The speaker has bypassed the question. Awareness of God is nothing to do with the various forms that religions place over this. These are key aspects of each religions traditions as ways of story telling and sense making, in other words steps on a journey. Christian faith may lead someone to awareness of God just as Muslim faith, Hindu, First Nation, Aborigine, or Pagan . Their stories and teachings may be mistaken as exclusive taught truths in themselves, but no the various faith stories lead towards personal awareness they are not awareness of God. Holding the view that the Jesus story is the only truth misses the mark. Imagine someone with an awareness of God who lived 5000 years ago and spoke a language that has died out. That person may have had a religion or may not, their journey towards God stories are lost to us, but that human being was known to God , had a lived experience of God, and visa versa. Human beings have lived and worshiped authentically for hundreds of thousands of years, not just two.
Dear Roland,
Thank you very much for getting in touch with us to share your own beliefs on the subject. I greatly appreciate that.
As I hope that I had made clear in my talk, all religions are not the same, and it is important for us to understand and respect each others beliefs. This subject touches on one of those big differences.
Your belief is that all religions are, in their own way, a seeking after the divine. This is a profound truth which Paul picked up on when debating with a Pagan audience in Athens. This is the Bible’s account of that (Acts 17).
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
In summary, Jesus made exclusive claims – “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Christian has a responsibility to present that message (hopefully in a helpful and appropriate way), leaving the hearer with a clear choice as they decide their own response.
The speaker has bypassed the question. Awareness of God is nothing to do with the various forms that religions place over this. These are key aspects of each religions traditions as ways of story telling and sense making, in other words steps on a journey. Christian faith may lead someone to awareness of God just as Muslim faith, Hindu, First Nation, Aborigine, or Pagan . Their stories and teachings may be mistaken as exclusive taught truths in themselves, but no the various faith stories lead towards personal awareness they are not awareness of God. Holding the view that the Jesus story is the only truth misses the mark. Imagine someone with an awareness of God who lived 5000 years ago and spoke a language that has died out. That person may have had a religion or may not, their journey towards God stories are lost to us, but that human being was known to God , had a lived experience of God, and visa versa. Human beings have lived and worshiped authentically for hundreds of thousands of years, not just two.
Dear Roland,
Thank you very much for getting in touch with us to share your own beliefs on the subject. I greatly appreciate that.
As I hope that I had made clear in my talk, all religions are not the same, and it is important for us to understand and respect each others beliefs. This subject touches on one of those big differences.
Your belief is that all religions are, in their own way, a seeking after the divine. This is a profound truth which Paul picked up on when debating with a Pagan audience in Athens. This is the Bible’s account of that (Acts 17).
In summary, Jesus made exclusive claims – “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Christian has a responsibility to present that message (hopefully in a helpful and appropriate way), leaving the hearer with a clear choice as they decide their own response.
I hope this is helpful.
With my very best wishes to you,
Mike