His name is God. Yahweh. Elohim. Lord Almighty. Adonai. El Shaddai. Sadly, a significant portion of Christian culture today is so worried about offending someone or even being canceled that we have lost our boldness & confidence, & we have compromised with the world.
This past year, I attended a local event supporting a much-needed cause. Before we ate our meal, a speaker whom I didn’t know, & whose name I don’t remember, got up to pray for the food. As this person began their prayer, they didn’t pray the way most Christians do. At least, not most Christians I know. They didn’t pray, “Dear God,” or “Father,” or “Our Gracious Heavenly Father.” Rather, they prayed, “To the source of the universe.” I immediately felt an eyebrow raise on my forehead. If we can’t even agree on whom we are praying to, we are not worshiping the same God. There is one God, one Creator, one “source of the universe,” and that is God Almighty. Genesis 1–2 clearly recounts the creation story, & God is the One who created us. He is the Alpha & the Omega, the beginning & the end. He is the only God.
Now, some may stop reading right here & tell me how intolerant I am & that I should be accepting of other cultures & beliefs. The problem is that I’m not the one who first said Jesus is the only way. Jesus Himself says this! John 14:6 tells us that Jesus is the way, the truth, & the life. Of all the religious figures out there, Jesus is the only One who has defeated the grave, & we have evidence to back that up! Jesus appeared to more than 500 people after His resurrection from the grave. John writes in 1 John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” He doesn’t say that we may think we have eternal life, nor does he say that we may hope we have eternal life. He writes that we may KNOW that we have eternal life!
Now, don’t mishear me. I don’t hate this person who prayed this prayer. I certainly don’t agree with their theology or the fact that they didn’t clearly identify whom they were praying to. My heart was burdened for this person & their church. Yes, this person carries the title of pastor, & I am concerned that they may not be leading their church to the throne of the Father. I do not seek to condemn them; rather, I am burdened for them. As some of you may know, I am a pastor at my local church, & I carry the weight of helping lead my congregation daily. I am not ignorant of the fact that if I am not following God’s Word, I can pull my people away from Him, & that is never my intention. The problem in our culture is that we struggle to agree that there can be only one right answer. Whether it be one way to eternal life, one biblical definition of marriage, or one correct interpretation of a particular text, we often resist the idea of absolute truth.
The reality is that while we may not be willing to accept that there is only one way to heaven (by way of the cross & through Jesus Christ), our unwillingness to accept that fact doesn’t change the reality of it. I can wish there were more than one way, but that doesn’t change the truth.
Think of it this way…Let’s say you’re out in the woods. You get turned around & come out into a field that you’ve never seen before. You notice a local farmer’s pasture along the edge of this field, with a fence line to keep his animals in. You look around. There are no buildings nearby, & there appears to be only barbed-wire fencing around the pasture. But it could be electric. You don’t know for sure whether it’s electric or not. You tell yourself that you don’t want it to be electric, & you can’t find a building where a power source would be housed to charge the fence, so you convince yourself that it must not be electric. But as much as you don’t want to get shocked, or as much as you want to convince yourself that the fence isn’t electric, do your feelings or emotions dictate whether the fence is actually electric? The short answer is no.
The same thing applies to salvation. We may be convinced that God will allow all people into heaven, but our feelings don’t dictate the truth. We can’t be so afraid of what others may think that we water down who God is or what He requires of us. To circle back to the story I started with, at the end of the prayer, this person prayed, “In the name of all things holy.” That was further confirmation of my concern that this person wasn’t clearly identifying whom they were praying to! If you’ve ever heard most Christians end a prayer, they typically say, “In Jesus’ name, Amen.” We do this because it is through Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father. We approach the Father through Him.
I must admit, I am deeply concerned by the condition and direction of the American church. I am not calling out your church, my church, or even the church this person pastors. Rather, I am speaking about the American church as a whole. It is a dangerous thing that some pastors are dabbling in. As a high school Bible teacher, I often remind my students that they need to be in the Word for themselves. They can’t just take my word for it, nor should they blindly accept everything their pastor or mentor says. We need to know God’s Word for ourselves so that if we come across teaching that is not doctrinally sound, we can recognize it because we know God’s Word.
I know this is hard. It is a daunting task. The 66 books that make up the Bible can be difficult to understand, but I have found that the more I study the Scriptures, the more I understand them. The more I study, the more I see how the Scriptures speak to one another, and the more everything begins to make sense. If you aren’t plugged into a Bible-preaching church, or if you’re not part of a weekly Bible study, let this writing today be the sign for you to get involved! There is no guarantee of tomorrow, so don’t delay! I have never heard someone say on their deathbed, “I wish I had spent less time studying God’s Word or less time in church.”Get started today!
As always, pursue Him, honor Him, and glorify Him in ALL you do! Be blessed!
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