by Renneth Grey

Created on: August 10, 2008

This is a tough question because we are trained to be accepting of everyone and their beliefs. Saying that one worldview is right, is viewed as arrogance and self-righteousness. Yet, as Christians we are often caught up in a dilemna of watering down the gospel so it can be acceptable to people of different faiths or go back to the fire and brimestone message. Can one pratice another faith and still be a Christian? Before I go on, what exactly is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? What does it mean?

Jesus summed up his gospel in a few short sentences when taking to a Pharisee (member of Jewish religious ruling class in 1st century AD) named Nicodemus. In John 3:16-19 Jesus says, " For God so loved the world that he gaved his only begotten son. That whoesoever believes in him shall not perish but have ever lasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned already; becayse he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."This Gospel is the greatest action of love God have shown. He performed this action by taking on a human nature as Yeshua (Jesus). His name mentions the gosple because Jesus, "in Hebrew Yeshua means both "Salvation," and the concatenated form of Yahoshua, the "L-RD who is Salvation." (www.messianic.com)
In this passage Jesus is presenting Nicodemus with his Gospel as well as explaining to him what he meant. He fist speaks to Nicodemus about his purpose in life. That was to suffer and die to pay the ultimate punishment for the sins of the world. Next, Jesus explain that salvation is open to anyone that believe. This means that people from various types of backgrounds, religions, or nationalities are able to recieve Jesus as their Lord and Savior. However, those who refuse to believe in him will face judgement.
But what if a person wants to serve God and maintains they faith of the old. Is this possible? Jesus answers this question when a wealthy man came to him asking for permission to follow. Jesus, told him to go and give his money to the poor because, " no man can serve two masters. Either he'll love one or hate the other." The wealth man became sad because he had to give his wealth away. In this guys case, his faith was in his money. He wanted to glory in all his riches and follow Christ at the same time.
Since Christ is God in human form, one can only serve God and him alone. This is the 1st commandment. For this reason, it is impossible for one to continue in another faith and follow Christ. In the old and new testament, God makes it clear that he want all our heart. He will not share his worship with any other God. When one choses to follow Christ he/she must leave everything behind that competes for his attention.

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