“The Perils with Pluralism!”
John 14:1-6
John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Introduction: Have you heard the news? Everyone’s talking about it! You say, “What news pastor Steve?” Oh, the news that the culture and even some in the church have decided that there is more than one way to God! I know that it’s hard to believe, but it’s true nonetheless. It’s now official; even the Pope has agreed that there is more than one way; and the conventional wisdom is that a man can reach God by more than one approach, that there are now alternatives to the traditional view that there is only one way to God. You see, folks have decided that the old thinking that Christians have advocated for 2,000 years is archaic, intolerant and unloving. That it is narrow-minded and discriminatory. The Christian proclamation has always taken place in a pluralist world, in competition with rival religious and intellectual convictions but what is happening today goes far beyond this traditional idea of pluralism. Today’s new emphasis on pluralism declares that to defend Christianity is to belittle non-Christian religions, which is unacceptable in a multicultural society and it goes hand in hand with diversity and pluralism. How pervasive is this idea that there is more than one way to God? It would not be a surprise to learn that a majority of those outside the church accept this idea but would you believe that between 30 to 60 percent of evangelical Christian now do as well! John MacArther writes: “Religious pluralism is one of the greatest challenges facing Christianity in today’s world. Is Jesus Christ just one way among many valid paths to God? In the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and '70s, the "One Way" sign — the index finger held high — became a popular icon. "One Way" bumper stickers and lapel pins were everywhere, and the "One Way" slogan for a time became the identifying catchphrase of all evangelicalism.
Evangelicalism in those days was an extremely diverse movement. (In some ways it was even more eclectic than it is today.) It encompassed everything from Jesus People, who were an integral part of that era's youth culture, to straight-line fundamentalists, who scorned everything contemporary. But all of them had at least one important thing in common: They knew that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. "One Way" seemed an unshakable belief that all evangelicals held in common.
That is no longer the case. The evangelical movement of today is no longer unified on this issue. Some who call themselves evangelicals are openly insisting that faith alone in Jesus is not the only way to heaven. They are now convinced that people of all faiths will be in heaven. Others are simply cowardly, embarrassed, or hesitant to affirm the exclusivity of the gospel in an era when inclusivity, pluralism, and tolerance are deemed supreme virtues by the secular world. They imagine it would be a tremendous cultural faux pas to declare that Christianity is the truth and all other faiths are wrong. Apparently, the evangelical movement's biggest fear today is that Christians will be seen as out of harmony with the world.” Adapted from Why One Way? © 2002 by John MacArthur.
One of the high priestesses of this movement is none other than Oprah Winfrey who has publically declared that there are “…many paths to what you call God.”
Let's be clear. Oprah's sudden river of religious talk is not based on some newfound appreciation for Christianity. It's marketing spin for her new series, Belief, which the media pioneer describes as a "groundbreaking" television event exploring humanity's ongoing search to connect with something greater than ourselves.
Again, no mention of Jesus. There's definitely double-mindedness going on. Oprah has insisted she is a Christian. But a well-circulated YouTube video shows her arguing vehemently that Jesus is not the only way to the Father. And she flat out allowed no-hell Rob Bell to trash the Bible on her broadcast.” CharismaNews
When I started preaching 43 years ago I believed that the Gospel would be attacked by the world and that I would be defending the faith against its enemies from without but dear friends it is difficult to admit that today it is not the enemy without but the enemy within that is the greatest threat to the faith of Jesus Christ and the belief that only those who place their faith will go to heaven.
By the time we get to John chapter 14 Jesus is approaching the end of His earthly ministry and His teaching is becoming more and more controversial. In our text He makes the most definitive, clear and precise statement of His ministry that has far reaching and profound implications for us today.
I. The Declaration of Personal Exclusivity
a. His followers believed it
Much of Jesus public ministry was attended by large crowds who came to see the miracles that he performed and to receive the meals that he provided. Miracles and meals were the attraction but when Jesus started preaching some very hard things about the demands of discipleship and its cost the crowds left him. When this happened Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them if they were leaving also. We have a record of what they said…
John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
These men were so convinced that Jesus was the only way that they went all over the known world with the message of the Gospel and sealed with their own blood.
b. His Father declares it
Matthew 17:5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
c. His foes rejected to it
In this one statement Jesus turned the religious world of His day upside-down. The religious establishment of his day taught that keeping a system of rules and regulations was the “way” to God and that they were the arbiters of who would and who would not go to heaven. Jesus explodes this in just 18 words. And for this audacity they plotted and planned and killed Him. Paul sums up just what Jesus did to the Jewish system in:
Hebrews 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
II. The Declaration of Perfect Enlightenment
a. His exclusivity as the truth – Again Jesus used the definite article to emphasize Himself as “the only truth.”
It is important to appreciate that a cultural issue is often linked in with this debate: it is implied that to defend Christianity is to belittle non-Christian religions, which is unacceptable in a multicultural society. Especially to those of liberal political convictions, the multicultural agenda demands that religions should not be permitted to make truth-claims, to avoid the dangers of imperialism and triumphalism. Indeed, there seems to be a widespread perception that the rejection of religious pluralism entails intolerance, or unacceptable claims to exclusivity. In effect, a liberal political agenda dictates that all religions should be treated on an equal footing. It is but a small step from this political judgment to the theological declaration that all religions are the same. But is there any reason for progressing from the entirely laudable and acceptable demand that we should respect religions other than our own, to the more radical demand that we regard them all as the same, or as equally valid manifestations of some eternal or ‘spiritual’ dimension to life?
