KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — Quite often here when I’m seeking to engage in Gospel conversations, I will meet people who say “I’m a Christian,” to my delight. In the past, after someone has identified himself or herself as a believer, I would change the subject and ask if the person has a prayer request. However, I have learned that not everyone who claims to be a Christian subscribes to the saving, biblical definition of the term. Many people who say they are followers of Jesus also believe that other spiritual ideologies are equal to the Lord’s teachings.
I have encountered many New Age adherents who believe the teachings of Jesus and Buddha can co-exist. When I ask such people “Are you a Christian?” they answer “Yes,” but they also would have answered the same if I had first asked if they belonged to a different religion. I have met people who claim allegiance to Christ, yet also participate in ancestral worship. There are even those who claim to exclusively follow Christianity, but not because it’s the absolute truth, but because that’s how they were raised. If we desire to be faithful announcers of the Gospel, we must be aware that different people mean very different things when they say “I’m a Christian.” Their conception of the faith might be based on false teaching. The real faith is clear and uncompromising.
Jesus made some extremely rigid statements about salvation and about himself. When his disciples asked him if many people would be saved, Jesus bluntly answered, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”1 Jesus also said “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”2 Jesus is the narrow door that leads to salvation that we must strive to enter.
There’s only one way for conciliation with God and spiritual restoration. It is first to believe that Jesus is the only authentic representative of the one true God, second to believe that he died for our sins and rose again and, third, to make him one’s master. When I make that declaration to people, some of them accuse me of being close-minded. When it comes to this topic, I plead guilty to that charge. We don’t have the option of venerating the Christ of the Bible and venerating other deities and non-Christian ideologies. Jesus doesn’t give us that option. He demands exclusive worship and unrivaled spiritual devotion from his followers — but for our own good. As the Apostle Peter said, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”3 When we share the Gospel, we must get to know the people we’re dialoguing with to make sure they understand what it means to be a Christian — even if they claim to be one.
Photo by Alb Maq
1. Luke 13:24
2. John 10:9
3. Acts 4:12
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