The one I did want to tell you about, though, was from John MacArthur. He answered one of the standard questions: "Is Jesus the Only Way?" but he didn't answer it from the standard direction. Sure, there are positive statements to the fact that Jesus is the only way. Passages like Acts 4:12, John 14:6, Acts 17:30, and 2 Thess. 1:7-9 are unavoidable, and when taken as a whole, the question is pretty much answered. MacArthur, on the other hand, approached it from the other direction. What has man-made religion produced? What happens when Man tries other approaches?
In Romans 10:1-4, Paul prays for Israel's salvation. He acknowledges their "zeal for God." They were, after all, God's covenant people. What was their approach? How would they get to God? "Not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God" (Rom 10:3). That, in short, is the standard human method of religion -- establish your own righteousness. Be "good enough" to get to heaven. We all know that "good people" go to heaven and "bad people" go to hell. It's the standard human approach. And it's wrong. Humans naturally lower God's righteousness and elevate their own and end up with a warped, distorted view of self and sin. In fact, we all suffer from that problem.
One of the standard approaches to alternative religions is "natural theology." The idea is that human beings can discover God naturally through the things around us. Romans 1 has an interesting passage on the topic:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse (Rom 1:18-20).There, see? Says so right there. What is most often missed, though, is not simply that Man can discover God in nature, but that he misses it. The revelation of God in nature is real, to be sure, but it is not salvation; it is damnation. It removes excuses. And as Man ignores the revelation of God in nature, he declines into sin (Rom 1:21-32), not godliness. (I thought it was interesting that the very first sin that follows Man's refusal to acknowledge God -- the first thing to which God "gave them over" -- is sexual sin ... lust. Seems like the most common sin today, doesn't it?) Natural Revelation, then, leads only to depravity.
And, of course, we find that the Bible makes some pretty harsh claims about humans finding the path to God. Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth is full of tough stuff. Humans see the Gospel as foolishness (1 Cor 1:18). "The world through its wisdom did not come to know God" (1 Cor 1:21). Indeed, despite all our thinking to the contrary, "A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised" (1 Cor 2:14). When you see words like "does not" and "cannot," it's not possible to come to the conclusion "but they do." Then there is the passage in 1 Cor 10:20. According to Paul, human religion is demonic.
There are plenty of statements in the Bible that require Christians to conclude that Jesus is the only way to God. Many have tried to wiggle out of them. It's not working. Even if you can get there by hook or by crook, you'll find that the Bible holds humans as naturally hostile to God, indicted by natural revelation, and worshiping only demons. Instead we have God's alternative to human religion -- "the called" (1 Cor 1:24), "the chosen" (1 Cor 1:27), and "by His doing" (1 Cor 1:30). In other words, the Bible says both that Jesus is the only way and there is no other way.
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