By John Stallings
He was named as he emerged from his mother’s womb because he was grabbing his twin brother’s foot trying to reposition himself to be born first. This would have given him an advantage. You might call him “the evil twin.”
He spent the first part of his life cheating & conniving. Today he’d be like a Vegas card shark among other things. The bottom line is; you wouldn’t want to do business with him.
As time passed he lived up to his name. He grabbed his brother’s birthright in exchange for a bowl of stew. He was his mother’s favorite so she later helped him grab his brother’s blessing belonging to the firstborn. This could sometimes mean as much as two thirds of an estate.
JACOB
Of whom do I speak? Of course we’re talking about Jacob. He grabbed women, money, birthrights & property.
Grabbers are among us even today. You have to watch them closely because they will try to grab what they want with no thought of who gets hurt in the process. Sad to say you’ll meet many of these grabbers in church.
Jacob’s lying & cheating ways finally caught up with him & he had to leave the country because his brother Esau has threatened to kill him. He’s in his early forties, homeless & penniless. Jacob flees to his uncle Laban's house in upper Mesopotamia.
“Follow the money” is a term we became familiar with back during the Watergate era. If you look at fights, especially family fights, you’ll find that money is somehow always at the root of the contention. So it is with the case of Jacob & his brother. I’ve heard pastors say the times when they most felt like leaving the ministry were when they witnessed families fighting, sometimes over the very caskets of their deceased relatives over family estate matters. The love of money is the root of all evil…1 Tim.6:10
So let’s join Jacob as he makes his way back to the Promised Land after a 20 year absence. He’s foot-sore from the long roads he’s traveled. He knows his twin brother who he cheated 20 years earlier still has a burr under his saddle & waits in the land so he sends an envoy to greet Esau. But the news isn’t good. Esau & an army of 400 men are coming. Immediately he divides his family & assets into two camps & sends out gifts to his brother to hopefully slake his thirst for revenge.
Soon the Sun goes down starting the darkest, most stressful, & at once blessed night of Jacob’s life. He is alone & is visited by someone & they wrestle. Why is this night so bizarre? Jacob had prayed for deliverance from his brother & his answer comes in the form of a fight with someone bigger, stronger & maybe meaner than his brother Esau.
In God’s dealings with us He has, -- Tender love,--Tactical love, -- Tough love-&--- Transforming love. Right now God has maneuvered Jacob into His Tactical love.Transforming love is coming soon.
What an answer to Jacob’s prayer; he wants to avoid a fight but gets a fight, however not the type he was expecting. An angel has come & picked a fight with him. But God is at work. As usual Jacob is only interested in his outward circumstances but God is more interested in the inner reality of who Jacob is.
Oh yes -God is going to help him but He’s going to do things His way. So Jacob & this “guy” wrestle. Now we know Jacob was a big strong man but whoever this mysterious figure is he’s wrestling with is able to dislocate his thigh with just a touch. The thigh is the strongest part of the body & God was going to break him at the point of his strength. But as we’ll see, God will never overpower a broken spirit.
Let’s pitch our mental tents here for a while. God can’t use a person until they’re crushed, wounded & broken. Does that sound like the God you serve? Well it is. Now I’m not referring to being physically broken, while that sometimes happens, but I speak of brokenness of spirit.
In Isaiah’s day the same mentality prevailed that is still very much entrenched in the minds of many Christians today; that being if you’re really pleasing God you’ll have smooth sailing, but if God isn’t pleased with you He’ll swat you with his big heavenly fly-swatter. Folk who believe that aren’t acquainted with the breaking nature of God.
In Isaiah 53, Isaiah looked through the telescope of time & wrote, - “It pleased the Lord to crush Him,” speaking of Jesus. But Isaiah himself was so full of this idea of God coddling His special ones that he opened this chapter with—“Who will believe this? I’m going to write the truth, the truth that –it pleased God to crush His Son- but who’s going to believe this report?
Then Isaiah goes on to describe the pain & suffering Jesus endured. When you & I receive the elements of the Lord’s Supper, we are affirming the awful crushing Jesus experienced on the cross. The bread represents His broken body & the cup represents His spilt blood at Calvary. No person God has ever used has escaped a crushing & bruising experience in their life for it will come in some form & at some point. The objective God has in this is to break the outer shell of flesh & cut through our soulish man so that the spirit man will become strong. You might call this process “God’s boot camp.” When we graduate from this course we’re usable to God because we’re no longer being led by our fleshly desires but by our strengthened spirit man.
A special fragrance comes from a crushed human spirit, if God has done the crushing, just as it does from a crushed rose.
Once it was clear that this heavenly messenger was going to leave his imprint on Jacob, he resolves somehow that the refining process will benefit him. Jacob holds to the angel & tells him he won’t turn loose without a blessing.
Then the angel who was wrestling with Jacob made a request that in a way is strange. He said; ---let me go for the day breaketh. Genesis 32:26. Why would this heavenly visitor be so anxious to get away? Heaven often operates this way.
In Matthew fifteen there’s the story of the woman from Canaan who came to Jesus & requested that her daughter be healed. At first the disciples tried to get rid of her & then they turned to Jesus asking Him to tell her to leave. Jesus had the famous conversation with her & ended up comparing her to a dog. Undaunted, she came right back saying, “I’m fine with that. It’s O.K if I’m a dog if I can be your dog.” Of course her persistence paid off & her daughter was healed. But when you read the story it seems that Jesus was trying to do exactly what this angel was trying to do; & that is not to be bothered, to be let alone; to be turned loose & allowed to leave. What’s the dynamic here & what’s the deal with God wanting get away, discouraging the seeker?
The answer is; God has a desire to be wanted & hungered for by man, his highest creation. He said…. You’ll find me when you seek me with all your heart. The angel Jacob was wrestling with was trying to pull away to see how much Jacob was going to fight for what he wanted. The same was true of the Canaanite woman. Jesus wanted to see how determined she was.
….. the violent take it by force. Matt.11:12.
Jacob survives this run-in with God so its certain he’ll be able to survive his run-in with his brother. If he can survive a face-to-face encounter with God surely he can survive his circumstances & even Esau.
During this wrestling match the angel asked Jacob his name. A few years back he had lied to his blind & dying old father & told him his name was Esau so he could steal his birthright blessing. Now Jacob was coming clean & told the visitor what his real name was; Grabber & deceiver. There’s no guile in Jacob now so God gives him a new name; from now on his name would be Israel---God strives.
God told him he’d be a patriarch but there would be a refining of Jacob & the refining would not be painless. Jacob called the place he met God Peniel, the face of God. His prayer had been to survive Esau but now he’d seen one greater than Esau & his life had been preserved.
Jacob like us, wanted to point to his circumstances but God wanted to change him inside. How often do we say to God; “Look God, the problem isn’t me it’s these terrible circumstances?” How often do we pray, “God change my spouse” when we should be praying, “God break my pride?” How often do we pray, “God give me the victory,” when we should be praying, “God defeat me here. Break me. Re-orient my thinking about who I am until I become who you want me to be?”
God met Jacob because He loved him & had a dream of Israel. God saved us because He has a dream of who we will be. And if He has to hurt us to make it happen, so be it.
Friend don’t let this next statement throw you but you’ve gotten yourself involved with a dangerous God. God isn’t “tame,” He’s dangerous. He will hurt you to heal you & He’ll expose the fraud of superficial covering if He has to. He has said that every hidden thing is coming out.
Several years ago when several great ministries fell, someone made the statement - “They’re all coming down sooner or later.” I didn’t know then & I still don’t know if the individual was a worthy commentator about anything, & I certainly don’t believe the “all” is appropriate. However I believe he was right with one caveat; the ones who’re not clean & upright will crumble. We’ll live to see God continue to clean up His house. It’s an abomination to take money from widows & people giving sacrificial offerings & spend it like they were richer than Solomon & these ego-driven ministries are going to be exposed.
Every ministry whether it be a church, evangelistic organization, T.V ministry etc. should keep in mind that when they misuse the people of God in any way they’re messing with Christ’s Bride. As I write this there’s a mammoth ministry under intense scrutiny out west & if they’re guilty of the charges against them, which I hope & pray they’re not, they’re going down & maybe to jail. It gives me no satisfaction to say that because when one Christian errs we’re all hurt & the cause of Christ is hindered.
