Replies

I would like to clarify a few things. Jesus is the one who said He was the only way.

That is an allegorical statement, refering to the internal struggle of the soul to know itself, overcome the delusions of form and the ego-mind, and to reconnect with God. Jesus and Buddha were on the same page - theaching about the inner struggle against fear and delusion - but humans misunderstood a lot of what they taught and warped their words into tools of vengeance for one collective ego-mind cult to use against another. We are seeing the Islamic ego-mind cult's particular misunderstanding of the Truth peaking at the moment.

I don’t think I will convince you when I propose my disagreement with your statements. But for the sake of others who may be reading these posts I will attempt to present an alternative.

From my study of history and of the writing and transmission of the Bible, the translation of Jesus’ statement in John 14:6 as “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” is an acurate and faithful rendering of the Aramaic. We have enough of the historical record to demonstrate that the translations of both the King James Bible and the New American Standard Bible (published by the Lockman Foundation) are reliable and trustworth translation. So, given that Jesus made that statement, I have to decide to I believe Him or not. If I do believe Him, than I can choose to follow Him or not.

If I don’t believe Him, I can try to explain away the statement or think, did He really mean what it says on the surface or is there a deeper “metaphysical” interpretation. Or, I can just say that He was wrong and cherry-pick which of Jesus’ words I want to accept.

Hmm.

I chose the first option.

Now, to your point about “a lot of people burned as witches and heretics.” I do not disagree that this has happened at all. I do disagree that it is the normal method of evangelization. I don’t know the numbers but I believe that in the 2000 years of Christianity, the overall number is quite small.

That is an allegorical statement, refering to the internal struggle of the soul to know itself, overcome the delusions of form and the ego-mind, and to reconnect with God.

"Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul? I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks. I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home."

Rumi

Mistranslation and misunderstanding rendered "I am the only way" into a "literal truth" allowing the Christian ego-mind cult to kill anyone who didn't believe that, and got a lot of people burned as witches and heretics.

I would submit that if God is able to create man, the Earth, and the entire universe in six days, I would suggest he could also get a book published without the interference of mistranslation by mortal men.