I know a few people who
describe themselves as spiritual, intimating that they know God, yet they are
so inclusive that any belief system is acceptable to them. They claim to know
God, but their actions deny Him. I see very little difference in these folks
than the Athenians of Paul’s day. “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. 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” (Acts 17:22-23 NIV). I suspect that even in today’s church God
remains unknown to some.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Their claim is that all faiths lead to God like all spokes lead to the hub of a wheel. It shows how careless thinking can be. People will hang the weight of their eternal destinies on a mere analogy, while not at all respecting the fact that a wheel hub is neither God nor are wheel spokes theologies. They’re just parts of a wheel having a shape available for mimicking an idea without in any way substantiating it.
-----What substantiates an idea? Information, for one thing. Information is the aspects of reality brought into the mind, if it is brought there carefully, free of distortion, truncation, or paraphrasing (otherwise it is misinformation.) The rest of what substantiates an idea is the mental processing of that information by rational formulas constructed of basic elements like examination, comparison, differentiation, categorization, notation, and inference, all being parts of a powerful process when performed honestly. For honesty in operating mental processes allows for ideas from all relevant information. And what is a relevant? Nothing is more relevant than reality. Only truth describes reality (even if the reality being described is a lie, truth properly describes it as such.) And nothing is more real than Jesus Christ. So the Word of God is both relevant and information.
-----This is where the vacancy of the “all religions lead to God” idea becomes apparent. A few years ago I wrote you about a friend who showed me the ceiling runner in her small, octagonal meditation room. All the way around the room ran picture after picture of Dalai Lamae, Buddhas, Chrishnas, and Popes, and shamans, and heflavores, and mergatrores, and whatever else that assemblage of spiritual geniuses might be called, then my eyes lit upon Jesus’ picture.
-----”That one doesn’t fit,” I said, pointing to His refreshing image.
-----”What do you mean?”
-----Sweeping my finger around the room again, I said, “Each of these may allow for everyone of the others to be a pathway to God,” then stopping and pointing even more intently at Jesus, I continued, “but that one claims exclusivity. He said He alone is the way to God. He said all these others are liars. He‘s different.”
-----”Oh!” she gently exclaimed, “There’s room for everyone!”
-----This is what I mean by an unsubstantiated idea. It is expressed. And it is used like all other information in the process of construing thought. But its own meaning counters the very reality it intends to describe. Something of it must be adjusted, or reality must be accepted as everything so much carrying any meaning whatsoever to anyone that everything becomes completely meaningless to everyone.
-----But that’s not the Word of God. It is specific and precise, if you treat its ideas like information and process them rationally. We do see truth in all religions. We don’t see all truth in all religions. That means all religious spokes at certain points cross the one spoke leading to God. Those crossings are actually getting-off points. They’re like train stations along the “wrong-way” rail-line. Getting off it and onto the only spoke attached to God is the entire point of this life.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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