IS BELIEVING JESUS CHRIST TO BE THE ONLY WAY OF SALVATION NARROW MINDED?
What can a Christian do when they are accused of being close-minded simply because they believe Jesus’ claim that He is the only way of salvation. If you have encountered that kind of accusation yourself, you might be interested in this. Normally people who voice this kind of complaint are not saying the believer is wrong about Jesus. Instead, we are “close-minded” simply for thinking we are right. The great cry of our day is for tolerance. But most people completely misunderstand what the word means. We tolerate people that we disagree with. If I agree with you I am not tolerating you: I agree with you, we are on the same side! Disagreeing with a person does not mean you don’t tolerate them. We tolerate people, what we do not tolerate is ideas. Ideas are to be subjected to discussion and argumentation to see if they are sound. It is completely proper to think that if your view is true, opposing views must be mistaken. How could it be different? For example, if it is true that all religions lead to God, then it is false that only one religion leads to God. It is nonsense to affirm both that there are many ways to God and that there is only one way to God. If one person is correct about something then the opposing viewpoint must necessarily be wrong. Those people who believe that they are correct that “all religions lead to God” are saying that the person who believes that Jesus Christ is the only way is wrong. But they don’t see themselves as being narrow minded even though they are doing the very thing they accuse believers of. It is one thing to be narrow in your belief and another to be narrow minded. Narrow simply refers to the content of any belief. All truth is narrow by virtue of it being true. Narrow-minded is a different story. It means that the person will not consider opposing views, they are discounted without a hearing on the basis of prior bias. Christians can be guilty of this but so are many skeptics. When a person makes this accusation ask them if they are open-minded. In other words, have they genuinely investigated the claims of Christ, or are they simply being narrow-minded. A great preacher of the last century once said that “…the purpose of an open mind is like the purpose of an open mouth. Eventually it should close down on something solid.” Minds, like mouths, should not be continually gaping open. Sooner or later we have to commit ourselves to some beliefs that seem reasonable. Put another way, we don’t want to have our minds so open that our brains fall out.
