I spent a good two or so hours of reading The Narnian (a biography about one C. S. Lewis) in a Tim Horton’s downtown as I waited for the time between getting dropped off at the Eaton’s Centre and dinner with the yearbook team to count itself down. I rather enjoyed sipping quietly at my large double double and making notes of what I read. I came across an interesting quote (taken from Lewis’ writings and blockquoted by originally Alan Jacobs, the biographer at hand, and now by myself). Here it is (the bold is my emphasis and anything in square brackets is what I inserted for clarity’s sake):
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus]: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being [just] a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
I’ve talked to quite a few of my Christian friends and a good many of my Muslim friends (of which I have been blessed with quite a few). First off, I won’t be getting into any nitty-gritty tonight, but I will say that I’m really ashamed of some of my Christian brothers and sisters and how they have passed judgment on our Muslim neighbours and their belief systems without having taken any time to personally confront them to intentionally discuss matters of faith. I’m sorry for all we Christians who have been so insensitive to your faith and have acted in such an uncivil and generally (though thoroughly discretely) hateful manner.
Nevertheless, a direct implication of what I cling to be true is that what you believe in is false. This is not a Christian being arrogant and claiming to be better than someone else. Rather, this is a Christian defending what is–as bold as this may sound–true so that no one reading this will have the excuse of never having heard of this on the Day of Reckoning.
Many Muslims (in fact all the ones I have spoken to about this) believe that Jesus was a prophet from God and was sent with God’s word in him, but they do not believe in Jesus’ rightful title of being the Christ and Messiah for all mankind. Muslims do not believe in Jesus as the Son of God, or a part of a triune God as is the case with the Holy Trinity. Jesus holds no divine value for the Muslims apart from being just another prophet. I’ve even heard from some Muslims that they believe in Jesus as the “Perfect Prophet” (as labeled by Mohammed himself). They call Jesus, my Christ, a good teacher, a wise man, and a moral wellspring, but not God in the flesh. I am not going to be diplomatic about this (and objective truths are never concerned with diplomacy): this understanding about Christ is as inconsistent and incorrect as the assertions of relativism.
This understanding of Jesus always baffled me since I have always found it impossible to separate Jesus’ preachings about morality from His own testimony about Himself. Either Jesus was the Son of God and thus, also an authoritative and reliable source of moral teachings, or he was a liar, a nutcase, and/or sent from the Devil to lead people away from the real truth and thus, clearly not a source worth considering for moral teachings. I am not aiming to ridicule Muslims or to point out their shortcomings. That kind of thing should be left to private conversations where things probably won’t be mistaken for hateful or misunderstood. I am simply echoing what C. S. Lewis had already arrived at as a conclusion concerning the various takes on the nature of Christ. There can be no teeter-tottering.
I have never liked fence-squatters nor have I allowed myself to squat much in issues I’ve taken time to consider. I would like to encourage more Christian and Muslim youths–and youths of other faiths–to reconsider what it is they believe and why they believe it. More importantly, does it make sense. If you believe in something, ask yourself why. Likewise, if you don’t believe in something/anything, ask yourself why. Is it a good reason? Is it logical? Can you be sure of it? Why do you believe what you believe? If you don’t know enough to be sure, why haven’t you taken the time and energy to get to the bottom of it? What if you were missing out on some infinitely important truth? What if there are eternal consequences to your actions and inactions? What would you say? What would you do? How would you justify yourself?