Greear is preaching from Acts 4 on the significance of Jesus being the only way to heaven. There are six cultural assumptions on why this belief is so controversial to most Americans.
1. Our culture believes that claiming there is only one way to God is archaic.
Christianity was born into a world where saying He was the only way was every bit as politically incorrect, if not more so, than it is today.
2. Claiming that there is one way to God is arrogant.
Peter’s attitude in verse 20: “we can’t help but speak what we have seen or heard.” It is not arrogance but believing that Jesus is who He said He is.
3. Religion is a matter of personal preference.
Whatever works for you works for me. Don’t impress upon me your preferences. Kant: religions are subjectively helpful but objectively untrue. It takes a real God with real power to heal, not a subjective preference. Preference cannot make a lame man walk. The stock of personal preferences when Jesus Christ rose form the dead.
4. Claiming there is one way to God is divisive.
All religious views are exclusive. If all good people go to heaven, are we not excluding bad people? Who gets to determine who are the “bad” people? The point is that all religions are exclusive, but Jesus is unique. God’s acceptance of us is not on the basis of what we can do but what God has done in His Son Jesus. Christianity is the most inclusive exclusivity that has ever been (Tim Keller). The gospel leads you to love, mercy, and grace when you deserve wrath, judgment, and death.
5. Claiming that there is one way to God is unfair.
Nobody goes to hell for not learning about Jesus. We go to hell because we are sinners. We have decided to reject God and pursue our own agenda (Rom. 3:10-11, 23)
6. Claiming that there is one way to God is cruel.
People really are lame and cripple and in sin. We cannot pretend that this is not true. There is only one who can wash away the dark sin stains of our lives. There really is no other way.
What is cruel is for us to have the only message under heaven by which men must be saved, and we don’t tell. What is cruel is to have a mission to reach a lost and dying world and don’t go.
Thanks for posting this Timmy. Hate that I had to miss 20/20.