…DARE WE VENTURE? Do you have the guts to interact with other beliefs?

by Gerald R. McDermott

WE ALL KNOW you should not discuss politics or religion at the dinner table with guests. But, sometimes your guests start talking about these things anyway, and there’s not much you can do. If they’re determined to talk religion, the best thing you can do to prepare for such a discussion is to learn about other religions. Whether you’ve done that or not, below are a few guidelines that might help.

Two basic questions about world religions will usually be asked, on which different groups of Christians take opposing sides. There are many different kinds of Christians, but I am going to narrow the groups down to two—liberal and conservative. I won’t bother to define these terms—that would be another article—but let me say that these two questions about the religions come up often and these two blocs of Christians tend to answer them in diametrically opposed ways.

Generally (there are exceptions), liberal Christians think we should dialogue with people of other faiths, but rule out any effort to convert them. That’s usually because most liberal Christians think all the other religions eventually lead to God. A favorite metaphor they use is that different religions are just various roads leading up the sides of the same mountain, and they all converge at the top.

Generally (again, there are exceptions), conservative Christians think the only reason we should talk to members of other religions about religion is to try to convert them. They think it would be fine to make friends with a Buddhist co-worker, but if the conversation moves to religion, it must lead to debate and then conversion. What other approach could you take, they reason, when everything about the co-worker’s religion is from the devil? That’s the perspective usually held for every religion except Christianity and Judaism.

To the liberal Christian reader, I ask, “Can or should we try to evangelize members of other religions?” And to the conservative Christian reader, “Can we learn anything from other religions?”

LIBERAL CHRISTIANS
--Should we evangelize people in other religions?

Typically, liberals have several objections to evangelizing members of other faiths. The first is that they are already saved in their own ways, since all religions have the same goal and so lead to God.

There are several problems with this belief. First, it is not clear that all religions share the same goal. Theravadin Buddhists do not believe in God, and so have no desire to meet him. The same is true for disciples of (Hindu) advaita vedanta who believe they are one with Brahman. They do not believe in a personal God either, and are seeking the end of individual existence. These goals are light years from what Christians seek—union as individuals in love with the three persons of the Trinity. Each of these religions has its own mountain, and each peak is very different and far away from the others.

Another problem is that the New Testament makes it very clear that union with the Trinity comes only by Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “No man comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Peter declared, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). John announced, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:12).

As far as the apostles were concerned, there is no other Savior, and no other way to God but by Jesus. There is no salvation through other religions. There is no way to the true God except by knowing Jesus Christ. Some theologians in the early church thought people in other religions might be saved, but it would be in spite of their religions, not because of them. It would be only through the life and death of Jesus and by accepting the gospel in some way and time that God only knows—at the point of death, or in the millennium, or some other way. In other words, they would have to recognize that their religions were not the way to the fullness of God, and that Jesus is the only path to God (for more on this concept, see “God’s Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions?” InterVarsity Press).

Therefore, the first answer to this question is that we should not refrain from evangelizing a person of another faith because we think their religion will get them to God. It will never get them to the triune God. They need to hear the good news of Jesus. This alone will get an individual to the true God.

The second answer is that Jesus himself told all of us who follow him to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18-20). This is a command, which he repeated several times (Mark 13:10, 16:15; Acts 1:8).

Liberal Christians might respond, “But some non-Christians have so much truth already.” True enough, but they still don’t know the Savior. Part of the truth is a far cry from knowing Truth incarnate. If we know that people in a village are slowly dying from impure water that has nevertheless been keeping them alive for some years, we will not be satisfied that they have water and are still alive. We will want to get them pure water to stop the dying process. The same is true in religion. We will want everyone, even those who have some water, to get the pure Water of Life that brings wholeness in this life and salvation in the one to come. Lydia in Philippi was already worshiping God, but Paul made sure she heard and accepted the gospel so that she might know the true God in all his fullness—Jesus Christ (Acts 16:14).

When I use the word “evangelism,” I do not mean proselytizing, which is often coercive, rude, and insensitive. True evangelism is when we take the time to make a lasting friendship, listen to our friend’s perspective, offer loving help where it is needed, and humbly and respectfully share the gospel when the Spirit opens the door—not before. I say humbly because we may know we have the Truth in Jesus but we must acknowledge that even we see him only in part and follow him imperfectly. Having Jesus is not the same as knowing him in full or following him fully. I say respectfully because we should talk with our non-Christian friend after we have studied his religion, seen what truth is there, and tried to represent it fairly. Every truth in another religion (such as the idea that there is a God who is personal) will be essentially different from the Christian version that is centered in Jesus. Nonetheless, it is still a truth, if only partial.

CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS
--Can we learn from other religions?

The conservative’s tendency is to view all religions as demonic and therefore have nothing of value. Many conservatives would see little or no use in dialoguing with people in other religions except for the purpose of evangelizing. The reasoning is that if other religions have originated from below, they can’t hold any truths, so what’s the point of talking, unless we’re trying to persuade them that the only truth is in Christianity?

The problem with this perspective is that it can’t be squared with the Bible. For example, Apostle Paul was the premier evangelist and missionary of the New Testament. He agreed with the pagans in Athens (Acts 17) that their own poets had truth, and they had some connection—even if remote—to God. In other words, the Athenian pagans, while mired in religious ignorance, were nevertheless groping for the same God whom Paul knew to be the Father of Jesus Christ. He tells them, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (17:23). Their ideas about God were nearly all wrong, but the object of their misguided worship was still the same God who had revealed himself to Paul as the true and living God.

