Reflections on Scripture and Religion: Why choose one?

I just had a conversation with my wife’s uncle. He and I were talking about religion. He knows that Sojourn has been trying to reach out to our community, and he likes what he’s heard so far. He was noting that Obama, if elected, intends to continue promoting faith-based initiatives – but wants to make sure that the creeds of various faiths do not become a part of these programs.

 

Bill is concerned with religions and the attitudes they create. He is concerned because they agree, practically speaking, on “98%” of what people need to do, but they quarrel about the remaining 2% all the time. People are still being harmed for religious reasons. Bill thinks it is ridiculous that, even though there is 98% agreement, religious people spend so much time quarreling with and harming each other over a few points of belief.

 

I agreed, to some extent. If the issue were merely a “you need to believe what I believe” issue, he would be right. We’re not supposed to be creating a checklist religion. Unity is not achieved by doing all the same things and knowing all the same creeds.

 

But there is a very important reason – a practical reason – that we continue to urge others to hear what we hear, understand what we understand, believe what we believe. It is because we want people to know the One we know. If there is a God – and I believe there is – and if He has spoken – and I believe He has – and if He is true and consistent – and I believe He is – then He does not contradict Himself. So, despite the truth that many of the practical teachings of all the religions overlap (don’t murder, steal, lie, etc.), the contradictions between them tell us that not all religions come from the One we should want to know. This makes it so that the issue is not “you need to believe what I believe.” The issue is “you need to believe the One true God.”

 

I want to know Him. I want to know the One true God. To know Him, I need to know which words are His so that I can learn to hear His voice. Do His words come through the teachings of the Buddha? Or through the Scriptures of the Hindus? Do they come through the Torah? Or through the teachings of Mohammed? Or through the teachings of Jesus Christ? Or somewhere else? The Scriptures where we find the words of the true God are the Scriptures we need to be listening to.

 

And I am a Christian because I believe that the words of the true God have been spoken through Jesus Christ – that Jesus is, in fact, the true God. As such, I see consistency between the Old and New Testaments, because Jesus said that the Old Testament was the words of God. But all other Scriptures are false. Why? Not because they come from different religions. The Old Testament is the Jewish Scripture, but I accept it. The reason all other Scriptures are false is that they contradict the words I know to be God’s. Therefore, they cannot be God’s words. And I want – no, I need – to know God. So I hold on to God. I hold on to Jesus. And I hold on to His words, truthfully saying that any other Scriptures that claim to be God’s words are false not because I disagree with them, but because God’s words disagree with them. God calls them false. I believe Him.

 

Christianity is not about a checklist of beliefs. It is about a right relationship with the one true God. If someone has a right relationship with that God in this age, there will still be many things he does not know, or misunderstands, or thinks he knows but is wrong. And there will be many times when such a person does what is wrong, too, and sins against his God. But because the relationship matters, there will be many basic characteristics and evidences of that relationship. There will be basic levels of agreement that have been achieved in order to enter the relationship. And Christians can agree on what those are, because God has made it clear to us all. That is why we insist on certain “beliefs” – because they are the introductory comments God makes to us all as we seek a relationship with Him. And if we have rejected them, we have rejected God Himself. And the point of it all is knowing Him, after all, isn’t it?