Dear Explorer,
Re-Read John 14:6
Jesus didn't come to just teach you the way to God -- He IS the way to God.
And not only is He the way to God. He's the only way to God.
Followers of Jesus are often accused of being narrow-minded or being exclusive or elitist.
We've already talked about the fact that God is the Creator and He has the right to make the rules (Day 230). But I want to give you some more information on this topic.
Now, I have not used the term “Christianity” in this study because I find it very confusing. There are people who believe many different things and call themselves Christians. I have chosen to use the term “follower of Jesus” because it has less baggage associated with it. But for the purpose of the following table, you can say that a follower of Jesus is the same as a Christian.
In April of 2012, I was privileged to assist Mr. Skip Vaccarello in teaching a class for people who were interested in knowing more about Jesus. Mr. Vaccarello addressed this issue of Christians often being accused of excluding others.
He stated that every major religion believes that it offers the right and only way to achieve a relationship with its god or God.
Here's a table that he provided for our comparison of the major world religions.
And he made this statement: Due to the Law of Non-contradiction (e.g., a white shirt cannot also be a blue shirt – they are contradictory in color), all religions cannot all be true. In fact, no two of them can be true.
What do you learn from this chart?
Following Jesus is no more exclusive than any other religion.
I think it might be an important question to ask, “Why then is Christianity attacked more than the others?”
My answer is that as we studied Jesus' life, you probably noticed that the demons and Satan knew exactly who Jesus was and what He came to accomplish. I believe the increased attacks are because Christianity (following Jesus) is the only one that Satan is afraid of – because it alone is truth and offers life!
And, as we've studied before, since God is the Creator, He has every right to set the rules. Your job is to choose the right belief. I can't do that for you.
I believe that's enough for today. Let me know if you have questions.
In His service, dale
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