Re: Word of God?

Re: Word of God?

Knght4yshua, there is a difference between saying that God does not limit himself to the Christian faith and saying that all religions are on equal footing.  The latter is fairly scandalous, but if you think people on OST have been making this claim (me, danutz or otherwise), I think you may have misunderstood us.

Ours is a much more humble claim, namely that the Spirit of God is at work everywhere it is allowed to work.  There are places inside and outside of Christianity where the Spirit is resisted (and places inside and outside of Christianity where that same Spirit is welcomed).  In fact, I might say that there are certain Protestant denominations where the Spirit is quenched and I would no more look for truth there than in the worst of nihilist philosophies.  God’s dream is the Reign of God, not a world under one Christian religion (I am paraphrasing McLaren here), and so while I would agree that religions (and further subdivisions within those religions) vary in terms of how well they point to God, I would deny that Christianity is the only way.  Christ, not Christianity, is the way the truth and the life (and the philosopher in me would specify, the good life!).  And though there is one way to the Father: Christ, I might say that there are several ways to Christ (or to rephrase this so that it is less controversial, different people on different life journeys encounter Christ in different ways).

I say all this, of course, as a committed disciple of Christ, and as a Christian.  I am not trying to make my religion seem trivial or to strip away its uniqueness, but I am trying to open my eyes and see the Spirit’s work throughout the whole world—not just my little subset of it.

Cheers!

-Daniel-

Word of God? By: knght4yshua (51 replies) 3 January, 2006 - 01:55