Rants: Part of a debate with a theist who insisted that all paths would lead to God and His forgiveness
He asked me to prove from Christianity's PoV (which he claimed he was) that we should bother trying to preach salvation to other faiths. This was my response:
"NO ONE comes to the the Father (God) except by
ME (Jesus)."
Christian - simply means Christ man or Christ follower.
Therefore, the only way to God is through Jesus, which means only Jesus
followers, walking through HIM (He also said "I am the door") are going to get
to God.
The Bible also says "Not all those who say Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom."
Well, there are many faiths who say Lord Lord...the Mormons, the JWs, the
Muslims...many faiths acknowledge God's existence, but NOT the blood of His Son
for redemption of their sins! God is NOT the door, He is the final destination.
Jesus is the door (and He stated as such)!
One more while we're here:
The Bible speaks also of the wide path that leads to destruction. Why bother if
all theists will make it regardless of their exact faith? Atheism is not a wide
path - it's a tiny minority (probably because it makes about as much sense as
swimming with sharks - see Pascal's Wager, which STILL stands as a solid
argument for theism, although it does NOT work in the case of any individual
faith versus atheism, which many atheists gleefully will point out, like that
helps them in any way...
The Bible also finishes off by saying "There is a way that seems right unto men,
but it leads to death." Again; why should God bother to write this down if
mostly all paths will lead to Him? There is a narrow gateway and the Bible says
that few will find it. Not because God is wicked, but because few wish to drop
their worldly ways and possessions to go through.
Jesus did give Himself freely to the whole world yes - but the world received
Him NOT.
Jesus washes us free from every sin, including the fact that whilst we strive
for holiness, we are never going to be holy until we reach Heaven. We should be
- and the fact we're not, none of us, is a sin in itself! But hey, already got
that one covered over here, I found this Cross thing! :D Everything's already
paid in full, and God's happy. Jesus paid the debt He did not owe, because we
had a debt we could never pay.
'For the wages of sin is death.' --- The Bible