Hi
I'm far from convinced by the "many roads lead to God" theory. It's clearly not what the Bible teaches. Also, the Bible says "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" - so there's no way that any human being can, by their own efforts, be "good enough" for heaven. If you don't believe me, just take a look at the first commandment - "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all Thy heart....". Who can honestly say that they have consistently done that and all that it implies through their entire life from the age of responsibility (whatever that may be)?
That said, God gives us all free will, so I have no argument with adherents to other faiths, nor atheists - the church is here to "make disciples" - to try and introduce them to Jesus. It's interesting that these days there have been several accounts of Jesus appearing to practicing Muslims in dreams, leading to their conversion - and for a Muslim, converting to another religion is a big step.
The real problem with religious fundamentalism is when people stop listening and debating with others, and then often go beyond what their faith teaches. The Christian church isn't immune from this. One of the challenges to the 21st century church is to strip away the traditions and reveal what the Bible really says. (I don't by this mean that every church must ditch their traditional forms of worship - that's another matter entirely). One example is marriage - our views are coloured by UK law - but how does the Bible define Christian marriage?
Every Blessing
Tony
I'm far from convinced by the "many roads lead to God" theory. It's clearly not what the Bible teaches. Also, the Bible says "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" - so there's no way that any human being can, by their own efforts, be "good enough" for heaven. If you don't believe me, just take a look at the first commandment - "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all Thy heart....". Who can honestly say that they have consistently done that and all that it implies through their entire life from the age of responsibility (whatever that may be)?
That said, God gives us all free will, so I have no argument with adherents to other faiths, nor atheists - the church is here to "make disciples" - to try and introduce them to Jesus. It's interesting that these days there have been several accounts of Jesus appearing to practicing Muslims in dreams, leading to their conversion - and for a Muslim, converting to another religion is a big step.
The real problem with religious fundamentalism is when people stop listening and debating with others, and then often go beyond what their faith teaches. The Christian church isn't immune from this. One of the challenges to the 21st century church is to strip away the traditions and reveal what the Bible really says. (I don't by this mean that every church must ditch their traditional forms of worship - that's another matter entirely). One example is marriage - our views are coloured by UK law - but how does the Bible define Christian marriage?
Every Blessing
Tony