Response #2: Truth Is Exclusive

Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth.
–Psalm 86:11

When people deny that there is only one way to be saved, there are a number of ways you can respond. First, you can say, “You are arguing with the Bible itself, not with me.” Second, you can say, “Truth by its very nature is exclusive.” We live in a world that rejects the notion of absolute truth, especially when it comes to matters of spirituality. Yet there are other areas in which we readily accept the idea of absolute or objective truth. For example, most people would agree that there is only one right answer to the question “What is 2 + 3?” or “What is the capital of Pennsylvania?” People will say, “Yes, but math and geography deal with precise facts. Spirituality is subjective. It is a matter of one’s own opinion.”

People make a great error when they assume that just because things are invisible that somehow they are not real or less exacting. Before 1985, every eighteen months or so a US commercial airplane would “fall to earth as if pressed by an unseen hand,” as one reporter put it. For decades, scientists did not understand what was causing these planes to crash–they assumed it was winds rushing out ahead of stormfront. Then a scientist named Tetsuya Theodore Fujita theorized that the crashes were due to violent downdrafts he called “microbursts.” These microbursts would slam straight into the ground, causing hurricane-force winds to spread out in all directions like a starburst. Thunderstorm researchers did not believe him at first. They did not think these so-called microbursts were real. But soon it became clear that Fujita was right. On August 2, 1985, Delta Airlines Flight 191 flew into a microburst over Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The plane went down, taking the lives of 137 people. After that event, Doppler radar was installed at major airports, and pilots were trained to avoid these deadly, unseen winds.

Just as there are very real laws of aerodynamics and physics that govern airplanes, so there are very real spiritual laws that govern our relationship with God. Sure, a pilot could say, “Such a small storm should not cause this plane to crash. I think I can fly through it–I am going to try it my way.” But he would be risking a terrible disaster. It is the same way with us. We can say, “I do not believe in absolute truth when it comes to spirituality,” or “I am going to try to and approach God in a different way.” When we do that, the result will be spiritual disaster. God has said there is only one way to Himself, and that is through Jesus. Truth by its nature is exclusive.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “What To Say To Those Who Deny There Is One Way” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2008.

“D/FW Airline Disaster In ’85 Helped Start Wind Of Change,” The Dallas Morning News, August 1, 2015, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/2015/08/02/d-fw-airline-disaster-in-85-helped-start-wind-of-change/.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.