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INCLUSIVENESS

Addressing religious and spiritual leaders from around the world at the Millennium World Peace Summit at the United Nations, Ted Turner said:

“When I was a little boy, I was very religious.

I was born into a Christian family, and I was raised in a Christian school. I became a Christian just like you become whatever you are exposed to as a child. I was going to be a man of the cloth. I'd be sitting out there with you, and I would have loved a life like that. I was going to be a missionary.

I studied religion. First, I studied Christianity, and later I studied the world's great religions through reading, and I was always thinking. What disturbed me is that my religious Christian sect was very intolerant—not intolerant of religious freedom for other people, but we thought that we were the only ones going to heaven. The Catholics weren't going to heaven. The Muslims weren't going to heaven. The Hindus weren't going to heaven. The Shintoists weren't going to heaven. Nobody was going to heaven but us.

I figured it wasn't even 1 percent of the world's population. It just confused the devil out of me because I said heaven is going to be a mighty empty place with nobody else there. So I was pretty confused and turned off by it. I said it just can't be right.”

The teachings of Turner say, that everyone, regardless of what they believe can make it to heaven. The teachings of Christ, however, don’t. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 KJV

To get to a particular destination requires a specific path. If I want to fly to New York, I can’t board just any plane. All planes don’t lead to the same place. If I want to go to heaven, I can’t follow just any religion. All religions don’t lead to the same place. Narrow minded? Perhaps. Biblical? Absolutely.

Since when is it compassionate to tell people a lie, just to avoid hurting their feelings, even if the lie will result in their destruction? It may be tolerant, but it isn’t right.

—http://www.sltrib.com/09022000/saturday/18525.htm Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

INCLUSIVENESS

During a recent golf outing for top business and entertainment executives, an unexpected question surprised Golf Legend Tiger Woods. Organizers designed the "Tee it up With Tiger Woods" event to be a private golf session and lunch with Woods and the executives. During a question and answer session, most people asked about their swings or addressed other golf issues. In the middle of the questions, an unidentified man stood up and asked the golf legend, "Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? And if not, prayfully, would you?" The question shocked and silenced the room.

Apparently unaffected by the question, Woods responded, "My father was a Christian—of course Christianity was part of my life—but my mother is Asian and Buddhism was also part of my childhood, so I practice both faiths respectfully."

—http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1722038/posts. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Woods, like many in this postmodern age have a designer religion—taking components from different religions to form their own "personalized faith." While this approach resonates with our age, and it can bring personal satisfaction, it does not reflect the truth of the Biblical witness.

The bible doesn't teach people to make "Christianity a part of their lives." It teaches them to surrender their total beings to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:9-10 (HCSB) "if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation."