"I am the Gate" cont.

With much pondering, and reading I’ve come up with what I think are three main reasons for the rejection of “In Christ Alone”. The primary reason is our understandable desire to see all men saved. Then, the postmodernist influence gives us license to make the scriptures say what we hope it would say. And finally when we meet up with contradictions that can’t be explained we get to ignore them.

Another conversation I had recently was with a loving, gentle, hospitable, Christian whom I admire. She so wanted her Native American friend who did not believe in Christ to be saved that she said things like, “She believes in the same God-she just gives him a different name.” I share her struggle. Oh, why could it not be that we are all saved? It’s not fair that I was chosen and some are not; it’s not fair that Jacob was chosen and not Esau, Israel and not Assyria. It’s so tempting to believe all sincere, “good” people are saved.

But wait, I don’t have to struggle with these difficult truths, for I now can make the bible say what I feel it should say .In postmodernism we have bought into the idea that language- words do not reveal meaning but only construct meaning. Our universities, we all know, for years have embraced deconstructionism. All classic literature, ancient texts, and historical documents are suspect. They see “every text as a political creation designed to function as propaganda for the status quo. Human beings construct models to account for their experiences so these ‘models’ can constantly be revised.”(Gene Edward Veith) When a deconstructionist reads the Bible he does not ask what the author’s intended meaning is, rather he looks at a text and asks what does it do for him, what does he feel it says.
So, for example, it no longer matters to whom Jesus was speaking at the well in John 4; it doesn’t matter what his intended meaning was at that time. What matters is what living water means to me. It used to be that we read the bible as a historical account-something that really happened- and then we would ask what principles we have learned that we can apply to our life. Now, God, water, life can have whatever meaning you want, and as a result, the author is no longer God. The reader is.

When reading fiction this can be a lot of fun and make for some interesting literature, but, come to think of it, I’m not sure I want to be God when it comes to what, in the Bible, is truth. I don’t think I’m big enough to handle it. It’s like I’m holding up the very branch I’m sitting on. The church’s one foundation is no longer Jesus Christ her Lord, but me and you. And if we can do away with the teaching that Christ is the only way, why not the teachings on sin and repentance? Heck. Who’s to say that Christ actually rose from the dead? Come to think of it- is there even a God at all or is he just a construct to make us feel better-an “opium for the masses?”
And, with this knew interpretation of truth contradictions are OK. Don’t try to figure them out. When two religions claim things that are mutually exclusive we say both are true. Muslims say Jesus never rose from the dead; Christians say he did- and they are both right! All other religions say that you have to do something to reach God; Christians say God reaches down to us and it is an affront to God to say we can do anything to earn his favor, and yet neither is wrong!

But, in logic, the Law of Non-contradictions says that two opposite statements cannot be true. “If something is true, then the opposite is false”, says Ravi Zacharias, “if you deny the Law of Non-contradictions you deny reality. There has to be an either/or.” If you cross the road, there either is a car in your path or there isn’t. You will find out soon which is true.

I hope my children-this next generation- will think long and hard before they accept a teaching that can be so attractive at first sight. Let us love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind, and submit to One who is so much greater than we.

One last thing.When Jesus saw the crowds of people he saw them as sheep without a shepherd and had compassion on them. If we are God’s children we can do no less. Let us not stop at condemnation but reach out to the lost with the truth, in love.