Foolish Things
Swami Vivekananda from India began his address to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893. "Sisters and brothers of America!", he called as the crowd jumped to their feet for a standing ovation. He quoted from Hindu scriptures, "As the different streams all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take ... crooked or straight, all lead to Thee!" The teacher called Hinduism "the mother of all religions", not because he believed that its doctrines alone are right, but on the contrary, because it makes no such exclusive claims.
Vivekananda continued, "India alone was to be, of all lands, the land of toleration, we accept all religions as true." A reporter for the New York Herald wrote, "For this teacher, religion was less about worshipping a God "out there" than recovering a sense of our own innate divinity. After hearing him, we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation." —Excerpted from a blog, Huffington Post dated 12/04/2012 by Richard Schiffman
I found that article on a popular blog post. And according to a poll by the Barna Group - four of every ten American adults would agree with the statement - "When Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and others pray to their god, all of those individuals are actually praying to the same god, but simply using different names for that deity." They may believe that, but is it true?
There are many who believe that all religions are equally valid and all will take us on different paths to the same goal. They claim...
I. All paths are equal
Many argue that it really doesn't matter what we believe and the most important thing is that we should all just get along. Now, I agree that we should work at getting along, but I don't agree with the first part. What we believe actually matters a great deal. Being 'open minded' in religion sounds gracious, it sounds enlightened. And it's nothing new.
If we look back almost 2,000 years to the city of Athens, we find that it was a very religious city. It's estimated that Athens had over 30,000 idols. The Athenians were 'open minded' about religion - so they practiced them all. And in fact, just in case they missed a particular 'god' or religion – they built an altar to an "unknown god."
Athens had one of the greatest universities of the ancient world. It was a center of philosophy, literature, science and art. It was a city dedicated to wisdom, to finding truth. But when it came to religion, they were 'open minded'. They wouldn't decide which to follow because they believed that all were equal. It's in that setting that we find the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts.
And the background of the slides there, that's a modern picture of the stairs that lead to a place called the Areopagus, about which we'll be reading, from Acts 17:18-21 (NIV)...
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. (19) Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
(20) You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." (21) (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
The philosophers considered themselves enlightened because they were open to all new ideas. Now that's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but when it came to their religious beliefs, it left them with…
A. No absolutes
If every religion is equally valid – then all absolute truth becomes arbitrary. - Truth becomes whatever you personally believe. Truth is then not defined by facts, but becomes a subjective feeling determined by each individual. That's what people mean when they say something like, "Well, that's not my truth." That's what Paul was dealing with back then, so let's continue on in Acts 17:22-23 (NIV)...
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. (23) For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you."
Having no absolute religious truth may sound polite and tolerant and even gracious. But Paul - who had witnessed the truth with his own eyes - wasn't just going to leave them in the dark with their 'warm feelings'. He wanted them to know the truth, despite how it might make them feel. An open minded approach to religion might make you feel good, but there's also another inaccurate but attractive belief that comes from having no absolutes. And that's…
B. No sin
If there are no absolutes; no right or wrong – there can't be any sin. Everybody gets to decide how they want to believe and act and therefore they don't believe that any choice that they make is sin. And that sounds freeing, completely 'non-judgmental' – but just because I believe something doesn't make it true. I could believe that I was the Hollywood actor Chris Pratt, and was really cool, and I had millions of dollars – it might make me feel good, but it wouldn't be true!
There are many religions and 'prophets' that teach various ways of how to reach up to God. But among all the world's religions - only the Bible teaches that God Himself saw us in our helplessness and reached down to us! 'Christianity' is not just another religion. Christianity is about following God's truth as revealed in the Bible and accepting Him as The Absolute!
Paul looked at the open mindedness of the city of Athens and had compassion enough to proclaim…
II. There is One way!
Let's look back to Paul's words continuing in the account in Acts 17:24-28 (NIV)...
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. (25) And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. (26) From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
(27) God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. (28) 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
As Christians, how can we have the arrogance to claim that there is only one God; only one path to salvation? Because…
A. Our Creator says so
If I were to claim that I had all the answers that would be arrogance – to claim that God has all the answers that would be accurate. We're not the ones who get to decide what truth is or isn't. No one can just construct their own version of truth and claim it's equally valid simply because it makes them feel better, or it's more popular, or culturally palatable.
God established the fact that there is one way to Him - Jesus! We find the words of Jesus, 'God in the flesh' in John 14:1-6 (NIV)...
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. (2) In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (4) You know the way to the place where I am going."
