What do we say to those who believe there are many pathways to heaven?

Welcome to Ask Pastor Randy, a blog by Pastor Randy Schutt of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. Ask your own question here.


Question
We were brought up with belief that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and our Savoir. We were also taught that Jesus is the gateway to everlasting life. What do we say to those who believe there are many pathways to heaven and that Christians do NOT have the single path?

Pastor Randy Responds
I trust that the verse you are referring  to is from John 14:6 where Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."  This is part of a long section that takes place just after Jesus washes the feet of the disciples, offers his new commandment of "loving one another" and predicts that Peter will deny him.  The disciples are worried, wondering what is going on, and the first words of this section are "Do not let your hearts be troubled".  And the specific words of vs 6 are a direct response to Thomas not understanding where Jesus is headed to.

With that little bit of back ground let me say that this verse has been very important to me for a long time, and for some it is a litmus test of true Christian faith.  But it has become less and less important for many.  I read of a survey from four years ago (knowing that a survey can be found to point us in just about any direction) that said that 52 per cent of American Christians believe that non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life.  That being the case I still cling to those words of Jesus and that he didn't say he was "sort of, or one of, the ways".  While I know I can learn a great deal from other faiths, and respect folks of other faiths, in the end the Christ is the one I believe in.

But for me the key becomes how I express that faith.  There is a need to use it as an invitation and a loving witness rather than as a club and a means of judgment.  I don't decide who gets "everlasting life" (some would say that does not exist anyhow), but I can decide what believing in Jesus as "way, truth and life" means for me day to day, and for me that is more important than who has the right pathway, which is beyond the scope of human understanding anyway.  It is not about definitive proof in the end, but how it affects the way we live our lives now.

If I use the words of Jesus as a point of judgment of others, or to shout someone down if they don't believe the same as me, or to refuse to have anything to do with another who has a different faith, or no faith at all, is to miss the point I believe.  It is precisely because I believe that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life" that I want to try to live out the words he offered just a little earlier in John, that new commandment in 13:34ff, "I give you a new commandment, that you love on another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."  And going back to earlier in John, "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (3:17)

Hope this answers the question to a degree.  This is territory that is made for on going discussion, not a simple answer that says, "that is all there is to say".

Why are apostles speaking "in their own tongues" accused of being drunk?

Welcome to Ask Pastor Randy, a blog by Pastor Randy Schutt of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. Ask your own question here.

Question
I have a question about Pentecost. If the apostles are speaking in other languages that the various people can hear and understand "in their own tongues", why are they accused of being drunk? (I've never heard of drinking too much making it so that the drinker can suddenly be fluent in a foreign language.)

Pastor Randy Responds
Commentaries I have read don't say much about this, so I think the point is, that the "new wine" comment is made by people who can't understand what the disciples are saying, to them another language sounds like jibberish, so they figure they must be drunk.

You are right in saying that someone who is drinking doesn't suddenly become fluent, instead they become more difficult to understand (slurred, unsteady words, etc.).  Critical listeners of the disciples blamed them (the disciples) for their own (critical listeners) inability to understand.

Hope that makes sense.

Pastor Randy

What exactly is meant by "...He descended into hell"?

Welcome to Ask Pastor Randy, a blog by Pastor Randy Schutt of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. Ask your own question here.

Question:
The Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus “…was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead.” What exactly do we mean by “descended into hell” and on what is this teaching based?

Pastor Randy Responds:
The phrase you asked about, "descended into hell" was not even in the oldest form of the creed (which came into being in the middle of the 4th century), but was added sometime later, in the western church not until early in the 5th century. Which probably means it was something folks could not agree on, and in actually still don't agree on today.

Scripture that points to it is found in Matthew 12:38-41 (especially vs. 40), Ephesians 4:9 and I Peter 3:18-20 & 4:6 (which probably gets the most discussion). The argument then is what Jesus did there. I land (personally) on the side that he went there to offer the gospel to all those already dead who had not known of the Christ. Could go round and round on that and I can direct you to other things to read.

A particular Lutheran teaching dances around it. From the Formula of Concord (which came into being in the mid to late 16th century) there are these words, "It is enough to know that Christ went to hell, destroyed hell for all believers, and has redeemed them from the power of death... How this took place is something that we should postpone until the other world, where there will be revealed to us not only this point, but many others as well, which our blind reason cannot comprehend in this life but which we simply accept."

Hope that is answer enough for the moment.