Ayaan Hirsi Ali proclaims the gospel at debate over religion

My wife and I recently attended a debate in Austin, Texas, over the question, “Does the West need a religious revival?” The participants were enlisted to discuss the utility of religion in Western culture and therefore whether a return to religious commitment is important for our society.

One of them, however, changed the focus in a way that answered my prayers during the event.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali grew up in Islam, became a very public atheist, and in recent years has turned to following Christ. She was brilliant and persuasive throughout the discussion, but especially when she made the point that a “religious” revival is not what we need. She showed with historical accuracy and force that Christianity has been the “operating system” of American democracy since its founding. It is not a return to “religion” that we need most, but faith in Christ.

This was just what I had been praying for someone to say during the event. I wanted the hundreds of people in attendance to actually hear the gospel and be impressed with the urgency of responding to it. This is what she did in a way that answered my prayers.

Why I disagree with Frederick Buechner

Ali’s assertion is especially urgent in our day of postmodern relativism, where “your truth” is just “your truth” and “my truth” is “my truth.” It is a popular convention to tolerate the beliefs of others so long as they tolerate our beliefs in turn. What matters is not whether a statement is really true but whether it is true for us.

Many who wish to advocate for the Christian faith in this light do so with the assertion that we can come to God through Christ by virtue of our sincerity. Jesus’ death on the cross paid for our sins, whether we know it or not. If we seek to live with integrity and kindness, we are following in his “way,” whether we know it or not. In this way, “all good people go to heaven” whether they believe in heaven or not. Religion, whatever its specific title or claim, can be a means to this end.

Unfortunately, Frederick Buechner—one of my favorite theologians and writers—falls into this camp. 

Buechner quotes John 14:6, where Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” Then he comments: “He didn’t say that any particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that he was. He didn’t say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you could ‘come to the Father.’ He said it was only by him.” So far, so good.

But then Buechner explains what he means: “by living, participating in, being caught up by, the way of life that he embodied, that was his way. Thus it is possible to be on Christ’s way and with his mark upon you without ever having heard of Christ, and for that reason to be on your way to God though maybe you don’t even believe in God.”

This is a version of Karl Rahner’s “anonymous Christianity,” the idea that people can come to God through Christ without knowing it so long as they are faithful to what they believe and act in ways that seem aligned with the ways Jesus wants us to act.

But this is not what Jesus said, at all.

John 3:18 explains John 3:16

The best-known verse in the Bible is undoubtedly John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (my emphasis). Buechner would rewrite this, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever lives in ways that correspond with the ways he taught should not perish but have eternal life.” But that is not what Jesus said.

Two verses later, our Lord was even more specific: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (v. 18). Here it is more than clear that we must believe specifically “in him,” not just in his teachings or way of life. We must have a personal relationship with the personal Christ, what he called being “born again” (John 3:3).

This only makes sense in light of Jesus’ atonement. Christ died for our sins (Romans 5:8), but like all gifts, this grace must be received to be experienced. It is only when we ask that we receive; it is when we seek that we find and when we knock that the door is opened (Matthew 7:7).

Christianity is about a personal, transforming relationship with the living Lord Jesus, nothing else.

If you had a vaccine to prevent cancer

Two consequences follow.

One: Like Nicodemus of old, you and I must be “born again” through personal faith in Christ.

No amount of religious training, belief, or behavior is enough. If Nicodemus, the “teacher of Israel” (v. 10) and religious leader in the nation (v. 1), needed to trust in Jesus, so do we.

Have you made this transforming decision? If not, let me urge you to do so today. (If you need resources to this end, I invite you to consider my website article, “Why Jesus?”)

Two: Everyone we know needs to know what we know.

If you had a vaccine that could prevent all cancer, you would want everyone to know it. But not just to know it—you would want them to experience it for themselves. Anything less would be indefensible.

Those who know Christ personally have the way to prevent eternal death and experience eternal life in God’s paradise. Everything we say and do should be a means to the end of sharing what has been shared with us.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was courageous to proclaim the gospel and her faith in Christ in such a public manner last week. Her life has been threatened by Islamic extremists. She risks the opprobrium of her academic colleagues at Harvard and Stanford for her “intolerant” faith. But she has experienced the difference Jesus makes in a life, and she wanted everyone in the theater to experience the same grace.

When last did you pay a price to share this gift with someone?

Will you pay such a price today?