said: “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me” (Jn 14.6). Jesus said: “If you do not believe that I AM [God] you will surely die in your sins” (Jn 8.24). We simply repeat the claim that was made by Jesus and the NT writers.
It’s HIS claim! Our role is to test it! > to ask: Is the claim true? If it is true, then it’s not arrogant to make it, but truthful. If it isn’t true, that would be arrogance (or delusion!) The Christian philosopher, CS Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity wrote:
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse …
Liar, Lunatic or Lord? That’s the question. Now, there are all sorts of ways for us to test that claim:
o We could check how much of his teaching came true;
o We could look at the result of his works – the healings, miracles, raising people form the dead and so on;
o We could look at the historical record – the crucifixion and the empty tomb, for instance;
o We could look at the outcome of the lives of millions of his followers over the last 2 000 years (according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, there are over 1.7 Billion Christians alive today – that’s about 1/3 of the entire world’s population);
o But probably the most important test of all is YOU! Most of you are here today BECAUSE you believe! We don’t NEED history or other peoples’ experiences or anything else to KNOW that Jesus is God’s son and that he is NEITHER a liar NOR a lunatic and that HE IS LORD … we know it because we have EXPERIENCED that. And that’s the test!
If he’s not a liar or a lunatic and he is the Lord then could he conceivably be right when he says “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me’?
How can Christians say that Jesus is ‘the only way’? Because he claimed that first!
Another way of looking at this is to turn to logic.
One of the simplest arguments of logical thought is expressed by philosophers like this: “A cannot equal Not-A”. Let’s use an example: the opposite of life is death. If ‘A’ means ‘life’ then ‘Not A’ means ‘not life’ - death. You cannot be ‘alive’ and ‘not alive’ at the same time. You are either alive or dead. ‘Alive’ does not equal ‘dead’. They mean the opposite thing. A cannot equal Not-A. Does that make sense?
When we consider Judaism, Christianity and Islam, they all believe that there is one God. Hinduism and some other faiths believe in many gods. Buddhism doesn’t believe in a god at all. If there is only one God then he/she/it cannot be many gods or no gods. A cannot equal Not-A.
You see, the religions themselves don’t claim to be equal. And logically, then, one (or some) must be right and some must be wrong. If one says there is a God and another says there isn’t, both can’t be right! Josh McDowell, in his book Answers to Tough Questions expresses it much better than I can:
All religions cannot be true at the same time, because they teach many things completely opposite from one another. They all may be wrong, but certainly they cannot all be right, for the claims of the one will exclude the other.
So, if a religion claims to know a truth, does that make it arrogant … or just right (if they can prove the truth)? Now, if logic says that not all religions can be right when they make conflicting claims, then we need to find out whether any one is, or any number are, right.
So, let’s look at this a third way.
Karl Bart was one of the great theologians of the last century. I’m told that he made a fascinating claim: All religion is evil! How about that?! He explained his statement by saying that Religion is a thing made by humans – an attempt to become like God or reach God through our own ability. Do you remember the story about the tower of Babel? What the people of Babel were really saying was “Let’s build a tower and move into heaven. Let’s become God!” And that, suggests Bart, is evil!
He went on to say that even Christianity, where it has simply a set of rules and regulations and systems for living, is no better than any of the other world religions. The only thing that sets Christianity apart from the other world religions is that it is NOT a human made religion but the one where GOD reaches out to US and establishes the way. In that way, he says, Christianity is different from every other religion.
In every other religion humans try to reach God (or eternity or enlightenment or whatever). In the religion called Christianity, God chose to reach us – in fact there wasn’t a religion called Christianity – HE started it, HE set the scene, HE established the playing field, HE set the operating procedures. Christianity is a GOD MADE religion, not a human made one.
God, who has chosen to reveal himself to the world in this way, says “This is who I am, this is how I work and this is my truth for you – and oh … by the way, among all that truth: “I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me”
And if you and I know, from our own experience:
That what Jesus said about salvation and forgiveness is true, and
That God has reached out to us – we know it because we have experienced his forgiveness and his presence, and
That he makes that same offer to anyone who would like to receive it , then
How can it be presumptuous or arrogant if we repeat his claim?
We are simply saying what we have learned is true. It’s a statement of the same sort as the Doctor who finds a cure for AIDS saying “I have the cure for AIDS.” It’s a statement of fact. It’s not a judgement on others. It’s not arrogant. It’s just a fact.
But there’s more to it than that. If we know about the cure for AIDS, would we not WANT to share it with others? Would we not want to tell every person suffering from AIDS “Here is the answer!”? And would that be arrogant … or caring?
Would we not, in the words of CS Lewis, be as bad as ‘the Devil from hell’ if we DID NOT share the truth that could set people free?
Would it not be supremely arrogant, unfeeling, cruel even, to keep it to ourselves?
And so we say “Jesus is the only way!” and try to lead others into that understanding … for the sake of their eternal souls!
Amen.
