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[Newbie]

Do you think that it is possible to have a relationship with God without having faith in Jesus? Say, if there is a Jew or a Muslim who prays to the same God as you, do you think they do not have a relationship with God?

[jimwalton]

If we assume that God is a real being, then we also assume that he cannot be self-contradictory: he can’t be both perfect and flawed, both holy and a sinner, both part of a trinity and not part of trinity, both omniscient and lacking in knowledge, both eternal and limited. If we assume logic in the universe, we have to assume that A cannot equal non-A.

Given that, we recognize that the major religions of the world contradict each other. Islam says it’s blasphemy and impossible that God would have a son; Christianity claims that Jesus is the Son of God. Hinduism says that the soul is God, and each of us is a part of God; Christianity says God is distinct from his creation, and humans are not divine. Buddhism says there is no God or supreme creator; Christianity says Jesus is God and he is the creator.

According to all religions that recognize there is a God, God is personal, not a place, experience, or a feeling. He’s a reality, not an illusion.

In no other field of life do we consider that truth is up to the person and what they believe. Not in math, geography, physics, biology, chemistry, or music is truth what you want it to be. Nor can it be so in theology or religion. Truth has to be true, and all else not-true.

All religions are not the same. Religions do not point in the same direction. Religions don’t even say that all religions are the same. Zacharias says, “At the heart of every religion is an uncompromising commitment to a particular way of defining who God is or is not and accordingly, of defining life’s purpose. Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions, but also a caricatured view of even the best-known ones. Every religion at its core is exclusive.”

So saying, Jesus claimed to be God, which means by necessity that the Jews are wrong in thinking YHWH is not a trinity, that the Muslims are wrong in saying Allah is God and he doesn’t have a son, that the Hindus are wrong because Jesus is God and we are not, and that the Buddhists are wrong in saying there is no God. It’s the law of non-self-contradiction.

And why is Jesus the way, and not one of the others? That’s where we all have to weigh the evidence. In my mind, as I put all the pieces together: the prophecies of the OT, the structure of the Bible, his virgin birth, the miracles he did, his teachings, his death and resurrection, and the changes that have come to untold millions of lives on the basis of their faith in him convinces me.