Christians Are Saying DISTURBING Things But Nobody Sees It

Okay, so here's the big question. Are there many paths to get to the one God?

If Oprah asked you this question...

Oprah, Many Paths, and the Exclusivity of Christ

Okay, so here's the big question. Are there many paths to get to the one God? How would you answer? Oh, okay.

There are numerous ways that Christians answer this question. Oprah, who has claimed to be a Christian...

I am a Christian. That is my faith. I'm not asking you to be a Christian. If you want to be one, I can show you how.

...says that believing in Jesus is not necessary.

But it is not required. I have respect for all faiths. All faiths.

When Oprah says that she has respect for all faiths, she is communicating that people of all faiths can be right with God. But obviously, Oprah isn't at all a trustworthy authority on this.

One of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live. And that we don't accept that there are diverse ways of being in the world. That there are millions of ways to be a human being.

Then how do you please God? And many ways, no, but many paths to what you call God. That is pleasing. And when she gets there, she might call it the light. But her loving and her kindness and her generosity, if it brings her to the same point that it brings you, it doesn't matter whether she called it God along the way or not.

Somewhere between 45 and 65 of so-called evangelical Christians are convinced that Jesus is not the only way to heaven. This goes counter to our tradition, our theology, and scripture as you know.

But here we are as evangelical Christians defending the exclusivity of Christ.

When Oprah asked Joel Osteen this question. Okay, so here's the big question.

Are there many paths to get to the one God?

Osteen gave a convoluted answer.

Well, I believe, Oprah, that there, I believe that Jesus is the way to the one God. But I believe there are many paths to Jesus. You know, you don't know how Jesus would reveal himself to somebody. So I'm not into excluding people.

Jesus can reveal himself to anybody.

Osteen answers that Jesus is the way to God. But then he qualifies this with.

But I believe there are many paths to Jesus.

But the Bible teaches that there's really only one path to Jesus. Repentance and faith. Osteen continues with these extremely vague qualifications when he says that.

You know, you don't know how Jesus would reveal himself to somebody. What exactly does he mean?

The Bible teaches that Christians need to bring the good news to people. So they can hear about Jesus and be saved. If there's another way that people can be saved. Neither the Bible nor Osteen tell us about this other way.

Also when Osteen says.

So I'm not into excluding people.

He seems to suggest that we can't ultimately know if a person is not saved. But it seems clear that anyone who does not repent and believe in Jesus is not saved. T .D. Jakes gave a similarly convoluted answer to Oprah.

Are there many paths or different paths to God?

Jake started his answer with this unrelated comment.

Great question. Let me answer that this way. First, I believe one of the great lessons I think that we have today. Is to live in a country that allows us to have various religious notions. I'm so thankful that I don't have Congress deciding what I'm going to believe.

Then Jake said that people find God in many different ways.

Having said that and with that tolerance and celebrating that tolerance. I believe that we all take different paths. Some people find God in church. Some people find God at the house. Some people find God in their bedroom.

Some people find God in prison. There may be different paths to God. But at the end of the day there's one God and there's one door. I believe that the Christian, that Christ is that door.

What exactly does Jakes mean when he says that Jesus is the door? Jakes is being very vague. And he does not mention repentance and faith at all. Jakes then emphasizes that Christians can miss Christ as the door.

Are all the religions leading to that path? Or is only Christianity leading to that path?

Well, I think you can get in Christianity and miss that path if you're not careful. Right. This is why pastors stand up today. And when they preach on a topic that's controversial. Their message usually dies the death of a thousand qualifications.

Finally, Jakes says he hopes people from other religions will cross over and see Christ as Lord.

And I think that many people start in other religions. And at some point my prayer, my hope is that they will cross over. And I'm going to cross over and see Christ as Lord. Even if it's at the final moment.

I believe he's the door. While there's nothing completely wrong with what Jakes said. His answer seemed to be unnecessarily convoluted. With so many qualifiers that the real answer is hard to find within all that he said.