Our God is good but He loves truth & light & when we play games with Him He’ll set fires to put us through to refine us. The fight we think we’re fighting probably isn’t the one in the forefront of God’s mind. Like Jacob we want Him to change the circumstances & relieve the pressure but His priority is to change us at our core.
Jacob learned God doesn’t do makeovers. That was never His plan. God doesn’t want us to exchange a headache for an upset stomach. That’s not how He rolls. God is a transformer, and transformation from what we are to who He sees is never painless. His goal for us is sanctification, to make us more like Christ & this is never accomplished by mere makeovers.
What happened between Jacob & Esau & the big clash that looked inevitable between them? Talk about much ado about nothing. Jacob had divided his people & possessions & sent (bribes) excuse me, gifts ahead to try to pacify Esau. (I’ll bet he got an earful from Leah about that) When they finally met, God had been at work on both ends of the line. Doesn’t that sound like the God you & I serve?
Esau wasn’t angry at Jacob but seemed genuinely glad to see his brother. Jacob shows contriteness & Esau is the model of forgiveness. It was a necessary encounter because it brought reconciliation which was badly needed by these estranged brothers. Neither of the men needs anything the other one has. Esau seems to expect that Jacob is going to come back & live at least near him in Seir but Jacob tells him to go on ahead because he & his brood need to travel slower.
Jacob knows he has an important destiny now & soon settles in Shechem & sets up housekeeping. He sets his flag down there, claiming this territory as Israel. This new nation will be founded on his new name & new found faith in God. He’s finally back where he belongs, back in the Promised Land.
What can we learn from Jacob? For one thing we can learn never to act out of fear because fear takes us away from God’s promises. Jacob’s actions caused him not only to run from his destiny but to do so without provisions which meant that things would be more difficult.
Our promised land isn’t spatial but spiritual. When we’re living our lives confidently & obediently we are in the place where God’s blessings can flow unimpeded & we can experience it most fully, making it possible for us to receive maximum blessings from God.
We can also learn that departure from the promised land, God’s will for us, always delays blessings. God was faithful & Jacob was still part of the line of promise & he will live in the land. When he left, Jacob only anticipated a few days absence but his little road trip lasted 20 years. He dealt with cantankerous old Laban for 20 years & never saw his mother again. It’s true he still saw God’s hand of blessing & mercy in his life but he paid dearly & had to face obstacles he’d have never seen had he not left.
We should take note; our faithless shortcuts will also result in fearful living outside our promised land. But returning to the promised land & God’s will for our lives is always an option. Jacob could have stayed with his father-in-law Laban. He could also have gotten his nose out of joint when God knocked his thigh out of joint. He could have gotten mad & given up on going back to his promised land but he made a conscious choice to go.
We all have wandered off the reservation. All of us have let our desires & fears get the best of us. That is at the very least unfortunate & at the worst tragic. The question is will we come back & when. Sometimes we can get so weary it feels better to just give up on God’s perfect will for our lives. But God is always waiting. Jacob was never disqualified. Jacob never quit & God never quit. The promised land is always there.
God knew He was dealing with an imperfect guy with Jacob as He is with us. We’re prone to wander from His perfect will. I have invested my whole life expounding in sermon & song the following truth; God’s Word assures us again & again that no matter how bad we’ve blown it, He will take us back. The choice is ours, His acceptance is assured.
Towards the end of his life we see Jacob again as a prophet, giving prophesies concerning the future of his descendants. (Gen.49) He was a man who knew the secret councils of God & was truly a prince of God.
Then we see him once again in a somewhat unlikely place. In Hebrews 11:21, we read, “By faith Jacob when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, & worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff.
If you think about it in one way, to have Jacob’s name mentioned in this chapter of great faith exploits seems a bit incongruous. Why include a man who’s leaning on a staff & worshipping in the great Hall of Fame of believers? What Jacob is doing doesn’t look like a miracle of faith.
Why was Jacob leaning? Well, the angel knocked his thigh out of joint in that wrestling match. They tell me a man has a problem walking or even standing if his thigh is out of its socket. God allowed that impediment to remain with Jacob for life. To put it bluntly, after Jacob’s encounter with the angel, he was a cripple. The story of Jacob’s life after the night he wrestled with the angel was “I’m learning to lean on God.” The staff symbolized his helplessness & reminds him of the night God broke him of his stubbornness & self-will.
Jacob wanted to change his circumstances but God wanted to change him & He did. Boy, did he ever? God’s priority isn’t what happens in our lives. His priority is what happens in us. Jacob could not continue to be a grabber after God changed his heart.
Have you noticed that in His Word God calls Himself “the God of Abraham, Isaac & ---not Israel---but Jacob?” Yes God linked Himself with the grabber, the grabber transformed. It’s a marvelous thing how God allows an imperfect man to leave the past behind, grow in character & become an integral part of His plans & purposes.
Psalm 46:11 says …The God of Jacob is our refuge.
As with Jacob, more than anything else God is interested in who we are becoming. May He write this lesson deep in our hearts?
Praise His name!!
Blessings,
John
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Raw Faith
By John Stallings
Faith is counter cultural, counter intuitive, & counter rational. The journey of faith, should you decide to take it, involves risks.
Esther is a classic example. She took a great risk by going in before the king uninvited. But she had a pressing need. It’s possible that she saved the Jewish race from extinction, but it wouldn’t have happened absent her taking this risk.
What were her famous words? “If I perish I perish,” but I’m going in. There’s a need & I have to go.” Faith is like that, you have to take risks. Playing it safe will never get you into the zone of power. On the faith journey many times we have to risk everything to get what we need.
Famous men have said that Christianity is a weak religion for weak people. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Some of the same men in history who made this statement died barking mad. It takes great courage to be a believer.
FAITH CAN’T LONG EXIST IN A THEORETICAL REALM -
Faith thrives on action. Faith impels us to decide something, say something, think something & do something.
Faith impacts life, conduct, relationships, moral convictions, your world-view, & your destiny. Faith covers every aspect of one’s life. An individual can’t be a part time believer, a part time Christian, & faith can’t be compartmentalized. Faith permeates every area of the believer’s existence. We can’t be a believer without having faith coloring & impacting every area of our life. Faith if allowed to live & thrive will penetrate & settle every sphere of its influence.
FAITH IS COSTLY
God said to Abraham, “Give me your son. Sacrifice him for me.” When Abraham committed to do it God wouldn’t allow it. He said, “Abe, I was just checking on you to see if you’re truly committed to me.”
Please excuse me if this sounds like a strange way of defining faith; that’s because it is. You won’t hear this description of faith anywhere but in the bible. Many of the “Faith teachers” of our day are anything but faith teachers. The faith they espouse may be a trendy, new-fangled faith but it doesn’t always square with what’s in the bible unless you wrest verses out of context. The way some people teach faith in my view is a travesty of a mockery of a sham. As a matter of fact- it’s two travesties of two mockeries of two shams. Not all of them, but many “faith teachers” when they get your “seed-faith” gift will book a skiing trip to Vail.
Don’t misunderstand; I’m not criticizing, just offering an observation. I appreciate anyone’s efforts to lead us into a more dynamic faith, as long as they’re not scammers. Don’t believe anyone who tells you if you have enough faith you’ll have two cars in your garage, a beautiful house, three kids & a dog & cat. But poverty certainly isn’t a badge of faith either. Read Hebrews eleven but read it all the way to the end. Too few faith teachers ever go near the last verses.
Was Paul a man of faith? Yes! But on one of his faith journeys he stayed in a storm at sea & never saw the Sun for two weeks. It ended as his boat broke into pieces & put him in the ocean to swim. He floated in on a piece of the ship & then got snake-bit to boot. Many times faith will lead us to pay a big price & it will lead us into storms. Read Paul's story all the way through & it turns out great. Faith produces storms –it did for Job, but when the storm passes you are still on your feet because faith has carried you through.
