Kreitsauce's Musings

The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ: Way, Truth, and Life

by kreitsauce on Feb.24, 2009, under Atheism, Bible, Doctrine, Islam, Pantheism, Philosophy

The latter part of John 6 tells of a fascinating event in the life of Christ. The crowd is following Jesus, hoping to see another miracle, to taste again of the bread supplied by a miracle.

“If you want life, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood,” said Jesus.

“This is a difficult saying. How can we accept it?”, said the unbelieving multitude. They hadn’t expected this. They had been looking for a free meal. The miracles had become the point of their time with Christ, and Christ Himself had become the means of their “bread and circuses.” Jesus had been trying to get them to focus on their spiritual need but the unbelievers couldn’t see it. They only wanted more of the same. They wanted to have their desires fulfilled without having to deal with God. Of course, Jesus knew that one more meal wasn’t going to bring true happiness. C. S. Lewis once wrote: “All that we call human history–money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery–[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

God has not designed the universe to work in this way. He has designed human beings in such a way that the ultimate and deepest satisfaction you and I can partake of is in Himself. There may be other delights in this world, but they are mere hints and whispers of a far greater joy. If we choose to reject God as our ultimate joy, to paraphrase Lewis, we have no choice but to starve.

Life must be about more than consumption and reproduction. Those motives that are supreme in the Darwinian worldview don’t provide lasting satisfaction and fulfillment. Perhaps that is why, in a recent study, only around 40% of Americans admitted to buying into the lie of evolution. There seems to be something instinctive within the human psyche that drives them to seek satisfaction outside of those basic physical needs. Humans want expression and knowledge, love and passion, acceptance and significance. They want Truth in all areas. They want the Sacred.

“I am the Bread. I am the Way. I am the Life. I am the Door. I am the Vine. I am the Light. I am the Shepherd. I am the Resurrection…..I am the Truth.” Jesus makes statements throughout the book of John which tell us of His ability to meet our needs. It is this last claim, the claim to BE Truth, which is so profound and so unique that it distinguishes Jesus forever from any other god that may be raised up in the temple of the mind.

In every other world religion, there is a distinction between the source of the truth claim and the truth claim itself. Krishna offers philosophy and mysticism, but he is not the philosophy itself. Mohammed points to the Koran, but Mohammed the person is not the vaunted truth. The Muslim does not turn to Mohammed himself in worship and obedience. Buddha speaks of a “Noble Path”, but he himself is not that Path. Buddha is the teacher, not the supposed reality behind the teachings. At their very best (the points at which these religions make some accurate statements regarding morality and reality), these religions are like an HIV test. The test reveals the problem, but cannot treat the disease.

Jesus, in contrast, was both the Message and the Messenger. He did not merely teach truth. He is Truth. He did not show a way. He is the Way. (Deepak Chopra recognizes the unique union of Message and Messenger and must make up some pretty weird ideas to get around it.) Life in Christ, in contrast to materialism, is not merely about consumption and reproduction. It is about who we are (our natures) as humans made in the image of God, our new position and relationship as children of God, and our destiny as believers. Our greatest hunger is to be filled with awe and love, to experience celebration, and to commit ourselves to Him. Our greatest hunger is fulfilled in living a life of Sacred Worship.

Hinduism says that I must nurture the god within because I am part of the divine universe. Islam says that I am so different from Allah that I will never really even get close to him. Jesus says that the God- Who is distinct from His creation and from Whom humanity was estranged- has come near. Instead of union with the universe or separation from Allah, God offers us communion through Jesus Christ His Son.

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4 Comments for this entry

  • nitwitnastik
    February 25th, 2009 on 12:56 am

    Kreit..

    1. So evolution is a lie huh?…hmmm…interesting…wonder if the kent hovind and the discovery institute is the source of that information..:-)..btw just because 40% believe in something doesn’t make it a lie..I am sure 90% people don’t understand semiconductor physics or einsteins general theory of relativity..but .that doesn’t make it false..

    2. You may want to try reading the bhagavad gita before you write about krishna..I am not sure where you are getting your information..but they don’t seem to be correct…

    if you talk to Hindus they will tell you that hindus actually consider krishna the source of the Ultimate truth…here are the verses from the 10th chapter of the bhagavad gita….it may not be a good point to start reading the gita as you will be missing the context but atleast it will tell you something..

    http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/chapter-10.html

    here is krishna instructing arjuna, the warrior, about the nature of TRUTH and saying that he is the not only the bearer of truth but he IS the ultimate truth…he is not only the messenger but he IS the message himself..the cause behind all causes…

    I know most Christians deny that and come up with their own interpretations of the verses or try to find other errors in the gita to prove these statements false….because any book which shows anyone other than Jesus to be THE ONE has to be false ..Jesus has to come out ahead..right?…well I won’t argue about it..becuase for me both are false..mere imaginations of primitive men..but I will let you decide for yourself…

    Reply
  • kreitsauce
    February 25th, 2009 on 6:19 pm

    Lol, if you can call faith “blind”, why can’t I call evolution a “lie”? Where’s that information come from?

