Comments on: Who Believes What?

By: Philip Yancey

Philip Yancey — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 23:09:00 +0000

In reply to S. I believe Bill Hybels was addressing those who, without much thought, assume all religions are the same. As the panel showed, they clearly are not. People do make choices, and he was challenging his congregation to investigate the options, both for themselves and also to be more sensitive in communicating to people who make different choices. You're right that salvation comes from God, not our works, but if Christianity is true, it should stand up to the scrutiny of the mind.

By: S

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 20:06:13 +0000

I have a question about this: “Bill Hybels concluded by challenging the congregation to become diligent seekers of the truth, doing the hard work of deciding what to believe and why.” If we have to do a lot of hard work to sort through all the arguments and evidence (which religious scholars have written libraries about and not reached consensus) in order to figure out the truth and decide what we believe and why, then doesn’t that effectively make salvation dependent on our works?

By: Iris L. Trujillo

Iris L. Trujillo — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 11:27:33 +0000

What intrigues me is the time and energy people have spent trying to show otherwise. Just why would they want to do that? There has long been a movement to show that fundamentally all the world’s religions are the same, that at heart they all teach the same lessons. Unitarian-Universalists have played no small part in all this. Recognizing the imperative of religion as both a motivating and dividing force in human history it has been a dream to harness that power in the cause of unity. To show that fundamentally our religions are all the same would go a long way to showing that fundamentally we are all the same. However it just does not work out that, does it?

By: david decker

david decker — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 22:34:34 +0000

hello Philip: I want to thank you for your honest, insightful, self-revealing Books. I have been Blessed by your work and I hope to meet you someday when you are in the Chicago area. I would love to have you as a Guest Speaker at my Church! if you have a monthly Internet News Letter, please add my Email Address to your mailings. thank you Brother and GOD Bless you and your Family!

By: Tim Chesterton

Tim Chesterton — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 10:32:44 +0000

Fascinating. I wonder about varieties of belief within the different religions. I notice that the Christian representative gave answers taken straight out of a popular evangelical view; different Christian traditions might answer some of these questions very differently (my own view, for instance, would focus far more on the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting than ‘spending eternity in heaven’). I suspect the same is true of different groupings within the other religions, too.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 01:38:49 +0000

Wow. I live near Willow (but don’t attend) and after reading this summary I am not sure what I would have done after listening to these folks – my initial reaction is that I would have walked out and said thanks but no thanks to all of them. The Hindu comes off sounding silly. The Buddhist wants his cake and eat it too (I can’t get you to God but I can get you to Nirvana). The Jew was well, an almost stereotypical modern reformed Jew; and The Christian just repeated a lot of dogma that didn’t make much sense without a context (of course that could apply to all of them, right?). The funny thing was that they all lost me when they got to heaven and hell, including the Christian.

I love Jesus. I do my best to serve Jesus every day. And I actually like Willow (some of my best friends go there, really), but I wonder if this sort of stuff really does anything to bring people closer to Jesus.

By: Ramey Zamora

Ramey Zamora — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 22:23:45 +0000

The thinking soul seeks to find knowledge and enlightenment in every expression of human spirituality. It does not cleave to any hardened statement, but lives always in the exhilaration of the spirit that dwells within all things. No god created us, but there is a godhead of spirit that is forever available to anyone for redemption, protection and guidance.

This is why an imperfect world does not have to be assumed to be the creation of a perfect god…there is no conflict between the love that the universal Sacred Source epitomizes and the reality of our still evolving world.

The Sacred Source is available to all to seek it/him/her. Everything that Philip Yancey espouses is as perfectly attainable as our mindfulness of the blessings of the Now. There is no “other world” in my belief system. The “rumors” we hear are echoes from a perfectly attainable present heaven/paradise/eden one need not die to enter and enjoy.

By: Greg Denholm

Greg Denholm — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 05:30:36 +0000

A thought-provoking article, Philip—thanks. It shows clearly that not all religions are the same, for they have not all been conceived for the same reason; they are not all trying to answer the same question or solve the same problem. Pluralism runs into trouble because it insists that diversity is an end in itself; it doesn’t need to be balanced by unity. And fundamentalism runs into trouble partially because it dispenses with diversity altogether—a mistake that creates uniformity, not unity. Only in the God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit do we see diversity and unity held in perfect balance. He is One, and he has become one of us. Only he can unite us to God and to one another without snuffing out our God-ordained diversity.

By: Janice Cartwright

Janice Cartwright — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 19:58:16 +0000

I have to admit to being a little, or a lot, worried that the North American Christian churches may be in danger of blurring the lines between our own faith and that of what we have always considered to be the pagan religions of this world. I do believe we should show grace and acceptance in our personal relationships with those of different a different faith, or no faith at all, else how could we ever win anyone to Christ and His way of sacrificial love. But I guess I’m concerned we could become, bit by bit, a little too open-minded and cross the lines into acceptance of doctrinal error along with our receiving, as individuals, those of different faith. I want to be respectful, loving, but not gullible. My nature, apart from Christ, is to be easily swayed, so maybe this is reaction, a fear of becoming too cozy with anything less than pure unaltered truth.

By: Michael Pedicini

Michael Pedicini — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 15:00:15 +0000

So much to learn from each world religion without compromising our own beliefs when our heart is filled with love you can always find so much in common. As a follower of Christ I find in him the humbleness, love, mercy and compassion of God and this has changed my life. I do not claim to understand totally the mystery of what God accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus but i do know it was for all of mankind and how each person responds is in Gods and their hands I have no desire to speculate.