FAITH REMAINS
Faith remains despite uncertainty, lack of clarity, delay or unexpected results. The key here is -remains! Faith is hardy, resistant, & obstinately strong & it—remains. You can lose all your money but true faith remains despite all of that. Faith remains despite all the complexities of life. Faith is a zigzagging journey. Faith is multifaceted, indefinable & many times unpredictable & uncontrollable. If you require getting what you want when you want it & if you need to feel you’ll always get the results you expected , if you see faith as a candy machine—in goes the penny-out comes the candy-you might want to get off the “faith bus” at the next stop. That’s not the way faith works—not the way faith is & the faith journey isn’t for you unless you change your thinking.
God can’t & won’t be controlled & His purposes are unfathomable, complex & many times takes you where you don’t want to go. Faith can be obstinate, desperate, focused, persistent, forcible, confronting, & yes, VIOLENT! Faith is militant, aggressive & dynamic. Faith won’t always get you what you think you want or need. Again, if you need a nice smooth ride at all times the faith bus won’t get you there. Faith & hope are traveling companions. As I’ve already said, many times it’s only those who have obstinate faith who get what they need.
I don’t think my life & experience is all that different than others of my age group but I can tell you, when I first started the faith journey I slept in the car in order to stay in the ministry. To be very candid, I’ve only done that one time [this doesn’t include pulling into rest-stops for a few winks] & it was in the very beginning of my ministry but there have been other times when I drove all night, not because I didn’t have the money to rent a motel room but I was young & healthy & felt it more prudent to drive all night & keep the thirty or forty dollars in my pocket. I got too old to do that -years ago. I tell you faith can be desperate & violent.
More times than I’d like to think about I’ve undertaken things in the ministry & I felt like a fool taking the first few steps. Maybe you’ve always had it good & always had a sense of being perfectly in control but many times I’ve proceeded, hanging on by my fingernails, praying to God not to let me fall & break my neck or be a laughing stock.
Maybe you’ve always had a nice dependable car that never made you nervous & I’m happy for you if that’s the case. But I know what it means to be driving five hundred miles from nowhere, worried sick about my car & imagining all sorts of knocks & noises. I told my wife in those early years- “I’d love just once, to actually complete a trip without having someone pass me & point to something on my car.”
I’ve learned that the faith journey sometimes asks us to do things that seem risky & foolish in order to please & receive things from God. Sometimes there’s a crucifixion that takes place where you sacrifice your pride, your reason & your self-image. Our pride & fear of failure many times prevent us from doing great things in God’s Kingdom & becoming powerful men & women of God. I don’t make this next statement lightly but 90% of Christians will never get much from God expect a “warm-fuzzy” feeling when they come to church. Why? They never really ask. The number one reason for unanswered prayers is—not praying.
THERE MUST BE A BREAKING
If you & I think the faith journey is going to always make perfect sense & always be explainable before we do something, we’ll never become supple & agile in our walk. Jesus said unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground & dies it remains alone, but if it breaks it bears much fruit. It’s the external covering of pride & human self-sufficiency that need everything to be correct, accountable & explainable. This breaking cracks the crust that prevents the inner life of God from reaching us. When this cracks, then God can emerge & express Himself to us & we in turn can be a blessing to others. On the faith journey, reason & prudence quite often need to go by the way side.
If we only could see what a beautifully complex & dynamic thing faith is we’d also see that our lives can be revolutionized & we can be turned into someone very powerful in God’s kingdom.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or woman, come from a rich or poor background, how much education you have or whether or not you speak eloquently. The quality of your faith will make all the difference in whether God will work in & through you.
RAW FAITH
In my last blog I touched slightly on the woman with the issue of blood. I don’t think that this woman understands all the theological complexities of this Jesus man. Her faith was a raw rather than religious faith. Let’s face it, we today with all the scripture we have- can’t say we understand all that much about faith.
This woman had “going to jail” faith. The reason she was so obstinate was that she had no where to go except to Jesus & she has reached the place that she has nothing left to lose. What if she’s rejected & kicked out? They’d done that to her ten times before.
Perhaps the hardest thing for her to do was to break the absolute inertia of zero. Have you ever had the experience of needing to do something but not knowing quite how to do it, or even know if you could do it?
A few years ago we sold a house in Tennessee & the bank said we would have to do seven things to the property in order for them to finance it for the buyer. It was too expensive for us to pay an expert in each field of endeavor & I remember the shear terror of getting down to basics & doing the work.
One job was putting molding around the corners of a room which involved cutting trim-wood to exactly fit. This work belongs to a “finished carpenter.” Working around the corners was especially difficult. But as things progressed they got easier & surely enough in a few days all the work was complete. When the inspectors came in they didn’t ask who did the work. All the work passed inspection & it was because we just looked at what had to be done & took a deep breath & started measuring, cutting & nailing. So it was with this woman & so it will be for us when faith has us to venture into areas where we don’t have expertise. Sometimes we’ve got to commit ourselves to the shear grace of God to move forward.
Blind Bartimaeus was sitting on the side of the road screaming. He screams, he screams, he screams-Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. People say –shut up & he screams the louder. He knows he probably will have this one chance in his lifetime. Finally he hears Jesus say, “Bring him to me” & he leaves that day with his healing. He only had raw faith but it worked.
Zacchaeus climbs all the way to the top of a tree to see Jesus & gets what he needs. If your faith isn’t working, try it again, knock again, get back on the horse, try a different prospective, keep tweaking. This capacity to try & keep trying is one of the qualities of faith. Like Jesus said, “ask, seek, & knock.”
Faith isn’t all that magical & mystical after all is it? The bible tells about a man at midnight that knocks on his friend’s door. “I’m out of sugar, can you spare a cup?” Two hours later the friend opens the door because he knows if he doesn’t he’ll never get any sleep. Jesus tells this story to explain what faith is. Faith is insistent, persistent, obstinate, focused & desperate.
Someone said, “God loves us all, He just loves some more than others.” That isn’t true!! But I’ll tell you this; God uses some more than others. And the ones He uses are a little bit pushed, a little pressed, dynamic -with goals. God doesn’t like passivity much.
Like Timothy, God wants us to stoke the fire of the gift He’s placed in us. He hasn’t given us a weak nor timid spirit, neither has he given us a spirit of fear. God’s Spirit is one of Power, Love & Self-control. God wants us to take hold & take authority as believers. He doesn’t want us to be passive & pusillanimous.
What are your goals? What has God spoken to you about your future? Stay with it until God gives it to you or maybe something better than you had faith for at the time. Sometimes that happens.
Jesus’ brother James told us that if we have a wavering faith, if we’re doubtful, not to expect to receive anything from God.
The woman with the issue of blood knew that Jesus was a Rabbi & she knew that he was a good man. That was about it! She has a raw, simple faith. Maybe she didn’t understand all the ramifications of His being the Son Of God, but she believed one thing--that He could heal her.
She acted on it. She risked censure & so much more. She was sick, she was broke & she had no connections. She had no insider to tell her, “Come & I’ll put you in at the head of the line. I know Him; he’s a friend of mine.” She was just a nobody with no way. She was an outcast & anyone she happened to touch would be unclean too.
Can faith sometimes be unreasonable, pushy, & desperate? If this woman had been reasonable she’d be home dying. But she was too busy living to die. She used the faith she had & touched Jesus with it & everything changed. He even called her daughter!
Jesus did not disappoint!
Blessings,
John
Faith is counter cultural, counter intuitive, & counter rational. The journey of faith, should you decide to take it, involves risks.
Esther is a classic example. She took a great risk by going in before the king uninvited. But she had a pressing need. It’s possible that she saved the Jewish race from extinction, but it wouldn’t have happened absent her taking this risk.
What were her famous words? “If I perish I perish,” but I’m going in. There’s a need & I have to go.” Faith is like that, you have to take risks. Playing it safe will never get you into the zone of power. On the faith journey many times we have to risk everything to get what we need.
Famous men have said that Christianity is a weak religion for weak people. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Some of the same men in history who made this statement died barking mad. It takes great courage to be a believer.
FAITH CAN’T LONG EXIST IN A THEORETICAL REALM -
Faith thrives on action. Faith impels us to decide something, say something, think something & do something.
