Is Christ Present in non-Christian Religions?

                                                   Is Christ Present in non-Christian Religions?

                                                   By Dr. Juan A. Carmona
                                                   

One of the many issues among the various religious communities is their claim that they have either the highest degree of revealed truth, or a total monopoly on God's truth.  They tend to believe that they and only they have a correct understanding of what God intended to say to humankind.

Christians are no exception to the rule.  With their nauseating overemphasis on the passage of Scripture (John 14: 6) where Jesus claims to be "the way, the truth, and the life," they resort to demonizing and bad-mouthing other faith groups, and to close the door to the slightest possibility that some of these faith groups may in some way unknown to us, experience not only a knowledge of truth, but also, the presence of this very same Jesus the Christ who claims to be "the way."  They almost automatically and mechanically resort to assuming that any religion other than the Christian faith is either totally humanly constructed and generated, or diabolically inspired.  Many Christians dismiss, right from the outset, the need for ecumenical or inter-faith dialogue, because they believe that they have the "truth" sown in their pockets.  As a matter of fact, many Christians will dismiss other Christians outright, because they believe that other Christians don''t have the "right doctrine," or the "right theology," as they understand it and claim to have.

At the risk of sounding like I am compromising or "watering down" the basic claims and tenets of the Christian faith, I respectfully submit that these attitudes of having a monopoly on truth are not only arrogant and presumptuous, but also go against the grain of biblical revelation regarding Jesus.  The picture that we have of Jesus in the both the Gospel accounts and in the epistles and letters of the New Testament, is one of a person who is not bound exclusively by any tradition, including His own, i.e. that of Judaism.

How, then, do we get out of this pickle?   Do we continue to emphasize a Christ-centered approach to salvation and truth, and thereby exclude the slightest possibility that others have experienced truth and the saving grace of Christ in their own communities?  Do we continue to attempt inter-faith dialogue and a mutual commitment to truth-seeking?

This writer humbly and respectfully submits and sincerely believes that Jesus is not restricted to any one faith group or its traditions.  I furthermore submit, that the saving grace and presence of Christ is present in a variety of religious and spiritual experiences. Christ is cosmic, omnipresent, and transcendent. Christ is much bigger than our dogmas and neatly packaged confessions and statements of faith.

May we be humble enough to acknowledge and bow to this Cosmic Christ who says "Come unto me, all of you who labor, and I will give you respite."  This promised rest is not only rest from physical labor, or from the bondage of sin, both individual and systemic, but also from the labor of constructing boxes in which we confine this Cosmic Christ.

In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen!