3rd Sunday after Trinity - Devotion in semi-Exile

Lection for Sunday after Trinity III 
Joshua 3:1-17      Acts 9:1-22

I am presently away on vacation with Pauline. It means I should truly take a break and not write a devotion for this space today. So, I am not "writing" one. Instead, I am recycling something I wrote awhile back. It is a 3-part series on "Denying God". Even those of you who read it in the newsletters they ran it, that was back in 2007, so maybe it will be fresh for you. Here is installment #3.

         Have You Ever Denied God?   Part III   —   In The Name Of Religious Pluralism

Have you ever denied God?  Christians don't intend to, but sometimes they do, as we discussed in the last two pastor’s pages.  Sometimes we follow the example of the world and decide, since it is OK by the world's standard today, it must be OK for us too.  Or, even though we know something is sinful, we fail to speak out against it as we ought.  In either of these cases, we deny God.

How many ways are there to heaven?  Peter stood before the Sanhedrin because they wanted to know by what power or name he had been able to heal the lame man.  Peter talked about the power given Him by the name of Jesus Christ whom they had crucified. Peter stood before them and proclaimed, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12)."  According to Peter, there is only one way to heaven.

Paul agrees with Peter that there is only one way to heaven.  He writes to the young pastor, Timothy: For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (1 Timothy 2:5-7).  The truth is, there is only one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ.  Without Christ, there is no salvation. 

What is even more, without Christ, you do not have God.  Those who do not confess Christ as God do not have the Father either.  Those who deny Christ, deny the Father.  John writes in his first epistle, Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is Anti-christ who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also (1 John 2:22-23).  What does Jesus Himself claim?  "I and My Father are one (John 10:30).”   And, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 10:32-33)."  And again,  “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me (Luke 10:16).”

So what does that mean about our friends in their other religions?  Can we say, as some Christians have said, "There are many paths to god, and they are all valid?  We don't have a monopoly on truth?"  No, we cannot say that.  We can say nothing more than what Scripture says.  To make the claim that there are other ways to heaven besides Christ is to deny God.  As Christians, we confess that there are no  other paths to God than the one that leads to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This rejects, as well, those who confess the Father/Mother, the Beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit.  This is a denial of God as well, because  it uses language for God which HE did not use for Himself nor reveal Himself as such.

This may sound very harsh.  It means that Jews who deny Christ, are eternally lost.  It means Hindus and their many paths to Nirvana, only lead to hell.  You see the religion and you see where it leads.  All religions, devoid of Christ as God and Savior, deny God and are eternally damning. 

Having said this, I must also say that as Christians we are to respect the beliefs of others.  We are not to force Christ down their throats.  We cannot win anyone to Christ, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.  However, we must tell others the Gospel message, the message that God loved them so very much that He gave His Son to die for them - to pay for their sins - and wants them in heaven with Him.  As we proclaim this message of love, God's Spirit will work on the hearts of those who hear, and He will bring those chosen to believe. 

But we must not deny Christ in our respect for their beliefs either.  I have been asked on a couple occasions to do the opening invocation and/or prayer at the functions of different organizations. To me, a Christian pastor of the Lutheran Confessions, that means I would say, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And, all my prayers are prayed in Jesus name.  In these invitations, I have been asked to leave out any specific names for God, including the name Jesus, "just be generic, pray to god, don't name which one."  When I asked why, I was told that there will be people of different religions present and they may not have the same god or the same name for god.  I was told, we cannot offend them by specifically naming one god in the invocation.  Each will direct it to their own god in their own hearts.

If I were to participate in this kind of an opening, I would have to deny Christ.  I know only one God!  In fact, the first commandment is pretty clear on this one, “You shall have not other gods (Exodus 20:3).”  And again, God Himself claims, "I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God (Isaiah 45:5). "  God demands how we are to worship Him and how we are to call upon Him.  To join in a service where no god is mentioned by name, in an effort to be "sensitive to the beliefs of others", Christians deny their God and ignore His commands to them.  What is more important, to please God or men?  To please God, of course.  A Muslim would never pray to a nameless god, neither would a Jew, so why should Christians?  To be culturally sensitive?  In the name of religious pluralism?  To do so is to deny our God.

God gave His only-begotten Son unto death that those who believe in Him might be forgiven their sins - even their sin of denial of their God.  Let us confess boldly our faith in God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Let us confess that we are saved by God's free gifts of grace, purchased by Christ upon the cross.  Let us confess and proclaim that name which is above every name.  Let us look forward to the day He returns to take all His children, those who believe in Him, home to be with Him for eternity.

All Scripture quotations were taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.