WONDERFUL Series on Religions

Even if you are not particularly interested in other religions this is worth your time. It made me really appreciate Christianity even more. And, it is a helpful summary of the main religions in the world and how they deal with the problem of evil. One of my former pastors, Pastor Lee, wrote 8 short blog posts on the topic. Here is part of the intro:

A fellow PCA pastor (Joe Novenson) once suggested a metaphor that would help us hold this truth -- the existence of evil in this world -- in our minds in such a way that would allow us to clearly see how the religions of this world differ. It's a very helpful metaphor, and I'm just going to reproduce it here.

Please imagine that life is like a 16-foot deep, 16-foot across, round, slimy-walled PIT. You are in it, and you can't get out of it.

You're in way over your head, in a situation in which you can get little help, and over which you have little control.

But to make matters worse... inside that pit, there's also an 8-foot cobra. He's coiled and ready to strike.

Let's say that that cobra represents all the injustice, death, crime, suffering, poverty, pain, disease, war, & wrong-doing in this world. It represents everything that is wrong -- both in your personal life and in the world in general.

And here's what we're going to do: We're going to escort a representative from each of the world's major religions right up to the edge of that pit. That representative will see you in the pit and offer you his religion's version of "salvation."

We'll see just how different or alike the religions of this world are. Note that if you can think of a religion that we won't bring to the edge of the pit, it's really just a deviation (some would say a "heresy") of one of the religions that we will bring to the edge of the pit.

... to be continued ...

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part6
Part 7
Part 8