A pressing challenge for Australian Church leaders

By Paul Arnott

March 2004

Recently a senior Anglican clergyman shared with me his concern about what he perceives to be a growing trend in Anglican churches around Australia. He is someone who has been involved for many years in training clergy and has had the opportunity to observe closely a number of churches in different parts of Australia. He tells me that a significant number of Anglican clergy have stopped running any kind of training for people in their churches. Why? Because, he believes, they are afraid of appearing to teach that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. He suggests that clergy are fearful of being accused of religious intolerance. Certainly since September 11th in particular many Australians have become more vocally critical of any group or individual appearing to foster religious bigotry of any kind.

A decade ago Graham Cole, then Principal of Melbourne’s Ridley Theological College, predicted that Christians would have to defend more and more rigorously the uniqueness of Christ. Over the past ten years I’ve detected a growing truculence in non-church Australians towards anyone who dares to suggest that Jesus Christ may be the only way to the Father: “How dare you Christians be so arrogant to claim that there is only one way to God? Can’t you see that there are many paths to God?” The issue is being played out in both the East and the West. The issue in the East is expressed differently, but it’s still the same issue. The Muslim believes that the final revelation of God was given through Mohammed, not Jesus Christ. However, as Christians, we believe that God was perfectly revealed in and through Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity.

There is also a thoroughly secular denial of the uniqueness of Christ, that has become more apparent in recent years, which suggests that everyone will end up in heaven. We saw this earlier in the year when David Hookes was killed outside a Melbourne night club. Friend and fellow cricket commentator Gerard Healy articulated the woolly thinking of many Australians about eternity when he suggested that “Hooksie will be in heaven arguing with the apostle Peter.” Many of us want to ask: “Why do you imagine that the soul of David Hookes is with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven? Did he show any evidence of having put his trust in Jesus in this life?” But we don’t respond in this way because we are afraid of being seen to be uncaring and judgmental. However, knowing how to help people to avoid spending an eternity without Christ, but failing to tell them, is far from caring.

The plain message of The Passion of Christ and indeed the core message of the gospels is that Jesus Christ died to pay the price for our sin to make us right with the Father. Anyone who gives a second thought to what Jesus did will work out that it’s a two way transaction: He gives his life for you and you in turn live you life for him, which means change/repentance/going God’s way not your own. The issue of the uniqueness of Christ/Christ is the final and perfect revelation of God, will increasingly become the ISSUE for us as followers of Christ. Our effectiveness in evangelism and mission ultimately depends on our clarity about this issue and our courage to affirm in the face of opposition that there is only one Way to God.