Friday, January 14, 2005

Wow

Wow. I can't say anymore. This short speech that I just found speaks for itself...
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IS JESUS REALLY THE ONLY WAY?


The following notes are taken from Rob Rienow’s message to the Student Body on Fall Retreat 2001.




The question that we are going to tackle tonight is this…is Christianity The Only True Religion? Another way to ask this question is this, “Is Jesus the only way to be saved?” Or “Is Jesus the only way to God?”

In order to get at this issue…we have to back all the way up and talk about something called “truth.” If we are going to ask “is Christianity the only true religion” then we better understand what “true” means.

We need to start with two big words…the first word is “Pluralism” Pluralism means that live in a world with many options to choose from as far as what you believe…there are plurality or a plural number…more than one, and in fact many…religions to choose from.

But we also live in a relativistic world. Relativism says that we live in a world where all options are considered to be “true.” Relativism says that it does not really matter WHAT you believe as long as you believe it sincerely. This retreat…of course is all about the message that “WHAT you believe makes ALL the difference.”

Relativism says…It does not matter what religion you choose, because all religions basically teach the same thing, and as long as you believe it sincerely then it will lead you to God. Our country learned this was false on Sept 11, although we are slow in admitting it. How many of you would say that “Militant Muslim Fundamentalism” is an equally valid and equally good religion as “Judaism?”

But I thought that all religions basically taught the same thing? But I thought that all roads led to God? Don’t you just need to be committed to something and sincere in your beliefs? No, EVERY religion teaches and believes radically different things…that is why they are different. If they were the same…they wouldn’t be different!

Relativism says that “truth that depends on your perspective.” It depends on your point of view. Come on…you can’t say that what you believe is TRUE…it is just from your perspective.

Here is the basic idea that is taught today…the basic idea of relativism…All statements of fact are relative. No statement is absolutely true. All statements of fact are relative. All statements of fact are relative. Anyone see anything strange here? All statements of fact are relative…No statement is absolutely true. Relativism destroys itself because if all statements of fact are relative…then what about that statement itself? If nothing is entirely true, then neither is the statement “nothing is entirely true.”

There is such a thing as truth. We know that because of what is called the law of non contradiction…the law of non contradiction says that two opposite things cannot be true at the same time. Here is the basic example. You cannot say that God exists and that God does not exist at the same time. If one person says that God exists…and another person says that God does not exist…one of them, automatically is wrong. I am not saying who is right…you know what I think…but I am just talking logic here, brainpower, intelligence…it is amazing how little of it there is out there. If one person says God exist and another person says he doesn’t…then one of them is automatically wrong because they have made contradictory statements. One statement is true and one statement is false.

Now keep tracking with me…here is where we are right now.

1. Truth exists. For every one true statement there are a million false ones.
2. Every religion of the world teaches dramatically different and in many cases opposite things.
3. Whatever the truth is, determines whether or not a religion is true or not. If a religion teaches the things that are actually true then it is true. If a religion teaches things that are actually false then it is false. Since there can be only one truth, and many falsehoods, it follows that there is only one true religion and many false ones.

This may sound simple to some of you…but you will be amazed at the number of phds out there who have not grasped this concept…

So the challenge before every single human being…that would include you and me…is to find the truth…the truth matters. Everyone seeks it.

And I want to try and make the case for you tonight that Christianity is the only true religion in the world. I want to try and make the case for you tonight that the only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, to do this right, I would need about 10 hours. I’ll settle for 20 minutes. Obviously there are a lot of issues that I can’t get to…but let me dive in.

Let’s go right at it…we are going to examine where the evidence points us when it comes to Jesus Christ. John 14:6 listen to what Jesus says here, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father (meaning God) except through me.”

Notice that Jesus did not say that he was “a way, a truth, and a life, and that some people can come to God through me.” Jesus claimed that He is “the way, the truth, and the life, and that NO ONE comes to the Father except through Him."

Jesus said a lot of unpopular things, but this one probably tops the list for people today. Our world says, you believe what you want to believe, I’ll believe what I want to believe. The world says that if you say that Jesus is the only way that you are arrogant and narrow minded…That you are not tolerant! God does not say to be tolerant of people…He goes way beyond that, we are commanded to love people, not just tolerate them. We are to love people, but that does not mean agreeing with what they think, nor does it mean being accepting of ideas that are false, or being so open minded that your brain falls out. I can love you, and tell you in a loving way that I think you are wrong about something. Hopefully you can do the same for me…and some of you may do that this weekend…I can take it.

