No Perfect People Allowed - Chapter 7

What about other religions? The tolerance litmus test - Q1

"For you were killed, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." - Revelation 5:9

"Chapter 7 alone is worth twice the price of [this] book." - Brian McLaren

Here are some quotes from the chapter

As we have reached into the unchurched culture of our generation, this one question, phrased in many ways, gets asked more than any other: "How do you feel about other religions?" It has become the litmus-test question for our generation, and we must think carefully about how to remove this challenging barrier to the "good news" of Jesus.

[When many] hear Christians say that Jesus is the only way, and they immediately think we are saying, "We're right and everyone else is wrong because our way is always right." They see it as nothing but pride and arrogance - the same pride and arrogance that would cause Christians in the Middle Ages to slaughter Jews and Muslims... Anticipating and openly voicing this question-beneath-the-question often diffuses people's resistance to even listen. This allows them to relate to you and actually want to hear your answer. When you affirm where tolerance is needed - you can also show its natural limits... You can be tolerant and disagree.

Now if you attack me or my character or intelligence - then you're not motivated by love but by your need to be right... Do you always think you're right and everyone else is wrong? It has become a tolerance litmus test for arrogance. We must demonstrate a humility and willingness to learn - remembering all truth is God's truth, and truth has nothing to fear.

So what do the world's religions teach all of us? We're all royal screw-ups - myself included, Jews and Christians, Muslims and Buddhists! The world's a mess!... We need God's help! We cannot become who we know we are intended to be without God... So does the bible teach that all other religions are wholly wrong and Christians are right? No! It teaches that every single person is wrong and God is right, and our problem is we all tend to turn from God and go our own way rather than humbly seeking God and his will.

For many people, their real concern is that it doesn't sound fair to say Jesus is the only way. If the fairness question does not get addressed, seekers will often jump to the conclusion that Christians are just arrogant, and they will miss the truth that through Christ, God has been more than fair... So according to Jesus, everyone made right with God must pass through him. But we do not totally know how this works except that is by faith only.

I do know God cannot be unfair. God looks at the heart, as we've said all along, and God will not unfairly judge a person because of a lack of knowledge or cultural or religious conditioning. I'm confident God will not send anybody to hell for lack of knowledge or place of birth or ethnicity - it will only be because they truly did not want God's leadership and relationship - and in the end, I believe God will sadly say, "Okay, your will be done."

Jesus continually talked about how surprised people will be when it's all said and done (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus is the only provision God has made to justly forgive us for doing our will rather than God's will - so if God sees the heart of a person who never heard about Jesus but is seeking to be forgiven and made right with God by faith, and God somehow does for her what he did for Abraham, it is only through what Jesus did on the cross.