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From: daveh@tekcrl.labs.tek.com (David Hatcher)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Sorry folks, it's NOT all relative.
Message-ID: <Sep.23.02.47.45.1990.4971@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 23 Sep 90 06:47:47 GMT
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  Everything boils down to the following quotes. So to keep this posting
  short and the subject focused I am passing over all of the other stuff
  that Tim wrote.

In article <Sep.18.04.51.03.1990.9369@athos.rutgers.edu> timh@linus.uucp (Tim Hoogasian) writes:
>I noted in another post that by Christ's yardstick, this is a moot point.
>Christ claimed Uniqueness:  "*I* am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  NO
>ONE comes to the Father, but by Me."
 
  And....
>                                      But on the other hand, let us just
>suppose for a moment that what Christ says about being the ONLY way is
>the literal truth.  What position does that then place the Christian in
>when he comes in contact with those who suggest that it is NOT the truth?
  
  I've been wondering the same thing, especially when there are so many
  from other spiritual traditions who also know and live with in
  the Grace and Glory of God just as much an *any* Christian does.

  How could this be possible when the popular "literal interpretation"
  says otherwise? Think perhaps that there is a *spiritual*
  interpretation here that can not be seen because of a blindness 
  caused by a focus on only the literal interpretation? I do.

  And rather the Christian likes it or not, people all over the world
  who are not Christian are ALSO very much aware of the presence of God,
  AND living with in His Grace and Glory. So, yes, I agree with you in 
  that many Christians may be put into a position where they have to
  rethink what they believe is and what is not truth.

  The jest of all of this is that God works in many wonderious ways.
  And some of those ways in which God works just may not be with in
  the bounds that most (not all) Christians are familiar with.
  
  The Glories and Grace of God are boundless. Boundless has no bounds. 
  And neither does God. I point to the saints and ordinary people of 
  religions other than Christianity whom ALSO know God as proof of 
  that point.
  

	David Hatcher

                In fact one of the great challenges confronting modern
                Christians is that of experiencing Christ in a non-Christian
                culture. Precisely because Christianity claims to be a
                universal religion we cannot shirk this challenge.
                                             William Johnston
                                         _The Inner Eye Of Love_