Weekly Article

The Only Way

Weekly Article 12/07/05

by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

Church of the Good Shepherd

“It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is the ‘stone which you builders rejected which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12)

If you were to read this passage out loud to a crowd of people on any given New York City street corner and then take a vote, I’ll bet most of the people listening would vote this passage out of the bible; at least the last part, the bit about there being no other name under heaven whereby men must be saved.

If they would not strike it completely they may wish to moderate it a bit. Maybe change it so that Peter says:

“There are a few other names under heaven through which we might all find self-fulfillment…”

or

“Aside, from Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, the Dali Lhama, Shiva, Vishnu, and Kali there are not a lot of other names under heaven through which we might possibly be saved...”

There are, likely, large swaths of the bible that would be edited out were we to take a vote. Just take a look at the selectiveness with which the daily lectionary found in the Book of Common Prayer handles the biblical text. You’ll begin the year merrily following along, day by day, enjoying the readings, when one day you’ll notice that you’ve been fast-forwarded over a particular section. Let’s say you’re in the second week of Advent, year one. On Monday you read 2nd Peter 1:1-11. On Tuesday you read 2nd Peter 1:12-21. On Wednesday you come expecting to hear a selection from 2nd Peter 2. Instead you find that the lectionary has lurched forward into chapter 3?

What is written in 2nd Peter 2 you ask?

Well, the chapter begins like this, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there are false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves? Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the truth into disrepute.” Chapter 2 continues in much the same way throughout.

My guess is, call me crazy, that this section was omitted because it was deemed politically incorrect; incompatible with contemporary and, sadly, mainline ecclesial culture.

It is, in fact, quite instructive to study lectionary omissions. If you were to rely solely on the lectionary of the Episcopal Church you would never read Romans 1:26-27 or 1st Corinthians 6:9, two of the primary New Testament passages that clearly define homosexual behavior as sin.

Have you ever been to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson? Well, if you go, you’ll see a bible there that boasts significantly fewer pages and words than those brand new NIV bibles we have in our pews.

It is shorter because Mr. Jefferson got so fed up with the bible that he literally took a pair of scissors to it.

Thomas Jefferson did not believe in miracles. The bible is full of miracle accounts. He snipped them out.

I think that today many, if not most, people, even church people, would love to snip out the passage from Acts quoted above. Or to vote it out or to edit the bible in some way so as to make it less strident and more, well, inclusive, tolerant, perhaps more palatable than it is in current form.

That’s really the most shocking thing about Peter’s words—they are incredibly exclusive; incredibly intolerant; and quite unpalatable to modern sensibilities.

Think about what he said. “Salvation is found in no other name. There is no other name under

heaven given to men by which we must be saved.“

Peter is not saying, “You just continue to pray to whoever and worship in whatever way you feel to be most fulfilling for your personal journey. I happen to find Jesus quite fulfilling at the moment in my own quest for meaning, but I certainly wouldn’t want to impose my religious feelings on you. I mean, we’re all just taking different paths to the same God. You have your truth and I have mine but in the end they‘re all just the same thing.”

Had Peter said that there would be no problem. But that is not what Peter said. He said that Jesus is the only way to salvation—not only for himself and for his friends—but for every single human being on the planet.

This is the sort of thing that offends and enrages the contemporary mind. This is what upsets the modern minders of political correctness; the assertion made right here in the pages of the Christian New Testament, made by Peter himself, the chief of the apostles, that there is only one Way and only one Truth. And it is not ours to shape, shift, change or mar.

In 2003 shortly after the defeat of Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime, the Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, called for Christian missionaries to move into Iraq and spread the gospel. By the way his call was reported and in the papers the next morning you might have thought The Rev Dr. Graham had suggested dumping toxic waste in an elementary playground. Pundits compared his quite Christian, quite biblical suggestion to terrorist aggression.

But, and here’s the really hard part, the pundits’ beef and likely the beef of many modern men and women, our friends and neighbors, is not really with Dr. Graham.

