Last week I spent a long time talking to a single friend of mine. She is in love with a talented and sensitive man. He is caring and kind. For years he lived alone in the mountains of the Philippines where he cared for the very poor. Now he is getting his doctorate at a famous school in Manila. He is studying Karl Marx because, although he believes Christianity works for some, he doesn’t believe it works for everyone. Last week this man told my friend that he believes that there are many ways to God — the Bible, the Koran, the Catholic Church.
My friend was shaken. “You are a pastor,” she said, “and yet you don’t believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven? If Jesus isn’t the only way to heaven, then we don’t need a Savior.”
He answered, “It is you who doesn’t understand, Katharine. You haven’t been there. You haven’t seen them. If they won’t accept the church, will you condemn them to hell? I found words aren’t enough. You have to live your faith. You have to walk your faith. You have to stay there and day by day make it real to them. Otherwise no one listens. Don’t you see preaching isn’t enough?”
My friend said, “Kim I don’t know what to do to show him the Bible means what it says. Good or bad we cannot put our own interpretations to it.”
“Katharine, he just told you. He just told you what it will take to make him see.”