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Religion and the Gospel
Reasons to Believe
August 1, 2010
Common Questions• Aren’t all religions simply different parts of the same elephant – colors of the same rainbow?
• How is Christianity’s message really unique from other religions?
• How can any one religion claim to have thetruth?
• Doesn’t the geographical location of your birth explain your faith?
• Isn’t claiming to have the truth really a power trip?
EPHESIANS 3:1‐9
For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles… how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery … which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men… that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel… Unto me… is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.
Where we’re going
I. Religion in a pluralistic society: “Everybody gets an ‘A’!”
II. True Religion: “The inbreaking of the divine in the world of human affairs”
III. When Christianity becomes religion: “The broad road on the narrow.”
IV. Jesus in a pluralistic culture: “Jesus Christ changes everything”
Why is this important?For much of America’s history, the assumption was that if
you were born in America, you would affiliate with the Christian faith. A new nationwide survey by The Barna Group (2009), however, indicates that people’s views have changed. The study discovered that half of all adults now contend that Christianity is just one of many options that Americans choose from and that a huge majority of adults pick and choose what they believe rather than adopt a church or denomination’s slate of beliefs. Still, most people say their faith is becoming increasingly important as a source of personal moral guidance.
http://www.barna.org/faith‐spirituality/15‐christianity‐is‐no‐longer‐americans‐default‐faith
Barna Group
Theme 1: Increasingly, Americans are more interested in faith and spirituality than in Christianity.
Theme 2: Faith in the American context is now individual and customized. Americans are comfortable with an altered spiritual experience as long as they can participate in the shaping of that faith experience.
http://www.barna.org/barna‐update/article/12‐faithspirituality/325‐barna‐studies‐the‐research‐offers‐a‐year‐in‐review‐perspective?q=religions+world
Barna Group
Theme 3: Biblical literacy is neither a current reality nor a goal in the U.S.
Theme 4: Effective and periodic measurement of spirituality – conducted personally or through a church – is not common at this time and it is not likely to become common in the near future.
http://www.barna.org/barna‐update/article/12‐faithspirituality/325‐barna‐studies‐the‐research‐offers‐a‐year‐in‐review‐perspective?q=religions+world
Barna Group
“Ultimately, in a culture where people are busy, distracted, confused and trying to keep it all together, there is less loyalty to a faith brand than to self. The purpose of faith, for most Americans, is not so much to discover truth or to relate to a loving, praiseworthy deity as it is to become happy, successful, comfortable and secure. For a growing percentage of citizens, their [own] sense of spirituality, more than Christianity, facilitates those outcomes.”
http://www.barna.org/barna‐update/article/12‐faithspirituality/325‐barna‐studies‐the‐research‐offers‐a‐year‐in‐review‐perspective?q=religions+world
Controlling mental constructs of the average university student
• privatization
• relativism
• philosophical pluralism
• skepticism
• postmodernism
• ethical “openness”
D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God, 494‐95 (1996)
RELIGION IN A PLURALIST SOCIETY
Everybody gets an “A”
RELIGION: WHAT IS IT?
“There is probably no subject in the world about which opinions differ so much as the nature of religion, and to frame a definition of it which would satisfy everyone must obviously be impossible.”
Okholm and Philips, Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World, [1996] p. 154
RELIGION: WHAT IS IT?
Ludwig Feuerbach regarded religion as an expression of human longing.
Karl Marx regarded religion as the result of social and economic alienation.
Julian Huxley regarded religion as the best tool for manipulating people
Karl Barth regarded religion as an expression of human defiance in the face of God.
Edward Taylor regarded religion simply as belief in spiritual beings.
Timothy Keller regards religion as salvation through moral effort.
RELIGION: WHAT IS IT?
James wrote, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this ‐ to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
PLURALISM: WHAT IS IT?
1. Empirical Pluralism: observable diversity
1. Cherished Pluralism: the approval of empirical pluralism
1. Philosophical Pluralism: the notion that any one ideology or religion is superior or more true is wrong.
D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God, [1996] 13‐22.
HAROLD A. NETLAND,
“the notion that one particular religious figure and one religious perspective can be universally valid, normative, and binding upon all peoples in all cultures… is widely rejected today as arrogant and intellectually untenable in a pluralistic world.”
LESSLIE NEWBIGIN
“It has become a commonplace to say that we live in a pluralist society – not merely a society which is in fact plural in the variety of cultures, religions, and life‐styles which it embraces, but pluralist in the sense that this plurality is celebrated as things to be approved and cherished… Pluralism is conceived to be a proper characteristic of the secular society, a society in which there is no officially approved pattern of belief or conduct.”
Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, [Eerdmans, 1989] p. 1
It was six men of Indostan…
The Blind Men and the Elephant
So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an elephant
Not one of them has seen!
‐ John Godfrey Saxe
PROBLEMS WITH THE POEM
• Assumes a standpoint to see the full reality.
• The analogy believes its view to be superior to the views of the blind man.
• Any claim to superior religious knowledge, according to pluralism, is arrogant, faulty, and should be treated with skepticism.
D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God, 125; Okholm and Phillips, Four View on Salvation in a Pluralistic World, 157.
RAVI ZACHARIAS
Most people think all religions are essentially the same and only superficially different, but just the opposite is true.
Major Categories of Religions
• Atheism
• Pantheism
• Theism
• Historical
• A‐Historical
• Primal
Major Religions of the World
Worldviews and Population 2000From Operation World Research Database
From Operation World Research Database
OTHER
Baha’i Neo‐paganism
Yazdanism Universal Unitarianism
Confucianism Satanism
Jainism Cao Daism
Shintos Deism
Taoism Eckankar
Voodoo Scientology
Druidism Zoroastrianism
Animism/Spiritism Gnosticism
Rastafarianism Wicca
Christianity• Orthodox
– Russian
– Ethiopian
– Eastern
• Protestant
– Baptist
– Methodist
– Lutheran
– Anglican
– Congregationalist
– Non‐denominational
• Roman Catholics
• Christian Cults
– Mormon
– Jehovah’s Witness
– Christian Science
– Seventh‐day Adventist
Christianity’s Beliefs• God is Creator
• God is Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit)
• Jesus Christ is God
• The Scriptures are God’s revelation
• Humanity is fallen
• Jesus was crucified for humanity’s sin
• Jesus rose from the dead
• Jesus is going to return
• Humans will be resurrected
• Humans will face final judgment
Islam
• Sunni
• Shi’ite
• Sufi
• Kharijite
Islam’s Beliefs1. There is one God and Creator, Allah
2. There are angels. The angel Gabriel brought the divine message (Qu’ran) to Muhammad.
3. The are four books (Torah, Psalms, the Gospel, Qu’ran). Only the Qu’ran is perfect.
4. There are many prophets who must be honored, but Muhammad is the last prophet.
5. There will be a resurrection to judgment. Salvation is won by keeping the five pillars.
6. Everything that happens is the will of Allah, divine creed.
Hinduism
• Amazingly broad and tolerant
• Not one religion but a family of religions
• Can be pantheists, polytheists, monotheists, atheists, or agnostics
• “Whoever calls himself Hindu is Hindu”
Hinduism’s Defining Elements
• There is no one unified system of thought
• Acceptance of Vedas with reverence
• Recognition that means and ways to salvation are diverse (works, worship of gods, knowledge)
• Realization that the number of gods to be worshipped is large (300 million?)
• Ignorance of the true nature of the self (atman) as one with Brahman traps one in the endless cycle of death and rebirth
• Moksha (salvation) is liberation for this cycle of earthly existence due to bad karma
‐BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISAD 4.5
When you hear about the Self, meditate upon the Self, and finally realize the Self, you come to understand everything in life.
Buddhism
• Theravada Buddhism
• Mahayana Buddhism
• Vajrayana Buddhism
Buddhism’s Beliefs
• Become one with reality
• Four Noble Truths:– Life is full of suffering
– Suffering is the result of desire
– Suffering can end when desire ends
– The way to end desire is to follow the eight‐fold path
• The goal is nirvana (enlightenment)
• Nirvana relies on effort and discipline
BUDDHIST MANUAL OF CEYLON
Buddhism is “that religion which, not beginning with God, elevates man to a state where the help of God is unnecessary.”
