Punctum Saliens

Jesus didn’t say, “I am a Way, a Truth, a Life,” did He? Therefore, Jesus is the ONLY way to God.

Have you heard that one before?

But what if Jesus was not talking about himself as a person or as a god/man. What if he was talking about what he represents?

For example, when J.F.K. gave his immortal speech in which he said, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” was he talking about J.F.K. and only J.F.K.? No way! (I just love unintentional rhymes, don’t you?) He was using himself to represent everyone in the United States, if not the world. This is classic synecdoche. (Which, by the way, is not a city in New York. Lost a ten-spot on that bet!)

Why could Jesus not have been employing synecdoche? Yes, Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life. But it’s not the “THE” that’s the issue here. It’s the “I”. Jesus was singling out himself as an example because that was the only example anyone he was talking to could understand. But if you put Jesus into a larger class with Buddha, Brahman, Atman, etc., then Jesus was referring to all of them as being THE Way, yada yada yada.

“Whoa!” you shout. “Buddha was a MAN and Jesus was GOD! How can they both represent the same thing?”

Well, when Buddha became enlightened, he became one with God. Just like when a person “accepts Jesus Christ into his heart,” that person becomes a child of God and is indwelt with the Holy Spirit (i.e. God).

And if you accept my premise, it makes perfect sense!

Q: What do some Christians have in common with some atheists?

A: The assumption that the Christian God is the only God and when you speak of god, even in a general sense, you are speaking of the Christian God.

Why?

Because when some Christians say “there is a God,” they really mean “the Christian God exists and is the only god.” And when some atheists say “there is no god,” they really mean “the Christian God is the only god and does not exist.”

I went through both these stages. As a Fundamentalist while I was growing up, the only God in town was the God taught from the pulpit in my church. I didn’t even consider the possibility of another god. It was unthinkable! Then, starting in my college years, I became disillusioned with God as taught from the pulpit in my childhood church. I said, “that God is a crock of horse pucky; ergo, there is no God” and promptly threw religion — in general and as a whole — out the window because I was still brainwashed into thinking that the only god in town was the god taught from the pulpit in my childhood church.

Years later, I’ve come around to realize that the God as taught from the pulpit in my childhood church can be a crock of horse pucky but that does not mean that there is no God. I need not throw all religion out the window. I need not even throw all of Christianity out the window for there is a huge chunk of Christianity that was not taught from the pulpit in my childhood church.

I like to think that I’ve “grown up.” I no longer express that knee-jerk reaction to one aspect of Christianity which only resulted in a complete purge of everything and everyone who even mentioned the word god. Now, I realize that “Christianity” does not necessarily mean The Christianity I was taught as a child. There are other aspects to Christianity and so the Christian God is not necessarily The God I was taught as a child. I can reject the one without rejecting them all.

I hope that all atheists — and all Christians — will someday come to realize the same thing.