From: julian@sfu.ca (Julian Shillcock)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Is Christianity really the ONLY way?
Date: 20 Dec 92 23:00:51 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada

REXLEX@linac.fnal.gov writes:


>"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of
>the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.  But he
>who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.  To him the doorkeeper
>opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and
>leads them out.  When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the
>sheep follow him because they know his voice.  And a stranger they simply will
>not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of
>strangers."  This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not
>understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.  Jesus
>therefore said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the
>sheep.  All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
>hear them.  I AM the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and
>shall go in and out, and find pasture."
>(Jn 10 NASB)

>Doesn't get much more exclusive.  This separates Xianity from all the other
>religions.  It is God working for us, not man working towards God.  How can it

>     No, upon further reflection, I couldn't worship a God who DIDN'T send
>people to hell.  Yes you heard me right.  Why? Because I couldn't worship a God
>who was soft on sin.  Just as I get indignant with a blatantly bias call

>-Rex

julian repsonds:

There is no link between these two statements. Jesus being the only way to
God is exclusive in the sense that anyone who is in the Kingdom of God gets
there through what Jesus has done, and is doing. It does not say that every
such person accepted what one culture presented of God's Law at any given time.
This is to mistake our understandgin of God's Law with the Law itself.
It is wrong to say that the christian chruch ahs not changed its mind on
some issues in the last two thousand years. But God's Law has not altered,
it is us who must alter. What we present as the gospel now is our understanding
of it. What I find bemusing about fundamentalists who equate their knowledge of
God with God Himselfis the blithe way they have no idea what they are doing.
God himself said: My ways are not your ways nor my thoughts your thoughts.
And yet these people think that God thinks just like them.        
The Bible is God's word revealed about His Word. It is Jesus who is the Word,
not what the NT presents. i'll say that again because I want to get it clear.
Jesus Christ is a person some of whose actions are described in the NT.
It is our relationship with the PERSON that is important not our understanding
about doctrines. (But they then become impoirtant once one has the 
relationship). Otherwise people with limited intelligence or other
intellectual handicaps would be excluded from God's love by their inability
to comprehend what the BIble says. 
The NT, inspired though it is, cannot present a complete picture of Jesus.
We cannot even define an ordinary human let alone God incarnate. BUT we
can come to know GOd in our lives, and He will never let us go. We can learn
from the Bible more about Him, but it is always He who leads us not us who
draw nearer to him.

So also not every person in our culture has an opportunity to come to know this
person called Jesus. It is no argument to say that they can watch a TV
eveangelist or go to a church. I am a christian and much  of what I hear
on radio/TV etc makes me sick at heart. It is not God's love, it is a means
of keeping some men in jobs which pay them a lot of money. These people are
not presenting Christ they are selling words for a profit.

The gospel is only heard when people live it, not talk about it, preach it,
or give testomonies, those are cultural devices we use. God is at work in the
world (I sometimes wonder if he has given up on the established church and
gone straigth over our heads to the people outside). Remember God so loved
the "WORLD", not the church. But for us to love the world is somehow bad.
There is even a book called Love not the world by a famous christian writer.

We are love the world as Christ loves us: Do you know what that means? It means
to be willing to die to save someone you think is going to hell. It means
to actually work for people who hate you, not preach to them and then wipe the
dust off your feet when they don't listen. It means to care for people whose
lives appall you and whose standards sicken you. If I were to give a personal
example if would be to listen to ordinary people crying about their life instead
of working on exam revision. You won;t win any prizes for it from the world,
because other people will work harder and not care about anyone else.
You won;t win any prizes from the christians either because it has no glory
involved in it. Jesus spoke truly when he said that when we do something to gain
reward from people it is the only reward we will get.

Heaven is not a reward for our christian lives. God does not send people to hell.
If you have the idea that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is a divine version
of a human judge/king/jury/executioner then I think you should look again
at how Jesus revealed God. He stands at the door of every heart and everyone
has to answer his request to come in, but don;t try and define when  that happens
or to whom it happens because Jesus told us (well ,Peter) that we are not
supposed to worry about others let God look after them. (That was not clear,
I know what I want to say!)

Let me end with this. I did not choose to be born but God did choose to make the world. Who is more responsible for the world? That is why Jesus dies because
he loved his creation, evil though it is, does he expect us to love it less?
If we never "save" a single person but love the world, God will receive us,
just as he will receive anyone who accepts his gift whether they do it in our
culturally accepted way now or (in my opinion) at the time that they stand before
him.

I really don;t know what your concept of God is if he can make clay soldiers
play with them for a while, watch them fall over, and then melt them down.
But it is not the reality that Jesus revealed in the Bible.

julian