are you right?

How could there be just one true faith? It's arrogant to say your religion is superior and try to convert everyone else to it. Surely all religions are equally good and valid for meeting the needs of their particular followers."

This is one of the biggest arguments people have against Christianity. We insist we're right... which means we think everyone else is wrong. It's true. And it comes off as wee bit egotistic (insert sarcastic tone here).

Is it intolerant to insist that one faith has a better grasp on truth than all the others?

Hardly. Truth is truth.

And different faiths believe different things...that's why they're different faiths! The person who says "Jesus is God's son" and the person who says "Jesus was just good moral person" can't both be right. The person who says that God is a personal God and the person who says that He's just some force out there, can't both be right. Sorry, but Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity do not teach the same things. The Branch Davidians (think David Karesh) have a very different view of God than everyone else. We can't all be right. And whoever's not right is, well, wrong.

Here's the irony of the matter. Which is more arrogant and intolerant? To insist that Christianity (or any faith) is absolutely true or to insist that God doesn't exist (or at least that you can't know if He does or not)? By claiming that a certain faith is being arrogant and intolerant in saying they're right about God, you've become arrogant and intolerant in saying that YOU'RE right about God. At the very least you're saying they have no right to insist on any view of God, even though you're insisting on your view that God can't be figured out. It is no more narrow to claim that one religion is right than to claim that they're all equal. We are all exclusive in our beliefs about religion, but in different ways. All statements about God, whether for Him or against Him, are profoundly religious in nature.

If you insist that no one can determine which beliefs are right and wrong, why should we believe what you are saying? The reality is that we all make truth-claims of some sort and it is very hard to weigh them responsibly, butwe have no alternative to try to do so.

So how can you know for sure? There are SO many opinions out there...who's to know which one is right? Is it even possible?

First of all, realize that our thinking about who God is and how He works doesn't actually change Truth. God is who He is regardless of what people think about Him. Misunderstanding Him doesn't make Him less Him. Believing He doesn't exist doesn't make Him go away, just as believing He exists doesn't make Him any more real.

You can't hide behind the cliche that "there's no way to know the Truth." Everything about you, every decision that you make big and small is all based on what you believe about God. You MUST do the work. You must answer the questions about what's true and false.

Keep in mind though, those of you who believe in and follow Jesus, that this doesn't give you permission to be a jerk. Or to hold your faith over people. Or to insist that there's nothing you can learn from other religions. At the very heart of our faith is a God who died for those who were against Him. A God who displays sacrifice, generosity and peace-making. We should follow in His footsteps, if we are indeed followers of Christ.

Figure out what you believe stand up for it, and then lovingly show others what you've discovered to be true and why.

(This post is very mildly plagiarized from the first chapter in an incredible book called "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller. You should read it.)

Will everyone i love be there?

The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, "Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner . . . Come to the wedding banquet." But they paid no attention and went off-one to his field, another to his business. (Matthew 22:2-5)

Now for a sobering truth, more sobering than any other we have considered.

To be honest, we must understand that not everyone lives happily ever after, not in any tale. This promise of the happy ending-or the new beginning-is only for the friends of God. Many people do not want the life that God offers them.

Remember-he gave us free will.

He gave us a choice.

We seem to forget-perhaps more truthfully, we refuse to remember-that we are the ones who betrayed him, not vice versa. We are the ones who listened to the lies of the Evil One in the Garden; we chose to mistrust the heart of God. In breaking the one command he gave us, we set in motion a life of breaking his commands. (You have loved God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? You have loved your neighbor as yourself?)

The final act of self-centeredness is seen in those who refuse to come to the wedding banquet of God (Matthew 22:2-3). They do not want God. They reject his offer of forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus. What is he to do? The universe has only two options. If they insist, God will grant to them what they have wanted-to be left to themselves.

To be rescued from an eternity apart from God-this is why the rescued ones fall before him at the Great Feast in songs of gratitude and worship. Yes, we will worship God. It won't be like a church service, but we will worship him. We will adore him.

But that day has not yet come.

Until then, the invitation of life stands.

I have set before you life and death . . . Now choose life. (Deuteronomy 30:19)

(Epic, 88 - 92)