Faith impacts life, conduct, relationships, moral convictions, your world-view, & your destiny. Faith covers every aspect of one’s life. An individual can’t be a part time believer, a part time Christian, & faith can’t be compartmentalized. Faith permeates every area of the believer’s existence. We can’t be a believer without having faith coloring & impacting every area of our life. Faith if allowed to live & thrive will penetrate & settle every sphere of its influence.
FAITH IS COSTLY
God said to Abraham, “Give me your son. Sacrifice him for me.” When Abraham committed to do it God wouldn’t allow it. He said, “Abe, I was just checking on you to see if you’re truly committed to me.”
Please excuse me if this sounds like a strange way of defining faith; that’s because it is. You won’t hear this description of faith anywhere but in the bible. Many of the “Faith teachers” of our day are anything but faith teachers. The faith they espouse may be a trendy, new-fangled faith but it doesn’t always square with what’s in the bible unless you wrest verses out of context. The way some people teach faith in my view is a travesty of a mockery of a sham. As a matter of fact- it’s two travesties of two mockeries of two shams. Not all of them, but many “faith teachers” when they get your “seed-faith” gift will book a skiing trip to Vail.
Don’t misunderstand; I’m not criticizing, just offering an observation. I appreciate anyone’s efforts to lead us into a more dynamic faith, as long as they’re not scammers. Don’t believe anyone who tells you if you have enough faith you’ll have two cars in your garage, a beautiful house, three kids & a dog & cat. But poverty certainly isn’t a badge of faith either. Read Hebrews eleven but read it all the way to the end. Too few faith teachers ever go near the last verses.
Was Paul a man of faith? Yes! But on one of his faith journeys he stayed in a storm at sea & never saw the Sun for two weeks. It ended as his boat broke into pieces & put him in the ocean to swim. He floated in on a piece of the ship & then got snake-bit to boot. Many times faith will lead us to pay a big price & it will lead us into storms. Read Paul's story all the way through & it turns out great. Faith produces storms –it did for Job, but when the storm passes you are still on your feet because faith has carried you through.
FAITH REMAINS
Faith remains despite uncertainty, lack of clarity, delay or unexpected results. The key here is -remains! Faith is hardy, resistant, & obstinately strong & it—remains. You can lose all your money but true faith remains despite all of that. Faith remains despite all the complexities of life. Faith is a zigzagging journey. Faith is multifaceted, indefinable & many times unpredictable & uncontrollable. If you require getting what you want when you want it & if you need to feel you’ll always get the results you expected , if you see faith as a candy machine—in goes the penny-out comes the candy-you might want to get off the “faith bus” at the next stop. That’s not the way faith works—not the way faith is & the faith journey isn’t for you unless you change your thinking.
God can’t & won’t be controlled & His purposes are unfathomable, complex & many times takes you where you don’t want to go. Faith can be obstinate, desperate, focused, persistent, forcible, confronting, & yes, VIOLENT! Faith is militant, aggressive & dynamic. Faith won’t always get you what you think you want or need. Again, if you need a nice smooth ride at all times the faith bus won’t get you there. Faith & hope are traveling companions. As I’ve already said, many times it’s only those who have obstinate faith who get what they need.
I don’t think my life & experience is all that different than others of my age group but I can tell you, when I first started the faith journey I slept in the car in order to stay in the ministry. To be very candid, I’ve only done that one time [this doesn’t include pulling into rest-stops for a few winks] & it was in the very beginning of my ministry but there have been other times when I drove all night, not because I didn’t have the money to rent a motel room but I was young & healthy & felt it more prudent to drive all night & keep the thirty or forty dollars in my pocket. I got too old to do that -years ago. I tell you faith can be desperate & violent.
More times than I’d like to think about I’ve undertaken things in the ministry & I felt like a fool taking the first few steps. Maybe you’ve always had it good & always had a sense of being perfectly in control but many times I’ve proceeded, hanging on by my fingernails, praying to God not to let me fall & break my neck or be a laughing stock.
Maybe you’ve always had a nice dependable car that never made you nervous & I’m happy for you if that’s the case. But I know what it means to be driving five hundred miles from nowhere, worried sick about my car & imagining all sorts of knocks & noises. I told my wife in those early years- “I’d love just once, to actually complete a trip without having someone pass me & point to something on my car.”
I’ve learned that the faith journey sometimes asks us to do things that seem risky & foolish in order to please & receive things from God. Sometimes there’s a crucifixion that takes place where you sacrifice your pride, your reason & your self-image. Our pride & fear of failure many times prevent us from doing great things in God’s Kingdom & becoming powerful men & women of God. I don’t make this next statement lightly but 90% of Christians will never get much from God expect a “warm-fuzzy” feeling when they come to church. Why? They never really ask. The number one reason for unanswered prayers is—not praying.
THERE MUST BE A BREAKING
If you & I think the faith journey is going to always make perfect sense & always be explainable before we do something, we’ll never become supple & agile in our walk. Jesus said unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground & dies it remains alone, but if it breaks it bears much fruit. It’s the external covering of pride & human self-sufficiency that need everything to be correct, accountable & explainable. This breaking cracks the crust that prevents the inner life of God from reaching us. When this cracks, then God can emerge & express Himself to us & we in turn can be a blessing to others. On the faith journey, reason & prudence quite often need to go by the way side.
If we only could see what a beautifully complex & dynamic thing faith is we’d also see that our lives can be revolutionized & we can be turned into someone very powerful in God’s kingdom.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or woman, come from a rich or poor background, how much education you have or whether or not you speak eloquently. The quality of your faith will make all the difference in whether God will work in & through you.
RAW FAITH
In my last blog I touched slightly on the woman with the issue of blood. I don’t think that this woman understands all the theological complexities of this Jesus man. Her faith was a raw rather than religious faith. Let’s face it, we today with all the scripture we have- can’t say we understand all that much about faith.
This woman had “going to jail” faith. The reason she was so obstinate was that she had no where to go except to Jesus & she has reached the place that she has nothing left to lose. What if she’s rejected & kicked out? They’d done that to her ten times before.
Perhaps the hardest thing for her to do was to break the absolute inertia of zero. Have you ever had the experience of needing to do something but not knowing quite how to do it, or even know if you could do it?
A few years ago we sold a house in Tennessee & the bank said we would have to do seven things to the property in order for them to finance it for the buyer. It was too expensive for us to pay an expert in each field of endeavor & I remember the shear terror of getting down to basics & doing the work.
One job was putting molding around the corners of a room which involved cutting trim-wood to exactly fit. This work belongs to a “finished carpenter.” Working around the corners was especially difficult. But as things progressed they got easier & surely enough in a few days all the work was complete. When the inspectors came in they didn’t ask who did the work. All the work passed inspection & it was because we just looked at what had to be done & took a deep breath & started measuring, cutting & nailing. So it was with this woman & so it will be for us when faith has us to venture into areas where we don’t have expertise. Sometimes we’ve got to commit ourselves to the shear grace of God to move forward.
Blind Bartimaeus was sitting on the side of the road screaming. He screams, he screams, he screams-Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. People say –shut up & he screams the louder. He knows he probably will have this one chance in his lifetime. Finally he hears Jesus say, “Bring him to me” & he leaves that day with his healing. He only had raw faith but it worked.
Zacchaeus climbs all the way to the top of a tree to see Jesus & gets what he needs. If your faith isn’t working, try it again, knock again, get back on the horse, try a different prospective, keep tweaking. This capacity to try & keep trying is one of the qualities of faith. Like Jesus said, “ask, seek, & knock.”
Faith isn’t all that magical & mystical after all is it? The bible tells about a man at midnight that knocks on his friend’s door. “I’m out of sugar, can you spare a cup?” Two hours later the friend opens the door because he knows if he doesn’t he’ll never get any sleep. Jesus tells this story to explain what faith is. Faith is insistent, persistent, obstinate, focused & desperate.
Someone said, “God loves us all, He just loves some more than others.” That isn’t true!! But I’ll tell you this; God uses some more than others. And the ones He uses are a little bit pushed, a little pressed, dynamic -with goals. God doesn’t like passivity much.
