It’s not a few times that the accusation of being arrogant has been flung my way. “How can you believe that you’re right and Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims along with a thousand of other religions, are wrong?” “You don’t say that Jesus is a way to God, but the way.” I respond; that not only do it say it but I believe it! Therefore my belief system is the height of arrogance, isn’t it?
Some years ago, as a schooled chaplain, I found myself haunted by the accusation and became reluctant to talk about my faith. I didn’t want to appear arrogant, bigoted, or intolerant. The pluralistic view of religions thrives very easily in places like Canada or Europe where tolerance is valued above everything else and for the last two decades has caught a strong foot hold in America. It seems very easy to slip from the true claim of “all people have equal value” to the false claim that “all ideas have equal merit.” But, the older I get, especially these past ten years or so, see clearly, those are two very different ideas.
When confronted with the "all religions are essentially the same" idea, I use the example of getting strongly into literature . These last few years, I've read William Shakespeare, Tolkien, Lewis, but also Virginia Woolf, The Velveteen Rabbit and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Now, when I say: “I've concluded that every author is identical;” would someone conclude that: (a) this is the most profound statement on literature they've ever heard? Or would they conclude (b) that I don't have the first clue what I'm talking about? I suggest that they’d probably choose (b). So, what about the statement "all religions are the same"? It seems to me, it likewise suggests that the person making it hasn't actually looked into any of them? Because if one did, I think they would realize it's not that most religions are fundamentally the same with superficial differences but the reverse: most religions have superficial similarities with fundamental differences. (I’ve had to mull this over for about three weeks before writing it. I confess most minds are probably a bit more malleable and less mullable.)
My hearkening back to my studies in Reality Therapy, presents a further problem for me with this idea that all religions are essentially the same. That is: it ignores a fundamental truth about reality: ideas have consequences. What I believe matters, because it will effect what I do. To claim that all religions are essentially the same is to say that it doesn't matter what I believe as long as I’m sincere—and neglects the fact that I can believe something sincerely and be sincerely wrong. Hitler held his beliefs with sincerity but that doesn't make them true.
However, truth, by its very nature, is exclusive. If it is true, as I and other Christians claim: that Jesus was crucified, died, and rose from the dead, then it is not true, as Islam claims, that Jesus never died in the first place and that somebody else was killed in his place. Both claims cannot be true. Truth is exclusive.
But just because truth is exclusive, that doesn't make truth cold and uncaring. Truth for me as a Christian is personal. The Jesus who said "I am the only way" also said "I am the truth." In other words, ultimate truth is not a set of propositions but a person. As the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:12, "I know whom I have believed." Not what I have believed or experienced but whom! Jesus Christ.
To ask why, as I was awhile back, I think that Jesus Christ is the only way is to miss the point entirely. Jesus does not compete with anybody. Nobody else in history made the claims he did; nobody else in history claimed to be able to deal with the problems of the human heart like he did. Nobody else in history claimed, as he did, to be God with you and me. So, I say conclusively , because I believe conclusively, that Jesus is the only way should have nothing to do with arrogance and everything to do with my introducing people to him.
