Quote Originally Posted by JunkYard
John 14 1-26

Lets discuss this a bit. Is Christ the only way to God, or did he simply create/show the bridge by which all mankind can travel? Is a literal belief in the person nescessary, or is there another way?
As a "mere Christian" (though perhaps of a very uncommon sort), I'd say yes, He is the only way to God. But, what that in fact means is much subtler than most people realize, esp. if all of their knowledge of Christianity has come from televangelists and American style "evangelicalism."

As far as the Christian is concerned, "reality" is "Christian". Or put another way, Christianity is accurately descriptive in what it says about life and destiny. We don't (or at least we shouldn't!) live in some "fantasy world" which we call "Christianity" - Christianity rightly understood, is a realist religion. When it emerged, popular religion for most people (save the Jews) was completely divorced from reason. Philosophy was a different animal from such religions, and very often had an unspoken contempt for the "piety of the masses."

Christianity from it's beginnings posited itself as something interested in history (and not mythic cycles like most cultic religion), and ready to take advantage of the "cream" of secular philosophy - and in those days, that meant Hellenic Philosophy - Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Plotinus, those cats.

As such, it is a very reasonable deduction that "Christ as unique Saviour" must be in accord with our belief in the universality (the literal meaning of "catholicity" or "catholic") of His mission and His work. The Scriptures say that God is not a respecter of men, that He makes light and rain to fall upon the righteous and the wicked alike. They also say that it was God's love for mankind (and for the creation as a whole "the world" - meaning the kosmos and all within it, esp. man) which motivated the coming of Christ. Further the Scriptures state plainly that Christ's "work" was for everyone, and that He "knocks at the door" of all men's hearts.

So what it ultimately means for someone to have an authentic relationship to Christ, is incredibly subjective. It's possible for the most doctrinally correct man to be proud and full of evil and to receive no benefit from that knowledge. On the other hand, someone can be really grasping for the truth, and that reaching may eventually be fulfilled in a way not sensible to anyone else in this life. After all, who knows what those who truly die see or are given - the only Near Death cases we have (if you trust the testimonies) are from people who obviously didn't "follow through." While it's not true that "dead men don't tell tales", in this case it would seem to be.

I guess if anything, the purpose of the "visible church" is to bare witness to the world to come, and which already is (though few can see it.) Unfortunately, human beings are inconsistent at best, so that "witness" historically is all over the place - from really enlightened souls, to some real scoundrels who are ultimately the cause of popular atheism in modern society.

So, it could be said that something like an "implicit faith" may very well exist. Christ is the Logos, the intelligability and rationality of all existence, God - God Who has entered an embrace with the universe by truly becoming a man. That means He is not trapped in minds, words, or even the best of books, but is very much alive, and very much a part of all things and all people. Subjective opinions can get in the way of this dynamic, or they may be neutral - what that means for this or that person is ultimately impossible for any other human being to know.

So, obviously the Christian must "preach Christ." Anything else would not be the whole truth, the most essential truth. It would be like saying "you need good nutrition to live" - but would that necessarily mean someone couldn't scrape by on what nutrition they found in say, junk food? Obviously not... people manage. Grace "manages" too.