Speaking at a Reality Apologetics Conference, Tripp Almon explains that the claim “Jesus is the only way” is not a subjective preference Christians seek to force on others. It is an objective claim about reality that is either true or false.
Transcript
“That’s arrogant—Jesus is the only way. So arrogant. You uppity Christians. You just want to lord your beliefs over everybody else. Just like you’ve done in the past, you make people be obedient to your systems. You’re just exercising your power over the people. You are the oppressors, Christians. So arrogant.”
All right. I think this is because there is a confusion between subjective and objective. When we say Jesus is the only way, we’re not saying, “I believe it, so you must believe it. This is my truth, and I’m going to force my truth on you. Chick-fil-A ice cream is the best, and you better believe it. And if you say anything else, you’re going to go to Hell. I condemn you to Hell if you don’t believe the way that I believe.” This is, maybe, the way that people hear Christians speak because they are hearing with subjective kinds of ears, because they have been trained, just like many Christians have been trained by our culture, to think this is a subjective kind of claim, when, in fact, no, we’re saying, “Two plus two equals four, and if you don’t believe this, you’re not going to be able to balance your checkbook, and you’re going to be broke. Would you look at this with me?”
You see, this is not our truth. This is not arrogant. It’s not arrogant to think that two plus two equals four. It’s not arrogant to think that Jesus is the only way. That’s just what I think because I believe that it’s true. I believe it is an accurate picture of reality. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we should explore it together.
When someone calls you a name like “arrogant,” it’s always good to go to that first Columbo question, “What do you mean by that?” Ask them to flesh it out. “Oh, I didn’t mean to come across as arrogant. Help me understand. Why do you think I’m arrogant?”
Typically, the response is going to be something like, “Well, you think you’re right.”
“Yeah. I do actually think I’m right. I’ve done a little bit of research on this, but help me understand. You think Jesus is not the only way? There’s multiple options, right?”
“That’s right.”
“And you think you’re right about that?”
“Well, yeah.”
(You see the problem now?)
“How come when I think I’m right, I’m arrogant, but when you think you’re right, you’re just right?”
This might help us get back to this idea—what kind of claim am I making when I say Jesus is the only way? It’s not my claim. It’s a claim about reality.