Spiritual Truths and the Elephant

If we believe that the universe is created by God and the creation is reflective of the nature of God, then we can say the natural world is filled with spiritual truths. Some famous preacher used stronger words that the nature is impregnated with Spiritual Truths.

• Heb 11:3 and Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made

It is therefore not at all surprising that all religions and philosophies of the world, including Science, could have some spiritual truths in them. The only error, howbeit a very major one, is that each religion or philosophy think that its discovered truth is the ONLY Truth and nothing but THE Truth.

This is like the blind men trying to paint the elephant each coming to his own conclusion of 'truth' wall(body), spear(tusk), tree(leg), snake(tail), fan(ear).

What has that got to do with us Christian ?

Firstly, we see that there are nuggets of truth in all religions and philosophies. We cannot just condemn them as wrong. We need to connect the discovered truth and lead them forward to discover the ultimate truth - Jesus Christ.

Seemingly conflicts can only be resolved at the higher level of truth. We can understand this better with the famous illustrations of the Flatland. The conflicts that Flatland people see are easily resolved by us in the Spaceland world.

Appreciate and discover the truth of other religions and philosophies and bring them to the higher truth of Jesus Christ. Spend time on the connection first. Confusianism teach people how to live the good life based on love and moderation. Jesus Christ gives us the new life to live as we should. Lao Tze, Tao De Jing, discovered the Way of the universe. Jesus Christ tells us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The universe is not passive but active with love of God. Buddhism understand the danger of evil desires. Jesus Christ nailed the evil desires unto the cross and gives us the right desires. There are tremendous similarities in the teachings about living a right kind of lives on earth. Let all of us be empowered by Christ( in You) to lead this good life on earth.