The Truth: Jesus Said, "I AM The Way!"

7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came [a]before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a [b]hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

John 10:7-18

Jesus makes it clear that He is the only Way to God. There is no other way, not even through religion.

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SW-User

Hi there, I see that the calvary has arrived...😀. Just to say that such words as you quote are well known to all Universalists and those who recognise that the Way is found in the Universal Christ and not simply in, or through, "Jesus". Maybe you should seek to expand your own knowledge of Christianity in its full width and depth. Open your heart to a Biblical hermeneutics not restricted to Protestant Reform Theology.

"Truth" is never ours, we are not its mouthpiece. There is the [i]Living Word[/i] which blows where it will. You mistake a text and your own time conditioned understanding of it for the Living Word.

All the best.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@SW-User [quote]"Truth" is never ours,[/quote]

You're right. Truth belongs to God and He shares it with those who seek Him out.

SW-User

@GodSpeed63 Truth is shared, never divided.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@SW-User [quote]Truth is shared, never divided.[/quote]

I'm glad we agree, Sam.

SW-User

@GodSpeed63 Possibly you do not see the implications. At least from its "eastern" perspective.

"The Tao can be shared but never divided"

(The word Tao is used in Chinese translations of the New Testament, as in "In the beginning was the Tao" from the beginning of the Gospel of St John. It is fairly obvious that those in the east who have known of the Tao from childhood would appropriate and open to the words, understand the words, in a dissimilar way to a person groomed by Protestant Reform theology, reading "In the beginning was the Word." (Give the Tao te Ching a read) Yet [i]"truth" would not be divided[/i] Shared, but not divided.

As I see it, with your own insistence upon just "one way" (your own) all according to your own specific time conditioned understandings, you in fact divide the truth.

There really is the Living Word, which is other than the Word as text. The Universal Christ, not just "Jesus". The spirit blows where it will, and is not confined within Protestant Reform Theology.

All the best.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@SW-User [quote]As I see it, with your own insistence upon just "one way" (your own) all according to your own specific time conditioned understandings, you in fact divide the truth. [/quote]

It's not my way that leads to God, it Jesus' way that leads to Him. Jesus said that we must be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God, we must be born of water and the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God. It's in John chapter 3. Look it up.

SW-User

@GodSpeed63 You simply do not understand. You are unable to distinguish between YOUR way and God's way.

It is not a matter of "looking it up". The "way" to Christ is NOT restricted to the dictates of your interpretation of the New Testament, which is simply that of a time conditioned Protestant Reform Theology.

All the best.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@SW-User [quote]You simply do not understand. You are unable to distinguish between YOUR way and God's way.[/quote]

According to whom?

SW-User

@GodSpeed63 According to the arguments I have presented. You attempt to confuse.

But all the best.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@SW-User [quote]According to the arguments I have presented. You attempt to confuse. [/quote]

Forgive me, Sam, it's not my intention to confuse you. I'm just getting at the Truth is all. No, it's not my Truth; no one can own the Truth but God alone.

SW-User

@GodSpeed63 I am not confused. I was simply referring to your predictable way of entering and bringing in the paradox of "by whose authority".

Many will resist any attempt to be catergorised, insisting upon being simply "of the truth", the "true Christian". And "the Lord knows His own"; those to be found throughout Christendom. Safe within their enclave of what amounts to no more than self-justifications of the ego. In effect denying Christ to any who might seek to disagree or call anything into question.

[i]But the magicians keep turning the Cross to their own purpose. Yes, it is for them too a sign of contradiction: the awful blasphemy of the religious magician who makes the Cross contradict mercy. This of course is the ultimate temptation of Christianity. To say that Christ has locked all doors, has given one answer, settled everything and departed, leaving all life enclosed in the frightful consistency of a system outside of which there is seriousness and damnation, inside of which there is the intolerable flippancy of the saved - while nowhere is there any place left for the mystery of the freedom of divine mercy which alone is truly serious, and worthy of being taken seriously.
[/i]

(From "Raids on the Unspeakable", Thomas Merton)

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@SW-User [quote]I am not confused. I was simply referring to your predictable way of entering and bringing in the paradox of "by whose authority". [/quote]

Then why did you say that I was attempting to confuse you?

[quote]Many will resist any attempt to be categorized, insisting upon being simply "of the truth", the "true Christian"[/quote]

There are two groups of Christians, Sam: those that are true believers in Christ and there those religious people who call themselves Christians but are not true believers. Which Christians are you referring to?

SW-User

@GodSpeed63 Please! I said I would not respond again, but you ask direct questions. It would be rude to ignore them

Answer 1:- Simply put, an "attempt" is not actually to succeed.

Answer 2:- I was referring to you, irrespective of "true" or "false" (which is your own mode of thought)

(Your own avoidance of truly addressing any point being made is why I shall this time not respond, direct questions or not)

Thank you.