God is not Christian

Interesting read, koped off someone else's blog:

How would you respond if I said that I wouldn’t be surprised if the Prophet Muhammad is in Heaven? How about if I said that maybe Buddha is in Heaven?

If you’re a Christian would you draw your sword in righteous anger?

Before you do, let me qualify my statements. We say God is omnipresent. We say God is omnipotent. We say God is Omniscient. The Alpha. The Omega. The God of time and space. The God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Most importantly, we proclaim with all our hearts that God is love. Is he really?

Why, of course. No question about it. After all, I’m a good Christian boy brought up in a good Christian family. I’ve been to Sunday school. Cell Group. Baptism class. I got baptized, twice. Hallelujah God loves me! I’m going to heaven.

Then I think about the old woman in the streets of Tibet begging for money. Destitute, uneducated, probably never ever heard the name Jesus. What about the young Muslim fundamentalist training under the Al-Qaeda. Indoctrinated from birth. Brainwashed to think that nothing outside the world of hardline Islam is fact. Then there’s the tribesman in the Amazon or Tim Bak Tu. I don’t even need to elaborate on that one. These people aren’t Christian and might never be, but it’s not their fault. When they die, unholy, uncleansed and unsaved, do they burn in fire and brimstone? For that matter, the ancient civilizations that existed before Christ; my Chinese ancestors, the Indians, the Vikings, the Incans, all our forefathers. There was no Christ to speak of. Have they been condemned? So, God loves me but he doesn’t love them? How selfish and ignorant can I be?

God is love. God is love.

Mother Theresa.

Some Christian hardliners believe that Roman Catholicism is false doctrine because they worship Mother Mary and other Saints and have a highly ritualized form of religion. They might be wrong, they might be right. It doesn’t really matter. Mother Theresa was Catholic but no one can say she is not in heaven. She was Jesus Christ to the homeless and dying. She was his hands. She had his heart. Her last words? ‘I love Jesus Christ’. Jesus Christ loved her.

Pope John Paul II.

Head of the Roman Catholic Church. If Roman Catholicism is false doctrine, this guy must have been joke. But he was far from it. Truly a man after God’s heart. He was passionate, kind and he cared for people. Not just Roman Catholics or Christians, he loved people. He shook the world by engaging the leaders of other faiths and denominations. His last words? ‘I have searched for you, and now you have come to me, and I thank you.’ What a privilege indeed. It brings tears to my eyes. Surely, Jesus loved him.

God is love. God is love.

Now, we take one step further. The world is at war with Islamic Fanaticism and we have scrutinised the Islamic faith. But have we ever bothered to find out what the faith truly is? We know the founder of the faith was the Prophet Muhammad. Who was he really?

The Prophet Muhammad

Islam did not rise out of evil or thirst for blood. It was birthed in a man’s heart. A man who sought after God with all his heart, soul and strength. A man who refused to believe that God is divided and formed in the image of man. He was a humble man who believed that unity, compassion and faith could make the world a better place. And indeed, Muhammad transformed his people. He was a progressive social reformer, a political leader and a model of human virtue who turned the Arabs from marauding bands of nomads into a strong nation. He believed vehemently in the one true God and he loved people fervently. I believe that God loved him.

Don’t mistake me as one on a mission to blaspheme the Christian faith. I hold fast to my faith. For that reason, I believe with all my heart that God is love and he is love to everyone. From the beginning of time till the end, he has and will always love everyone. He will speak to every single soul the same way he speaks to you, the same way he speaks to me. He speaks to the Monk in Nepal, to the Yogi in India, to the Bushman in Africa. He spoke to the Emperor of China, to the Indian Brave in the Americas, to the Babarian in Europe. He spoke to Buddha and he spoke to Muhammad. Why am I convinced that this is true?

Because God is the creator and the almighty, nothing can happen without God knowing or allowing it. So if any individual dies or lives, God knows. If anyone rises to power or falls from it, God knows. Rich or poor, God knows. And if God knows all and loves all, every life must have been created and constructed in a way that tends toward him. For this reason, I know that every man and woman of every nation and every generation has had a sense of God in their own special way. Great men like Muhammad and Buddha were special, they chased after God. Only a divine urge from God in their spirits could’ve created such curious hunger. And only faith and belief could’ve given them the power to have had such an impact on the world. Their achievements were by no means a matter of luck or coincidence, God himself had to have been with them.

The attitude, spirit and the heart of a man make him great. These are the things which capture God’s attention as evidenced from great men in the Bible. Thus all throughout history, in every time and place, great men are those who possess these qualities and drew the gaze of God. God knew them, loved them and helped them create positive change in their societies. Yet, for all their righteuos intentions, perhaps they were misdirected. Even the ‘people of God’, the Jews and the mighty leaders of the Judaic religion were not perfect. After all, they are but men and their ways and beliefs were inherently imperfect.

Now, this is where Jesus Christ fits into the picture. He was God’s answer to the chaos on Earth. Being God, he was the perfect human being in an imperfect world, divine direction in a wilderness with none. His sacrifice for the inadaquecies of mankind, symbolicly broke the barrier between God and man, allowing God to step into our world and into our lives. As a Christian, Jesus represents God’s perfect love for me. But the advent of Christianity doesn’t mean that God immediately ignores or forgets the great men of old or others who fervently sought after him. God is not the God of Christians, he is the God of everything and everyone.

As Christians we spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our mission is to redirect people to the better way, the perfect way, by loving with the perfect love of God, with the love of Jesus Christ. There is no room in this world for religious judgement and self righteous condemnation. The concept of religion and the existence of disparate religious factions and doctrines has been the cause of much strife and pain throughout history, throughout the world and even in our respective societies and communities. Isn’t it clear then, that religious bigotism and intolerance of anything outside the boundaries of your self-declared holiness directly contradict God and his infinite love? Jesus himself did not condemn or judge the sinner; he lambasted the self-righteous, religious bigots.

Think about it. It makes sense that God looks at a man’s heart and spirit before he looks at his religion or his faith. Besides Jesus, there was no perfect man. But God loved all men and his desire from the very beginning was to save all men. Before there were religious laws, burnt offerings, sacrifices and before there was Jesus, there were great men who had compassionate hearts, courageous spirits and who sought after and loved God. I am certain that God loved them.

If you wish to live a life of power and of abundance. If you desire to make history and change society. You might want to consider first impressing God with things that matter to him rather than indulging in self-righteous, doctrinal Christian morality; judging others for what they do, say, or what they believe in. Because Christianity is a perfect idea, made imperfect by man. And the living God is a universal entity, not a religion. Thus, God is not Christian.