Like Timothy, God wants us to stoke the fire of the gift He’s placed in us. He hasn’t given us a weak nor timid spirit, neither has he given us a spirit of fear. God’s Spirit is one of Power, Love & Self-control. God wants us to take hold & take authority as believers. He doesn’t want us to be passive & pusillanimous.
What are your goals? What has God spoken to you about your future? Stay with it until God gives it to you or maybe something better than you had faith for at the time. Sometimes that happens.
Jesus’ brother James told us that if we have a wavering faith, if we’re doubtful, not to expect to receive anything from God.
The woman with the issue of blood knew that Jesus was a Rabbi & she knew that he was a good man. That was about it! She has a raw, simple faith. Maybe she didn’t understand all the ramifications of His being the Son Of God, but she believed one thing--that He could heal her.
She acted on it. She risked censure & so much more. She was sick, she was broke & she had no connections. She had no insider to tell her, “Come & I’ll put you in at the head of the line. I know Him; he’s a friend of mine.” She was just a nobody with no way. She was an outcast & anyone she happened to touch would be unclean too.
Can faith sometimes be unreasonable, pushy, & desperate? If this woman had been reasonable she’d be home dying. But she was too busy living to die. She used the faith she had & touched Jesus with it & everything changed. He even called her daughter!
Jesus did not disappoint!
Blessings,
John
Friday, July 6, 2018
Is Jesus The Only Way To Heaven?
By John Stallings
To answer yes to that question, to say-“YES, Jesus is the only way to heaven”- is considered by many people, even some Christians, to be the most narrow- minded, bigoted, arrogant, mean-spirited, intolerant and hateful statement that could ever be made!
Does that surprise you?
It’s incredible to me that the most fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith, i.e. The Deity and Lordship of Jesus Christ, is being called into question or debated among people who call themselves Christians. But this is precisely what’s taking place. In some quarters there’s a questioning of whether a personal relationship with Jesus Christ should be preached as a prerequisite for salvation.
Recently a poll was taken and it showed 57% of evangelical church goers said they believed many religions can lead to eternal life. Apparently in our culture, the number one atrocity isn’t rape, or murder, but rather its intolerance. A scant 12% of Americans claim their religion is the only true faith.
When asked;- “Do you believe Jesus is the only way to heaven” even some prominent Christian leaders have been heard to say - “We’ll I’m not God and I’m going to leave it to Him to decide who’ll end up saved and allowed entrance into heaven.”
A prominent Baptist preacher/educator was recently asked by a reporter of the Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; - “Do you believe non-Christians can go to heaven?” He answered;-“That’s a good question to ask because the way we stand is we contend that trusting Jesus is the way to heaven. However, we do not know who Jesus will bring into the kingdom and who He will not. We are very careful about pronouncing judgment on anybody. We leave judgment in the hands of God and we are saying Jesus is the way. We preach Jesus but we have no way of knowing to whom the grace of God is extended.” So this educator and ordained Baptist minister is in the misty fog here. It’s just a big mystery.
One of the most famous pastor/T.V evangelists recently “fence-straddled” when Larry King asked him if he believed atheists would go to heaven. He said-“I am going to let God be the judge of who goes to heaven and hell.” When Larry asked him if Jews or Muslims could go to heaven without trusting Christ he replied;-“I’m very careful about saying who would go and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know.” According to him too, the actual qualifications for heaven are a mystery.
This world famous Christian minister chose to skate around the issue for fear, I suppose, that someone would be offended or put-off if he made any kind of absolute statement about his faith. That would be considered…well…intolerant.
A scripture comes to mind here. Jesus said; But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven. Matt.10:33
So at least as far as these two powerful Christian leaders are concerned, there’s a mystery connected with the requirements for eternal life in heaven. If some are coming through that way it must be a “Mystery door.” According to scripture, Jesus is “The Door of Heaven.” If it’s true as the aforementioned ministers’ in essence imply, that there’s another big door …. “The Mystery Door” and we can’t and won’t know until judgment day whom He’ll let into heaven, then instead of the plan of salvation being simple, it’s not really as plainly marked as we’ve believed it to be. If this were true [it’s not,] then the “mystery door” is as much a part of getting folk to heaven as faith in the finished work of the cross upon which Jesus shed His blood.
As we watched not long ago the brouhaha unfolding concerning the plausibility and feasibility of a Muslim Mosque being built within a stones throw of Ground Zero in Manhattan, we’ve been reminded that we don’t inhabit the same world that we did just a few short years ago. It’s my personal opinion that president Obama did what he does best and “clod-hopped” into the fray, but the one thing he did was to show an obvious bias for Muslims. This isn’t a surprise to most Americans. We understand that if it were a nativity scene in question, or even people singing The National Anthem on the sidewalk anywhere near the site it would immediately be squelched.
The good news is it allowed the president to do something I’d never heard him do before and that’s to stand up for the Constitution as well as our Founders and freedom of religion. I suspect that was an “unintended consequence.”
Paul warned us when he wrote;-
For the time will come when they {church folk} will not endure [tolerate] sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.”-2 Timothy 4:3-4.
Paul had no tolerance for those who would not preach the gospel. In Galatians 1:8 he said;
But though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Far too many preachers stand in pulpits and feed tasty doctrine whipped into a creamy filling suitable for topping canapes. That’s a palatable but not very sustaining spiritual food. People go looking for syrupy homilies that will bolster their self-esteem, wanting to hear anecdotes and vivid vignettes to help them find fulfillment or entertaining monologues that will brighten their lives.
We need not only expository preaching, we need expository listening from people who don’t have “itching ears” but will demand and ingest “the sincere meat of the Word.”
Let’s contrast the aforementioned minister’s words to the words recently spoken by Franklin Graham. You will remember that Franklin, the son of Billy Graham was removed as speaker for the National Day of Prayer service at the Pentagon some time back. Things Mr. Graham said that “disqualified” him for speaking was as follows; in a USA Today interview Graham said referring to one of the five Hindu deities, “None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation. We are fooling ourselves if we think we can have some big Kumbya service and all hold hands and it’s going to get better in this world. It’s not going to get better.” Another Graham “offense” was saying-Islam is evil, and Muslims and Hindus don’t pray to the same God he does.
Graham didn’t back down from anything he said earlier and in a Newsweek Web Exclusive he restated his position;-“I am who I am. I don’t believe that you can get to heaven through being a Buddhist or Hindu. I think Muhammad only leads to the grave. Now that’s what I believe and I don’t apologize for my faith. And if it’s divisive, I’m sorry.”
In my view, Mr. Graham hit the ball out of the park.
If a major research establishment, say The Mayo Clinic discovered a treatment that would cure all kinds of cancer, the treatment is 100% effective, and they said-“This is the only treatment you’ll ever need,” would it be narrow-minded or arrogant for them to say that?
Moreover, in this day when people want to keep tolerance in everything and resent radical statements about absolutes, do you think a parent with a child stricken with terminal cancer upon hearing this would complain and say, “You know, even though this involves my child’s health, I don’t think it appropriate for you to make such rash claims. What about the other potential cures?”
When it comes to cures for potentially deadly diseases, most folk are looking for a “Silver Bullet Solution.”
IN EVERYTHING EXCEPT RELIGION PEOPLE LOVE ABSOLUTES.
Let’s take it a step farther. What if a parent took their sick child to a doctor and after the diagnosis, the doctor said, “There are hundreds of potential cures for your child’s condition. I have studied them all and I recommend all of them for your child’s treatment. I won’t however recommend a specific path of treatment for your child because that would be arrogant and intolerant. There are plenty of medical journals that perhaps would dispute my recommendation and my advice would in all likelihood offend some of my colleagues. So you’ll have to come to your own conclusion because in the end, any medical treatment is going to lead to your child’s healing.”
The same parent who might be offended at someone making absolute statements about religion would get in that doctors face and say, “What are you talking about? This is nonsense! You’re supposed to help me. Stop this ridiculous pluralistic and relativistic mumbo-jumbo and help me see my child get well.” At the end of the day when push comes to shove, we all hold to absolutes!