Let me tell you some of the things that Jesus claimed:

1. Jesus claimed to be God.
2. Jesus claimed to be the Creator of the World.
3. Jesus claimed to be the long awaited Messiah. (John 14:6)
4. Jesus claimed that the only way for a person to have their sins forgiven was to put their faith and trust in Him. (John 3:16-18)
5. Jesus claimed that the only way to heaven was by putting your faith in Him. (John 3:16-18)
6. Jesus claimed that He would come back again to defeat evil once and for all and to re-create the heavens and the earth.

Yikes. What if you went to school and started telling people these things. What would people think?

Now tonight, we are talking about truth…so the question that we need to ask is…Was Jesus telling the truth? Is it TRUE that He is God? Is it TRUE that He is the creator of the world? Is it TRUE that the only way for a person to have their sins forgiven is to put their faith and trust in Him?

I want to show you a powerful argument here…for the truth of Jesus’ claims.

Let’s take Jesus’ claim to be God. There are two immediate options that we must decide upon.

Either He was right or he was wrong.

If he was right then He was indeed God come to earth to save us from our sins and is the only way to be saved. If he was wrong, he either knew he was wrong, making a him an evil liar (what evidence is there for that?) Or he did not know he was wrong, making him a psycho (what evidence is there for that?)

There are only three options when it comes to Jesus…he is a liar, a lunatic, or he is the Lord. You cannot call Jesus just a good moral man. You can’t call him a good teacher or a good example. You cannot call him a nice prophet. Those are impossible conclusions to reach based on the things that Jesus said. Lord, Liar, or Lunatic. Where does the evidence point? Which one do you choose?

One of the reasons that I believe that the answer is LORD is because of His resurrection from the dead.

The apostle Paul said that if Jesus Christ, that if He was not truly and actually raised from the dead, then the person who believes in Jesus is to be pitied more than anyone else!” How much more pathetic can it get than to think that a scrubby 30 year old carpenter is the savior of the world. Jesus was either really right, or really really wrong. And every person needs to decide.

Remember Jesus did not come with a message of how to live a good life.

Jesus did not come to tell us about the truth.

Jesus came to tell us that he was the truth, to show us that he was the truth, to take our sins upon himself, and to break the power of death through his resurrection from the dead. JESUS himself is the centerpiece of history…not the things he taught.

BUT, if He did not rise from the dead on the third day…then everything about him is a waste and a lie.

Some people begin this discussion by saying that Jesus could not have been raised from the dead, because that just does not happen, that is just not possible. Why do you say that? Come on argue with me…Why couldn’t someone be raised from the dead? IF God exists, then the supernatural is possible! If the supernatural is possible…did it happen in this circumstance?

Let’s look at the evidence. Don’t look at your bias…look at history and logic.




1. History tells us that the tomb was empty. We know this for absolute fact. The Jews and the Romans hated the disciples for stirring up trouble telling people that Jesus was alive. They could have crushed this little Christianity thing by doing what? Producing the body. And it all would have been over…but they couldn’t because it wasn’t there.


2. If the tomb was empty, perhaps the body was stolen.

By the romans…this is almost too ridiculous to consider, they posted the guards to make sure nothing would happen…if they did it then again they could just produce the body and end this whole thing.

By the jews…again they all wanted to keep him dead…and if they had the body then they would produce it.

By the disciples…OK, the disciples scatter in terror thinking that everything they have believed in has been a lie, and then they get this cool idea. They will attack a roman battalion of guards who are executed if they fall asleep at their post or fail in their assignments, move the 2000 lb stone UP the mountain and get Jesus body out, so that they can tell people that Jesus rose from the dead and start their own religion. Cool right! 1, there is no evidence to suggest that they turned from scardycats to warriors over night 2, there is no reason to believe that they could defeat highly trained soldiers. 3, there is no reason why they would even try to lug the 2000 lb stone UP the hill after rolling it away, and most importantly and I want you to hear me on this…if the disciples stole the body, OR if they just made it all up (which could not be true because the body would have been produced)…then every one of them died for a lie.

