We Christians-those of us trying to be true to our faith-are often said to be narrow-minded, because we confine our worship and our beliefs to one God. Is this a fair accusation?
What do we say to those who ask us, considering all the gods there are in the world, and with all the ideas there are about spirituality and truth, how we dare claim that our way is the right way, and even the only way to eternal life? Aren’t we being judgmental, ignorant, self-righteous, small minded., and bigoted? Oh-and racist?
In any attempt to reply to the charge, It’s difficult if not impossible, to honestly get around the contention of exclusivity in the Christian scriptures. It’s there on almost every page, either implicitly or explicitly:
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).
So how are we supposed to think of those in other religions, who perhaps have similar ideas about their own beliefs? Do we ignore them or join them, or diminish and therefore deny our own faith? I think it’s a great idea to know what others believe and why. A good understanding of other faiths enables us to care for those who belong to them, and to speak, with love and respect, to those who perhaps through no fault of their own are on the the broad road, and not the narrow road to life. We Christians are not “better” than they are, and many people of other faiths are very sincere and very good people.
Incidentally, the idea that Christianity is a Western, white-man’s religion is, to be blunt, ignorant of the facts. Jesus and his disciples, being Middle-Eastern and ordinary working men, were likely quite dark skinned. Some of them, after Jesus’ ascension, went “into all the world”, and not to the United States, which didn’t exist. Thomas, the one who would only believe if he saw the risen Christ, went to India. Others went into North Africa, Egypt and Eastern Europe. Today, there are millions of Christians in places like China, where Christians are persecuted for being open about their faith.
I can’t claim to know a lot about Islam, Buddhism, or Zoroastrianism, but I do know something, and I know enough to be more convinced that I am on the right path to life. To the statement that there are many roads which lead to God, and that I have no right to claim that mine is the only one, the employment of logic and reason, as I’ve said before, is very instrumental in finding truth.
The Biblical God claims, over and over, to be the only God. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and all his apostles, stated and implied that He was the only way to eternal life. The principle can easily be found throughout scripture by anyone who is really looking:
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).
This claim alone of course does not prove that Jesus is the only way, but the claim is there, and made very strongly and clearly throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, the Father stated it this way:
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god” (Isaiah 44:6)
So perhaps our first take on this should be that if we deny this fact we are denying God. We are calling the God of the Bible and his witnesses liars. We are tearing apart the very Scriptures we get our claimed faith from. We are saying that one of the gods is not really true or truthful, and so we are defeating the assertion that all gods are equally true, because this one is a liar. We are engaging in hypocrisy while accusing others of it.
And here comes into play the law of non-contradiction: Aristotle’s amazing and early understanding that two contradictory statements cannot both be true. Either the God of the Bible speaks truth, and He is the only God, or He is a liar and He cannot communicate truth to us. Which one will you choose? He cannot be both the only God and just another god among many.
Jehovah insists on the exclusive right of godship:
I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images (Isaiah 42:8).
Carved images-now there’s a subject. Animism is another. Do we conceded that everything that anyone claims is God or a god, such as a carved idol or a cat, really is God, or a god? I know that the answer from many- from those determined to rid the world of the Judeo-Christian God, would be “yes”. However, I will stick to good old-fashioned Aristotelian logic. I once wrote a post titled, “Is God a Teapot?” My rhetorical question was along these lines: if I call a teapot God, is it then without question God, or a god? Your answer will reveal the state of your logic and your heart.
What I am saying is that there are differences to be considered. There is a huge difference between a teapot and Jehovah or Jesus Christ. By most laws of reason a teapot is just an inanimate, hand-made object, and so cannot be God. Similarly, other objects and imaginary entities may not be God at all, no matter how much we would like them to be. I am not rich. I am not famous. I am not a spider, and some things are true and some are not. Not all gods are God.
There is an enormous difference between Jehovah and, for example, Zeus. Zeus was supreme in the Greek pantheon. Compare him with Jehovah, and you will find that they are different in almost every respect: in character, in actions, in scope and so-on. How can they both, being supreme and vastly different, be God at the same time? Would they get along? Could we have elected Donald Trump and Joe Biden both to the presidency? If we did, would it all work out? Wouldn’t they and their teams be at each others throats? How would decisions be made? And how would the universe be created and operating in such an orderly way, if both Jehovah and a cat and Vishnu, along with millions of others (because there are millions of gods within Hinduism alone) were God or god at the same time? There has to be one president, and there has to be one supreme, almighty God.
The determination of some in our time that “anything is possible” is just a silly, childish, wishful-thinking attempt to fudge and obfuscate. It betrays the will to eradicate Truth from the world and it’s a blatant denial of logic and reason, the very things which the “enlightened” among us-very often the same people-claim as their guide.
The question is not how many gods there are, but which one-I said “one”-is telling the truth? They are all so different, that only one can be right. Two contradictory statements cannot both be true, and with millions of gods, there would be millions of contradictory statements.
To me, being accused of narrow-mindedness is a great compliment, because Jesus Christ said,
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
Fuel for Faith 