When it comes to the disease of sin, which is terminal beyond doubt, truth demands that we share with the world the good news that Christianity can provide both the diagnosis and the remedy.
What if I were hiking high in the mountains, and was standing 50 feet away from the edge of a cliff, and to fall off that cliff would mean an 1800 feet drop into the jagged rocks on the canyon floor. If I spotted an elderly man walking dangerously close to the edge, and I realize he’s blind and has no idea of the danger he’s in, which of the following things would I be correct in saying; - “Hey my Brother, you’re walking straight toward a pretty bad drop-off and you need to get away from there. You can go any way you like, just do it quickly and you’ll be O.K!” –Or-“Hey my Brother- don’t take another step. You’re in mortal danger. I’m coming to get you.” And then I went to him, took him by the hand and led him to safety. Which approach would be considered right? I think we can all agree that love would constrain me to do what I could to save his life.
Just to clarify, I don’t think God is more interested in “getting us to heaven” than he is seeing us conform to image of His dear Son while we’re moving through this ‘mortal coil.” But since the question has already been cast around the paradigm of attaining heaven, that’s where I’ll pitch my mental tent.
FIRST- WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY REGARDING JESUS BEING THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN?
Consider the words of Jesus in John 14:6. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.
This is an utterly exclusive claim by our Lord that without Him and apart from Him there’s no way to The Father in heaven. There’s not a plan-B if you decide against Jesus.
Note that Jesus doesn’t say-I am a way, a truth, and a life. He insists He’s “The way, the truth and the life.” It’s important to remember who’s making this statement. Jesus isn’t just a good man or a great prophet, Jesus is God in human flesh.
Jesus says He’s the only way you can get to heaven. You can’t get there by being good. You can’t get there by being religious. You can’t get there by ceremony or knowledge or pedigree. Jesus doesn’t just point out the way He is the Way. He doesn’t just teach the truth, He is the Truth. He doesn’t represent one avenue to life or one possibility in life, He is the Life. Mankind’s quest for truth ends in Jesus Christ. Having said this, in some people’s minds I now join the ranks of the “narrow-minded, intolerant bigots.”
In 1 Corinthians 3:11 Paul says;-For no man can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 2:5 says;-There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Paul says in Romans 10:9—If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved.
Listen to Peter’s words—Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. -Acts 4:12.
NO OTHER WAY -NO OTHER NAME- NO OTHER FOUNDATION
The only way we can say there are other ways to heaven besides faith in Christ is to completely discount everything the Bible teaches on the subject.
The whole gospel boils down to this one universal truth; because our sins have separated us from God we need a mediator to bring us back to Him. Because the “sin-gap’ is so wide, we need someone from heaven who is Himself eternal to bridge the gap for us. Jesus is the only one who could bridge that gap. By His death He paid for our sins and bridged the gap that separates us from God. By His resurrection He proved He is the Son of God. The remains of all the other historical religious leaders are still in their graves.
No other mediator is necessary—no other mediator is possible.
IS THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST TOO NARROW AND ABSOLUTE?
I'm sure you've noticed that the world we live in is rather narrow. Certainly the law of gravity and the temperature at which water freezes and boils have a stubborn uniformity. If you enter a phone booth, you can’t dial any combination of numbers and get your home. Every business and residence has its own set of numbers that must be dialed to reach that location. If you set out to drive to California you can’t take any old road and expect to get there. If you have a headache, you don’t go to your cabinet and blindly pick out any bottle and expect relief. When I’m on an airliner, I expect the pilot to land on a runway not beside a runway, and not upside down.
Suppose a teacher put on an exam the question,- what’s the capitol of New York? When the test papers were returned she’d marked wrong any answer but the right one, Albany. One student had written the answer, New York City and the teacher had marked it wrong. Let’s say the young man who answered New York City wasn’t happy with the results and he turned to the other students and asked, “How many of you thought the capitol of New York was New York City? Let’s say half the students agreed with the young man and thought the capitol was New York City. The student then turns to the teacher and says, “So what makes you think your opinion is more valid than ours?” It’s obvious that there is only one correct answer to that question in spite of differing opinions.
Some people place spiritual truth into the area of opinion and anyone who tries to shift answers back from the realm of opinion to God’s authority is looked on as an intolerant person.
The other night Juda and I watched a Denzel Washington Lifetime Movie called The Great Debaters. It told the story of a Negro debate team from Texas, who back in the thirties won top national awards for debating. It was interesting to see how, before personal computers the students had to research their subjects. When they were traveling, they’d be in their motel rooms with books lying all over the beds to the point that they almost slept with books.
The point was, they had to be right in what they were saying during their debates. The researcher was as much an important part of the debates as the speakers. One of the comforts we as Christians can take is the fact that the claims of Jesus Christ have been more researched than any other group of facts man has ever known.
Let’s say for the sake of argument we accept that other religions will go to heaven. But the kicker is…none of these other religions—not Buddhists…..not the followers of Confucius…..not Taoist….not Hindus, none of those faiths have as their ultimate goal the kind of heaven most westerners have in mind. In most cases, these religions don’t even want to go to heaven.
The Buddhist doctrine is that all life is suffering and the goal is to end all suffering. Their big deal is something called Nirvana, a state of being absorbed, if you will into the great nothingness of the cosmos. You no longer have an individual existence or awareness of yourself. The Buddhists and Hindus see a cycle of reincarnation where life looks like a giant wheel. It goes around and around every time you die and are reincarnated.
It’s only people who’re raised in some sort of Christian culture who seem embarrassed by the exclusiveness of claims of Christ. Oddly enough most of the other religions try to incorporate this exclusive Jesus into their faith in some way. Muslims call Him an honored prophet. Buddhists refer to Him as a Bodhisattva, or an enlightened one who shows the path to others. Hindus think of Him as an incarnation of Vishnu, one of their highest Gods. I wonder if somehow deep in the collective heart of all humanity there isn’t that general revelation from God that points to Jesus as in fact, The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
Somehow the thought has taken hold that sincerity, not the truth is the higher of the two virtues. But in religious matters sincerity is never enough. We’re not talking here about our emotions or our preferences. The issue is truth. I don’t doubt the sincerity of the people of Islam or Hinduism. But sincerity only matters when applied to the proper object. You can be sincerely wrong and still be wrong. Believing the wrong things doesn’t make it right.
HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH TO OTHERS?
Today our world grows smaller and smaller and we find ourselves rubbing shoulders with people from different religious backgrounds. This is a relatively new phenomenon…growing more intense. Let’s face it. It looks like in the future we’re going to have Muslims and people of other religious beliefs living all around us and our children will go to school with them. This is already happening.
How do we best explain what we believe to those of other religions? That’s an important question! Our challenge going forward isn’t just going to be to believe in the facts we’ve tried to present here about Christ, but rather to articulate this message in a culture that rejects our views. We must concern ourselves with boldly yet respectively sharing Christ with unbelieving classmates, friends and family.
The important thing is not to be afraid.
Don’t be afraid of someone who doesn’t share your point of view.
Don’t be afraid of your Muslim co-worker or your Hindu neighbor.
Don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation with a student who has no religious beliefs whatsoever.
If we’re afraid we become defensive and that can make us all mouth with no ears. In the west they call it “All hat and no cattle.” It’s not a sin or a mistake to let someone else explain what they believe and how they view the world. But pray as you listen to others so that you can get better understanding of who they are and what they believe. If you and I show ourselves friendly, God will open doors that we could have never opened on our own. I also believe that one of our greatest challenges is to know what we believe and why we believe it. Knowledge is strong medicine.
WHAT IF PEOPLE REACT NEGATIVELY?
Remember you can’t argue a person into the Kingdom of God. Neither can you insult them into belief in Christ. It seems also evident but swearing at folk doesn’t make them want to run to the cross. As we’ve said, it helps to remember that people without Christ are spiritually blind. 2 Cor. 4:4.
Until their blindness is removed by the Holy Spirit they will never “See” the truth. You might as well get angry at a blind person for not seeing the color green. Our strategy must be based on kindness and Christ-centeredness.”