In its most extreme form, this view results in the claim that all, religions lead to God. But this cannot be taken seriously, when some world religions are avowedly non-theistic. A religion can hardly lead to God if it explicitly denies the existence of a god or any gods. We therefore need to restate the question in terms of ‘ultimate reality’, or ‘truth’. Thus refined, this position might be, stated as follows. Religion is often determined by the circumstances of one’s birth. An Indian is likely to be a Hindu; an Arab is likely to be a Moslem. On account of this observation, it is argued, all religions must be equal paths to the truth.
This makes truth a function of birth. If you were to be born into Nazi Germany in the 1920-30’s, you would likely be a Nazi – and this makes Nazism true? If you had been born in ancient Rome, you would probably have shared its polytheistic worship of Juptier, Apollo or Neptune; if you had been born in modern Arabia, you would be a monotheistic worshipper of Allah. So according to today’s multicultural agenda they are all true? No other intellectual discipline would accept such a superficial approach to truth. Why accept it here? It seems to rest upon an entirely laudable wish to allow that everyone is right, which ends up destroying the notion of truth itself. Consider the two propositions:
1. Different people have different religious views.
2. Therefore all religious views are equally valid.
Is proposition (1) in any way implied by proposition (2)? For the form of liberalism committed to this approach, mere existence of a religious idea appears to be a guarantor of its truth! Yet no-one seems prepared to fight for the truth-content of defunct religions, such as classical polytheism – perhaps because there is, no-one alive committed to them, whose views need to be respected in a multicultural situation?
The fatal weakness of this approach usually leads to its being abandoned, being replaced with a modified version, which could be stated thus: ‘Any view which is held with sincerity may be is regarded as true’. I might thus be a Nazi, a Satanist, or a passionate believer in the flatness of the earth. My sincerity is a guarantee of the truth. On this view, it would follow that if someone sincerely believes that modern Europe would be a better place if six million Jews were to be placed in gas chambers, the sincerity of those convictions allow that view to be accepted as true. British philosopher of religion John Hick summarizes the absurdity of this view, ‘To say that whatever is sincerely believed, and practised is, by definition, true, would be the end of all critical discrimination, both intellectual and moral.’ Questions.org
b. His embodiment as the truth
Christians believe that the Scriptures are clear and precise on this matter. Peter preaching to a hostile crowd said:
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
And Paul makes it plain that:
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Exclusivism” or “restrictivism” is the traditional evangelical Christian view dealing with the salvation of non-Christians. This is the view that a sinner can only be saved by a conscious, explicit faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Exclusivists argue that a positive response to general revelation is simply insufficient to ensure salvation from a biblical perspective. Exclusivists appeal to multiple scriptures to support their view, including John 14:6; John 3:16–18; and Romans 10:13–15. A straightforward reading of these texts reveals the inspired Scripture is clearly teaching Christian exclusivism (that one must place his faith in Christ in order to be saved). Questions.org
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
III. The Declaration of Powerful Enablement
Jesus told Mary at the tomb of Lazarus: John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
a. He activates physical life
Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Jesus is source of all physical life. He is the creator abd in Him we live and move and have our being.
b. He animates spiritual life
This is the great question for us this morning. If Jesus is who He says He is, and Who the Father says He is, and who His disciples said He is and who the church has proclaimed for 2,000 years that He is then is was, is and shall be the one and only way to God. There is no other way!
Conclusion: Jesus is the only way to heaven for several reasons. Jesus was “chosen by God” to be the Savior (1 Peter 2:4). Jesus is the only One to have come down from heaven and returned there (John 3:13). He is the only person to have lived a perfect human life (Hebrews 4:15). He is the only sacrifice for sin (1 John 2:2; Hebrews 10:26). He alone fulfilled the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17). He is the only man to have conquered death forever (Hebrews 2:14–15). He is the only Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). He is the only man whom God has “exalted . . . to the highest place” (Philippians 2:9).
Jesus spoke of Himself as the only way to heaven in several places besides John 14:6. He presented Himself as the object of faith in Matthew 7:21–27. He said His words are life (John 6:63). He promised that those who believe in Him will have eternal life (John 3:14–15). He is the gate of the sheep (John 10:7); the bread of life (John 6:35); and the resurrection (John 11:25). No one else can rightly claim those titles. Questions.org
“Jesus is the Way - That leads so the Father: - the Truth that teaches the knowledge of God, and directs in the way: - the Life that animates all those who seek and serve him, and which is to be enjoyed eternally at the end of the way. Christ is the Way, By his doctrine, By his example, By his sacrifice, and By his Spirit. He is the Truth, In opposition to all false religions, To the Mosaic law, which was only the shadow, not the truth or substance, of the good things which were to come, and In respect to all the promises of God. He is the Life, both in grace and glory; the life that not only saves from death, but destroys it. No man cometh unto the Father - By any other doctrine, by any other merit, or by any other intercession than mine.” Clarkes Commentary
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which thou shouldst pursue; the truth which thou shouldst believe; the life which thou shouldst hope for” (Thomas a Kempis, “Imitation of Christ.”
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace, When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
