Is Jesus the only way to God

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John 14:6 (New International Version)

6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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does this mean that Jesus is the only way to God ?
 
GlorytoGod said:
does this mean that Jesus is the only way to God ?
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He is the way, he is God reaching out to us, and reconciling those that believe in his Son's name back to himself, he is the one that pleased God enough with his sacrifice to forgive our sins if we ask and have faith.

He is the truth, making himself known, God come in the flesh whose words and actions are God's, he is righteous and true, just and holy, knowing Christ is knowing the Father.

He is the life, everlasting life, eternal life, a spring of living water, he holds the keys to life and death, the God of all creation and is the judge of man, and through his grace those he knows will be with him forever.

Those that do not believe He is the way, the truth, and the life, God the Father promises everyone that all knees will bow to his Son, for he has given him all authority, as the Son of God and the Son of Man, and even those that pierced Him will know and confess that Christ is Lord.
 
GlorytoGod said:
does this mean that Jesus is the only way to God ?
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Jesus certainly is the way the truth and the life .


Furthermore, there is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved."
 ACTS 4;12


Jehovah lovingly sent forth his Son to show us the way to come into an approved relationship with God. (1 John 4:9, 10)

May we be moved, yes, impelled, to respond to that great love by accepting and acting upon Jesus’ invitation: "Be my follower."—John 1:43.

 
'The Way' describes the westward path to Eden as well as the westward path through the temple to the Holy of Holies. Both of these represent living right! Both paths go towards Life, either the Tree of Life or the Ten Commandments. Walking in the Way is like walking Westward through the temple. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"(I Corinthians 3:16)

Any person can say "I am the Way the Truth and the Life" if they truly represent these things. There are many more verses that mention and explain the Way, Truth and the Life with two important ones below. One describes a covenant with Levi. By saying "I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no man comes unto the Father but by me" Jesus is teaching that we are to become the way truth and life, following his and Levi's examples. Its a figure of speech.

Ezekiel 18:9 Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.

Malachi 2:4-6 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi saith the LORD of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
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So who is right the liberals or the fundamentalists ? each attempts to justify their view with scripture

I am going pray about it and ask God to reveal the truth to me :) ?
 
BlaznFattyz said:
He is the way, he is God reaching out to us, and reconciling those that believe in his Son's name back to himself, he is the one that pleased God enough with his sacrifice to forgive our sins if we ask and have faith.

He is the truth, making himself known, God come in the flesh whose words and actions are God's, he is righteous and true, just and holy, knowing Christ is knowing the Father.

He is the life, everlasting life, eternal life, a spring of living water, he holds the keys to life and death, the God of all creation and is the judge of man, and through his grace those he knows will be with him forever.

Those that do not believe He is the way, the truth, and the life, God the Father promises everyone that all knees will bow to his Son, for he has given him all authority, as the Son of God and the Son of Man, and even those that pierced Him will know and confess that Christ is Lord.
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nice post fatty
 
GlorytoGod said:
So who is right the liberals or the fundamentalists ? each attempts to justify their view with scripture

I am going pray about it and ask God to reveal the truth to me ?
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What liberals and fundamentalists say is only right for themselves! Neither have the complete picture of Christianity. To me, they are two extremes with over-emphasis on what each of them see as important. Perhaps I should also say that, as extremes, they are more like stereotypes and straw men which we can berate and deride with straw man arguments. Fundamentalists can not only be too fanatical and strict but also, quite often, judgmental, arrogant, hateful, self-righteous, proud, ignorant, inflexible, narrow-minded and stupid. Liberals, on the other hand can be too casual and permissive, but also, quite often, too accepting, nice, humble, realistic, open-minded and flexible.

I consider myself as neither of them, not even as a middle man. I live on another plane. I seek instead to have the devotion of the fundamentalist as well as the acceptance, humility, open-mindedness, pragmatism and realism of the liberal. I seek to belong to a Kingdom not of this world. Liberals and fundamentalists seek to be "of the world." I do not. Fundamentalists may claim to "not be of the world" but because they lack understanding of "political reality" they are merely isolating themselves from what they think is the world. You can't liberate yourself, you can't escape from a world you don't understand.

Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give to God what belongs to God." Fundamentalists don't do that. They ignore and neglect that statement. They disregard Jesus' advice on dealing with Caesar. What is worse is that fundamentalists don't understand Caesar.

Fundamentalists claim to serve, and pride themselves on serving God alone. Do they understand what it means to serve an entity other than God? That's the thing. They serve what they are taught is God. Because they haven't thought about what it means to serve an entity other than what they are taught is God, they don't see how they might be serving Caesar indirectly. They may well be serving Caesar without knowing it, because they don't understand Caesar.

Fundamentalists don't understand political reality. They are not political realists. They don't understand politics. They are driven by an indoctrination process, by slogans and bumper stickers. They are robots. They are inflexible. Their minds are not open.

In Jesus' statement above, God represents the spiritual and Caesar represents statecraft. Churches are often organised and driven like statecraft. There is a ruling class, the priests, pastors and presbyters who claim to know and understand Scripture better than laypeople. The ruling class and the laypeople are both vulnerable to indoctrination, ideology, slogans and bumper stickers. When this happens, when a church is driven by this phenomenon, a church functions very much like statecraft, because this is just how the secular, non-religious world works. A church like that has succumbed to the disease of Caesar and is no longer a community of servants of God. Its people have become servants of Caesar.

Many denominations, particularly the older ones, have this Caesar-like phenomenon driving them. Yet, many of the newer ones can be even worse, particularly with the degree of indoctrination that takes place, where leaders of congregations resort to a slogan-driven culture rather than encourage people to shape their minds for a more healthy socialising influence.

The foolishness of fundamentalism is that its adherents serve Caesar, not God. Political reality, however, requires that we respect Caesar. I respect fundamentalism and its Caesar-like phenomenon, but I abhor the idea that fundamentalists have that they are not servants of Caesar! Instead they accuse liberals of being servants of Caesar and are blind to what they themselves have done to serve Caesar! What hypocrites!

So much for charging at full speed into a straw man with a bayonet! Good infantry practice.:)

Quahom1 said:
the um bible says, he is not.

that is why I am humbled by him.
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Did not a man with His Spirit dwell among us?
 
I hear what you are saying Saltmeister but on the other hands I think liberals tend to jump through intellectual hoops of scripture in order to make it fit their own ways of thinking.

Personally I am looking for revelation from God so that I might understand his word better.
 
Is Jesus the only way to God?

No.

Or do you mean Is Jesus the only way to like heaven/paradise earth/nirvana/and so on and so forth?

Then again.... No. :)

A man I believe can be an excellent man, a kind man, a friendly man, a man of good moral fibre and standards and so on and never heard of Jesus. I believe anyone who puts stock in Love and Kindess has gods attention... And shall be rewarded by him.
 
Is Jesus the only way to God?

From a Christian perspective then it would be 100% yes. Outside of this though a man can be many many things, like Alex says above, but despite this no man can be perfect. All sin and have weakness, so all will need Christ. All that have faith in Christ - way to God. So I guess it's yes whatever for me! My thoughts.
 
In the Roman Catholic Tradition, we hold the following as dogma:
"For they who without their own fault do not know of the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but yet seek God with sincere heart, and try, under the influence of grace, to carry out His will in practice, known to them through the dictate of conscience, can attain eternal salvation." Lumen Gentium 16
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So whilst Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, there are those who are followers of the Way, but who have never heard of Jesus, or indeed the Bible.

Romans 2:13
"For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law ... show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them."

It is useful for Christians to remind ourselves that the Mission of Christ is the salvation of all, not just the salvation of me, and the Church of Christ is the ark in which all find salvation, not just ourselves, and not just those whom I think worthy.

A few extracts from St Paul's letter to the Romans gives us plenty of food for thought:

Romans 8:28
"And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints."