(5) Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" (6) Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
"No one comes to the Father except through me." - That doesn't sound like 'all paths are equal'. If we turn to the book of Acts again, we find the words of Peter in Acts 4:12 (NIV)...
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
According to God's Word, there are not multiple ways to find God – there is one way, Jesus - the One and only Son of God!
Now don't misunderstand, I'm not against tolerance. Tolerance is about "respecting the beliefs or practices of others." But that's not really what people who criticize Christianity as 'intolerant' mean. When they say 'tolerance' what they usually mean is 'compromise'. I can respect others' beliefs when they disagree with mine, but I can't compromise what God's Word says in order to make it feel more 'open minded'.
I find it interesting that to some - to say there is one way to Heaven, it's judgmental, but on the other hand, there's…
B. No 'tolerance' in other disciplines
By the definition of tolerance - there's no room for 'open-mindedness' in chemistry. Water is composed of two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen - H2O. The slightest departure from that chemical formula and you don't have water. If you're 'open minded' and add just one more oxygen molecule you have hydrogen peroxide - which is very different from water. And it's not a matter of opinion or feeling or personal experience - it's a reproducible, observable fact!
There's no room for 'open-mindedness' in mathematics, the 'Queen of the Sciences'. Neither geometry or trigonometry or calculus allows any variation from exact accuracy – absolute truth. The solution of the problem is either right or it's wrong, there's no tolerance for 'kinda right'.
Every serious field of knowledge refuses to allow for tolerance or a variety of truth! Continuing in Acts 17, Paul says it's the same with God...
Acts 17:29-30 (NIV)
Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone - an image made by man's design and skill. (30) In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
Paul took a stand for the truth – God's truth! In a world with so many different teachings, every one of which claims they're right or that 'everyone is right' in their own way – how can we be confident as followers of Jesus? How can we be so sure?
C. How do we know?
There is one truth that makes all the difference in the world! There is one fact that God gave us so we could know beyond a shadow of a doubt! God revealed His way in the person of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh - and proved it with the resurrection! There've been a lot of teachers in this world with a lot of opinions, but only one, in all of history has ever been documented to have come back from the dead! Only One! Paul pointed out that fact to the philosophers and wise men of his day…
Acts 17:31 (NIV)
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.
If critics back then could have proven Jesus' resurrection to be a lie, they would have – but they couldn't - and He changed everything! Jesus died on a cross for our sins and then did something that only The Son of God could do – He came back to life! That is how we know that we serve The One true God! And a bit of advice - don't get 'sidetracked' from that truth.
There will be skeptics who will challenge the Bible's claim of truth and our faith in Jesus. They'll ask questions like – "Do you really believe that God created the world in 7 days? Do you really believe that there was a world wide flood and that Noah built a giant Ark? Do you really believe the story of Moses parting the Red Sea?"
I've discussed those issues on a Sunday - and there's nothing wrong with asking questions. But none of that stuff matters unless we first agree on Jesus! If a person can get you sidetracked into arguing about those things – they've missed the point. The only proof that God seems to be concerned with is Jesus Himself! That's what Paul meant when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 (NIV)...
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. (2) For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
It is important to know scripture and to be able to intelligently discuss people's questions and doubts, but we don't necessarily need to defend the Bible. People who are not genuinely seeking answers, and people looking without spiritual eyes - they won't understand or accept it anyway. We don't win people to Jesus with arguments - we win people to Jesus with Jesus! Paul again in 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 (NIV)...
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, (23) but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, (24) but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (25) For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
So What?
I'm well aware that a message like this may be seen by some as 'mean spirited'. But this message is not about us being right. - It's not really about us at all. It's not about only focusing on the differences and ignoring what we have in common, or ignoring unity. It's not about being divisive but about bringing The Creator's creation back to Him! It's not about fighting but about serving, about showing others the love that Jesus has for them!
To tell someone that Jesus is The Way to Heaven is not closed minded or judgmental, it's the most compassionate thing you can possibly do for someone! - When you do it in love and humility. Telling them about Jesus is a truth that will make a difference for eternity! We are called to graciously take the message of Jesus to everyone who'll listen. Let's continue in that last passage, in 1 Corinthians 1:26-27 (NIV)...
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. (27) But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
When you're tempted to think lesser of those who believe other doctrines, dogma or religions – remember this verse. In a very real sense - we are the foolish things, we are the weak things. God chose us, not because we're better or wiser or smarter - but because He wants to demonstrate His grace by using people like us to save the world! It makes a big difference what you believe when it comes to the person of Jesus! Accepting Him is The way to the Father!
That's a message we need to take to the lost – our families, our friends, our neighbors! Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the world!