One Year Bible
New Testament passage for Saturday, May 23, 2014: John 13:31-14:14
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6 (NKJV)
Perhaps the greatest religious controversy of our day centers on Christian claims of exclusivity -- the belief that salvation is possible only through Jesus. It is a firestorm running through our culture. At the center of this storm are Jesus own words, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Peter echoes this in Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
From the school house to the court house, from the campus to the congress, anyone claiming the uniqueness of Jesus is rapidly being pictured as public enemy #1. We are seeing an increasing onslaught of attacks belittling those of us who hold this foundational biblical truth. We are being accused of intolerance, bigotry, small-mindedness, and worse. Simple FREEDOM OF RELIGION is in trouble in our day -- particularly if your beliefs are out-of-step with pluralism, out-of-step with tolerance, and out-of-step with "history."
It is not my aim in this short blog to outline the apologetic reasons WHY we believe Jesus is uniquely the answer to man's sin problem. The rationale and reasoning is certainly there. Suffice to say, His own words are true. He said it. I believe it.
In light of the growing battles over gay rights, public prayers, corporate tolerance policies, and governmental thought police, it is harder to be a biblical Christian without suffering ostracism, ridicule, and perhaps even job loss. All because we hold to the Bible as God's Word and Jesus as our Savior.
A few weeks ago, Jeff Schweitzer, writing in the Huffington Post summed up this sentiment: "The time has come for us to fight the arrogant certainty among Christians that they hold a truth more valid than Jews, Muslims and those who eschew all religion." This amounts to a declaration of war. In the words of Harvard professor Diane Eck, the philosophy of PLURALISM "has come to characterize every part of our world today."
Pluralism is the philosophical underpinning whereby Jeff Schweitzer attacks the "arrogant certainty" of Christians who say Jesus is the only way. Pluralism is not only the presence of diversity. It is the philosophy that says "No one has the truth."
To that, we humbly hold to the greatest man who ever lived. He was God in the flesh. He was observed by the men of His day who said, "He committed no sin" (I Pet. 2:22). Yet He died being crucified, thus serving as a spotless sacrifice for me. Three days later, He was raised from the dead, raised to grant life to those who trust Him. It was this same Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
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