Other religions I - The Search for God ...

Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010. Religion is the search for God, the search for the ultimate being, the search for the things behind the things.

Christianity has found God in the texts of the Old Testament, in the history of Israel, in the words of wisdom and words of encouragement which are given by the Book of Psalms, and then in Jesus and the words spoken by the apostles. The key impulse of Christianity is: see, what we have found! Come and see! Come and believe yourself!

Love people of other religions

First of all, Christians respect other religions. Love your neighbor is a key command of Christ, and someone who does not show sincere love for both neighbors and enemies cannot claim to follow Christ. As Christians we are bound to love. We are bound to love our Muslim neighbors as well as people from Buddhism or Hinduism. Love the people!

The history of Christianity is partly full of war and blood. We need to state that institutionalized Christianity did not follow the commands of Christ. People have been forced into a particular faith, even into a particular shading of Christianity. They have been heavily punished for any view which did not fit into the philosophy of rulers or kings - and the church often did not protest! We will talk about the difficult chapters of church in history and church today on another day. Today we just need to know: a Christian is bound to love - his brothers as well as his enemies.

Speak wise words

When we talk about other religions, we need wise words. It is clear, that Christianity will not support the teachings of the Koran or the teachings of the Veda books of hinduism. From our perspective, the statements there are just not what we think to be reality. They might have some roots in reality, like taking the spiritual world serious, but they are not the truth in the sense in which Jesus is the truth. Our experiences and ideas about who and how God is are different.

So when we talk with or about other religions, we need wise words. We don't judge the others, though we have clear ideas about what we think is true and wrong. So we will disagree about many things, some details, but also some very important basics and principles about life and our reality. Our task is to invite the others to discover Christ as we have discovered him. We will be open to listen to the others with their ideas about God. But we might also have our ideas about what is written in the different books of the world religions.

In all of this we should not forget: even if we disagree, we should love one another! ... more texts