Sikhism• A “sikh” is a disciple or learner of the Guru’s
• Draws on Hinduism and Islam
• 18‐20 million adherents
• Located primarily in India, began about 500 years ago
• Most obey the principle rules of Khalsa
• Moral purity is the basis of the religion
Sikhism’s Beliefs
• The Adi Granth is the sacred text compiling the writings of the 10 great guru’s.
• Sikhs believe that liberation from the karmic cycle of rebirths occurs in the merging of the human spirit with the all‐embracing spirit of God.
• Salvation can be reached only through rigorous and disciplined devotion to God.
GURU AMAR DAS, MAJH
Deep within the self is the Light of God. It radiates throughout the expanse of His creation. Through the Guru’s teachings, the darkness of spiritual ignorance is dispelled. The heart of the lotus flower blossoms forth and eternal peace is
obtained, as one’s light emerges into the Supreme Light.
http://www.sikhs.org/topics.htm, accessed July 27, 2010
Judaism
• Orthodox
• Conservative
• Reformed
Judaism’s Beliefs
Orthodox Jews:
• God is one, Creator of heaven and earth
• Believe the Torah*, Prophets, and Writings are divine revelation from God
• Man is created in the image of God
• Relationship to God is through repentance, prayer, and obedience to the Law.
• Assume standing with God through heritage
• Believe in life after death
The question of pluralismThe idea:
• We can’t really know the truth about the divine (if there is one), the best we can do is guess. Therefore, I cannot say mine is true and yours false. Naturally then, all ways to the divine are valid.
The strange conclusion:
• We know that we can’t know, but, conveniently, in not knowing we do know we are all heading in the right direction toward the God that we don’t really know about.
“The openness touted in the various theologies of world religions, it seems, is ultimately openness only to human autonomy.”
Craig M. Gay, “Plurality, Ambiguity, and Despair in Contemporary Theology,” JETS 36 (1993): 224.
WHAT IF WE COULD KNOW?
• What if we could know?
• What if God, of His own will, revealed himself?
• What if God not only revealed himself, but actually became one of us?
RICK WADE
“The historicity of Christianity is critical to its truth or falsity. God's project of salvation is inextricably connected with particular historical events such as the fall, the flood, the obedience of Abraham, the Exodus, the giving of the Law, the fall of Israel and Judah, the return to Israel—all events leading to Jesus, a historical person who accomplished our salvation through a historical event…The truth of Christianity stands or falls with the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ and their meaning revealed by God. If the resurrection is historically false, 'we are of all men most miserable,'Paul wrote (1 Cor. 15:19). "
http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4227365/k.72A3/Christianity_and_Religious_Pluralism.htm
1 JOHN 5:11‐13
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
THREE WAYS SALVATION
1. I am going to live my life the way I want because all religions lead to the same place
1. Work so hard that you guarantee salvation for yourself
1. Repent, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, 183.
II. TRUE RELIGION
The in‐breaking grace of heaven restoring the world from human alienation to relationship with God
DONALD BLOESCH
“True Religion is a religion anchored in the gospel and dedicated to the glory of God”
Donald Bloesch, Faith and Its Counterfeits, [1981] p. 11
RELIGION: I OBEY – THEREFORE I AM ACCEPTED BY GOD
GOSPEL: I AM ACCEPTED BY GOD THROUGH CHRIST – THEREFORE I OBEY
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, 186.
EPHESIANS 2:8‐10
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves – it is the gift of God –not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them
THE SIMPLE GOSPEL
• You are a sinner
• Jesus Christ died for your sin• Repent of your sin• By faith receive Christ as your savior• You will go to heaven when you die.
MOVING BEYOND A RELIGIOUS TRINKET
About me
About a ticket to heaven
About a secure future
About a better life
About a happier life
About a better marriage
About a fuller life
About being reunited with family after death
About a healthier, more prosperous life
THE COMPREHENSIVE GOSPEL
• God created for relationship.• Creation rebelled and fell out of relationship.• God cares and made the way for reconciliation through His Son. We bring nothing to the table.
• Forgiveness comes through the self‐giving of Jesus Christ and faith in Him.
• We model the gospel by dying to ourselves and walking in newness of life to the glory of God.
