Questions Week 5 Day 2
by David Joynt on May 29, 2017
DAY 2 MONDAY
What was Jesus’ view of this issue? The locus classicus for this question is John 14:1-6, in which Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me!” Now on first reading, this single statement seems to support the exclusivist claim that Christianity is the sole route to truth, life, and salvation, and that every other religion must be simply and completely false. In support of this perspective, one can adduce the enormous amount of O.T. material on idolatry, which insists that there is only one true God and that nonexisting pagan “gods” are man-made versions of the divine, without power or genuine reality. While it is certainly true that there is much in other religions that is simply false, I read Jesus’ intent differently in this passage. Notice that he points to the fact that no one can know, or discover the Father, without doing so through Jesus. He is asserting the uniqueness of what he has revealed about God, not invalidating everything in other religions completely. Do Jesus’ unique claims excite or worry you?
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