Lie #2: Jesus Is One Among Many – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Many people place their faith in the teachings of modern prophets and gurus, often figures in the media.

They are promised health, wealth, and friendly angels to help them. Little is said about sin and righteousness. Today, exposing the lie that Jesus is just one of many ways to God. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, doesn't the Bible predict that in the last days there would be many Christs? Yes Dave, and even if they don't call themselves Christ, they nonetheless are prophets or whatever other word or description might be used, and they claim to be able to lead people to God. You'd be surprised at the number of people, although you might not be surprised, who actually believe that there are many paths to the divine. What we must do in this day and age of confusion is to understand why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by me. In order to make that clear, I want to emphasize that we are making available to you a book I've written entitled, Don't Be Deceived, Six Lies About Jesus. And at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some info as to how you can connect with us and how this resource can be yours. For now let us listen. So how are you all doing today? Everybody glad that you're here? Everybody intending to stay till the end of the message?

Good. A few years ago we adopted a promise statement that says Moody Church is a trusted place where anyone can connect with God and others. And we want people to be able to connect with God and others and anyone can connect with God and others. What a broad statement. But we want it to be broad because the gospel's broad. Well, with that introduction, here's a quote.

One of the biggest mistakes we make is to believe that there is only one way. There are many diverse paths leading to God, says Oprah Winfrey. Well, today I'm embarking on a very difficult journey and that is to analyze the teaching of one of America's most popular, most respected, and most admired spiritual gurus. In fact, to perhaps be critical of some of the things that she has done or said in the minds of many is to be critical with the divine. One of the reasons I refer to Oprah today is because of a USA Today article recently titled Divine Miss Winfrey. Why should I speak about her? Well, because first of all, she's a spiritual leader. The article says that after two decades of searching for her authentic self, exploring new age theories, giving away cars, trotting out fat, recommending good books, and tackling countless issues from serious to frivolous, Oprah Winfrey has risen to a new level of guru. Now before I go further, I want to compliment her for her many philanthropic causes. And I have a couple of pages of things listed here that I could say.

For lack of time, I'm only going to summarize. But she gives away money through her angel network, Use Your Life Awards. She has funded scholarships for black colleges, written checks to churches, moved families out of the inner city. She's a national spokesperson for A Better Chance, a program that gives disadvantaged students opportunities to attend secondary schools.

1991, she sponsored the Child Protection Act. And because she was sexually abused as a child, she has a great deal of sensitivity and on her show discusses many issues that need to be aired and discussed and talked about. I also give her great commendation for not going the direction of the Jerry Springer's of this world with trash TV. She has tried to stay on message.

If the show has a mission, it's to help viewers become better people to aim higher and to become successful. Even as she made it from rags to riches, she tells her audience they can too. And so she's a role model for many African American women, but for that matter, a role model for women of all cultures and all countries around the world. Now why can something and someone that sounds so good and do so many commendable things, why would I discuss what she teaches? To her credit, she does not hold herself up as a God. She does not consider herself to be a pastor. And many people told me this week, don't underestimate the connection and impact she has with millions of women every day.

And I respond by saying, I'm trying not to, I hear you. Well, first of all, I mentioned her because she is a spiritual leader. As I've already emphasized in that USA Today article, I continue over the past year, Winfrey has emerged as a spiritual leader for the new millennium, a moral voice of authority for the nation. She has used her pulpit and has emerged as a symbolic figurehead of spirituality. If we doubt her impact on 20 to 50 million viewers each week, we can be reminded that on a poll on beliefnet.com, 33% of the people who respond to say that she had a more profound spiritual impact on them than their clergy persons. Kathleen Falsani of the Sun Times asks, I wonder has Oprah become the new America's pastor? Marcia Nelson, whose book I relied on, the gospel according to Oprah, which is a very positive, positive spin, says that it's not going too far to call her a spiritual leader. I've said to a number of people, she says, that she is today's Billy Graham. And so she's a powerful voice, has a great pulpit.

And the question is, what does she teach? So the first reason that we're discussing her briefly today is because she is a spiritual leader. Secondly, is because she is a model and a prototype of American culture. If we can get a handle on where she's coming from, we understand our culture. And in that sense, this message isn't about Oprah Winfrey as such.

It's about our whole American culture of spirituality. I want to emphasize that I'm not judging her personal relationship with God. She did say recently in a kind of offhand remark that Jesus was her savior. So where she stands in her relationship to Jesus and to God is not for mine or anyone else to judge.

That will be up to God to determine. But the Bible tells us that we have to evaluate teachers. And when you have someone who is being touted as perhaps America's present Billy Graham, we have to ask the question, what does she teach? I'm going to read a verse and it doesn't just apply to her. It applies to our entire culture. This is such a wonderful passage that it would be deserving of a whole message and all that I can do is read it.

