November’s Verse
13/11/08 15:37 Filed in: Bible
Some of you may still have on your walls the calendar we gave out last Christmas. If you do, you should now be looking at this month’s verse which reads:
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way the truth and the life” – John 14:6
It wouldn’t be a very popular truth in the post-modern world we live in. The popular view of truth can best be summed up by the title of the Manic Street Preachers’ fifth album, “This is my truth, tell me yours”. It expresses the familiar sentiment of, “That’s true for you, but it’s not true for me” or “That’s ok for you, but it’s not ok for me”.
It is in itself a rather vacuous phrase. Truth is not a personalised thing. It can’t be ‘MY truth”. It can only be ‘Truth’. Truth is truth. Opinion of course is relative and personal—and utterly worthless unless based on facts.
The inclusion of the word ‘the’ is equally offensive to our modern ears. In today’s western world it is not acceptable to say that there is only one way to God. Those who like to think of themselves as sophisticated and worldly-wise refer to our “different traditions” and knowledgably proclaim that they are all essentially the same.
Of course this is awfully patronising to those of differing religious beliefs who know that each of the major religions is mutually exclusive—each makes its own unique truth claims; all cannot be right. They understand that this sort of apparently broadminded statement is a closet insult—because it refuses to take seriously the claims of your religion.
Those who are happy believing essentially nothing would far rather reduce all other belief to a mishmash of nonsense because it means they don’t have to contend with direct truth claims like Jesus makes here. This sort of thing makes them uncomfortable. It’s far easier to appear magnanimous and broadminded, and that looks good. It doesn’t take any real intellectual effort—you don’t need to know anything about any religion; you don’t have to investigate the competing truth claims.
The irony is that the majority of the world is quite happy with the idea of competing truth claims. They know what to do with them—evaluate them to see which makes sense. However it is here in the western world, where we pride ourselves in our science and knowledge, that we refuse to investigate these truth claims and come up with some sort of stumbling side-step about all ways being equally valid.
We need to recover our intellectual integrity and take Jesus’ claim at face value and start to investigate it. Enough of these claims that we are all on the same pathway. There is only one pathway. Jesus claims to be it.
The question is: Do you believe him? If not, why not?
For those who are looking for the answers to life’s questions, looking for peace, forgiveness, acceptance, let me assure you that you will find them in Jesus. Come and investigate him. Come and trust him. He is utterly reliable.
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way the truth and the life” – John 14:6
It wouldn’t be a very popular truth in the post-modern world we live in. The popular view of truth can best be summed up by the title of the Manic Street Preachers’ fifth album, “This is my truth, tell me yours”. It expresses the familiar sentiment of, “That’s true for you, but it’s not true for me” or “That’s ok for you, but it’s not ok for me”.
It is in itself a rather vacuous phrase. Truth is not a personalised thing. It can’t be ‘MY truth”. It can only be ‘Truth’. Truth is truth. Opinion of course is relative and personal—and utterly worthless unless based on facts.
The inclusion of the word ‘the’ is equally offensive to our modern ears. In today’s western world it is not acceptable to say that there is only one way to God. Those who like to think of themselves as sophisticated and worldly-wise refer to our “different traditions” and knowledgably proclaim that they are all essentially the same.
Of course this is awfully patronising to those of differing religious beliefs who know that each of the major religions is mutually exclusive—each makes its own unique truth claims; all cannot be right. They understand that this sort of apparently broadminded statement is a closet insult—because it refuses to take seriously the claims of your religion.
Those who are happy believing essentially nothing would far rather reduce all other belief to a mishmash of nonsense because it means they don’t have to contend with direct truth claims like Jesus makes here. This sort of thing makes them uncomfortable. It’s far easier to appear magnanimous and broadminded, and that looks good. It doesn’t take any real intellectual effort—you don’t need to know anything about any religion; you don’t have to investigate the competing truth claims.
The irony is that the majority of the world is quite happy with the idea of competing truth claims. They know what to do with them—evaluate them to see which makes sense. However it is here in the western world, where we pride ourselves in our science and knowledge, that we refuse to investigate these truth claims and come up with some sort of stumbling side-step about all ways being equally valid.
We need to recover our intellectual integrity and take Jesus’ claim at face value and start to investigate it. Enough of these claims that we are all on the same pathway. There is only one pathway. Jesus claims to be it.
The question is: Do you believe him? If not, why not?
For those who are looking for the answers to life’s questions, looking for peace, forgiveness, acceptance, let me assure you that you will find them in Jesus. Come and investigate him. Come and trust him. He is utterly reliable.