Nowadays, everyone is calling for an "equality."
The word "Equality" was never emphasized as much as it is now. Many people around the world are calling for equal marriage for gays, equal rights for women, and etc.
Most often, the first reason why people reject the Christianity is because it seems so... arrogant. How dare those Christian snobs say their God is the only God... right?
So... Here's the question:
Is Christ the only way?
This is the Seal of the United States. On the Seal, on the each sides of the eagle's head, you will notice the phrase, E Pluribus Unum. It means "from many, one."
This represents the cultural, religious and ethical integration in the United States. When many immigrants rushed to the United States during the past hundreds of years, their various backgrounds all mingled together and created a "melting pot." From many (people), one (country) was created. Because of this diversity, the religious tolerance has been always an important issue. Thus, equal treatment of all the religions were always emphasized.
This led people to think that
Equal toleration (under the law) = Equal validity (of the religion)
However....
Is this really true?
I am going to explain two common theories that people believe about reaching God.
<How to reach God?>
1. Mountain Theory
- This theory claims that there are MANY ways to reach God.
- It doesn't matter HOW you get to God unless you get there eventually
- If you are sincere, you can always reach God.
So basically, you can say "Oh, dude. Imma be a Hindu. And I'm gonna pray like twice a day." or "Oh, I'm gonna be a Christian and never pray. But I am sincere and I believe in God." Both ways are possible ways to reach heaven. Basically, men make up their own mind about how to reach heaven without any guidance or direction from "God."
*** I used to believe in this. I personally thought Buddha, Jesus and Allah were all the same God. And as long as I am nice, I can earn my free ticket to the heaven.
However... I encountered this other theory......
2. Exclusivity theory (of Christianity)
- This theory applies to only Islam + Christianity.
- This theory claims that mountain theory is WRONG!
- There is only ONE possible way to God.
Islams believe in Allah, only one God. Christians believe in Jehovah, only one God.
Both religions say that values are claims are mutually exclusive. And the rejection of the faith itself cannot be justified.
So. The biggest differences between the two theories are
1) Mountain theory believes that people can go to heaven if they are sincere. However, in Christianity, the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.
2) Mountain theories believe in many truths (ways). However, Christianity believes in only one truth, the Gospel (God's words)
John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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However, Christianity has what Islam and other religions do not have: Atonement
Atonement is the forgiving of all sins of humankind through the death of Jesus Christ by Cruxifiction. (him dying on the cross)
This is such a confusing concept to grasp. It took me forever to understand this.
Basically, God has created Adam and Eve. You've probably heard of the famous story of them getting tricked by a snake (evil) and eating an apple when God told them not to
(uh. excuse the obscenity)
Because they disobeyed God, the humans became a fallen race full of sins. We became sinners. God, in his perfect nature, cannot be associated with darkness. However, because he loved us so much, he needed to figure out a way to bring us back to him. So he decided to send his son, Jesus Christ, to Earth.
It's this guy right here, with a lamb.
Whenever Jesus came, his desire was to heal people and spread the Gospel. However, many Roman officials were alarmed thinking that Jesus came to take the crown. So they decided to kill him by nailing him to the cross. During that time, cruxifiction was for the worst of the criminals.
Jesus was perfectly aware of this. However, he died anyway when he could have escaped. The ultimate consequence of the sin is the hell. Because we were a fallen race, we wouldn't have been free from that gruesome consequence. However, Jesus couldn't let us pay for our sins because he knew God loved us so much and that's why Jesus was sent here to pay for OUR sins. So he died instead of us to cleanse us of our sins. He payed all our debts so we can be forever free.
Basically, this is my limited attempt to summarize the magnificent event into some short paragraphs. But hope you get the general idea.
- to be continued
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