Faith In My GPS

I was heading to an address to which I had never been before in a town I had only ever been once.  I had no idea of the landscape or any identifying markers.  But, I had my trusty iPhone GPS, which I use several times a day on the job.  Normally it takes me right to the place I want to go, so I followed its directions without concern until it told me I had arrived.

Well, I had arrived somewhere but not the somewhere my new patient lived.  In fact, the somewhere it took me turned out to be nowhere near where I wanted to be.  Instead, it turned out to be twenty some odd miles in the opposite direction.  To be fair, it was on the right road just the wrong spot on that road.

When people tell me that it doesn't matter what you believe in as long as you believe in something or that it doesn't matter what road you take religiously because they all are going to the same place, I have to wonder if they ever faithfully followed their GPS to an empty lot.  What I have learned is that not all roads arrive at the same place.  Even the right road won't arrive at the right place if you travel the wrong direction on it.

When Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  And no man comes to the Father except through me" (Jn 14:6), where does that leave followers of Muhammad or Buddha or Krishna?  Will they indeed come to the Father - will they indeed by saved?  Sadly no, for "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).  The Bible is clear: Jesus is the Way, there is no other way.

Well, that's pretty narrow thinking isn't it?  Yes and no. Taking the right path is narrow, choosing the right direction is narrow, finding the right answer is narrow.  You can't just take any bus or train or plane to a particular place.  You will find that you have to take the one that is going where you want to go.  You can be broad-minded and take another one, but you will wind up somewhere else.

But, it is not narrow-minded to accept the "one and only who came from the Father" (Jn 1:14) to the exclusion of all others, it is right-minded because it is true.  Is it narrow-minded to insist that one woman is your wife to the exclusion of all other women?  No, it is true and factual,

It is not narrow-minded to insist that "God is one and there is no other but him" (Mk 12:32), it is true and factual.  To insist that one's faith is personal and all are equally valid is not broad-minded, it is wrong-minded.  There is only one God and he "gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).  Jus' Say'n.