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At the beginning of this program we learned: “People have many reasons for rejecting the Christian faith. Some may admire Christ but dislike His followers. Others find it difficult to accept any faith that claims to be the only way to God. Why would anyone limit themselves to only one of the world’s great religions?” How valid are each of these objections? What is your response to each?
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Rejecting Christ: The people who may have read the Bible have asked for answers and the Lord didn’t bring them the answers they wanted. They found it difficult to accept any faith that claims to be the only way to God because God allowed loved ones to pass away and not heal them. I can see their views. I counselled one woman who asked God to take her spouse home soon because he was in such pain. She had asked God to heal him but God never did. She couldn’t understand that if there was a God why did he allow her husband to suffer. All I could do was tell her that Jesus was sent to this world to send His love and forgiveness. There are reasons that we do not know why God allows suffering.
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1. It is true that some of Christ’s followers behave in a way that is unpleasant. However, humans often behave inconsistently to their beliefs. Even the most faithful Christians fail at times. It’s worthwhile to study the claims of Jesus separately from the behavior of Christians.
2. There are analogies we can use regarding Jesus being the only way to God–there is only one remedy for a burst appendix (surgery) and only one substance we can breathe to live (air/oxygen). Wanting a different way is wanting one’s own way. It doesn’t always work. We need to go with what works.
3. If your goal is to appreciate nice stories without regard to their actual truth, then you can mix and match as you like. But if your goal is to find a pathway to the true God, then you will naturally be limited to a religion that has sufficient evidence, not just one that sounds nice. -
Many limit themselves because they can not believe it takes just a prayer to have Jesus come into your heart. They do not want to feel the change which happens when they do. My response is show by my actions the love of Jesus working through me.
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“Some may admire Christ but dislike His followers.”
-valid point, there are hypocrites in the churches, but there are also hypocrites outside the church and we are all fallen sinners. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous, but to save sinners.“Others find it difficult to accept any faith that claims to be the only way to God.”
-valid point to an unbeliever, because there are so many ways of accomplishing the same thing in today’s world. However, Christ didn’t come and sacrifice himself on our terms. We should encourage them to read the Bible for themself and assuming they do that then the Holy Spirit will do the work.“Why would anyone limit themselves to only one of the world’s great religions?”
-not valid, because logically thinking an exclusive claim is just that. If they really believe multiple aspects of differing religions then they are more like a pantheist. Most people don’t really know what they believe and the thought of nailing down what they actually believe seems like too much work or causes anxiety etc. For someone who really does the research it is not hard to measure which religion logically make more sense. However, I do say that from a POV of already believing Christianity. -
“People have many reasons for rejecting the Christian faith. Some may admire Christ but dislike His followers. While it is true that some may represent Christ poorly, and are even hypocritical in their actions, it should be kept in mind that his followers are human and imperfect as could be said of all people whether they are followers of Christ or not which makes this not a very valid argument.
Others find it difficult to accept any faith that claims to be the only way to God. Today people are used to a multitude of choices regarding just about any decision they make in life whether it is what they eat, wear, drive or where they live and do not like the seeming constraints of an either/or decision. Not all of life is multiple choice, sometimes, such as this, it is true/false and hopefully the person selects that which is true
Why would anyone limit themselves to only one of the world’s great religions?” If one were to examine what is “great” about the other religions, they would not find anything that deals satisfactorily with the eternal questions that Christianity answers
