This is for everyone, even if you don’t go to church. But if you do, be forewarned. This Blog could disturb you, though that is not my intention. But the issue is too important not to take the risk.
Here’s what I want to say. I think it is time for churches to give up the claim that Jesus is the only way to salvation. It is based on the flimsiest of scriptural claims and is undergirded by a theology of sacrificial atonement that when examined falls under its own weight. Now before you quit reading because you are already angry or bored with the subject, at least hear my explanation of what I am saying as well as why I am bringing this up in the first place.
Let me begin with the church, and the fact that it has made a living out of insisting Christianity is the only true religion and the only pathway to God. It is the cornerstone claim for justifying church authority that is in the end self-serving. It works like this. If Jesus is the only way, and the church is the rightful representative of Christ on earth, then what the church says carries the power of Jesus himself. This means you had better listen to the church and listen good or God will send you straight to hell. Once the church managed to convince the Western world that it alone spoke for God because it was commissioned by Jesus to be his representative on earth, the die was cast. Crossing the church was crossing the Almighty, and we all know where that will get you. And for the last sixteen centuries what the church has said and done has been for one primary purpose – to preserve the enormous power it had given itself.
But modern scholarship has let the cat out of the bag. It has shown that out of the entire body of biblical material, only two passages say anything about Jesus being the only way. More than that, it has offered several interpretations of these two verses that suggest neither mean what the church says they mean. On top of that, many scholars who are just as Christian as the next person have good reason to argue that Jesus didn’t actually say the one verse attributed to him (John 14:6) and the Apostle Peter didn’t actually say the one verse attributed to him (Acts 4:12). I may expand on this in a future Blog.
Beyond the dubious support of scripture for claiming Jesus is the only way to God, Christians themselves prove how outrageous saying this really is. In essence the claim comes down to this: The worst kind of Christian who believes in Jesus has a better chance of being welcomed by God when he or she dies than the best kind of person who happens to be of another religion or none at all. Now is that ridiculous or what? It’s on par with what a Catholic Nun told me years ago when she lamented the all male priesthood by saying, “The church won’t ordain the best woman, but any old man will do.”
Two things have led me to raise this subject. One is the fact that I believe the church has promoted a fear of the judgment of God that is unworthy of God. God is better than what the church says about God. God is not to be feared. God is to be loved. Moreover, here is what I have taught for years: The validity of Christianity does not depend upon the invalidity of all other religions. Those who insist it does apparently don’t trust in the power of love and get a strange kind of satisfaction out of “being saved” while others “burn in hell.” That’s an old time religion I can do without.
The second reason I bring up this subject is because there are only two religions that have followers who preach their way is the only way: Christianity and Islam. I don’t think it is an accident of history that both of these religions have caused more conflict and war than all other religions combined. Unless and until both Christianity and Islam can teach more humility and less triumphalism, both will continue to fuel conflict instead of promoting peace, justice, and reconciliation.
I cannot speak for Muslims, but I can say as a Christian that I believe it is time for the church to come clean and admit that God is bigger than any and all religions, and that while Christianity is the way for those of us who follow Jesus, we are not at all threatened by or afraid of there being different paths to God for others.
