THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996 TAG: 9604190062
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Issues of Faith
SOURCE: Betsy Wright
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
WHAT IS The Way? Before answering that question, we need to ask, ``Where is The Way leading?''
At the risk of oversimplification, it might be said that all the world religions, when speaking of The Way, are referring to the destination of salvation. It isn't necessarily that salvation is a place, but it is a state of being. It can be said that ``being saved'' is being safe from harm, being in a state of bliss, being in a state of grace, being at one with God.
For some of the world's religions, The Way to salvation is a prescribed formula of actions.
``The superior man seeks The Way and not a mere living,'' (Confucianism, The Analects XV);
``If you can create things without feeling the need to own them; If you can aid mankind without waiting for reward; If you can learn to act as a leader while men still look upon you as a brother; Then you have learned to travel The Way,'' (Taoism, from poem 10 of the Tao Te Ching).
Other world religions believe that following their founder is The Way. In Christianity, some forms of Buddhism and in Hinduism, the founders are considered divine. In Judaism, Islam and Theravada Buddhism, the founders are emphatically human, distinct from deity.
``I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by me,'' (Christianity, John 14:6);
``Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets,'' (Islam, Koran 33.40);
``Outside the Buddha's dispensation there is no saint,'' (Buddhism, Dhammapada 254);
``I (Krishna) am the goal of the wise man, and I am the way. I am his prosperity. I am his heaven. There is nothing dearer to him than I,'' (Hinduism, Srimad Bhagavatam 11.12).
While Judaism reveres its founder, Abraham, he is not seen as The Way to salvation. God is the sole source of salvation. God's ``way'', or ``the Way of the Lord,'' is observance of the law, or Torah.
Taking all these views in mind, it would be downright deceitful to say all are the same. They are not. And yet there is a similar chord running through all the beliefs about The Way. How do we find that chord? By learning about faiths other than our own.
While it is right to celebrate the uniqueness of our own faith and its beliefs about The Way, we should also be able to appreciate what others have to say on the topic. We should be able to acknowledge that there is truth in all religions. While we may certainly believe that our own faith holds the most, best, greatest amount of truth, it is wrong to say that our faith has all the truth and there is no truth in any other faith.
As a Christian, I believe that Jesus Christ is The Way ( . . . the truth and the life) to salvation. I do not, however, believe that any human can know exactly how - or to whom - that salvation is given. That is God's call.
Why do I believe this? I only have to look at the varied number of ways in which Jesus Christ ``saved'' people during his ministry to know that the ways in which God saves are also varied.
Salvation can come from a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ: Jesus saves the thief hanging next to him at Calvary. Salvation can come through a combination of faith and works: Jesus saves his disciples. Salvation can come from physical healing: Jesus saves the blind man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath. Salvation can come from being convicted of your sins: Jesus saves the woman at the well. Salvation can come from being nourished: Jesus saves the people who came to his Sermon on the Mount. Salvation can come from being rescued from death: Jesus saves a child by raising her from the dead.
When a woman caught in adultery was about to be stoned, some tried to trick Jesus into saying the stoning was wrong. ``What should we do with her?'' they asked Jesus, hoping he'd show his customary compassion and let the woman go. They knew this would also show Jesus to be a law-breaker since the religious law demanded death to adulterers.
Jesus didn't fall for the trick, but saved the woman with his wit and wisdom: ``Let he who has never sinned, cast the first stone,'' said Jesus.
No one dared to even toss a pebble.
Jesus saved the woman, but what he did next always knocks my socks off. Did he demand a profession of her faith in him as her Lord and Savior? Did he demand membership in his religious group? Did he tell her to stop being a Jew and become a Christian? Did he make sure she understood that he was God incarnate? Did he make her beg for forgiveness and confess her sins? Did he rush her to the river for baptism? Did he tell her to give up her worldly goods and follow him, as he'd told others?
Jesus simply said to the woman: ``Go and sin no more.''
He loved her. He knew her sin was hurting her. He did not want to see her in pain anymore. He simply saved her.
Ask me how Jesus - The Way - saves?
He saves in his way, and those ways are many, as are the many he saves.
Who are we to question how or who? MEMO: COLUMNIST'S NOTE
Over the next several weeks, this column will explore varied Issues
of Faith, all through the prism of the concept of salvation.
This is not an attempt to turn this column into a purely Christian
column. This is instead an attempt to get at the heart of that thing
which influences Christians to treat non-Christians with either love and
understanding or with hate and vengeance.
Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her
opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,
150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510; call (804) 446-2273; FAX
(804) 436-2798; or send e-mail to bmw(AT)infi.net. Deadline is Tuesday
before publication. You must include name, city and phone number.
by CNB