Listen to 2 Timothy 2:24-25;
And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel: instead be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.
For most of my life I’ve endeavored to focus my ministry on the supremacy of Jesus. If I fail to boldly lift Him up my efforts become irrelevant. No church group or denomination can get someone to heaven but Jesus can.
This is all that matters! Life’s biggest decision is what we do with Jesus and how we proclaim Him to a dying world.
We can’t let fear of being called intolerant Christians cause us to be weak-kneed when the world’s most important question is asked; “Is Jesus the only way to heaven?”
The answer is, YES!
Blessings,
John
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
John 14:6
John 3:31-36
John 11:25-27
Matthew 7:13-14
Acts 4:12, 10;42-43, 17:30
1 Timothy 2:5-6
1John 5”12
To answer yes to that question, to say-“YES, Jesus is the only way to heaven”- is considered by many people, even some Christians, to be the most narrow- minded, bigoted, arrogant, mean-spirited, intolerant and hateful statement that could ever be made!
Does that surprise you?
It’s incredible to me that the most fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith, i.e. The Deity and Lordship of Jesus Christ, is being called into question or debated among people who call themselves Christians. But this is precisely what’s taking place. In some quarters there’s a questioning of whether a personal relationship with Jesus Christ should be preached as a prerequisite for salvation.
Recently a poll was taken and it showed 57% of evangelical church goers said they believed many religions can lead to eternal life. Apparently in our culture, the number one atrocity isn’t rape, or murder, but rather its intolerance. A scant 12% of Americans claim their religion is the only true faith.
When asked;- “Do you believe Jesus is the only way to heaven” even some prominent Christian leaders have been heard to say - “We’ll I’m not God and I’m going to leave it to Him to decide who’ll end up saved and allowed entrance into heaven.”
A prominent Baptist preacher/educator was recently asked by a reporter of the Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; - “Do you believe non-Christians can go to heaven?” He answered;-“That’s a good question to ask because the way we stand is we contend that trusting Jesus is the way to heaven. However, we do not know who Jesus will bring into the kingdom and who He will not. We are very careful about pronouncing judgment on anybody. We leave judgment in the hands of God and we are saying Jesus is the way. We preach Jesus but we have no way of knowing to whom the grace of God is extended.” So this educator and ordained Baptist minister is in the misty fog here. It’s just a big mystery.
One of the most famous pastor/T.V evangelists recently “fence-straddled” when Larry King asked him if he believed atheists would go to heaven. He said-“I am going to let God be the judge of who goes to heaven and hell.” When Larry asked him if Jews or Muslims could go to heaven without trusting Christ he replied;-“I’m very careful about saying who would go and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know.” According to him too, the actual qualifications for heaven are a mystery.
This world famous Christian minister chose to skate around the issue for fear, I suppose, that someone would be offended or put-off if he made any kind of absolute statement about his faith. That would be considered…well…intolerant.
A scripture comes to mind here. Jesus said; But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven. Matt.10:33
So at least as far as these two powerful Christian leaders are concerned, there’s a mystery connected with the requirements for eternal life in heaven. If some are coming through that way it must be a “Mystery door.” According to scripture, Jesus is “The Door of Heaven.” If it’s true as the aforementioned ministers’ in essence imply, that there’s another big door …. “The Mystery Door” and we can’t and won’t know until judgment day whom He’ll let into heaven, then instead of the plan of salvation being simple, it’s not really as plainly marked as we’ve believed it to be. If this were true [it’s not,] then the “mystery door” is as much a part of getting folk to heaven as faith in the finished work of the cross upon which Jesus shed His blood.
As we watched not long ago the brouhaha unfolding concerning the plausibility and feasibility of a Muslim Mosque being built within a stones throw of Ground Zero in Manhattan, we’ve been reminded that we don’t inhabit the same world that we did just a few short years ago. It’s my personal opinion that president Obama did what he does best and “clod-hopped” into the fray, but the one thing he did was to show an obvious bias for Muslims. This isn’t a surprise to most Americans. We understand that if it were a nativity scene in question, or even people singing The National Anthem on the sidewalk anywhere near the site it would immediately be squelched.
The good news is it allowed the president to do something I’d never heard him do before and that’s to stand up for the Constitution as well as our Founders and freedom of religion. I suspect that was an “unintended consequence.”
Paul warned us when he wrote;-
For the time will come when they {church folk} will not endure [tolerate] sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.”-2 Timothy 4:3-4.
Paul had no tolerance for those who would not preach the gospel. In Galatians 1:8 he said;
But though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Far too many preachers stand in pulpits and feed tasty doctrine whipped into a creamy filling suitable for topping canapes. That’s a palatable but not very sustaining spiritual food. People go looking for syrupy homilies that will bolster their self-esteem, wanting to hear anecdotes and vivid vignettes to help them find fulfillment or entertaining monologues that will brighten their lives.
We need not only expository preaching, we need expository listening from people who don’t have “itching ears” but will demand and ingest “the sincere meat of the Word.”
Let’s contrast the aforementioned minister’s words to the words recently spoken by Franklin Graham. You will remember that Franklin, the son of Billy Graham was removed as speaker for the National Day of Prayer service at the Pentagon some time back. Things Mr. Graham said that “disqualified” him for speaking was as follows; in a USA Today interview Graham said referring to one of the five Hindu deities, “None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation. We are fooling ourselves if we think we can have some big Kumbya service and all hold hands and it’s going to get better in this world. It’s not going to get better.” Another Graham “offense” was saying-Islam is evil, and Muslims and Hindus don’t pray to the same God he does.
Graham didn’t back down from anything he said earlier and in a Newsweek Web Exclusive he restated his position;-“I am who I am. I don’t believe that you can get to heaven through being a Buddhist or Hindu. I think Muhammad only leads to the grave. Now that’s what I believe and I don’t apologize for my faith. And if it’s divisive, I’m sorry.”
In my view, Mr. Graham hit the ball out of the park.
If a major research establishment, say The Mayo Clinic discovered a treatment that would cure all kinds of cancer, the treatment is 100% effective, and they said-“This is the only treatment you’ll ever need,” would it be narrow-minded or arrogant for them to say that?
Moreover, in this day when people want to keep tolerance in everything and resent radical statements about absolutes, do you think a parent with a child stricken with terminal cancer upon hearing this would complain and say, “You know, even though this involves my child’s health, I don’t think it appropriate for you to make such rash claims. What about the other potential cures?”
When it comes to cures for potentially deadly diseases, most folk are looking for a “Silver Bullet Solution.”
IN EVERYTHING EXCEPT RELIGION PEOPLE LOVE ABSOLUTES.
Let’s take it a step farther. What if a parent took their sick child to a doctor and after the diagnosis, the doctor said, “There are hundreds of potential cures for your child’s condition. I have studied them all and I recommend all of them for your child’s treatment. I won’t however recommend a specific path of treatment for your child because that would be arrogant and intolerant. There are plenty of medical journals that perhaps would dispute my recommendation and my advice would in all likelihood offend some of my colleagues. So you’ll have to come to your own conclusion because in the end, any medical treatment is going to lead to your child’s healing.”
The same parent who might be offended at someone making absolute statements about religion would get in that doctors face and say, “What are you talking about? This is nonsense! You’re supposed to help me. Stop this ridiculous pluralistic and relativistic mumbo-jumbo and help me see my child get well.” At the end of the day when push comes to shove, we all hold to absolutes!
When it comes to the disease of sin, which is terminal beyond doubt, truth demands that we share with the world the good news that Christianity can provide both the diagnosis and the remedy.
What if I were hiking high in the mountains, and was standing 50 feet away from the edge of a cliff, and to fall off that cliff would mean an 1800 feet drop into the jagged rocks on the canyon floor. If I spotted an elderly man walking dangerously close to the edge, and I realize he’s blind and has no idea of the danger he’s in, which of the following things would I be correct in saying; - “Hey my Brother, you’re walking straight toward a pretty bad drop-off and you need to get away from there. You can go any way you like, just do it quickly and you’ll be O.K!” –Or-“Hey my Brother- don’t take another step. You’re in mortal danger. I’m coming to get you.” And then I went to him, took him by the hand and led him to safety. Which approach would be considered right? I think we can all agree that love would constrain me to do what I could to save his life.
