Many Ways to God?
Theme of the Week: Only One Way?
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: "There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them" Acts 4:12.Bonus Reading:Acts 17:23b-34
Early in his address, Paul cited natural revelation, the awareness people carry within them of the divine. This found expression then in rampant pagan worship, and today, in rampant forms of spirituality on every side.
It would have been simple to say—as many Christians find it convenient to say now—that pagans had started down the right road but hadn't traveled far enough. But natural revelation doesn't provide the building blocks for a saving knowledge of God. That knowledge comes from above, in conjunction with Christ and his grace; not from below, in our strivings to make spiritual connections with the larger Whole.
Paul declared the unique truth claims of Christ and rejected all others. His hearers found his message "startling" because they considered Jesus' resurrection implausible. Had Paul conceded that there are many ways to God, his hearers would have been pleased. But he refused to say that the gospel was just another form of the religion already present in Athens. We should too. If we don't, the gospel seems to differ little from the general spirituality now pervading all Western cultures: just another of the therapies and self-help regimes on the market.
—David Wells in Only One Way?
My Response: Do I share the conviction Peter expressed in today's Key Bible Verse?
Thought to Apply: We contribute nothing to our salvation except the sin from which we need to be redeemed.—William Temple (English diplomat & author)
Adapted from Only One Way?, edited by Richard Phillips (Crossway, 2006) by permission.
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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I need Your Spirit's power, Lord, to defend the truth of Your Word while I live out the love of the gospel.
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