Answers to Tough Questions - Challenges from Skeptics

How can you say that Jesus is the only way to God?

This is one of the most difficult questions to answer, not because it is a hard question, but because the bias of the question reflects the modern presupposition that all religions are essentially the same. God is at the top of the mountain and religions are the different paths up the mountain. Each path has the same goal. We have McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King; so likewise we have Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity - many choices, but the same goal.

The question of different religions has been illustrated by the story of a man in a pit - in a deep, vile, filthy pit with a huge serpent in it that he is desperately trying to avoid. He has fallen into this ghastly pit! What happens?

Well, along comes an Animist (representing primitive native religions), and he looks down into the pit and sees the serpent. His eyes open wide, and he flees into the jungle lest the same evil spirit should heave him into the pit. Then, along comes the Confucianist, and he says, "Ah, so, great man never fall in pit, but walk circumspectly and henceforth you will look where you walk."

A Hindu comes along and says, "Ah, my brother, you think that you are in a great black pit, but that is the error of mortal mind. The fact is that all is Brahman and Brahman is all and this external world is merely illusion. The pit does not exist. Think, 'There is no pit, there is no pit, there is no serpent, and all will be well . . . peace.'"

Then comes a Muslim who sees the man in the pit and says, "It is easy to get out of the pit, my friend. Just practice the five truths of Islam: Give alms to the poor, make a pilgrimage to Mecca, pray five times a day to Mecca, fast during the month of Ramadan, and confess 'There is one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.'"

Then comes a Buddhist who looks down and says, "Dear friend, you are suffering greatly in that pit, and the reason you are suffering is because you want to get out of the pit. It is your desire that is making you miserable. What you must come to is a cessation of all desire, and then you won't mind being in the pit."

And then Jesus comes and looks with compassionate eyes at the man in the pit, and into that foul and filthy pit he leaps between the man and the serpent - which rears his ugly head and strikes at the Savior, and sinks his fangs into His side. As the venom of that serpent flows into the blood of Jesus, He lifts that man out of the pit. That is a Savior. That is the difference between Christianity and all other religions. (Adapted from D. James Kennedy, Truths that Transform, (Fleming H. Revell Company, 1974.) 59.)

This parable highlights the fact that religions view the world differently. A friend of mine overheard someone, who believed that all religions are essentially the same, tell a Muslim, "Isn't it great that we're all going to the same place when we die?" The Muslim replied, "What do you mean? You're going to hell!"

And we don't just look at the world differently - our solutions are also very different. In Christianity, the person is made whole, restored. In Buddhism, the person disappears. Salvation for the Buddhist is a state of being completely dissolved and swallowed up in the cosmic spirit of the universe, or All-soul. In Hinduism, good or bad karma accumulated in this life is either rewarded or punished in the next. In Christianity, sins can be forgiven through the atoning death of Jesus. Every other religion requires us to fix our own problems. Only Christianity takes our sinful human nature seriously. We can't do for ourselves, so Jesus does for us.

Think of the Titanic. 'Get off the ship and get in a life boat' sounds dogmatic unless it's truly the only way to be saved. Imagine someone responding, "Well, I'm not going to get in the lifeboat simply because you are dogmatic. It is too narrow-minded to provide only one way of getting off the ship." But for many of life's realities, there is only one way. The only way for a human to be born is with the egg of a woman and the seed of a man. Period. One of the most maddening things about computers is that unless everything in them is exactly 'right' they just don't work. They were designed to operate only one way.

The modern belief that there are many ways to God is simply that, a belief. The source of the belief is our emphasis on tolerance in American culture. We've confused tolerance for other religions with the assumption that they are equally true. Accepting the right of others to believe as they want doesn't mean that what they believe is right (i.e., correct). Ironically, our world has become intolerant of those who believe this faith statement: "Jesus is the only way to God."

The popular thinking of today is that truth is based on feelings: "This idea is right if it feels right to me." But if your feelings are your only rule, you are lost in a sea of fog. My college professor asked us to design our own system of right and wrong saying that 'anything goes'. He got angry with me when I asked him about Nazi ethics. Underneath his veneer of total acceptance, he had clear ideas of what was right and wrong.

A related idea is "All that counts is being sincere in what you believe". Calvin compares sincere but misplaced faith to a strong runner who sprints at breakneck speed into the stands. On the other hand, weak faith in the right direction is like the crippled person who can barely hobble towards the finish line.

The early church was persecuted for saying that Jesus is the only way to God. Sometimes the Roman officials would even beg the Christians to burn just a little incense to Caesar. 'You don't even have to believe it,' they would plead. But Peter testified in front of men who later tried to kill him, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4.12). If we say 'Jesus is Lord,' we can't also say, 'Caesar is Lord.'

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