Paul quoted some of their own poets: For in him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ (17:28). Paul was probably quoting Epimenides (6th cent. BC) and Aratus (4th cent. BC). The astonishing point here is that Paul, who apparently believed Greek religion was abysmally ignorant of the true God, still conceded—in a sermon highlighting Greek religious ignorance!—that the religions had some access to some true notions of the living God.

Conservatives might object, “Are you saying these pagans are saved simply because they have religious truth?” My answer is, “No, not at all.” The Bible is full of people outside of the Kingdom of God who had parts of the truth of God. Remember Balaam, the pagan prophet who eventually led Israel into immorality and idolatry (Revelation 2:14), yet the Holy Spirit used him to prophesy the truth about the future of Israel (Nb 24). Read about the Egyptian king Neco. He is never singled out for moral or religious virtue, yet the Bible says God spoke through Neco and was displeased that Josiah did not listen to the word of God that came through this pagan king (2 Chronicles 35:20-27).

If this reasoning is new to you, don’t get confused. It does not mean Christians would ever learn from non-Christian religions something that contradicts the truths passed down by the historic Orthodox Church. Or that we would learn something new that is not already contained in Holy Scripture. But it does mean that we might see something in the Bible we had never seen before, or at least in that way.

Many times in church history perspectives on the interpretation of biblical truths has been enlightened. One of the first changes in our understanding was in the heated debates of the 2nd through the 4th centuries over Jesus’ relations to the Father and the Spirit. It was only by using concepts and categories from Greek philosophy—which was a religion of its own—that the early church was able to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity. The raw materials of the doctrine were in the Bible already, but it was by learning from another philosophical-religious system that those raw materials could be understood in a systematic way.

We can also learn from people in other religions. I remember Khaled, whom I met in Jerusalem at a conference of Jews, Muslims, and Christians to talk about peace and the land of Israel. We disagreed a lot, made a tiny bit of headway, and forged some friendships. Khaled Abu Ras was a very brave 26-year-old Arabic teacher from Nazareth who looked ten years his senior. In 2001 he and ten other Muslims founded “The Prophetic Tradition Helpers Association,” a moderate Muslim attempt to oppose Muslim “militancy and extremism.” As one rabbi familiar with the group told the Jerusalem Post, this effort by Muslim moderates to speak publicly against Muslim extremists was “very impressive, very brave, and very dangerous.” When I asked Khaled if he was afraid, he replied with a smile, “Every one of us will die at the time God decides, and not one day before.” I was glad to see that he was still alive in the spring of 2007.

The bravery of this man from another religion has inspired me to try to be more courageous in my own Christian life. When I think of how I am hesitant to make public arguments that I know will be criticized, I remember Khaled and his willingness to die for the sake of the truth he professes publicly—because of his faith in Allah. The worst I ever suffer is public contempt, but Khaled faces the possibility of death. I do not share his faith in Allah, but the courage it produces inspires my faith in Jesus to go deeper.

We can also learn from other religious practices. For example, the Dalai Lama’s refusal to hate the Chinese despite Chinese massacres of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan Buddhists has deepened the resolve of some Christians to imitate Jesus’ example of loving His enemies. We Christians see forgiveness through the prism of Jesus forgiving his own executioners, which is different from Tibetan Buddhist reasons for forgiveness. This real-life practice of forgiveness can motivate us to look more closely at our Christian duty to forgive our enemies.

Then there is the Muslim practice of prayer five times daily, most of which time is spent in praise, not in asking for things. There is nothing wrong with asking for things, since the Lord’s Prayer instructs us to, but too often we spend far too little time in praise, not to mention too little time in prayer period. We can learn from Muslims the importance of having set times for prayer, and not to rely on our own fickle sense of when we have the time and inclination to pray.

ONE LAST THOUGHT

Let me close with a final word about our relationships with men and women of other faiths. Paul said our real battle is not against “flesh and blood, but against the cosmic powers of this present darkness” (Ephesians 6:12). That means we should be wary of looking upon people of other religions as our enemies. Our only real enemies—besides sin, the flesh, and the devil—are the devil’s soldiers whom the Bible calls “principalities and powers.” These are spiritual beings who war against God’s Kingdom, and sometimes use other religions to mask their own designs. They also wage war within the church, sometimes too easily pitting Christian disciples against one another.

Our witness as Christians to members of other religions should involve patient conversation, not hostile argument. Plenty of listening and befriending before any attempt to persuade. (There may be exceptions to this, such as when there is a public forum in which Christianity is misrepresented, and we need to speak up before we have a chance to establish friendship.) It means becoming a loving witness to others who sincerely believe they have the truth. We may believe they have been deceived by spiritual forces, but we must also be humble in our sharing, acknowledging that while the Truth has grabbed us, we neither know it in full nor (usually) live it well.

Adapted from Chapter 8 of Gerald R. McDermott’s
Baker Pocket Guide to World Religions
(Baker Books, June 2008)

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Gerald R. McDermott, Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion at Roanoke College, is the author of many books on Christian faith and other religions. He may be contacted at mcdermot@roanoke.edu.