A MODEL FOR A WAY OF LIFEGod to Us 1. The grace of God
redeems
2. There is nothing innately good about human righteousness
3. God’s righteousness is the only justifying righteousness
4. Jesus emptied himself to come save us to God’s glory
Us to each other1. We ought to be a
redeeming presence
2. We extend the grace received to undeserving people
3. Our personal righteousness is never cause for boasting
4. We empty ourselves of ourselves to God’s glory
TRANSFORMATION
Of our lives
Of our relationships
Of our hopes
Of our dreams
Of our behaviors
Of our marriages
Of our society
Of our culture
Of our religion
Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…
III. WHEN CHRISTIANITY BECOMES RELIGION
The broad road on the narrow road
THE PARABLE OF THE TWO SONS
Luke 15:11‐32
“Oh poor boy stood there, hung his head and cried Hung his head and cried Poor boy stood and hung his head and cried Said, "Father will you look on me as a child?"
Rolling Stones, Prodigal Son
THE YOUNGEST SON
• Left home to a far away land to riotous living
• Spent all and a famine came
• Sold himself to pig farmer and desired even the pigs food
• Came to himself and humbled himself and returned home
• Repented of his sin• His father, in his deep grace, welcomes him home and rejoices at his son’s return
THE ELDEST SON
• Was out in the field working when he heard music and dancing
• Wondered why there was a celebration
• Received word that his brother had returned• Became angry at the the situation
• Made his case before his father
• Failed to understand the grace of his father
The Prodigal God
The youngest son
• Knows he is a sinner and undeserving
• Understood the need for forgiveness
• Understood that because of his sin favor with his father was based upon grace and could not be based on performance
• The gospel is receiving God’s reckless grace in spite of ourselves
The eldest son
• Believes himself to be innately worthy and deserving
• Could not grasp the grace of his father
• Believed that his favor with his father was based upon his performance – his father owed him
• Religion rejects grace replacing it with performance
WHEN CHRISTIANITY BECOMES RELIGION
• Denying grace (from God and to others ) and replacing it with expectations is essentially eldest‐son religion and a denial of the gospel.
• Imposing standards (where there is no properly interpreted biblical demand) upon self or others in order to gain favor is essentially eldest‐son religion and a denial of the gospel.
WHEN CHRISTIANITY BECOMES RELIGION
• When discipleship has become avoiding sin and living morally so God will not be angry with you then your faith is essentially eldest‐son religion and a denial of the gospel.
• When the object of your faith has been your own faith and devotion and not the crucified and risen Lord your faith is essentially eldest‐son religion and a denial of the gospel.
THE THREAT OF GRACE
If I was saved by my good works then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with “rights” – I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if I am a sinner saved by sheer grace – then there’s nothing he cannot ask of me.
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, p 189
IV. CONCLUSION: JESUS IN A PLURALISTIC CULTURE
Jesus Christ changes everything
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
JESUS CHRIST – THE WATERSHED
“The Christian theologian thus insists that God is to be most reliably and completely known in the person of Jesus Christ. This not to say that God may not be known, in various ways and to various degrees, by other means. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the closest encounter with God to be had in this life. God makes himself available for our acceptance or rejection in the figure of Jesus Christ.”
Alister McGrath, Christian Spirituality [Blackwell, 1999], p. 59
JESUS CHRIST – THE STARTING POINT
“I suggested that the important thing was the acceptance of a new starting point. The new vision for human life on this planet did not derive from any abstract idea or first principle. It derived from the revelation of God in Jesus Christ… God’s revelation in Jesus Christ is the starting point.”
Lesslie Newbigin, Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth, [Eerdmans: 1991] p. 37.
JESUS CHRIST – THE PARTICULAR
Jesus is, in some ways, the most particularistic element of Christianity.
Okholm and Phillips, Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World, p 169
JESUS CHRIST – THE WAY
The founders of every other major religion essentially came as teachers, not as saviors. They came to say: “Do this and you will find the divine.” But Jesus came essentially as a savior rather than a teacher… Jesus says: “I am the divine come to you, to do what you could not do for yourselves.”
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, 192
JESUS CHRIST – THE NAME
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other:for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved
Acts 4:10‐12
SO WHY IS CHRISTIANITY UNIQUE?
