I AM THE WAY....
 

"Jesus said I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).


This Verse puzzled me in my Youth, I personally don't think Jesus would say something like this, it seems like Religion Racism.

I wondered should " I found the way, the truth and the life " make more sense. Surely other belief systems have access to ' Our Father ' .

But who is ''the Father''? You gotta believe in that first..

I don't call the spiritual a ''father'' or ''he''..

Amen and awoman!:cool:

Sky123,

I have mentioned this before but for a long time I have chosen to read all of the ‘I am’ statements as...The I AM is the way...etc. One must define the I am as something different than the ego. I choose to identify it as the process of discovering our divinity and oneness with God. Essentially it is the process of spiritual development. This might seem to far into left field for many.......:)

I
 

An addendum to my post.....Paul points to this possibility in Galatians 2:20....”I have been crucified with Christ and I(ego I ?) no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” When one reads the I AM statements put in your mind that Jesus is speaking as the Christ not simply as Jesus the mortal man.

John 14:6 is in harmony with 1 Timothy 2:5 which reads from the NIV translations as:

"For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,"

As for other belief systems having access to 'Our Father'..........

that is easily answered when you look at, for example, Buddhists who do not believe in God.

BigJohn,

That is true but in my mind the umbrella of God is all encompassing.....:). Most of us accept that just having a belief in something does not make it necessarily true...:). I cannot conceive that Buddhists are not children of God. We don’ have to believe that the label of Christian is discriminatory and implies exclusivity......forgive them for they know not what they do perhaps ?.....:)

If a person doesn't believe in God like some Buddhist do...... how would they have a Heavenly 'Father'?

What kind of answer would you get from a Hindu if you ask them about their 'Heavenly Father'?


But if you look at the Original Poster's question, it deal with Jesus being the mediator between God not who is the God/god over their perspective religion.

I know, a friend told me about that ...

@Altair: I have to say a pronoun for God when writing; all authors know that so usually say that from the start...that we all know
He has no gender and is Spirit.
(But I gotta tell ya ---when you have exp'd God up close and personal ---it is so magnificently, gloriously, powerful the whole encounter 'seems' masculine.)
So I understand why civilizations have said 'He'.
BUT!

If someone their whole life worshiped God as the Divine Goddess - I betcha if God visited them He could come as an
Angelic beautiful Goddess/Mother.:smile: Me personally, I am NOT saying 'It'.
I fig if Jesus can say Abba, Father, He ---it's good enough for me. :wink:

@sky, I know, that ONE and only sentence is the cause of so much judgment, finger-pointing, accusations, put downs,
shunning and fear, (you're going to hell), and battles than any other sentence in the Bible, don't ya think?

My concern would be the intent behind the words, of the Christian in question. Some Christians (but Vaishnavist Hindus do this too) play the good cop and use non-aggressive means to gather people of other religions to their own. It's called witnessing. If you search for it you can find out how it's done, ''how to witness a Hindu?'' etc. The whole ''I was once just like you, confused. Then I read a bit about Jesus..'' is a standard line. An easy red flag.

This comes back to that quote Sky has come with.. some may use inclusivist language, but still have an exclusivist goal in mind. You gotta dig to find out about the intent behind the words.