What if they're all just as sure as we are?

What a great question

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1. The Blind Men and the Elephant

There’s an old Indian parable about the blind men and the elephant.

You may have heard it before.
Each blind man touches a different part of the animal — one feels the trunk and says, “It’s a snake.” Another feels the leg: “It’s a tree.” Another touches the side: “It’s a wall.” They argue, but of course, they’re all partly right.

What’s the moral of the story?

It’s supposed to tell us about the religions and God. Each one has a part of the truth. No one sees the whole picture. It would be arrogant of any of the blind men to claim the whole truth, because they can’t see the elephant.

That’s a story our culture loves — because it seems humble, it’s peaceful, it’s inclusive.

Everyone sincerely holds to their truth. And we should humbly recognise that others believe what they believe as passionately as we do.

And you have to have sympathy for the attempt to make peace in a divided world – especially given so many of our conflicts have a religious dimension. If we could only understand the passion others have for their part of the elephant, then we would be less hostile to them.

But Jesus says:

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father except through me.

That sounds pretty exclusive, doesn’t it? We heard it in the book of Acts, too: There’s no other name in heaven and on earth by which we may be saved.

So what are we to think?

Is Jesus’ claim credible when everyone else believes what they believe with equal sincerity? What are we to do, for example, when the Bible says that Jesus is God and the Koran says that he is only a prophet?

I want to address the last of our questions: "What If They’re All Just as Sure as We Are?" How can we be confident in Jesus when good people with big brains are just as sincerely convinced of their worldviews?

Isn’t the only tolerant and respectable position to say that it doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you’re sincere, and so long as you are kind?

I am going to make four points:

· Every worldview makes exclusive claims

· Sincerity is not enough

· Jesus isn’t just another religious leader

· The arms of Jesus are open to all

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2. Every worldview makes exclusive claims

So firstly: every worldview makes exclusive claims. Even the belief that ‘no one has the truth’ is a truth claim.

That’s the problem with the elephant story. The person telling the story says that everyone else but them is blind! They are making a very strong assertion about universal truth.

The elephant story seems tolerant and humble, but it is just as much a truth claim as any other. Saying ‘all religions are equally valid’ assumes that you see what others don’t see, which is not neutrality.

Which makes the elephant story fundamentally dishonest. It is blind to its own dogmatism.

So we shouldn’t be embarrassed about exclusive claims or statements of conviction – even as we admit that we don’t know everything and respect others who disagree. Respecting others doesn’t mean saying that all views are alike. I find it disrespectful when someone tells me that all religions are the same, and I know that people of other faiths think that too, because it presumes to tell me what I believe.

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3. Sincerity is not enough

Secondly, sincerity is not enough.

We can be really impressed by the depth and passion of the beliefs of others. And it can give us a moment of doubt. We may think: if they are not dumb or mean, and yet they believe something different to me, then maybe I shouldn’t be so confident in what I believe.

But that someone is sincere is not a measure of whether they are right or not. You can be completely sincere and absolutely wrong.

We know that this is true. The Aztecs and the Phoenicians practised human sacrifice because that was their religious belief.

Is anyone offended when I say that they were simply wrong? Would you respect the beliefs of a sincere Nazi – which was after all a kind of religious faith? Is the Aztec religion a path to the one God? Cult leader Jim Jones and his followers were sincere when he commanded them to drink poisoned Kool-Aid in an act of mass suicide. I have no hesitation in saying that they were in the grip of a delusion that had nothing to do with God.

These examples show us that we can and indeed must judge between beliefs. Because some of them are not just wrong, but terribly wrong. Bad religion is about as bad as human beings can get.

Which means that our beliefs about God can’t simply be like our beliefs about flavours of ice cream. With ice cream, we can say ‘for me, the best flavour is rum ’n’ raisin, but for you it is banana’.

But God is not a flavour of ice cream. If I believe in a divine creator and you don’t, we can respect each other and not kill each other, but we both can’t be right. At least one of us is badly mistaken.

We have to make a call on this question. It’s cowardly not to.

But how can I do that? Do I have to investigate the truth claims of all the major faiths and philosophies, and worldviews? Who has time to do that? Just the study of one of the great faiths would take a lifetime.

