Christianity's Exclusiveness.

“NO OTHER NAME”

One of the things about Christianity, which is hard for many people to accept, is its exclusiveness. It’s a religion, which claims one’s exclusive loyalty because it claims to be a revelation of the ultimate truth. A person cannot be a Christian, and be a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or a Hindu.   

Most people are prepared to recognize the fact, that Jesus is one of the great religious leaders of the world, but when they read that Peter said: “There is salvation in no one else”, that to them seems an overstatement.

There are good reasons why this is a stumbling block. For one thing, people today know more about the religions of the world than their parents knew.  Then too, they are aware of the havoc caused by people who thought they had a monopoly on the truth: Hitler, turning the whole world into turmoil; Calvin, not hesitating to put other Christians to death; and The Roman Catholic Inquisition, burning people at the stake.

There are two things, however, that I think they are likely to overlook.

First, at the centre of every life of great achievement, one can find some sort of exclusive loyalty.  Think of Peter, James and John.  What was it that gave them the endurance to face opposition and discouragement?  Could they have done it if they believed that Jesus was one of the remarkable men in the history of the world, or that what he had to say could be reckoned among the great sayings, or that his way of life was one among many?  That wouldn’t have fired them up to do anything!

Second, these exclusive loyalties can lead to the lesser ones.  For example, a man with an exclusive loyalty to his wife, is more likely to respect all women, than the man who professes no loyalty; the person willing to give one’s life for one’s country, is more likely to respect the rights and privileges of another country, than one who doesn’t care about any country; and a person who has a supreme loyalty to one God, and one Lord and Master, is more likely to acknowledge the reflection of that God in other religious cultures, than the person who doesn’t care anything about God.

Let’s go a step further, and say there are two things that a Christian can reasonably say about this exclusive claim. 

There is something unique about Jesus. In Jesus, for reasons we don’t pretend to understand the energies of God were so drawn together and focused in one personality, that through him God has released powers available to human beings that have not been released in other places or in other people.

Also, we can say that the character of Christ is the ultimate test of all character.

For instance, when people say that Gandhi or Socrates, or anyone else is “Christ-like”, are they judging Gandhi or Socrates by Jesus, or Jesus by them?  Isn’t it true that we judge other member of the human race, whether they are great people or unknown people like ourselves, we judge them by Christ?

Finally, there are two things that Christians ought to remember.

The first is, to leave the future of other people in God’s care.  More ill will, I think, has been created by Christians who presume to say that people who aren’t baptized, or born-again, aren’t Christians, and therefore damned when they die.  We don’t have to speculate about the future.  What happens to people after they die is God’s business, and it would be wiser for Christians, I think, not to talk about it. 

And the other thing to remember is this.  Don’t try to impose Christianity upon anybody. Some Christian missionaries in the past have made that mistake; they may be making it now for all I know, but if they are, hopefully they are fewer in number.

However, we have every right, to defend the things. that we believe to be true. We believe that in Christ Jesus, God opened the doors into life and its possibilities up till then undreamed of, and we have every right and responsibility to introduce every person on the earth to those riches and wonders, but we have no right, to impose them upon anybody.

A Prayer for us all:

Grant that we may never be blind to any imprint of God’s presence wherever we find it, in any part of the world, or in any religion; and that we may recognize always, that we have not been left without witness at any time, or in any place.  Then bind us, O God, to Jesus, with such exclusive loyalty, that our lives may have the power and the fire and the incentive of the great ones in the past, who have believed that in him, was the Life, and the Life was the Light.

Dr. John Sullivan

Former Officer

Canada & Bermuda