Other Faiths and Eternal Life
Back in December (2008), the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released results of a survey that they conducted among 2,905 adults. They were asking, “Can other faiths lead to eternal life?” Rather surprisingly, 52% of those who identified themselves as Christians felt eternal life was possible among non-Christian faiths. You can read the full article HERE.
I bring this up now for two reasons.
1. This Spring I’m teaching a class in Austin on the History of Religion in America through Austin Graduate School of Theology. I love partnering with them because they are convinced that ministers need to know the roots of their own religious convictions as well as the those of others.
2. My daughter is deep into study of the Gospel of John in preparation for LTC. The words of Jesus in John reveal so clearly that Jesus understood himself to be the Savior of the World. There is no way around this clear truth. Jesus say that eternal life could be found only as people can to Him for living water. That position might sound a little “intolerant” I suppose, but no one missed it when Jesus spoke. He was killed because he was a rival to the religious and cultural establishment.
It might be popular to say, “all roads lead to heaven” or that “all religious experiences are manifestations of the same reality.” However, we shouldn’t fool ourselves and call this critical or enlightened thinking. It’s just not possible. The religious realities posed by Buddhism and Christianity, for example, cannot be reconciled. Their ideas are mutually exclusive. The same is true of Native American religious convictions. They cannot be harmonized and bring any harmony. They are dissonant from the start. Scholars in religion have suggested that the places of dissonance can be shorn away and that their is a true uniting force behind all spirituality. I find this lowest common denominator approach really lacks the power to explain religious division/diversity. Isn’t it more likely that the major religions are more like prime numbers that reach a point where they cannot be divided anymore?