At a Christian conference recently I met a student from an Islamic background who had set himself just such a task. He wanted to know all about all the faiths, so he could judge which one was most true.

But I said to him: what you don’t need is exhaustive knowledge. You need decisive knowledge.

You don’t need to know everything.

You need to know just one important thing.

What do I mean?

Imagine you’re standing at a train station with a dozen trains on different platforms. You want to know where each one goes, how fast it travels, who the driver is, how many stops there are, what snacks are served on board. You want to compare all the possible routes.

That might take all day—or longer.

But one of the trains is about to leave. And someone calls out: “This is the one that takes you home.”

At that moment, you don’t need every detail about all the other trains.

You just need to know: Is this the one I can trust to get me home?

That’s decisive knowledge.

In the same way, you don’t need to master every religion or worldview in minute detail. You need to ask: Is Jesus who he says he is? Did he rise from the dead?

If the answer to that is yes, then everything else follows.

4. Jesus is not just another religious teacher

Which is where we come to Jesus and who he is. Because whatever else you might say about Jesus, he is not just another religious teacher.

Listen to what he says about himself:

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.

Jesus isn’t here to coach people how to be better people. He’s THE way to the Father. Exclusively.

At this point, we might compare him with other religious founders.

Buddha: “I am seeking the truth.” Muhammad: “I am a messenger of truth.”

But Jesus says: “I am the truth.”

That’s decisively different. And it puts a lot on the line. But as if that isn’t enough, Jesus claims the authority to forgive sins. He claims to be one with the Father in heaven. He claims to have power over death itself.

Now, Jesus might’ve been completely deluded. Or he might’ve been a very bad man, an evil manipulator. As CS Lewis used to say: Jesus is either mad, or bad, or God. There’s not a neutral position on this.

If Jesus is a liar or insane, then dismiss him now. I would urge you not to waste your time on him.

But he is who he says he is, then look no further. That’s not to denigrate other traditions and their human wisdom. But if Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, then you’ve found it. If he really rose from the dead, then the truth itself lives in him.

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5. The arms of Jesus are open to all

So: Jesus makes an exclusive truth claim. And the book of Acts backs him up: there is no other name under heaven by whom we may be saved.

But here’s the astonishing thing: the one who makes such exclusive claims opens his arms to everyone. As Timothy Keller puts it:

The gospel is an exclusive truth, but it's the most inclusive exclusive truth in the world.

This helps us because we’re all afraid of the arrogance of exclusive truth claims. It’s kind of repellent when someone claims to be right.

But Christianity’s claim is not that Christians are better than anyone. In fact, quite the opposite. Christians do not claim that they have a superior moral system or ethical code. We can acknowledge the human wisdom of the world’s great traditions.

But what Christians claim is that the grace and mercy of God are open to anyone. No matter who we are, we need the cross. No matter who we are, the cross is freely available.

We might be a spiritual giant or a broken misfit: it doesn’t matter. The invitation of the saviour is global. Jesus says ‘Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’

This is not exclusive to race, or gender, or age, or ethnicity, or social status. It is an offer that comes to all nations: become disciples of Jesus, and find in him the rest and rescue that you need, whoever you are.

That’s why I say that St Mark’s is the least exclusive club in the Eastern Suburbs. Entry is wide open, because Jesus’ arms are open to all who seek him.

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6. The Elephant is Speaking

In the old parable, the blind men argue about the elephant — but in Jesus’ case, the elephant himself is speaking. The real question isn’t, “Are we more sincere than others?” — but “Who is telling the truth about reality?”

Dr Timothy Keller puts it this way: “Every truth claim is exclusive. The only question is: which one makes the most sense of reality?”

With Jesus, the decisive claim is that he rose from the dead. If he didn’t, then you can move on. But if he did, there’s no need to look any further.

If you’re a seeker then: the challenge is to investigate the claims of Christ. Could Christ be the decisive truth you are looking for?

If you’re a believer: you can share the gospel with humility and compassion, knowing it’s not about winning arguments but introducing people to the way, the truth, and the life.