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ONE pretty TOUGH Question

Can be verbalized as ONE of the Following …. ONE pretty TOUGH Question. How Can There Be Just One True Religion?. Why There Can Only Be One True Religion. Many people accuse Christians of being arrogant when they insist that Christianity is right while others are wrong ….

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ONE pretty TOUGH Question

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  1. Can be verbalized as ONE of the Following … ONE pretty TOUGH Question

  2. How Can There Be Just One True Religion?

  3. Why There Can Only Be One True Religion

  4. Many people accuse Christians of being arrogant when they insist that Christianity is right while others are wrong … • when WE claim that only through Jesus that one can reach God

  5. The claim certainly has the appearance of being arrogant • The Christian seems to be saying to those of other religions  • ‘My religion is better than yours’ • ‘Mine is right, yours is wrong’

  6. Some People say Christianity promotes exclusivism and has got to be replaced by inclusivism or pluralism • These people tend to say …. • All religions are right.

  7. Pluralism The pluralist holds that there are many ways to God that all the different religions are just different paths up the same mountain

  8. Yet, as Christians, we hold to what Jesus teaches us … He says “I am the way the truth and the lifeNo one goes to the Father except through me” John 14:6

  9. The Bible insists that there is no salvation except through Jesus: “And there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12

  10. So what are we to make out of this? How are we to respond?

  11. FIRST AND FOREMOST …It’s one thing saying that all religions have a right to exist … and that all people have the right to choose what it is they believe …BUT a TOTALLY DIFFERENT thing is the claim that ALL RELIGIONS ARE RIGHT...

  12. In other words we SHOULD ALL GO for RESPECTING AND EVEN APPRECIATING other religions …and MORE IMPORTANTLY RESPECTING AND LOVING ALL THE PEOPLE of other religions

  13. But claiming that ALL RELIGIONS ARE RIGHT???!!! IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT ISSUE

  14. There are people who claim they are: Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist at the same time !!!!

  15. These people claim that differences among religions are only SUPERFICIAL … but at their core ALL RELIGIONS ARE THE SAME!!!

  16. That is NOT TRUE

  17. In fact, the exact opposite is true: Religions tend to be superficially the same but essentially different…

  18. John Hicks’ theory This idea that all religions are right, was originally espoused by John Hicks in the form an analogy about an elephant and three blind men.

  19. fan wall rope

  20. He said that if these blind men were trying to figure out what an elephant was by touch they would describe different things. • The one touching the leg would say it is a tree. • The one touching the ear would say it is a fan. • The one touching the tail would say it is a rope

  21. They are all right. In the same way, he claimed, all religions are glimpses into one Supreme Reality.

  22. this analogy has been Discredited on three LEVELS …

  23. All three men were wrong! First • It was not a fan, a rope or a tree that they were touching. • It was an elephant.

  24. The Theory contradicts the law of non-contradiction, which says that something cannot be A and non-A at the same time. Second

  25. The analogy only is possible if there is a fourth person in it – Third • one person with eyes who can see the entire reality

  26. whoever uses the John Hick‘s analogy to argue that all religions are essentially right – without realizing it – is doing exactly the same thing like the person who s/he is condemning as claiming to have exclusive ownership of reality coz s/he is saying s/he has the truth that there is No one truth….

  27. The second view people tend to take with regard to all the religions is thatAll religions are wrong.This may be true – but you can‘t assert it with much certainty for it is itself a faith-position … it proposes some belief …

  28. Basically, the law of non-contradiction (LNC) states that two contradictory claims cannot be true at the same time and in the same sense.  From the point of view of Logic

  29. Both “A” and “not-A” cannot be true.

  30. After-life: there is no personal identity after death … The goal in the afterlife is to achieve “nirvana,” a state of enlightenment Therefore we cant say that Buddhism is true and Christianity is true … coz they contradict one another on a fundamental point … After-life Faith There is life after death, a heaven and hell, and faith in Jesus is key to going to heaven;

  31. So, it can’t be the case that all religions lead to the same God.

  32. From the point of view of “Truth”!!!

  33. Some Philosophers of our time state “there is no such thing as truth,” A response to them should be, Is that statement true?

  34. This is because the statement, “there is no such thing as truth” is itself either a true statement or a false one, there are no other options.

  35. If that statement is false, then there is such a thing as truth.

  36. If, on the other hand, the statement is true, then the statement defeats itself because it is, in effect, saying “there is no truth except the truth that there is no truth.”

  37. So back to the question again: “Are there good reasons for believing one religious viewpoint over another? ” Yes …. Indeed … there are

  38. 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, ―What is this babbler trying to say?‖ Others remarked, In acts 17 St. Paul is dialoguing with the globalized, multi-faith city of Athens – a pluralistic city …

  39. ―He seems to be advocating foreign gods.‖ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ―May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.‖ 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. ) In acts 17 St. Paul is dialoguing with the globalized, multi-faith city of Athens – a pluralistic city …

  40. 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ―People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. 24 ―The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.

  41. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and have our being.‘ As some of your own poets have said, We are his offspring.‘

  42. 29 ―Therefore since we are God‘s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (the word ‘repent‘ here is metanoia‘, which means to reconsider or rethink. ) 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed (he’s speaking about Jesus here). He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.

  43. 1. St. Paul had built relationships with people of different faiths to his own. (And so should we.) • 2. St. Paul had carefully studied other religions (notice how he had studied their idols). (And so should we.) • 3. St. Paul was respectful not pushy in his proclamation of the gospel. (And so should we) • 4. St. Paul affirmed truth and beauty wherever it was found, even in other religions. (so should we) … In his sermon he quotes two of the famous Greek philosophers NOTICE

  44. When we say that Jesus is the truth, we do not mean that we alone have all the truth. Christianity claims that God has revealed himself to EVERYONE through JESUS CHRIST

  45. But the main thing St. Paul does in this sermon is that he shows the uniqueness of our Lord Jesus Christ

  46. When you study all the great religions you realize that what makes Christianity so distinct is that its founder is so distinct from the founders of the other great religions.

  47. All made no claim to being anything more than humans with religious insight Confucius Gautama Buddha

  48. Now right here the divinity of Jesus Christgrounded in the Resurrection becomes centrally important

  49. In no other religion does the founder claim to be God Jesus, unlike other religion founders … claimed to be God

  50. Mohammed said I point you to the truth.‘ .

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