|
| Christian news worldwide |
 Home |
 Archives |
 Subscriptions |
 Adverts |
 Find a church |
 About us |
 Contact us |
 Site Map |
 PrintableVersion By searchingI was brought up without clear direction on what to believe. My parents had rather different worldviews — my dad aligned himself most closely with Buddhism and my mum liked the writings of Richard Dawkins — but they encouraged my brother and I to make up our own minds. At school, I had a Christian friend, Jonathan, who was sometimes the target of my dismissive thoughts about religion. He did cite a book, Who Moved the Stone? by Frank Morison, at the time, which must have sparked some interest, but it wasn’t until years later that I actually ended up reading it as a young adult. My school was nominally Christian — hymns, memorising the Lord ’s Prayer and a moral thought in assembly — but I left school hardened to Christianity, judging it to be boring in practice and arrogant in its exclusivity. Year outAged 18, I took a year out working for British Rail in Derby and set myself the objective of working out my beliefs. Another year-out student, Stephen, was a Christian and we both moved the following year to Cambridge to study Engineering — he was a good friend to me throughout this time. Stephen seemed to belong to another world — he was genuinely involved in his church and he got up early in the morning to pray and read the Bible — so I was drawn to his sense of security and his gentle character. So where did that lead me in my search for God? Religious touristWell, multi-cultural Derby presented an exciting array of religions and world-views to me. While some of my peers were travelling the world in their gap years, I toured some of the world religions on offer where I was. One colleague — a kind man from Persia (not Iran, he assured me!) — introduced me to the Bahai faith, which teaches that the main eight world religions all point to the same God. This was attractive to my liberal worldview and I became increasingly involved in the Bahai community, actually coming within a whisker of becoming a Bahai myself. Only later did I see God’s grace in steering me away from that religion. I also experimented with transcendental meditation and studied a number of other worldviews. My breakthrough came with Islam: I read of the impressive but imperfect founder of Islam removing himself to a place where he claimed to receive revelation from God, but I could see no compelling or miraculous evidence of God’s leading in this. When I learnt how Islam seemed to mix contemporary cultural values with those of existing faiths, my conclusion was that this would be just how I might create my own religion, if I were so inclined. Once I saw this one religion as unconvincing, the idea that all religions needed to be true quickly faded away. Open to ChristianitySo I started my studies at Cambridge more open to the exclusive claims of Christianity, but still with many intellectual objections. That first year I became perhaps the most prayed for non-Christian in the university, attending every weekend evangelistic event that the Christian Union offered. My friend Stephen would often accompany me to the talks, and would always be willing to have lunch with me and talk through any questions I had. I also made friends with Christians in my college and God used them to dismantle my objections one at a time, through books, talks and conversations (Jeremiah 29.13). So, what brought me to Jesus Christ and why did he satisfy my search? One book that I found very helpful was a book on comparative religion by a Christian called Sir Norman Anderson. He showed that all faiths respond to Jesus — after all, Jesus’s huge claims about himself cannot be ignored — and that examining these responses is a helpful way to evaluate the different faiths. The verdicts on Jesus varied from ‘good teacher’ to ‘another prophet’ to ‘one of the gods’, but as I looked at the Bible I saw that these explanations failed to do justice to the primary evidence in Scripture. Another Christian used a Bible study book called Introducing Jesus to walk me through the Gospel of John. This helped me to shift from seeking intellectual satisfaction to responding personally to Jesus’s claims over my life (Matthew 16.15). No more objectionsJesus was unignorable and I couldn’t explain him away, like I could with Joseph Smith or Maharishi, for example. He fulfilled ancient prophecy, he spoke with authority, he lived with total integrity, and his teachings captivated me. So, on May 20 1994, as I walked back in the rain on my own from Grantchester, with all these things in my mind, I realised that I no longer had any objections to Jesus that I could hide behind. The recent words of a preacher echoed in my mind, warning me that ignoring God’s claim on me was saying ‘no’ to him and that ‘no’ quickly became a defining habit. I could see that this time in my life was a time of openness and that now was the time to respond (Hebrews 3.15). So I turned to the prayer in the back of John Chapman’s book A fresh start and used it to surrender and commit my life to Jesus. Other religionsSo how do I see other religions and worldviews now? After 16 years of walking with Jesus, I maintain an interest in other world-views. I think Christians can sometimes approach other worldviews, particularly other religions, with fear. Obviously, we need to be aware of spiritual battles and guard our hearts (Proverbs 4.23), but my experience is that we really have nothing to fear if we walk with Christ. There is no truth to match that of the Bible, and it can actually be encouraging to look at other worldviews to see how incomplete and unambitious they are in comparison with the gospel. Articulating our beliefs is a great way of keeping our faith vibrant (Acts). Multicultural Britain clearly brings its challenges to the laws and integration of our society, but surely this has got to better than Apathetic Britain or Secular Britain, which so often seek to suck the life out of vibrant Christianity. Life-giving relationshipAs a teenager, I saw the multitude of different religions as a strong argument against an exclusive faith like Christianity; but now it no longer surprises me. After all, religion (even false religion) gives people structure and a sense of belonging and clarity in their thinking. Many religions allow people to keep their pride and much sovereignty over their own lives (2 Timothy 4.3-4), so, of course, they’re going to be popular! The other compelling reason I see for a multitude of religions is that the Enemy is out there to confuse and mislead people in whatever way he can (John 10.10a), be it through apathy, secularism, nominal Christianity or false religion. Our challenge (Matthew 28.19-20) is to show the world that following Jesus is not just a religion among a multitude of competing worldviews, but rather a life-giving, sacrificial, exciting, purposeful relationship with him who satisfies our souls (John 1.1-4; 10.10b, Acts 17.25-28). Stuart Parker,
|
|