It is with the Word of God; which, contrary to the opinions of Thomas Jefferson, the New York Times, and, sadly, the Episcopal Church, is not up for a vote.

The bible very clearly and plainly teaches that only faith in Jesus Christ brings salvation. Thus, Christians are commanded to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16-20; Romans 10:11-15). That means that we are to proselytize; plant the seed of the gospel in the hearts and minds of Buddhists, Hindu’s, Muslims, Jews, Atheists, Agnostics; not so that they’ll be good Buddhists, Hindus and Agnostics, but in hope that they’ll leave their faith, bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust in his saving work alone.

Why? Because “salvation is found in no one else.”

I once heard Dr. RC Sproul, a Presbyterian scholar and teacher, suggest that people today tend to categorize religious truth in the same way they categorize ice cream. I know those of you who have been here at Good Shepherd for a while have heard this illustration, but for the sake of our new brothers and sisters, please bear with me.

I like chocolate best. You may like vanilla or you may like strawberry or you might want all three of them mixed together. You can, in fact, go to any ice-cream shop and take your pick from a myriad of flavors.

Everyone knows that there is no right flavor. To say, “chocolate ice cream is the best“, is to express a personal opinion, not an objective fact. No one would dream of suggesting that chocolate is the best; meaning that if you don’t choose chocolate you are wrong and need to repent and come to the right flavor.

In the same way, few would suggest such a thing when it comes to faith. Most assume that each individual is presented with a vast assortment of equally valid faiths and beliefs from which to choose. The choice is determined by the ever so American measurement: “whatever works best for me.“

Like children choosing flavors in an ice-cream shop, religious faith, at least for Americans, has largely become a matter of personal taste. “I happen to be a Christian. It works for me. You might choose Islam, or Buddha, or Confucius or even an atheist like Karl Marx.” The most important thing, it seems, is to choose a faith that will make you happy.

Do people really understand what this sort of mindset says about all faith? If each individual is truly the measure of religion, then religious truth itself in an objective sense, doesn‘t really exist. Religion really does become something of the opiate Marx described. It becomes the palliative drug that carries us through the meaningless seventy to ninety painful years of our lives until, finally, we die and dissolve into who knows or cares what.

Now bear with me for a moment longer as I continue following Dr. Sproul’s line of thought and do something a little weird.

Lets compare Ice cream to mathematics.

I hate math in general and I’m sure that I’ve some company out there. Most, I assume, prefer ice cream to solving math problems. Perhaps, our burgeoning mathematics professor might prove the exception?

But there is one vastly comforting thing about mathematics. There is a right answer. One plus one, for example, equals two.

It never ever equals three. It always equals two.

Some individuals may not like that. They might gather some fellow travelers to protest the equation.

They might gain popularity and run members of their group for election to high office and win.

They might call a nationwide referendum by popular vote declare the equation null and void.

They might succeed in having the proposition that one plus one can only equal two declared unconstitutional and all reference to the fact deleted and barred from mathematics textbooks.

They might put forward a resolution at the United Nations declaring that one plus one is an irresolvable equation and therefore open to personal exploration and declare a world-wide moratorium on the use of the number 2.

Nevertheless, whether the entire world accepts or denies it, one plus one does and will continue to equal two.

What Peter says above and what God says throughout the scriptures, is that truth, especially religious truth is not like Ice Cream. It’s like math.

There is a right answer that holds true whether you’re a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Muslim; whether you believe it or not. And that right answer is Jesus Christ.

Now let me pause here so you don’t get me wrong. I’m all for tolerance. We must love people of other faiths and be good neighbors to them and treat them, as Jesus says, better than we treat ourselves. We are no better nor brighter nor are they any worse. I am saying that God’s Word says, Peter says, Christianity has said for two thousand years that there is only one name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved—and that name is Jesus Christ.

He is not our truth or your truth or my truth he is the Truth and the Way and the Life and there is no salvation apart from him.

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