Just listen carefully. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. That's what we find, not just on one television show, but on many, many preachers looking for doctrines in harmony with people's passions. God wants you to be rich. God wants you to be successful.

God wants to make something out of you rather than you existing to make something out of God. Well, with that introduction, what are some of the lies of popular teachers? What are some of the lies that people buy into? And each of these lies, I'm not doing them justice. When I prepared the message this week, I thought to myself, each of these lies deserves a whole sermon, but I have to go quickly and you stay with me. The first lie is this, that we can have spirituality without truth. We can have spirituality without truth.

This is found everywhere. People say I'm into spirituality, but no specific doctrines. Oprah says I believe that life is eternal.

I believe that it takes on many forms. She told her new age guru, I am creation's daughter. I'm more than physical self. I'm more than the job I do. I'm more than the external definitions I've given to myself. These are all extensions of who I define myself to be, but ultimately I am spirit. I come from the greatest spirit. I am spirit. Well, we could hang on to that and I don't have time to analyze that, but let's hurry on.

Here's the problem. When you begin to explore spirituality without the scriptures, you inevitably run into huge deceptions because you know there are two parts to the spirit world. There's the dark part, demons who take on the appearance of light, and then there is God's side with God's angels, and that's why the Bible warns against us dabbling in the spiritual world without a compass and without a map as given in the scriptures.

Now I have only two examples here. Twelve days after 9-11 in New York City and Yankee Stadium when Oprah was leading that meeting, she said, when you lose a loved one, you gain an angel whose name you know. She said over 6,000 and counting, angels were added to the spiritual roster these past two weeks. It is my prayer that they will keep us in their sight with a direct line to their hearts. Once again, the question is, boy, when you begin to talk about angels, you'd better have a Bible open because there are other angels there too who look like God's angels. And how would she know that when you lose a loved one, you gain an angel? You say, oh, pastor, that's just hyperbole. Move on.

Okay. When her movie Beloved was released, she reported, and this becomes much more serious now, and this is an article in the Sun Times. She reported that she had channeled some of the historical characters that appear on the show. She said old spirits were trying to get in touch with her. She said that she heard voices of slaves. They even have names, and she has come to know each of them personally and calls them in at will to guide her in her work. Before the various scenes were filmed, she spent time burning candles and channeling the spirits of the past. Quote, she would literally channel the spirit of Margaret Garner, the inspiration for Seth the slave into her performance, says John Demme, who worked with Oprah on the set.

How can I put this more clearly? You cannot get into spirituality without the truth of God's word. The Bible is opposed to channeling. It's opposed to talking with spirits, the spirits of the dead, because demons take the names of the dead and impersonate them. That's why they're called familiar spirits.

I could just give so many examples, but we have to hurry on. Second lie is that we can have psychology without theology. We can have psychology without theology.

Psychology without theology is the gospel of fulfillment. It's based on a false premise of self-worth. You are worth something when people make much of you, when people are attracted to you, when people affirm you.

That's your whole value that's wrapped up in humanistic psychology. New Age thought says that in order for me to have a good self-image, I need affirmation. I need to feel good about myself, whether I'm worthy of feeling good about myself or not. I have a right to feel good about myself. John Piper critiquing this kind of thinking writes, our fatal error is believing that wanting to be happy means wanting to be made much of. It feels so good to be affirmed, but the good feeling is finally rooted in the worth of self, not the worth of God. This path to happiness is an illusion. And he says there is a clue to this.

One of the clues is that no one goes to the Grand Canyon or the Alps to increase one's self-esteem. Isn't that great? You stand there. Why are you looking at this awesome? Why do you look at the stars at night to increase my self-esteem? I have to summarize. Our nation and our culture is so self-absorbed that the thought that the way to happiness is not me being the center, but in adoring God.

That is so foreign to where we are at. And when you have psychology without theology, that's exactly where it leads to is that I am the center of my universe. I deserve to be happy. I deserve to have things.

And I have so many other quotes, but I'm hurrying along. Number three, we can have fulfillment without self-denial. We can have fulfillment without self-denial. In the gospel, according to Oprah, Marcia Nelson writes that after studying Oprah for a year, she studied her for a year before she wrote her book, there is an endless stream of things to buy, decorative pillows, exercise equipment, moisturizing creams, new clothes, et cetera.

The gospel of looking good makes sense. She said, listening and reading Oprah for a year was like always shopping, always looking for just the next better lipstick, pair of shoes, always correcting, always self-improving. A chronic edge of dissatisfaction compels the quest for satisfaction. It's a forever unquenchable desire.

