Has anyone asked you about the pigmies or piglets in other lands that have never heard about Jesus? Or if a Muslim or Buddhist who was very sincere could still go to heaven. I had a conversation recently with someone who believes the New Age philosophy that everyone is god. Jesus is just one of many ways to eternal life. Hopefully this article will give you some information to show the uniqueness of Jesus and help you respond when confronted with those questions.
Paul shows that ALL have an awareness that there is a Creator God of the Universe, even if they have not heard the name of Jesus (Romans 1:19-20 & 2:14-15.) We all have a choice: We can put our faith in and trust that God (as much as we can know Him) or we can run our own lives the way we want with no regard for what God has revealed to us. Everyone is without excuse.
I believe in a 'just' God who is fair and will be found by those who truly seek Him with all their heart (Jeremiah 29:13.) Just like Peter was sent to Cornelius (even though a God-fearing man) to show him the truth of Christ (Acts 10), I believe God will send missionaries (or you and me) to those who truly desire to follow and know Him. Anyone who rejects Jesus is rejecting God, the Father, since Jesus is the most complete revelation of God (John 8:19, 42.)
Romans 4:3-5 says we are 'saved' by faith in God (the Greek word is active, as in 'trust' and not merely intellectual ascent.) Abraham was justified, or made right with God, because of his faith, not his works. The faith of those in Old Testament times was counted for righteousness even though they did not make a choice to follow Jesus (since He had not yet appeared on the scene.) God looked forward, so to speak, to that time when Jesus would die for us. The means for their salvation was still the death and resurrection of Jesus.
"Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis is an excellent book to read. He was a professor of literature at Cambridge (that's in England) and went from atheism to agnosticism to Christianity. His philosophical journey is briefly described in the first third of the book. Lewis concluded that there is truth in all religions but upon comparison, the ultimate truth was in Christianity. For one, Jesus actually claimed to be equal with God, the creator of the universe and not just another good teacher or prophet. Some took up stones to kill Jesus for blasphemy because they knew exactly what He was claiming (John 10:30-33).
. . . a $200 a day heroin addiction.
Other religious leaders, like Buddha and Confucius, didn't even want to start a religion, much less claim to be God. Rather, people founded religions based on them after they died. A good religious teacher would not claim to be God unless He actually was. If He wasn't God, then He was either a crazy man along the lines of someone who thought he was a flying monkey, or He was deceitfully lying. "You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." - C.S. Lewis
Keith Green was a musical genius. He became the youngest member of ASCAP after recording for CBS and Decca records at age 11. He had done his 1st TV commercial at age 7 and became a regular on many shows as well as Broadway after that. He did an extensive search for peace and happiness in his life which included many religions, even though He was born Jewish. To quote him, "I made a list in my mind of all the great teachers and philosophers who had ever made an impact on the world. On this list I included even some little known gurus such as Yogananda, Si Baba, Meher Baba, etc. -- men who many of my friends assured me had the answer for my life. One by one, I read books on their teachings, listened to lectures on their philosophies, and conversed with their followers. But as I went from one master to another, the search moved on more quickly, for they all started to sound alike. Their philosophies were almost carbon copies of each other, i.e. -- 'all you have to do is follow Me and you will melt into the cosmic awareness that you are one with God . . .in fact, you are God.' Then they would always add something about Christ - 'Yes, Jesus proved that we are all God by expressing the Christ-consciousness,' or something like that. They all made a point of referring to Jesus as proof that their particular way was a lot like His.
This began to baffle me, for I had put Jesus right down at the bottom of my list. I thought . . . 'Mom, apple pie . . . and Jesus Christ,' I mean how could He be the way . . . with so much hypocrisy among Christians? I figured I'd never be a Christian . . . No, it was the very last thing I wanted to be.
But I figured if all these supposedly wise men gave Jesus spiritual credit, then maybe I'd better look into Him directly and see what He had to say. They all taught that He was one of the ways to God, so I was surprised to read in the Bible that He said, 'I am the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father but through me' (John 14:6). He claimed that he was the only way!
Well, after much consideration I had to decided that the only safe thing to do was to follow Jesus . . . after all, almost every major religion and guru I had encountered gave Him at least some approval. It soon became clear that I had no choice -- they all pointed to Him . . . and He only pointed to Himself!"
Keith found Jesus to be the peace in his life that he was missing. He left lucrative money offers so he could write and record Christian music, which by the way has really inspired me. He was in a plane accident and went into the presence of God at age 28.
Another musician who had a #1 hit with the Lemon Pipers (My Green Tambourine) in the 1960s, Rick Coghill, also had a $200 a day heroin addiction. He tried to quit even with the help of friends, but the addiction was too great. One time, after the TV show American Band Stand (back when Dick Clark actually WAS a young man), another musician told Rick he had something he could really get high on after the show. Naturally, Rick was interested. The friend showed him a Bible! He began to go over the unbelievable odds that just some, much less all, of the prophecies regarding who the Messiah would be were fulfilled in any one person in history. The odds were astounding: If you put silver dollars two feet deep over the whole state of Texas and mark one with an X, the odds that you would pick that one first are the same as just 8 major prophecies being fulfilled in one person. Yet, there are over 60 which were all fulfilled exactly by only one person, Jesus Christ. Rick had also tried a number of religions and it made sense to him that if God was really going to come to earth, He would let people know ahead of time to be able to determine the truth. Rick found that Christianity was the only one that actually had scripture predictions pointing to the appearance of their key religious figure. When Rick made the decision to FOLLOW Jesus (one step beyond his mental fascination with Jesus) he was able to stop his addiction without even one withdrawal symptom!
Josh McDowell was a brilliant law student who got tired of 'ignorant' Christians talking to him. He decided to research and shut these Christians up once and for all. But in his research, he found overwhelming evidence all pointing to the validity of Christianity. He found that most well known and undisputed historians of that time have very few manuscripts to support their work. The writings of Herodotus have 8 while Tacitus has 20, yet no one disputes their reliability. There are 643 manuscripts to support Homer's "The Iliad" which is the most for any book written during that time . . . except one. Josh was surprised to find over 20,000 manuscripts all confirming the truth of the Bible. It blows every other writing out of the water! Josh ended up becoming a Christian and writing a huge book full of fact after fact called "Evidence that Demands a Verdict." It has been condensed into a smaller readable version called "More than a Carpenter" which includes the overwhelming evidences for the resurrection of Jesus, the Bible and Jesus' claim to be God.
Is Jesus really unique among religious leaders or is Christianity just one of many religions to choose from? The 3 ways I see Jesus being distinct from other 'religious' leaders are: 1) the written predictions prior to His coming, 2) His claim to be God and 3) His resurrection. Of course, there are many other qualities that make Christianity unique. For example, in Christianity, salvation is NOT based on what WE can do for God (good deeds and "religious" stuff) but on what GOD already did for us in sending Jesus to take the penalty for our sins. So, who do you say Jesus is?
I know what you're thinking (both of you that have made it this far) . . . of all your articles, Larry, this one has GOT to be the least funny ever. OK, so every thing can't be funny . . . but if even one person experiences the peace, joy and eternal life of God as a result, I know the angels (not the ones in the outfield or Roma Downey, but the real ones) will be rejoicing and partying harder than if I told 100 funny stories. OK, so I don't know 100 funny stories, get off my back!