THE INCARNATIONTHE INCARNATION
• Jesus is unique because he is fully God and fully man
• Jesus is unique because he was virgin birth
• Jesus is unique because he lived a sinless life
• Jesus is unique because he was God’s final perfect sacrifice for sin
• Jesus is unique because he is risen and seated on the right hand of the Father
• Jesus is unique because he is fully God and fully man
• Jesus is unique because he was virgin birth
• Jesus is unique because he lived a sinless life
• Jesus is unique because he was God’s final perfect sacrifice for sin
• Jesus is unique because he is risen and seated on the right hand of the Father
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel!
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel!
JOHN HICK ON JESUS CHRIST
What is presented is that Jesus of Nazareth is the only saviour of the whole world, and Christianity the one and only true religion, including the deity of Jesus as God (or God the Son) incarnate, the Holy Trinity, atonement for the sins of the world through Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross, and his bodily resurrection and ascension. All of these beliefs seem incredible to most non‐church goers. If there is a believable Christianity, what the churches officially teach is not it.
John Hick, “Believable Christianity,” http://www.johnhick.org.uk/articles.html, accessed July 30, 2010
WHAT MUST WE DO IN OUR CULTURE?
FIRST, WE SHOULD NOT
1. Seek to change by dominating the conversation
2. Seek the means of change in the voting booth
3. Seek the means of change the way we have always done so
4. Seek the means of change by removing our presence
5. Give up on change because God is going to remake it all any way
1. Proclaim the Gospel
“…It is all too easy to swing to the other extreme and talk happily of different roads to the summit, as if Jesus were in no particular and distinctive sense “the Way, the Truth, and the Life… Is the Cross on Calvary really more than a confusing roundabout sign pointing in every direction, or is it still the place where all are meant to kneel?”
Max A. C. Warren, I Believe in the Great Commission, 1976
2. Indwell the Gospel
• Laodicea (Revelation 3:16)
• The church is making Jesus gag – it’s works neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm
• The church seems rich and wealthy, but is blind and naked
• The church must be zealous and repent (19)
• Fellowship with God is restored (20)
The things from which we must turn are not so much individual sins – greed, pride, sexual promiscuity, or the like, as ugly and as evil as they are – as fundamental heart attitudes that squeeze God and his Word and his glory to the periphery, while we get on with religion and self‐fulfillment.
D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God, 488
3. Living the Gospel
• In turning “from” we must also turn “to”.
• We must turn from our self‐absorbed, self‐interested ways and attitudes that marginalize Christ, and restore the grandeur of Christ and his salvation in the day to day.
• The gospel is about restoration of the whole of creation
• The gospel is about the glory of God
MY FAIR LADY
Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words… Sing me no song, read me no rhyme, don’t waste my time, show me.
ACTS 17:16‐31
A CASE STUDY:
HOW SHOULD CHRISTIANS RESPOND TO OTHER RELIGIONS?
Acts 17• The biblical world was a highly pluralistic world• The biblical world was a biblically‐illiterate world• The biblical world was far removed from a Judeo‐Christian worldview
• Early Christians did not so much oppose the existence of pluralism as much as they defied it by insisting on Jesus Christ as the unique Savior.
D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God, 496‐97
Pluralism in Athens
1. Panoply of Greco‐Roman gods (polytheistic)
1. Stoics (pantheistic)
2. Epicureans (atheistic)
Biblical‐illiteracy in Athens
• Contrast Acts 13:13ff with Acts 17:16‐31
• Paul does not appeal to Scripture, but to the “Unknown God”
• Paul quotes from their own poets
• Paul meets the Athenians where they are
HOW SHOULD CHRISTIANS RESPOND TO OTHER RELIGIONS?
•We must grasp that other religions contain measures and degrees of truth, but we should challenge their worldview at its basic level.
• The Church must not cease to preach Christ as the way, the truth, and the life – not to do this would be to marginalize Jesus Christ.
• Other religions are not to be treated as threats, but as peoples for whom Christ died
HOW DO WE PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL IN “ATHENS”?
• Begins with courtesy but with authority
• Establishes a Christian worldview– Creation, Fall, Redemption
– Contextualize it to the cultural situation
• Point out that we will be held responsible
• Point them to the risen Christ
• Subvert the culture by proclaiming, indwelling, and living the gospel
COLOSSIANS 4:5‐6
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
