by Steve Badger
Several years ago I was teaching in a state university's natural science department. Two friends and I from the university were on a trip to another university in a neighboring state: Harvey was a Christian, John was not. Harvey and I were trying to share our experiences and faith in Jesus Christ with John, who was a cultural, “church member Christian.”
John was also from another country. His response was something like this: “I am sure your religion is good. Why, all religions are good! You have found a road to God that is good for you. Others have found other roads; but we are all trying to find the same God, and we will arrive at the same destination.”
We gently disagreed with John and appealed to him on the basis of the Scriptures. Unfortunately John did not view the Bible in the same light as we did. When we quoted Jesus’ words: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6), it seemed to make no impression on John. Neither did, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12, New International Version).
The next topic of discussion was the concept of repentance. How simple we were in John’s eyes! If a man is going to see all religions as roads to the same God, what use will he have for repentance?
We silently prayed for God to illustrate the truth for him. God did this the next morning.
Having finished our meeting, we left very early for home. It was still completely dark as we drove off the campus we had been visiting to find the interstate.
At the very first stop sign, we had to make a decision. The road went to the left and to the right. It did not continue straight ahead. I was sure we ought to turn left; Harvey was confident we should turn right; John was sure he didn’t know.
Since I was driving, we turned left. We went 2 or 3 miles before uncertainty crept into my mind. Just how far was it to the interstate anyway!
Harvey did not ridicule me, but quietly indicated that the farther we went, the surer he was that our highway was behind us. But I could not agree.
Finally we saw a man stopped beside the road in a pickup. I pulled over and asked him the way to the interstate. “It’s about 6 miles that-a-way,” he answered, pointing behind us.
Sheepishly I turned the car around and drove back the way we had come.
Harvey started the dialogue. “Didn’t you think that was the right way home?” he asked.
“I sure did,” I said.
“But did you really believe it?”
“Oh, yes. I really did.”
“Perhaps you weren’t sincere in that belief,” he rejoined.
“But I was,” I insisted. “I was completely sincere.”
Harvey continued, “Do you mean to tell me you sincerely believed that was the road home, acted on that belief, and it didn’t take you home?”
“Not only that,” I added, “but my acting on that sincere belief only took me farther from my desired destination.”
“What did you do when you learned the road you were on could not take you where you wanted to go—though you had sincerely believed it would?”
“I repented. I stopped, turned around, and started going in the opposite direction.”
“Ah, but you wouldn’t have done that if you hadn’t believed what the man in the truck had told you,” said Harvey. “Why did you believe him anyway?”
“That’s easy. I knew he has traveled these roads, and I haven’t; so I was confident he knew the way.”
Harvey then turned to John to see if any of the application had been lost. “John, do you see the parallel between this and our discussion of religions yesterday?”
John agreed they were comparable. The discussion that followed was completely different from the one we had the day before!
I don’t know if John ever turned around and put his life on the right road, but God certainly provided the perfect illustration to show him the way of salvation.
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Copyright (C) 1984 Steve Badger
Document last revised: February 7, 1997
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