The Good Book, part five

It’s possible to give a right answer but leave a wrong impression. That was driven home to me one day as I overheard a conversation between a Christian and a woman who would have described herself as spiritual but not religious. 

The Way

Before Christianity was called Christianity, it was called “The Way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). The reason for this is they were believers in the one who said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). Maybe you are feeling lost in life. Let’s think how Jesus is the way.

A matter of taste or a matter of fact?

I had an interesting conversation recently with a very friendly lady who introduced herself to me as a Pagan / Wiccan, with a bit of Mormon thrown in.

Good people go to heaven?

Here's a wee video I was asked to do on this subject.

No substitute for penal substitution

The doctrine of penal substitution states that the Lord Jesus Christ bore the judgment of God in the place of sinners so that they can go free. It means that the Christian Gospel is the only message in the world that maintains that God is a righteous God and a Saviour (see for example Isaiah 45 v 21).

Use intelligence about intolerance

It's been a while since I've written here - sorry!  Things have been particularly busy lately.  I want to issue an appeal in this post, and it springs from a conversation I heard on the Unbelievable? radio show a while ago between David Robertson (Christian) and Mike Lee (atheist).

Cross words

I've been thinking recently about different Bible doctrines that are confirmed and proven by a consideration of the cross of Christ.

Sola, sola, sola, So long Martin!

481 years ago (last Tuesday) Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic church.

Light up your life

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend a couple of days ago about the way or ways to God. He was telling me that he thought that different religions were like beams of light coming out of a prism, and were all different paths to God.

No get-out clause

…when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power

2 Thessalonians 1 v 7-9

Good for you!

I had an interesting conversation with a spiritualist recently. She was telling me that the thought that her departed loved ones were not so departed was a comfort to her. She liked the thought that they could see her and she could talk to them and they could help her. I asked her had she any reason to believe those things were actually true, she admitted she had no real evidence.

"Try it - you'll like it", or "Take it - you need it"?

Is there any difference between ice cream and medicine?  It's not a trick question. 

THE Question

It's an awkward situation because usually the person asking the question is looking for a one word answer, but a one word answer gives a completely wrong impression.  The question runs something like this, "Do you believe all _________ (fill in religion here, such as Muslims, Jews, Buddhists etc.) are going to hell?"  I have heard this question a few times.  I was asked it recently - the questioner had heard the Gospel and, with tears in his eyes, he asked me if he was going to hell because he was a Muslim.  I heard it in a radio discussion between a Jew and a Christian.  The host of the debate put the question to both participants - "Do you believe the other one is going to hell?"

The Narrow Way - narrow minded?

"Jesus said unto him, 'I am the Way...'" (John 14 v 6)
He was a colleague of mine - a fellow civil engineer, and he was telling me about the voluntary work he had been doing in Guinea. He told me he had been staying with an American missionary couple. His problem was this - the people in the country weren't eating their young, beating their wives or mistreating their elderly or anything like that, so why did these Americans feel they had the right or the need to go to their country and interfere with their beliefs? My friend isn't the only one who has raised this issue. It just seems so unfair and intolerant – no matter what kind of a life you have lived, no matter how good you have been, how hard you have tried, you get these Christians telling you that unless you believe just like they do you are going to hell. Surely if God is at all fair He's not going to exclude people from heaven over some point of doctrine, after all, how you behave is bound to be far more important than what you believe.

This objection seems perfectly reasonable and totally unanswerable, but is it? Was the Lord Jesus being egotistical when He said He was the only way? Where His apostles being bigoted when they said that there was salvation in none other than Christ? Are Christians today narrow minded or arrogant when they say you will perish if you aren’t a Christian? Let’s just back up in our thinking, because it seems that the outrage people have over Christ’s exclusive claims stems from them getting off on the wrong foot.