I gave my life to Jesus, the Christ when I was seventeen. I am a member of the Christian community. I view the Bible as a sacred work (though not inerrant not infallible). I have spent decades studying other religions. And yet when it comes down to WHY am I a Christian, I must admit that it has to do with where I was born. I was born in the Bible belt and the inculturation of Christianity on my life has kept me there. But, while I see God as most DEFINED in Jesus, I do not see God CONFINED to Jesus.
We're I to have been born in Japan the odds of me being a Christian would be very small indeed. I would more than likely have embraced Shintoism. Moving West and into China, had I been born somewhere in this nation I would have embraced either Taoism or Buddhism. If I was more to the Southwest of China (in Tibet) then I would have definitely been a Buddhist.
Moving West to India where one born in that nation becomes a Hindu unless you're on the Western part of the nation and then the chances are that you might be a Zoroastrain. Further West into the Middle East where a birth makes one a Muslim, there are two flavor primarily: Sunni or Shiite.
Moving West again we come to Israel I am a Jew.
Moving West to Italy and I become a Catholic.
Moving West to England and I am Anglican, if anything at all.
And so it goes. I am a Christian because I was born in the Bible belt of America. Had I been born in Tibet or Iran you can bet Jesus would not be in my religious vocabularly. But this I do know. There is but one Creator who created ALL regardless of the name we give Him: Buddha, Allah, God, etc. And LOVE is the character of the Creator, the nature of the Creator, and the TRUTH of life- the WAY of Jesus.
We are one with the world!
I simply cannot embrace the concept that the One who created the universe was so exclusive that He (no gender intended) wanted to spend eternity only with those who were so lucky to be born in a Christian environment. Nor do I feel that the Creator wanted EVERYONE to be of the same HOUSE- the same FLOCK. WHich for me is whay Jesus said in John 10:16 that he had "other sheep" (than just Christian sheep) and why HE said in John 14:2 that there are "many mansions" in the heavenly spiritual realm. Heaven doesn't just have Christian built Southern Colonial dwellings.
Haven't we learned that religious wars (even in the name of God) just don't work?
Think about it! :-)
Ernie Fitzpatrick
Author Bio
ernie@lrchouston.com
