January 12 – Absolute
Truth
John 14:6 – "Jesus
said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me.'"
That statement is the
most exclusive statement that any religious figure could ever make.
C.S. Lewis said that there are three possible conclusions from this
statement: 1) that Jesus was lying; 2) that Jesus was a lunatic; or
3) that Jesus was truthful, and therefore, he really was the Son of
God – the 2nd person of the Triune God in the flesh. If
Jesus was truthful, then Christianity is a very exclusive belief
system. Thirty years after Jesus ascended into Heaven, the apostle
Paul makes another bold statement about the story of Jesus.
Galatians 1:8 – "Even if we or an angel from heaven should
proclaim a gospel other than the one we proclaimed to you, let him be
eternally condemned!"
From these verses and
others, is where we get the idea that the Bible is God's recording of
manifested truth for all of mankind – absolute truth. Even though
God chose a timeline of hundreds of years to reveal more and more of
himself, there always existed an absolute truth – one for all
people, at all times of history, in every place on the earth. Jesus
became the ultimate revelation of God himself and the final word in
the unfolding of God's truth to mankind (Hebrews 1:2,3; Romans
16:25f).
This sets Christianity
apart from Hinduism and Buddhism, which would perhaps be inclusive of
some Christian beliefs. Islam claims a direct revelation of God to
Mohammed, some 500+ years after Jesus lived on the earth. Jesus, in
Islam, is relegated as just a prophet, not God in the flesh. And
Islam would certainly not agree with our opening scripture.
Therefore, Christianity is at odds with Islam, also. Add into the
mix, the myriad of other religions not followed by a billion people,
as the other big three are. All would be at odds with our beginning
scripture. Absolute truth has to be this way, or it would not be
absolute, and therefore not truthful or trustworthy at all. It would
be arbitrary at worst, as in all the minor belief systems that just
make up their own doctrine, or hopeless and uncertain, at best, of a
happy future, as in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. Only Christianity
brings the free grace of God, the free gift of salvation, for anyone
who would understand it and take it.
There can only be one
belief system that is true in this world for everyone, everywhere, at
all times. It has to be exclusive to have any validity of claim to
truth. If it is not exclusive, it is worthless to put one's trust
in, as eternal truth.
