Dear Jim Wilson, in order to live in peace and harmony, it is essential for all religions to respect one another and seek common ground while reserving differences. Unfortunately, some religions claim that only their beliefs are true and others are false. As a result, there are endless and unnecessary disputes and wars. As I have been taught, there is only one God in this world, who has representatives in the diverse religions: Jesus in Christianity, Muhammad in Islam, Buddha in Buddhism… Their mission is the same: to help people improve themselves. If everyone accepted this point of view, these diverse religions would be tolerant towards one another, and the whole world would be really blessed.I always enjoy your preaching, and I often find surprising similarities between Christianity and Buddhism in it. For example, similar to what the Bible says (everyone is a sinner), Buddhism teaches that everyone was born selfish and nobody is perfect. Therefore, everyone must look after his own conduct by self-examination, behave properly and improve his character, find pleasure in helping others, and so on. Both Buddha and Jesus teach their followers to forgive others for wrong-doing, to be kind and passionate, and to get rid of all bitterness. I believe in what you have been preaching. However, no way can I accept Jesus as the only God and believe that only Christians can go to the heaven. As you know, Chinese people are great people, and China has a population of 1.4 billion, including at least 50 million Christians. If your preaching were true, more than one billion Chinese, no matter good or bad, would go to hell. Do you think this is fair? If it were fair, I would be happy to go to the hell with the one billion non-Christian Chinese. Let’s keep our different beliefs since we are happy with our own choices. The world is wonderful because of its diversity.
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Dear Friend,
Thank you for your gracious letter. You asked, “Do you think this is fair?” Perhaps your question was a rhetorical one. However, I will answer it this way. The question assumes that “fairness” is the ideal of goodness. If you asked the question this way, “Do you think this is just?” I would answer “Yes!” God is just! God is not “fair.” Fairness is where everyone is treated the same. Justice is where everyone is treated by the same standard, God’s holiness and His absolute standard of right and wrong.
There is another difficulty which I may have caused in my preaching by not making the teaching of the Bible clear.
The primary reason people go to Hell is not that they do not believe in Jesus.
The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:10-11).
We are both in agreement on this truth. The Bible also says, “The wages of sin is death.” This is the reason that people go to hell—sin. Jesus is the solution, not the cause.
Your solution is, “Therefore, everyone must look after his own conduct by self-examination, behave properly and improve his character, find pleasure in helping others, and so on.” If this is the solution, how many people in this world are practicing your solution? Certainly, I tried for the first 20 years of my life, but I failed badly.
Here are a series of questions I have asked many individual people over my years in ministry.
“By your own standard of right and wrong, wherever you got your standard, were you more ‘right’ at the age of four or the age of eight?”
“Were you more ‘right’ at the age of eight or twelve? Were you more ‘right’ at the age of twelve or sixteen? Were you more ‘right’ at the age of sixteen or twenty?”
With very few exceptions, the answer to each question was the younger age. Each person was decaying in his moral actions the older he got.
Then I would say something like this: “You have been going downhill since you were four. What makes you think you will be more righteous at the age of twenty-four? You may not be going downhill as fast, but you are still going downhill.”
When I would get a positive answer for the older age, I would ask for an explanation why he was more moral at twenty than at sixteen. He would tell me that he had received forgiveness and a new life through Christ at the age of eighteen.
The difference in the basic moral standards in the different religions and societies in the world is not great. The same God made everyone, and He created in everyone the knowledge of good and evil.
However, there is a difference in the way peoples see the purpose of the moral law. Most religions say that obeying the moral law is part of the means of going to Heaven.
The other part of salvation is by obeying the distinctives of their particular religion—a pilgrimage to Mecca, a bath in the Ganges at Benares, etc. If salvation depended only on obeying the moral law, no one would go to Heaven.
In the New Testament, obedience to the moral law is not the means to salvation. It is the result of already being saved by forgiveness, because Jesus died on the cross to the take the punishment for my sins.
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26).
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:18-21).
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23).
Salvation is a free gift for 100% of the world’s population. It is not earned, because it cannot be earned. Even if I never sinned again, that would not take care of all my previous sins.
Forgiveness is the only way.
“He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:46-47).
“I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:17-18).
Respectfully,
Jim Wilson
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