“Who do you think you are? How do you know you’re right? Can every other religion be wrong?”
Many have asked me such questions over the years—in an “in your face” way by irrate skeptics and a more measured but earnest way by church members. With world religions now part of our current presidential campaign, perhaps its time to address these questions directly. There are many facets which I hope to comment on over the next two weeks.
Most who begin a conversation with“Who do you think you are?” are probably harkening back to some personal experience where they perceived Christians as arrogant or judgmental. Certainly some Christians have acted in exactly these ways toward other religions, not only today but throughout history.
So let me begin by saying who I think (or hope) we Christians are NOT… I hope we are not people who are intolerant and judgmental of the beliefs of others who disagree with us…I hope that we are not anti-intellectual, unwilling to engage in the hard work of honest discussions with others who have questions about our faith. But that leads us quickly on to the question…Can every other religion be wrong?
First of all, the Bible does not say that every other religion is completely wrong. In fact, listen to this passage from the Book of Romans:
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
The Bible teaches that many people in many places have responded to the glimmer of the Creator God shining through creation, and have organized their religions to pursue it.
Furthermore, Paul goes on in Romans to proclaim that God has given all human beings a conscience which points toward God and his law:
“Indeed when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law……they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” (Romans 2:14-15)
One of my most admired missionary thinkers is Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, who for 40 years served the Church of South India. He is a highly respected Christian leader who believes God can be at work in people from other religions:
“[There is] an element of continuity which is confirmed in the experience of many who have become converts to Christianity from other religions. Even though this conversion involves a radical discontinuity, yet there is often the strong conviction afterwards that it was the living and true God who was dealing with them in the days of their pre-Christian wrestling’s.”
In his classic work Mere Christianity, CS Lewis writes something that captures both sides of the issue. He also speaks directly to the tension many Christians themselves have about this question:
“If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the questions that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view.
“But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic—there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong; but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others.”
Some will be disturbed by Lewis’ comparison of religion to arithmetic, and his claim that there is only one “right answer.” This is the heart of the worldview differences underlying these issues and where I will pick up the discussion again on Thursday.
I look forward to Thursday.
Peace be with you,
Larry Moir