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Last Updated: Dec 12, 2008 - 4:54:39 PM |
A few days ago I was stopped behind a car at a red light. The car had a rather unique bumper sticker. I could see four religious symbols on it. Each stood for four different world religions. While waiting at the light, I tried to figure out just what the bumper sticker was attempting to say with the way the symbols were arranged. Then it came to me. They were arranged in such a way, that if you looked just right, you saw the word ‘Coexist.’ I have to admit, it was pretty ingenious.
We live in a world filled with a multitude of religions. Often in some cases these religions don’t get along with each other. History has even shown us that adherents of the various religions have been known to war against each other, or persecute each other.
So, in one sense, I can say that I agree with that bumper sticker. In a world filled with suspicion and violence, it is important for the various world religions to learn to ‘coexist’ with each other. Religious violence and persecution are never acceptable.
However, coexistence can never mean treating all religions as equally true. To do this ultimately does an injustice to these religions. Take Christianity for instance. I am a Christian. In particular, I am a Christian pastor whose life is dedicated to proclaiming a specific message: the message about Jesus. Jesus himself states, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” His early followers knew exactly what he was implying. A few years later the Apostle Peter stated the following about Jesus: “And there is salvation in no other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” And, as far as truth goes, the Apostle Paul stated that “truth is in Jesus.”
So, if the bumper sticker means that the various religions should live peaceably alongside each other, then I whole heartedly agree. No violence should ever be done in the name of religion. No person should ever be forced to embrace a specific religion. No one should ever be treated as a lesser person because of what he or she believes.
If, however, the bumper sticker means that all religions lead to God, and that each religion should admit this, then I could not disagree more. Christianity has always claimed Jesus to be God’s one way of dealing with the salvation of the world, because it is Jesus who has dealt with the world’s problem of sin. Christianity has always proclaimed that God has come among us in the person of Jesus and that in Jesus he has taken the sin of the world upon himself. Christianity has always proclaimed that in Jesus the sin of the entire world has been taken away through his death on the cross. In addition it has proclaimed that this Jesus truly rose from the dead with the guarantee that all who trust in his forgiveness have both forgiveness and eternal life. This is the message the Christian Church has shared with the world from its beginning. At its best Christianity doesn’t force the world to believe its message, but simply shares the message of Christ with the world.
I’m willing to coexist peacefully and lovingly with people from all religions and all walks of life. Yet, as a Christian, and as a pastor, I must continue to proclaim the truth of Jesus as God’s one, only, and more than sufficient answer to the world’s problem of sin.
Pastor Douglas Morton is pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Marengo. His email is pastor@forgiveninchrist.com.
Bible verses for this article are from John 14:6, Acts 4:12 and Ephesians 4:21.
© Copyright 2008 by The East Iowa Herald
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