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Isn’t it intolerant or even unloving to believe that Jesus is the only way to God?

When it comes to the exclusivity of Christ as a means of salvation, the Bible is emphatic.  In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  While Jesus’ statements about loving others, being humble and turning the other cheek are often hailed today, it is his claims to exclusivity that stir doubts deep within us.  How can this be?  Doesn’t God love everyone?  What about those that lead extraordinarily good lives apart from Jesus?  Are we to believe that they do not end up in Heaven? These doubts are primarily fed by the western culture in which we live.  Overall, morality is viewed as subjective.  While some choose to remain abstinent before marriage, others consider it important to have as many sexual encounters as possible.  Neither, as culture would have it, is wrong.  They are both valid moral stances.  Moreover, there is no religion that has a claim on objective truth.  All religions are equally valid, an
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Doesn’t evolution cast doubt on the idea that God created life and man?

If there is one modern secular belief that causes doubt to arise in the Christian, it is evolution.  Outside of the major religions in the United States, Darwinian Evolution is viewed as fact.  All current life forms have come about through natural selection acting upon random genetic variation. Some Christians have recoiled at this theory and claimed that there is no scientific credence to evolution.  They would like to paint Darwin and those that followed as evil liars and sinners, purposefully misleading the masses in spite of the evidence.  However, this is hardly the case.  The reason evolution causes so much doubt within the Church is that it has substantial evidentiary support. The fossil record is there for all to see.  While all sides admit that there are “missing links” in the fossil record, it at least shows that there have been many species on earth that have been extinct for a long time.  Concurring geologic evidence seems to show that life began very simply and, ov
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With so much evil, can there even be a God?

Evil is the one problem with which we are all well acquainted.  There is no need to prove that evil exists and that people perceive it every day.  Yet, the Christian professes to believe that God is all good and all powerful.  This leads to a problem... a problem that has led countless believers to doubt their faith, and some to abandon their faith altogether.  If God is all powerful, then he should have the power to thwart evil.  If he is good, then he should want to thwart evil.  However, since evil continues to exist, it seems that either the Christian position is simply wrong.   To make matters worse for the believers, the secular skeptic seems to have a good answer at this point.  There simply isn’t a God.  There is no supernatural.  All we have is the natural.  The universe came about by quantum fluctuations resulting in the Big Bang.  On this speck of a planet, life arose and evolved through natural selection acting upon random genetic variations.  In the absence of a goo
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The Danger of Unrealized Doubt

What a person says and does is almost entirely dictated by their beliefs.  What we wear is dictated in part by what we believe about the weather and social norms.   What we eat is influenced by what we believe about nutrition and taste.  How we act morally and how we prioritize our lives is largely motivated by what we believe about which worldview is true.  It is easy to see, then, that our beliefs lie at the very core of who we are. Furthermore, our beliefs have at least three distinct properties.   All of our beliefs have some sort of content.  That is, our beliefs are based on things we take to be true.  Moreover, our beliefs have some measure of centrality.  For instance, I believe the blue whale is the largest living thing, but that is not central to my entire belief-system.  Lastly, beliefs also have strength.  My belief in my own existence is much stronger than my belief that there is water on Mars.  Of these three properties, it is the strength of our beliefs that is
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Introduction to the Doubting Christian

I have long been fascinated with Christian apologetics.  For those that are not aware, Christian apologetics is the practice of defending the truthfulness of the claims of Christianity.  For many Christians, this is merely icing on a cake that has no need of it.  Theirs is a faith of belief regardless of evidence or argument.  For some non-believers, apologetics is a chasing after the wind.  One cannot possibly argue for the truth of something that simply is not true.  Then, there are those who honestly doubt.  They may ultimately believe or they may not, but they have questions and they have doubts. Ultimately, apologetics exist because doubts exist.  For the most part, the art of apologetics has been applied to the doubts of the non-believer.  This is a noble task.  After all, if Christianity is true, then everyone’s eternal destiny is dependent on how they respond to the claims and acts of Jesus of Nazareth.  All believers are called to make Christ known and to make discipl
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