From: julian@sfu.ca (Julian Shillcock)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Is Christianity really the ONLY way?
Date: 16 Dec 92 07:40:18 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada

st14@cornell.edu (Stephen Tseng) writes:

>I've been having difficulty trying to understand something. Doesn't Jesus
>say that belief in Him is the only way for salvation, and that we cannot
>be
>saved through our own efforts? However, this would seem to cut off
>millions
>of people who have never heard of Jesus, and millions more who died before

>There seems to be four ways out of this logical trap.

>1)Jesus encompasses much more than just the Man who died on the Cross.

>2)Another way out of the (as i see it) logical dilemma is to proclaim
>everyone else who is not Christian, even if s/he never heard of Christ, to
>hell. In this case, God would appear to be unjust. Perhaps this is the

>3)Yet another way out is that God doesn't play by mankind's logic. In this

>4)Of course the final way out is to be an atheist so the whole point is
>moot.

>-----------------------------------------------------
>Stephen Tseng
>st14@cornell.edu

julian replies

n John 14 Jesus says: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life... no one
comes to the Father but by me.

I have always thought this is a vital verse in my faith because it holds
together the three strands of a human life (funny how 3 comes up a lot
in Faith: I remember an exam in theology that asked: Why did Jesus use the
three nouns rather than just two?). These are: a lifestyle, what one actually
does with one's time; those things that one intellectually asserts and lives
by, and finally, and all encompassing, thwe whole process of Being. ie being
a person. 
I think the first of these is clear. We are to live as Jesus lived, with the
motivations that drove him to the cross out of love, to be the motivation
for our lives. The second is what we are to believe. Again it is what Jesus
declared to be the whole Law ( Love God and your neighbour as yourself ).
This does not restrict itself to doctrine (ie truth). In fact, I would claim
that doctrine is a very porr second to a belief in Jesus Christ living
within one's life. It is possible to have correct doctrine and be completely
different from Jesus. He even said that many would call him Lord but not get
into the Kingdom of God.
The last of these is the one I think deals with the question of is Jesus
the only way.
What is life, and how do we get it? Our physical life we get from our parents,
we had no choice in the matter. Our spiritual (or eternal) life we get from
God: do we get a choice here? I believe we do. God has ddeclared that He is
just and loving. As such every creature must be able to respond to God's love.
Those of us who live in the tradition of Christianity have a time-honoured
path available. But this path is not available to everyone, not even most
people. Hence I conclude that God has other means available to "save"
people who do not "choose" christianity. I put those words in inverted commas
because from my experience our actual choice to believe in God is not
really "our" choice. I do not know how God deals with people who live in
our culture but because of their circumstances are unable to accept the
faith. But I strongly believe that they also are given the opportunity to
stand before God and accept or reject His offer of life.
I have had discussion with some christians who hold that this life is the
only time in which we can choose. In vain do I point out that many oif us
are genetically UNABLE to choos freely. Mental illness or abuse leading to
psychological trauma can prevent us exericsing our "will". I think it is
misleading at best, and simply ignorant at worst, to pretend that all human
beings are given an equivalent chance IN THIS LIFE to accept God's way.
Perhaps this is what Jesus means when he gives the parable of the sheep and the goats. It isa not in this life that we are judged but after our lives on earth
are over. It is not our place as christians to determine, by doctrinal
purity or any other scheme, who is going to heaven. We have been commanded
to do only one thing: Love God and others (well, two things, but they are
related).
So, I think Jesus is the only way to be with God because He is God who became
human to make all of us humans able to live with him. But that is no the
same as saying that belonging to a branch of the christian church is the only
way to God. So everyone who ends up living with God will have got there 
as a result of God's love demonstrated in jesus' life, death and resurrection,
however their circumstances pushed or pulled them here on earth.

I don't know if this helps, I have a long standing struggle with the existence
of other faiths that appear to contradict my faith. ANd an even longer
struggle facing all the evil I see in the world that conspires to warp and
destroy some human beings, while other have an easy time. It is not easy
to believe in a just, loving God and still face the world every day. But Jeus
(jesus) did it and so must we.

julian