Page 128 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 23
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And the other religions? And so it is important to expect, discover (help) and
A�er decades of discipleship, not only can one be- give impulses for deeper repentance in the life of
gin a “worldview or interfaith” dialogue journey every person.
with every person, certainly that too, but above all The �me in which others are reduced to material
I am discovering the adventure of the human being, for conversions is over. We want to build rela�ons-
because everyone is first and foremost a creature hips with interest and respect for one another. In
of God, beloved and a poten�ally redeemed. vibrant everyday life, we have learned to show our-
It is now interes�ng to see which of the three possi- selves with our strengths and weaknesses, with our
bili�es that I have come to know as basic a�tudes victories and defeats. And we can say yes and no in
of interreligious dialogue which we adopt in our en- rela�onships, which builds trust.
counters with people:
A provoca�ve example
• Everyone is right: all people, including us Chris- A rela�ve married a Taiwanese woman a few years
�ans, have limited knowledge. So no-one pos- ago, he a Chris�an, she a Buddhist. We also got to
sesses the whole truth. know and appreciate her family. We visited her in
• The exclusionary posi�on: Individual non-Chris- her home country for the wedding celebra�on and
�an worldviews are all wrong because they are experienced the following:
based on rebellion against God, demonic ac�vi- The bride and her family had made a life change a
ty, reliance on works righteousness or personal few years ago by turning seriously and deeply to
existen�al experiences from which people tai- their Buddhist faith. The parents tes�fied that this
lor their own worldviews. had saved their marriage. They have learned to give
• The so-called inclusive posi�on: We find refe- up their possessions and are devo�ng their �me to
rences to the triune God, the Father, the Son be�er understanding their faith.
and the Holy Spirit in all personal worldviews The unity I could see in them and with their friends
due to the general blessing of God and his pre- from the same Buddhist faith community reminded
venient grace. me a lot of the unity in our churches: They were
happy to see each other, hugged each other and
Choosing one of these three posi�ons will also sha- were joyful. And when some of them took out their
pe our everyday rela�onships with non-Chris�ans. instruments and sang songs, I could hear the same
Personally, the third posi�on seems to me to come joy and enthusiasm in the songs as in our worship
closest to the truth. Why? Because God's goodness teams. If I had met them on the street, I might have
drives us to repentance and because I can therefore greeted them as presumed fellow brothers and sis-
assume that this goodness has le� tangible traces ters, since I didn't understand the words.
for every person, regardless of whether they grew In principle, they experienced and told me what I
up in a Chris�an culture or not. Long before I beca- had also told them when I had found faith, only
me a Chris�an, I prayed in �mes of need. Even as a they had converted to the Buddhist faith. If you
non-Chris�an, I cared for disabled people, for ex- look more closely, they talked about doing many
ample. I experienced God's interven�on without things to achieve be�er karma, whereas I had told
recognizing it as such. I was also convinced that my them about grace because of Jesus. The good
life had a purpose. More than we think, everyone works are not done so that I can be saved, but be-
has had some kind of experience with God. cause I am saved. That is a serious difference. But in
principle they were talking about a conversion, the
We can detect traces of God in every person. effects of which I no�ced in them.
We can simultaneously perceive three things in Was this the work of the Holy Spirit outside his
every person: church? Like the inclusive posi�on in interfaith dia-
• each person's longing for God, log? Was it an imita�on origina�ng in the Evil One,
• the damage that sin has caused in and through as the exclusionary posi�on might suggest? Or is
their lives, and there another explana�on?
• the infinite grace that is available for everyone I believe the explana�on has to do with our image
in Jesus Christ and that is already making itself of man, which, understood biblically, is important
felt. to me in this context:
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