Universalism and the Claim That Love Wins

Rob Bell suggests that love will win. And even people who did not have faith in Jesus will be saved. Gandhi's in hell. He is.

And someone knows this for sure. The good news is actually better than that. Better than we could ever imagine. The good news is that love wins.

In an interview, Bell did not deny his support for universalism. Which is the belief that everyone will eventually be saved. With or without conscious faith in Jesus.

It comes out that you're not agnostic on this Rob. It comes out that you do believe everyone will ultimately be saved. Of course you acknowledge that's just one in a variety of options. But it sounds like that's the one you prefer.

Or you're most convinced by. Do you long for that to happen?

Salvation, Justice, and Those Who Have Never Heard of Christ

William Lane Craig teaches that it would be unfair for God to judge people who have never heard of Jesus.

Now that raises then further difficult theological questions. Namely, well what about those then who have never heard of Christ? How are they going to be judged? It would be unfair for God to judge them for not having placed their faith in Christ.

When they've never heard of Christ. And God is fair. So what do you do with those people?

However, because every human is guilty of sin. It is completely fair for God to judge even people who have never heard of Jesus. Craig also teaches that people can be saved through Christ. Without having conscious faith in Christ.

And it seems to me that the answer of the New Testament is that God judges people on the basis of the light that they have. That those who have only the light of God's general revelation in nature and conscience will be judged on the basis of their response to that.

Those who have the light of his special revelation in the gospel will be judged on the basis of their response to that. Now that doesn't mean that anyone can be saved apart from the atoning death of Christ.

It just means that it would be possible that someone could be a beneficiary of Christ's atoning death without having a conscious knowledge of Christ.

Craig uses Job and Moses as examples of people who are saved apart from conscious faith in Christ. What about the verses in scripture that say you have to confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, Jesus is Lord, then you will be saved?

Well what that verse says in Romans is if you believe in your heart, or if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

That states a sufficient condition of salvation, not a necessary condition. It says if you do these things you will be saved. And that's true. But Job didn't do those things. Moses didn't do those things.

So that's not a necessary condition, that's a sufficient condition.

However, there is an enormous difference between Old Testament saints who had faith in a coming Messiah and non-Christians today who have never heard of Christ. Since Jesus has already come, now people need to be told about Jesus so they can be saved.

Moses, the Old Testament, and Faith in the Coming Christ

Vodie Bauckham explains that Old Testament is actually all about Jesus.

Jesus does not say you should have understood my redemptive work on the cross because of what I've been telling you all this time. He says you should have understood it because you have the Old Testament.

Bauckham explains that, in a sense, Moses actually did believe in and write about Jesus.

In John chapter 5, what do we have recorded there in John chapter 5, at the end of John chapter 5? Listen to these words, beginning of verse 45. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? What Moses wrote of you? What are you talking about, Jesus? Do you mean that we can go to the Pentateuch and find you and your redemptive work?

Do you mean that when we go to the Old Testament, we don't have to read it like Aesop's fables? That's precisely what he means.

What this means is that people who were saved in the Old Testament were saved through faith in the coming Jesus. This is not at all true for non-Christians who have never heard of Christ today. R .C. Sproul Jr. teaches what Romans chapter 1 teaches, which is that all people know about God.

And Romans 1 tells us that all men everywhere know that they fall short of obeying that law. So everyone everywhere knows that there's a God, whether they admit it or not. They know that they fall short.

But all people also suppress what they know about God. And what do they do with that knowledge? Well, according to Romans chapter 1, they suppress that truth in unrighteousness. They push it down. They try to deny it.

Which means that they are also guilty and without excuse. People who have never heard of Christ are not innocent of sin. We don't need to worry about anybody that's innocent receiving the wrath of God.

We do need to worry knowing that everyone is guilty and that the only hope for any of them is the message of Jesus Christ. Because of this, God is perfectly just to judge even people who have never heard of Christ.

This is why Romans 10 verses 14 through 15 says, How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. This is why evangelism and missions are so important. Thank you for watching.