11 out of the 12 disciples were executed because they would not stop preaching that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Now I know people who would die for the truth, and I know of crazy people who will die for anything, but I have never met anyone willing to die for something that they knew was a lie…not 11 men…and one just rotted in jail. Peter felt so strongly about it that when they told him deny that Jesus rose from the dead or we will crucify you he said…I can’t deny it and please crucify me upside down because I don’t deserve to die in the same way that my Lord did.

If the disciples wanted to make it all up, why not just say that Jesus was raised from the dead in spirit and we all saw him…that they might have been able to pull off…NO they said that God busted the tomb open, resurrected His Son, and that they saw Him with their own eyes, and that He is alive today. And folks, I believe, based on the evidence, that this is exactly what happened.

The evidence supports that Jesus Christ came back to life. To suggest otherwise is to ignore what history has to offer us. It is the only option that makes sense…I don’t think it is reasonable or rational to believe any of the other options.

Jesus was one of a kind…and so is Christianity…I began tonight by telling you that every religion of the world teaches dramatically different things…and that Christianity stands out as totally unique. All roads don’t lead to the same place. I want to conclude tonight by telling you three totally unique things about Christianity…and then ask you where you stand.

The uniqueness of Christianity:



1. God comes to man.

In every other religion of the world, you have to do certain things to win God’s favor or earn salvation. You have to pull yourself up to God in order to be saved. Jesus says there is nothing you can do to save yourself. You are at the bottom of a mile deep pit with a one ton weight on your chest. But I will come down into that pit, that is what I did on the cross, and if you ask me to, I’ll carry you out…because I love you. The difference is night and day.


2. God lives in our hearts in order to help us live for Him.

Every other religion expects you to do your best and be a good person by the sheer force of your will. They are all “do it yourself” religions. Good works in other religions are “in order tos” Do good works in order to be happy, in order to please God, in order to get to heaven. In Christianity Good works are “therefores”. God loves me therefore I will live for Him. Jesus died for me, therefore I will obey Him. God forgave me, therefore I will forgive others. The difference is night and day.


3. Jesus offers the assurance of salvation

If your salvation is a do it yourself kind, you have no way of knowing if you have arrived or not. When are you sure that you are saved? When are you sure that you have made God happy enough? When are you sure that the good in your life outweighs the bad? That is the basis of every religion in the world, except for one…Christianity. You are saved not on what you have done, but on whether or not you have accepted what Jesus Christ has done for you. If you are here and you have made the personal decision to go to Jesus, to confess your sins, in faith you have accepted his payment for your sins on the cross, and invited him into your life…I can tell you that there is no one, there is nothing, that can take your salvation away from you. You can be sure, that if you were sincere, that if you died today you would be with God forever. No doubt about it. Any other faith system…you just can’t be sure.





Conclusion:

Every one of us bets our lives on what we believe. What we believe makes all the difference. Everyone of us is gambling, with something very very important. We are gambling our life here on earth, and our afterlife…on what we believe.

If I am wrong about Jesus…then my faith and my life is worthless. My life will be a total waste, and my eternity may be even worse. Just because I believe in Christ sincerely does not make it true, right, good, or beneficial. If Jesus is not who He claimed to be, then I am wasting my time.

Each one of us has one chip to bet. You can only put your chip on one spot at a time. Place it wisely. The board is covered with religions…but only can be right…or if you think they are all wrong then put your chip on the atheist spot. You get one chip, and there is only one right answer.

The Bible tells us that every single one of us has sinned, and that our sin deserves judgment. Each one of us because of our rebellion against God deserves to separated from him forever. But because of God’s great love for us, He did not want to see us die for our sin…so He made a way…He made one way for us to be saved. He became a man in Jesus Christ…God come to earth…to take our sins upon Himself, and to die in our place on the cross. Because of his death and then his resurrection Jesus Christ, God himself, offers to you and offers to me the gift of forgiveness, the gift of hope, the gift of eternal life.

And there may be some of you here tonight who have not yet made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as the Savior of your soul…you can do that tonight.

I believe that God has spoken to some of your hearts…that tonight is your night to come home…to come to God… to ask him to fill that hole that you has been in your heart for as long as you can remember.
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I think that that deserves a, "nough said".

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