It's success by excess. How could we even begin to contrast this with the words of Jesus and the teachings of the New Testament? But now I come to the last and the most important, all this was prologue. And the issue is this, how many different ways are there to God? In a panel discussion about spirituality and the force called God, one member evidently arguing for Christianity, and I saw this clip and what I'm quoting you is a transcript of the clip. Oprah asks, oh, this woman says, the other woman says that there are two forces in the world, God and the power of darkness. Oprah says yes, but can we choose between the two?

And the other one says yes. And then the panel member asks, how do you please God? Oprah answers, and there are many ways and many paths to what you call God and her path, speaking of someone else, might be something else when she gets there and she might call it the light, but her loving and her kindness and her generosity brings her, if it brings her to the same point that it brings you, it doesn't matter if she calls it God along the way or not. The panel member responds by saying that there is only one way to God, but Oprah argues differently.

There could not possibly be just one way. Now we come to the heart of it. The discussion progresses and Oprah asks this provocative question. Does God care about your heart or does God care about if you call his son Jesus? That is an awesome question that I'm going to answer in the next 15 or so minutes. Does God care about your heart or does he care about whether or not you call his son Jesus?

That's the question of the age. Please understand that you are going to receive an answer in the next 10 or 15 minutes and don't leave now. Somebody said, if you say anything critical about Oprah, some people are going to get up and leave. And I said, no, I said, Oprah always talks about diversity. So let's have diverse opinions here today.

All right. What I'm going to share with you now is so critical. Every one of you has to listen to it. It is, I'm going to the heart of our culture right now.

The heart of not just one television program but dozens of them. We live in a time when Christianity is being redefined. Increasingly, it's difficult to distinguish it from Buddhism and Hinduism because sin has been defined out of existence. If we need forgiveness, we give it to ourselves. Nietzsche, you remember the German philosopher says, God is dead and now who will wipe the blood from our hands?

No. The answer of this generation is we will do it ourselves. If we do evil, we will forgive ourselves and that's the end of it. We don't have to worry much about God's forgiveness. Now the Bible has two warnings for us. The first warning is this. You shall have no other gods before me. Strong warning about alternate gods, whether they be gods of light or whatever. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, but the Bible also has another warning that is very critical and that is even if you come to the right God, you have to approach him in the right way, the way in which he has prescribed.

Two examples. Cain and Abel, they both approached the right God. Abel brought the fatlings of the flock and brought it to God as a sacrifice. Cain threw together some vegetables, brought it to God and said you ought to be satisfied with this. I can come to God however I want, but the Bible says God had regard for Abel and for his sacrifice, but for Cain and his sacrifice, he did not have regard. God says it's not enough to approach the right God even.

You have to approach him in the right way. With that background, there are two passages I'm going to ask you to turn to today and the first one is found in the book of Leviticus. I was convicted as I was reading this that I don't preach on the Old Testament often enough. Leviticus chapter 10, it's all about access. Much of the book of Leviticus is devoted to this simple question, how do you access God? How do you come into his presence as a sinner?

That's the question. Well, I'm going to jump right in the middle of chapter 10 verse one without saying too much about the context. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, Aaron had four sons. These are the two oldest firstborns. All of you firstborns, could I just talk just to the firstborns today?

Has God broken you yet or are you still doing your own thing? Okay, that's for the firstborns. Now, Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, each took his sensor and put fire in it and laid incense on it and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord which he had not commanded them and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. God says you're dead.

We read it in to moderns, I mean this is such an overreaction. They said, you know that altar of incense there, let's go ahead. God says that he wants to light it and then there are prescriptions as to how the priest is going to do it.

Who cares? We've got our own matches, we've got our own light. Let's go in there and do it and God says you're dead. No second trial, no leeway, no warning, God says you're dead. Aaron is worked up about it and if you read the next part of the text, God says through Moses to Aaron, you had better accept this because if not, you're next.

That's basically what the text says. You know, this is a very important point. When you stop to think of it, Nadab and Abihu were worshiping the right God. But it's not enough to worship the right God, you must also come to him in the right way.

And that's why it's so important for us to understand that the only way to the Father is Jesus Christ. In order to emphasize that, I'd like to offer for you a resource that I believe will be a great blessing, a great help, pass it along to those who have doubts about Jesus. It's entitled Don't Be Deceived Six Lies About Jesus.

It will help college students and others navigate so many false things that are said about Jesus today in our culture and in our universities. Here is what you do, go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now even as you connect with us, I always want to remind you that it is because of people just like you that the ministry of running to win can continue in so many different countries and in so many different languages. We're so grateful for your prayers, for your support, for all that you are doing to hold our hands as we get the gospel to many. But to get the resource that I referred to, go to rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Drive the wrong way down a one-way street and soon you'll face the glare of oncoming headlights. Not only do we need the right road, we need to be going the right way. When it comes to salvation, nothing is more important than being certain God will accept you. Next time on Running to Win, more on slandering Jesus and the lie that Jesus is just one among many. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.