Packing Up

As if Jesus claiming to be sent from the Father was not crazy enough, now he is claiming to be the ONLY way to the father!  But how can this be?  Can belief in Jesus really be the only way to God?  I mean there are all these other religions out there, aren’t they all just as right as believing in Christ?

I’m going to give a slightly different answer to these questions than the normal ones that Christians give.  One of my pastors, Rev. Kirk, had what he called an idiot god theory, it goes something like this:

What would you think of a god who went to his son and said, “Son, I know there are all different religions, and lots of ways to live life and come to heaven, but why don’t we give them one more?  Why don’t you turn yourself into a human, but not a king or anything, a lowly carpenter.  Grow up as one of them, then teach them how to be a good person, how to follow us.  Then, they are all going to betray you, even your BEST friends.  They are going to turn their backs on you.  To top it all off, you are going to be killed, but not just any death, the most gruesome death you can think of, death on a cross.  That way, some people who may not have made it into heaven through the other ways can make it into heaven by following you!”

Then what would you think if his son, said “sure dad, that sounds great. I don’t mind, even though there are other ways to get to heaven. It would be great if I could die a very painful death to create one more way to heaven.”

You’d think that god is an idiot.

Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the father except through me.”  He doesn’t say except through me or living a good life, or following another god, or…  This is a hard teaching to accept.  I may be wrong on this…after all, I’m not God.  If I’m honest with myself, I hope I’m wrong about this one.  I would love to see all of my friends in heaven who don’t believe in Jesus.  However, after reading this passage, I can’t believe that.  I’ve seen and experienced too much of God.  I believe that Jesus was sent from the father to redeem the world, and I know that God is not an idiot.

Just my $.02