It is common then, for critics of traditional Christainity to argue by quoting our own words back to us, that if salvation is possible outside the Church, that is if salvation is open to those who do not know Christ, then what is the point of the Church? I offer the following:

"Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated truth and grace to all. But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, are not to be considered as two realities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things; rather they form one complex reality which coalesces from a divine and a human element. For this reason, by no weak analogy, it is compared to the mystery of the incarnate Word. As the assumed nature inseparably united to Him, serves the divine Word as a living organ of salvation, so, in a similar way, does the visible social structure of the Church serve the Spirit of Christ, who vivifies it, in the building up of the body." Lumen Gentium 8.
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Thomas
 
greymare said:
what if??
what if???
what if God was one of us......(who says hes not?)
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Good reminder! I think I understand better what that singer was saying now.
LXE Exodus 17:7 And he called name of that place, Temptation, and Reviling, because of the reviling of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?
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GlorytoGod said:
John 14:6 (New International Version)

6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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does this mean that Jesus is the only way to God ?
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no
Francis king said:
what if... instead of jesus saying... I am THE way, THE truth, The life, he said...

I am a way, a truth, a life...?
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He references I AM is he speaking of himself or of the I AM ie G!d? And if he is speaking of himself could it be by his nature? ie his way ie follow a path similar to mine...
Quahom1 said:
But it wasn't written that way, for a reason...

Get over it.
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ah maybe how he wrote it, and they translated it, but how was it said, we'll truly never know. Each gospel has their own interpretation of Jesus life and they are quite different...the dilemna continues
Dream said:
'The Way' describes the westward path to Eden as well as the westward path through the temple to the Holy of Holies. ...Any person can say "I am the Way the Truth and the Life" if they truly represent these things... Its a figure of speech.
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amen
greymare said:
what if??
what if???
what if God was one of us......(who says hes not?)
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Oh many say he is not, I say he in all of us, as is the Christ. Paul tells us to die daily and put the mind of Christ in us... ie become the way ourselves.
GlorytoGod said:
So who is right the liberals or the fundamentalists ? each attempts to justify their view with scripture

I am going pray about it and ask God to reveal the truth to me :) ?
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And that is the WAY! And yes we are all where we need to be in our fundie or libbie or thumpin ways as that is what resonates with each of us, hallelujiah.
greymare said:
but i thought he was "everywhere"???? and in all of us
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yeppers!
Saltmeister said:
What liberals and fundamentalists say is only right for themselves! ... What hypocrites!

So much for charging at full speed into a straw man with a bayonet! Good infantry practice.:)



Did not a man with His Spirit dwell among us?
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from 'our' vantage point it is always 'the other' that is the hypocrite, the infidel, or the terrorist... and from the other...we are... unless we choose another way, and recognize that the hypocrite, the infidel, the terrorist, and G!d is in all of us, and it is upto us which we exentuate.
Alex P said:
Is Jesus the only way to God?

No.

Or do you mean Is Jesus the only way to like heaven/paradise earth/nirvana/and so on and so forth?

Then again.... No. :)

A man I believe can be an excellent man, a kind man, a friendly man, a man of good moral fibre and standards and so on and never heard of Jesus. I believe anyone who puts stock in Love and Kindess has gods attention... And shall be rewarded by him.
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I so love these responses.
Penguin said:
Is Jesus the only way to God?

From a Christian perspective then it would be 100% yes. Outside of this though a man can be many many things, like Alex says above, but despite this no man can be perfect. All sin and have weakness, so all will need Christ. All that have faith in Christ - way to God. So I guess it's yes whatever for me! My thoughts.
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But interestingly enough all Christians don't hold that perspective, as exemplified by this thread. And I are one of them.
Thomas said:
In the Roman Catholic Tradition, we hold the following as dogma:


So whilst Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, there are those who are followers of the Way, but who have never heard of Jesus, or indeed the Bible....It is common then, for critics of traditional Christainity to argue by quoting our own words back to us, that if salvation is possible outside the Church, that is if salvation is open to those who do not know Christ, then what is the point of the Church?
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Thomas, big hug, this is when I love you brother. And what does 'the' church do for me currently? Little or nothing. What has it done for me in the past, created a fertile ground for my church to thrive. And in my mind every church, synagogue, temple, mosque, shrine, statue, and yes hall, fills a need for someone and helps theim connect to find their way.

Namaste all!

ie. The light (wisdom, Christ, G!d, Krishna, Buddha, spirit, consciousness, power...) in me recognizes, honors and salutes the light (wisdom, Christ, G!d, Krishna, Buddha, spirit, consciousness, power...) in you!
 
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