11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, Ephesians 4.11
Just before I get into it, as you know, we give out lots of leaflets and booklets and all that kind of stuff. And sometimes you wonder whether anybody reads them. But we’ve had quite a few people writing in and responding which is encouraging.
I’ll just read you a couple of the responses we’ve had.
One response says,
“Having just moved property, I was reading with interest your journal which was in a pile of mail. While I’m not Christian (I am Jewish), I have to say it was a real pleasure pleasure reading your July Journal.
New Jewish neighbour writing in
We are indeed living in crazy times and your pamphlet reassured me that there are some good people out there with a good and decent value system.”
That’s positive!
I have one or two negative ones. A lady wrote to me a long email disagreeing with what I said and I’ll just read you some of the things I said to her. I said,
“I’m sure you’re aware that there are many gods and many religions in this world. You probably believe that yours is the only right one. Can you not see how illogical this is?“
Email comments from a recipient of our magazine
I wrote back,
It’s not illogical to believe there’s one way to God through Jesus Christ, though of course, I understand that most people in the world do not agree with this proposition. Logically there are three possibilities on this issue:
Tony Pearce
1. All gods are equal and therefore there is truth in all religions and all religions may lead you to God. 2. there’s no God and therefore, no religion is giving you the truth. 3. There’s one God and one way to know God, and therefore one religion is giving you the truth and the rest are not.
Number 1. on this list does present some logical problems because different religions say radically different things about God which conflict with each other. For example, Hinduism: there are many gods; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: there’s one God; Judaism: the Messiah has yet to come, Jesus is not the Messiah; Christianity: the Messiah has come in the person of Jesus Christ; Islam and Judaism: God is one and indivisible; Christianity: God is three persons in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Islam: Jesus is the last prophet before the final Prophet Muhammad; Christianity: Jesus is the Son of God, the final revelation of God to humanity. I could go on with more examples.
Number 2. there being no God leaves us with some questions. While we can’t prove the existence of God, there is evidence for His existence. This concerns the origins of the universe, the questions about the purpose of life, the existence of Good and Evil, and the fact that all cultures have some idea of a higher being. The French philosopher Pascal spoke of the god-shaped space within us. Many people have difficulty believing in God because of their life experiences or their observation of hypocrisy in supposed followers of God but, in the end, what we believe or don’t believe about God does not affect His existence which is outside of time and space and yet has an influence on what happens in time and space.
Number 3. is the claim that the Bible makes for itself, i.e., that there’s one way to God. The Old Testament speaks of one God, the Creator of all things, who gave His moral Law, the Ten Commandments at Sinai, and who’s contrasted with the idols of the nations who are called vain, are the product of human invention. By contrast, the knowledge of the God of the Bible is given by revelation to His prophets. In the New Testament, Jesus is revealed as the One way to God, the sole mediator between God and humanity through His sacrifice for the sin of the world at the cross, and His resurrection from the dead.
You say ‘this is based on a very old book full of legends‘ but, to be honest, that’s your opinion. There’s evidence that these things really happened in time and space when God moved in supernatural ways on the earth.
When the Lord Jesus came to the earth as Son of God and son of man, He had the power to do miracles as recorded in the gospels. The greatest miracle was His resurrection after He paid the price for the sin of the world through his death at the cross. After, He returned to Heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to empower the true church to continue the work on earth as He does to this day.
The gospel claims to have the solution to the issue which the whole human race faced at the time of Jesus and continues to face today. This is the sin nature of humanity which causes us to go against God’s moral law, to do things which are bad, which spoil our world and bring misery to people .
True faith does not promote war and strife, but love and peace through Jesus Christ whether we believe Him or not. According to biblical prophecy, He will return. Not, this time, as a suffering Messiah to pay the price of our sins, but as the reigning King Messiah with all the power of God to judge the world in righteousness according to how we responded to the Gospel message.
That’s why we take our message out to the world.
Of course, we respect your right to reject it and, if you’d like to throw our magazine in the bin, that’s your privilege, but we’re pleased to receive your comments on our magazine. If you’d like to discuss this further, I’ll be happy to do so.
Best wishes,
She did write back to me. She wasn’t convinced but at least we got a dialogue going. And we need to pray that people will take notice in these days because, basically, they’ve got all these ideas like ‘all roads lead to God’ and that the Bible is all a made up story.
There’s plenty of evidence when you look into it, that there’s only One way to God through Jesus Christ, and that it’s not a made up story, it’s the revealed Word of God, given to us by the Holy Spirit, revealed to the prophets, and fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Messiah who has come and is coming back again soon. Praise the Lord!