    Anyway, to the point. I’ll readily admit that my knowledge of Eastern religions is very much classified as a work in progress, at least compared to my knowledge of “The Big Three”, if you take my meaning. However, I have found some interesting things out about Hinduism, which I think relate to our discussion:

    1. Hindus are divided somewhat between a pantheistic and a theistic view of Krishna, if you can use those terms accurately. Because they can’t decide if Krishna wields karma as an instrument of reward or punishment or if he is simply a form of Brahman with no real power over karma. Christianity, on the other hand, has always maintained that Jesus is God in human flesh. He is way, truth, and life in every meaning of the word. Krishna is not that kind of guy, regardless of his claims.
    2. In the Gita 9, 7-8, Krishna states that he must (avasham prakriteh vashat, lit. = “automatically, under the obligation of prakriti”) repeat the cycle of creating and ending physical reality. Rather than being the Word that creates simply because of His will, Krishna seems to follow this pattern because the pattern is superior to himself.
    3. Krishna seems to be an advocate of moral relativism in his life (lookout, milkmaids and wives) and in his philosophy. He advocates equating dogs and elephants with humans (5, 18). He also says that murder isn’t really murder if you do it for the right reasons (18, 17). Finally, Yudishthira had to do what Catholics might call penance to take care of his misdeeds, while Arjuna is essentially let off the hook because he of his detachment (for lack of a better word) from this world. Meanwhile, Jesus is an advocate of absolute morality and Truth, while Krishna’s actions and philosophies undermine the very nature of truth.

    I’d say they aren’t anything alike.

    Reply
  • nitwitnastik
    February 25th, 2009 on 9:43 pm

    Kreit,

    LOL !!..I knew it. In fact I told you in my comment that you will try to find your own logic why krishna is not the ONE and you just proved me right. That is fine with me bcoz I can’t care less about krishna or jesus either way…

    See, how your are trying to find your own meanings into the gita just to prove Krishna is not the truth, but when atheists try to find different meanings in the bible you blame them of misinterpreting the bible. That can hardly be called fair. Maybe you should try to read some of the commentary of the bhagavd gita by learned scholars like prabhupada – the guy who started ISKCON

    Aren’t you using two different benchmarks for krishna and christ. If Christ says he is the truth that is OK but if krishna says he is the truth that is a hindu bias.And aren;t you assuming that your version of what God can
    and can’t do is better than the hindu version of what God can and can’t do.

    Btw, I think your idea of brahman is not the correct one if hindu scholars are to be believed. I don’t have time or space to explain it here but I suggest you talk to any hindu scholar or read the works of vivekananda to understand more about the hindu concepts of brahman or things like karma etc.

    Btw, my discussion with christians have made me believe that not all sects of Christianity consider Jesus as god in the human flesh. I maybe wrong but that is the impression I got. And every Hindu I have known in my life considers Krishna to be god in human flesh. I have never come across anyone who believes anything other than krisna being the way, truth and life, so who is to be believed – Hindus or christians?

    2. Hindus will tell you that your interpreation of 9: 7-8 is incorrect. Frankly I think all these interpretations of Bible and Gota are ludicrous creationist jokes but hey i am just wicked agnostic, so who cares !! ;-)

    Here is the allegedly correct interpretation by Prabhupada

    http://www.asitis.com/9/7.html
    http://www.asitis.com/9/8.html

    3. Well as for your comments about moral relativism, Hindus will say that you are misinterpreting Krishna. krishna did not mean that. Hindus will also claim that Jesus was weak that is why he couldn’t save himself and didn’t he condone murder by allowing himself to be crucified? I know you would say that is a misinterpretation but aren’t you doing the same thing?

    Frankly I can’t care less as I don’t care much about bronze age characters and their morality anyways and it will be a waste of my time to discuss about it. I have wasted enough hours of my life pondering on those questions so I will not waste any more time on it now. However, if you want to debate about it there are lot of ISKCON websites where you can post your question and let the hindus answer your question

    take care kreit..I am off to my daily workout :-)

    Reply
  • kreitsauce
    February 25th, 2009 on 10:49 pm

    Lol, and I knew you would say something like that!

    Look, I know that I’m out of my league here. It’s true that I don’t know what textual/philosophical hoops have to be jumped through to make some of the stuff that I read work out to be a positive thing for Hindus. I do know that they worship creation instead of a Creator, their texts- by their own admission- have been changed, added to, and lost in some cases, and the morality put forth is skewed into justifying that which is immoral. I don’t see that as an interpretation issue.

    You don’t have to answer the following paragraph (or anything I write for that matter I guess), but I do have some problems with what I’ve been reading concerning Hinduism:

    I did read the links you sent my way, but I have to say I just don’t get it. Brahma lives and dies (something the God of Heaven does not do) only to be reborn and bring forth another cosmos “when there is need to manifest the cosmic world.” Where does this need come from? The God of Heaven does not have any such need, else He would be less than perfect. As for Vishnu’s supremacy as creator, he creates only to step back from his creation. If this is so, why does he need an avatar in Krishna? Krishna is portrayed in the Gita as personable and interested in living things, but that is not what Vishnu is like. Is the avatar of a different personality than the god in Hinduism?

    Perhaps I’ll take that up with ISKON though….

    Christ is truth because He lived truth, taught truth, and is truth in His being. He is the single most consistent Individual in all of religious literature. I can’t imagine a Christian not believing that Jesus is God in human flesh and still calling himself a Christian. He gave Himself to die. That was His choice as the sacrifice for mankind.

    Reply

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