There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. [John 3:18 (NLT)]
When writing about the prayers of Malala Yousafzai’s mother yesterday, I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding. Although she was praying to Allah, it was the one true God—our Triune God of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—who heard and answered her prayers. While God is not a fan of Islam, He loves all of His children, whether Muslims, Hindus, Christians or others. Just because the Yousafzais don’t believe in Him doesn’t mean He doesn’t believe in them and their efforts to make our world a place where every girl can learn and lead.
If we believe that Christianity’s major claims are true, then the claims of any other religions must be false wherever they contradict it. Islam condemns the Trinity and denies the Fatherhood aspect of God, the deity of Jesus, and His death. By denying Jesus’s death, Islam denies His resurrection and ascension, His atonement for our sins, His Holy Spirit, and the salvation of His believers: the cornerstones of our Christian creeds! Islam and Christianity can’t both be correct any more than Buddhism, Hinduism or a whole lot of other isms and Christianity can.
My Hindu friends often say, “Well, it’s all the same God!” but it isn’t. Christianity recognizes one God in three person but my Hindu friends believe in a multitude of gods who are a manifestation of various aspects of one god, Brahma. Omnipotent, unknowable and impersonal, he may exist in three separate forms: Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver), and Shiva (Destroyer). While Hinduism views mankind as divine and believes each person is judged and punished by his own karma, Christianity believes that only God is divine, Jesus is the only way and there will be a final Judgment Day.
Saying we all worship the same God is what David Limbaugh calls “intellectual laziness.” The claim that all paths can lead to God is a statement we should never make or accept. It’s an insult to Jesus: God incarnate who came, suffered, and died on the cross for our sins—something totally unnecessary were there another way to God. Jesus definitively said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” [John 14:6] In spite of the Universalists’ claims, all religions do not lead to God. Then again, no “religion” leads to God; only faith in Jesus Christ does!
Our God is a God of love and His benevolence and mercy is extended to everyone. It was our Triune God, not Allah, who heard Mrs. Yousafzai’s prayers and extended His hand of healing to her daughter. Unfortunately, that mercy won’t be extended in the world to come. Simply put, for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, death means punishment and eternal separation from God. Let us remember, however, that the exclusive truths of Christianity do not mean that we are exclusive in our love. Everyone, regardless of race, faith, ethnicity, sex or culture, is our neighbor and a person to be loved!
Mankind falls within the first few pages of Genesis as does Mansoul within the first few pages of John Bunyan’s allegory The Holy War. Resembling real life, Bunyan’s King Shaddai sends his son, Prince Emmanuel, to rescue the fallen city. Under Diabolus and his minions Lord Will-be-will and Misters Lustings, Forget-good, No-truth and Unbelief, Mansoul refuses to listen to Shaddai’s captains. The gates to the city are double-locked and Mr. Prejudice and his band of Deafmen guard Ear-gate (the most likely place the King’s forces will try to enter). Nevertheless, Prince Emmanuel delivers Mansoul from the tyranny of Diabolus, Mansoul repents, and Emmanuel forgives. The story, however, is far from over because Diabolus is not done with Mansoul.
When John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, he was concerned both with the godless unbeliever and the casual and superficial believer: the nominal or counterfeit Christian. We all know them: people who may look and talk a lot like Christians but don’t live like one. Without even realizing it, we may even be one!
When we’re told to “Be still” in Psalm 46, we tend to think in terms of stopping movement—our busyness, frantic activity, or agitated actions. We associate it with a director yelling, “Cut!” the ref blowing his whistle, or a frustrated parent’s “Cut it out!” Being still can entail all of that, but it is much more. The root of the original Hebrew word used for “still” is the verb rapa which means to be faint, forsake, or sink down. When used as the imperative ra’pha’h, as it is in Psalm 46, it means to drop or release our concerns, to become weak, or surrender. While most Bible versions translate this as “Be still,” some translate as desist, stop fighting, cease striving, be quiet, or be at peace. In short, we’re being told to stop anxiously fighting a situation and leave the matter to God—to relax our grip on things, stop worrying and let it be.
My Great-aunt Camilla began to lose her hearing as a girl and was completely deaf by the time she reached adulthood. Although she didn’t sign, she did lip-read quite well. In spite of her deafness, as long as we were face-to-face, we were able to converse without much difficulty. However, if Camilla didn’t want to continue the discussion or disagreed with us, she’d simply turn away and refuse to look at us. Tug as we might at her sleeve, she’d not turn back to rejoin the conversation until we’d convinced her that the subject had changed to one she preferred or that we agreed wholeheartedly with her opinion.
Devotions of the Heart 