Just to clarify, I don’t think God is more interested in “getting us to heaven” than he is seeing us conform to image of His dear Son while we’re moving through this ‘mortal coil.” But since the question has already been cast around the paradigm of attaining heaven, that’s where I’ll pitch my mental tent.
FIRST- WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY REGARDING JESUS BEING THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN?
Consider the words of Jesus in John 14:6. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.
This is an utterly exclusive claim by our Lord that without Him and apart from Him there’s no way to The Father in heaven. There’s not a plan-B if you decide against Jesus.
Note that Jesus doesn’t say-I am a way, a truth, and a life. He insists He’s “The way, the truth and the life.” It’s important to remember who’s making this statement. Jesus isn’t just a good man or a great prophet, Jesus is God in human flesh.
Jesus says He’s the only way you can get to heaven. You can’t get there by being good. You can’t get there by being religious. You can’t get there by ceremony or knowledge or pedigree. Jesus doesn’t just point out the way He is the Way. He doesn’t just teach the truth, He is the Truth. He doesn’t represent one avenue to life or one possibility in life, He is the Life. Mankind’s quest for truth ends in Jesus Christ. Having said this, in some people’s minds I now join the ranks of the “narrow-minded, intolerant bigots.”
In 1 Corinthians 3:11 Paul says;-For no man can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 2:5 says;-There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Paul says in Romans 10:9—If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved.
Listen to Peter’s words—Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. -Acts 4:12.
NO OTHER WAY -NO OTHER NAME- NO OTHER FOUNDATION
The only way we can say there are other ways to heaven besides faith in Christ is to completely discount everything the Bible teaches on the subject.
The whole gospel boils down to this one universal truth; because our sins have separated us from God we need a mediator to bring us back to Him. Because the “sin-gap’ is so wide, we need someone from heaven who is Himself eternal to bridge the gap for us. Jesus is the only one who could bridge that gap. By His death He paid for our sins and bridged the gap that separates us from God. By His resurrection He proved He is the Son of God. The remains of all the other historical religious leaders are still in their graves.
No other mediator is necessary—no other mediator is possible.
IS THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST TOO NARROW AND ABSOLUTE?
I'm sure you've noticed that the world we live in is rather narrow. Certainly the law of gravity and the temperature at which water freezes and boils have a stubborn uniformity. If you enter a phone booth, you can’t dial any combination of numbers and get your home. Every business and residence has its own set of numbers that must be dialed to reach that location. If you set out to drive to California you can’t take any old road and expect to get there. If you have a headache, you don’t go to your cabinet and blindly pick out any bottle and expect relief. When I’m on an airliner, I expect the pilot to land on a runway not beside a runway, and not upside down.
Suppose a teacher put on an exam the question,- what’s the capitol of New York? When the test papers were returned she’d marked wrong any answer but the right one, Albany. One student had written the answer, New York City and the teacher had marked it wrong. Let’s say the young man who answered New York City wasn’t happy with the results and he turned to the other students and asked, “How many of you thought the capitol of New York was New York City? Let’s say half the students agreed with the young man and thought the capitol was New York City. The student then turns to the teacher and says, “So what makes you think your opinion is more valid than ours?” It’s obvious that there is only one correct answer to that question in spite of differing opinions.
Some people place spiritual truth into the area of opinion and anyone who tries to shift answers back from the realm of opinion to God’s authority is looked on as an intolerant person.
The other night Juda and I watched a Denzel Washington Lifetime Movie called The Great Debaters. It told the story of a Negro debate team from Texas, who back in the thirties won top national awards for debating. It was interesting to see how, before personal computers the students had to research their subjects. When they were traveling, they’d be in their motel rooms with books lying all over the beds to the point that they almost slept with books.
The point was, they had to be right in what they were saying during their debates. The researcher was as much an important part of the debates as the speakers. One of the comforts we as Christians can take is the fact that the claims of Jesus Christ have been more researched than any other group of facts man has ever known.
Let’s say for the sake of argument we accept that other religions will go to heaven. But the kicker is…none of these other religions—not Buddhists…..not the followers of Confucius…..not Taoist….not Hindus, none of those faiths have as their ultimate goal the kind of heaven most westerners have in mind. In most cases, these religions don’t even want to go to heaven.
The Buddhist doctrine is that all life is suffering and the goal is to end all suffering. Their big deal is something called Nirvana, a state of being absorbed, if you will into the great nothingness of the cosmos. You no longer have an individual existence or awareness of yourself. The Buddhists and Hindus see a cycle of reincarnation where life looks like a giant wheel. It goes around and around every time you die and are reincarnated.
It’s only people who’re raised in some sort of Christian culture who seem embarrassed by the exclusiveness of claims of Christ. Oddly enough most of the other religions try to incorporate this exclusive Jesus into their faith in some way. Muslims call Him an honored prophet. Buddhists refer to Him as a Bodhisattva, or an enlightened one who shows the path to others. Hindus think of Him as an incarnation of Vishnu, one of their highest Gods. I wonder if somehow deep in the collective heart of all humanity there isn’t that general revelation from God that points to Jesus as in fact, The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
Somehow the thought has taken hold that sincerity, not the truth is the higher of the two virtues. But in religious matters sincerity is never enough. We’re not talking here about our emotions or our preferences. The issue is truth. I don’t doubt the sincerity of the people of Islam or Hinduism. But sincerity only matters when applied to the proper object. You can be sincerely wrong and still be wrong. Believing the wrong things doesn’t make it right.
HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH TO OTHERS?
Today our world grows smaller and smaller and we find ourselves rubbing shoulders with people from different religious backgrounds. This is a relatively new phenomenon…growing more intense. Let’s face it. It looks like in the future we’re going to have Muslims and people of other religious beliefs living all around us and our children will go to school with them. This is already happening.
How do we best explain what we believe to those of other religions? That’s an important question! Our challenge going forward isn’t just going to be to believe in the facts we’ve tried to present here about Christ, but rather to articulate this message in a culture that rejects our views. We must concern ourselves with boldly yet respectively sharing Christ with unbelieving classmates, friends and family.
The important thing is not to be afraid.
Don’t be afraid of someone who doesn’t share your point of view.
Don’t be afraid of your Muslim co-worker or your Hindu neighbor.
Don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation with a student who has no religious beliefs whatsoever.
If we’re afraid we become defensive and that can make us all mouth with no ears. In the west they call it “All hat and no cattle.” It’s not a sin or a mistake to let someone else explain what they believe and how they view the world. But pray as you listen to others so that you can get better understanding of who they are and what they believe. If you and I show ourselves friendly, God will open doors that we could have never opened on our own. I also believe that one of our greatest challenges is to know what we believe and why we believe it. Knowledge is strong medicine.
WHAT IF PEOPLE REACT NEGATIVELY?
Remember you can’t argue a person into the Kingdom of God. Neither can you insult them into belief in Christ. It seems also evident but swearing at folk doesn’t make them want to run to the cross. As we’ve said, it helps to remember that people without Christ are spiritually blind. 2 Cor. 4:4.
Until their blindness is removed by the Holy Spirit they will never “See” the truth. You might as well get angry at a blind person for not seeing the color green. Our strategy must be based on kindness and Christ-centeredness.”
Listen to 2 Timothy 2:24-25;
And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel: instead be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.
For most of my life I’ve endeavored to focus my ministry on the supremacy of Jesus. If I fail to boldly lift Him up my efforts become irrelevant. No church group or denomination can get someone to heaven but Jesus can.
This is all that matters! Life’s biggest decision is what we do with Jesus and how we proclaim Him to a dying world.
We can’t let fear of being called intolerant Christians cause us to be weak-kneed when the world’s most important question is asked; “Is Jesus the only way to heaven?”
The answer is, YES!
Blessings,
John
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
John 14:6
John 3:31-36
John 11:25-27
Matthew 7:13-14
Acts 4:12, 10;42-43, 17:30
1 Timothy 2:5-6
1John 5”12
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