Be Prepared...to Give an Answerনমুনা

BE PREPARED... TO GIVE AN ANSWER

DAY THREE 

The moment that night  was teed up perfectly for me to crush a three-hundred yard drive right down the middle of the fairway, and yet I whiffed it big time.  I wasn’t prepared for it at all.

And my inability to express what I knew to be true just gave yet another doubter in the group his chance to spout off some of his issues with Christianity:. 

”And while we’re on the subject,” he said, “why can't we all just agree that there are many paths to heaven?  Jesus, Judaism, Buddha, Allah, Mohammed, Scientology, whatever, I mean, to each his own, they’re basically all the same anyway.  Shouldn’t I and everybody else who simply does their best while we’re here catch a break.  I mean, as long as we’re pretty good people and don’t hurt others, shouldn’t we get to go to heaven or wherever when we die too...  It just bothers me to hear these loud-mouthed televangelists telling the world that their way is the only way…Can’t there be a lot of ways to heaven?  Take Aadesh, for example, that kind Hindu man we all know who works at the school.  I just can’t imagine a good God sending that sweet man to a torturous fire and brimstone eternity just because he doesn’t believe Jesus is his Savior.”     

Once again, I just sat there and listened as others chimed in with similar beefs.  

Had I been prepared to give an answer I would have interjected something like this:

“First off, I agree, in part, with you.  A lot of televangelists are loud-mouthed, not to mention obnoxious.  And about Aadesh.  He is a kind soul, and it’s not my job or anybody else’s to judge his eternal fate.  Only God can do that.  But I do believe Aadesh needs Jesus in his life, as do all of us, which leads me to where I respectfully disagree with you.      

“It sounds very politically correct to say there are, in fact, many paths or religions to get to heaven.  But if we are truly honest with ourselves, we know this can’t be true.  One path says heaven is everywhere.  One says heaven is in oneself.  One says heaven is unknowable.  And one, Christianity, says heaven is a specific place and can only be gotten to in a very specific way.  So either all the paths are wrong or one is right.  It might not sound fair, but there are no other options.  A person can sincerely believe something with all their heart, but that doesn’t change the truthfulness of what they believe.       

“Do you believe Jesus was a real person in history?”  I would have then asked my friend.  “And that he was a good person, even a great man, and that he stood for the things in which you believe?”  (I’m confident he would have answered both questions in the affirmative, as do most people.)      

“And yet the Bible tells us that Jesus himself claimed to be God incarnate, and that the only way to heaven is through him?  It also tells us that he not only accepted worship, he also instructed that we pray in his name.  Oh, and one more thing:  He also told his followers that their sins were forgiven.     

“Now be honest, if the bible does in fact say that Jesus said all this - which it does - doesn’t that sound more like Jesus was a liar or an absolute lunatic than a good man?  I’d think we’d all agree that these aren’t the tendencies of a rational human being.    

 “Or...” I would have said, “could it be that Jesus was exactly who he claimed to be?      

“And think about this:  If He isn’t the one true way to God, if there are, like you say, many ways to obtain salvation, why then was He born at all?  Why then did He live a perfect life of obedience and self-denial?  Why then did he die in the most horrid way imaginable if there were other avenues to God?  I’m sure you would agree that only a cruel God far from being worthy of worship by any religion, would design such a sadistic act.  So if you think that there is no fundamental difference between religions and that Christianity is one of the many paths to heaven, then, well, this is the God with which you are left..”     

Apologist Ravi Zacharias said it best:  “Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions but also a caricatured view of even the best-known ones.

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Let's be prepared to share our hope in Jesus with others.  For no one comes to the Father but through Him.  And pray that God give you these divine opportunities.  I promise you... He will!