Barack Obama’s “Christian Tradition”

In her 2004 book, The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Cathleen Falsani interviewed Barack Obama and asked him specific questions about his religious beliefs.

Obama: “I’m rooted in the Christian tradition.”

Obama: “I believe there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.”

Falsani writes that when she asked him about John 14:6 where Jesus says of Himself, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” that Obama believes that all people of faith – Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone – know the same God.

Obama: “The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they’re going to hell.”

Falsani writes that, “Obama doesn’t believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he’s not sure he’ll be going to heaven, either.”

Obama: “I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. When I tuck in my daughters at night and I feel like I’ve been a good father to them, and I see that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they’re kind people and that they’re honest people, and they’re curious people, that’s a little piece of heaven.”

Cal Thomas writes in his article, “Barack Obama Is Not a Christian,” that – “Obama can call himself anything he likes, but there is a clear requirement for one to qualify as a Christian and Obama doesn’t meet that requirement. One cannot deny central tenets of the Christian faith, including the deity and uniqueness of Christ as the sole mediator between God and Man and be a Christian. Such people do have a label applied to them in Scripture. They are called a ‘false prophet.’”

Cal Thomas is right. John 14:6 is a simple logical assertion by Jesus Christ that no one comes to God (receives salvation and enters the kingdom of heaven) unless they come through Him (Jesus). This is accomplished by trusting and having faith in Jesus Christ as your only Lord and Savior. Christianity clearly teaches in the Bible that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. There is only one way to God. There is a hell and a heaven and there are many paths to hell, but only one path to heaven. This is a far cry from Barack Obama’s politically correct opinion of “many paths to the same place.” His views do not square with the truth taught in the Scriptures.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

HEAVEN

One of my cousins once told me that he wanted to go to heaven; he just did not want to die.  I suppose that it is only natural that if you are enjoying life you would say, “I don’t ever want this to end.”  However, it inevitably does.  Shakespeare’s Hamlet takes a very negative view of death from the perspective of one with no hope of heaven:

“To die,–to sleep;–

To sleep! perchance to dream:–ay, there’s the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. . . .

“But that the dread of something after death,–

The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns,–puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?”

On the other hand, C. S. Lewis represents the Christian view of death very well when he writes, “A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.”  Only those in heaven may truly say, “I want this to go on forever,” with the confidence and joy that it will.  Paul commands us to “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2) and he reminds us that “our citizenship is in heaven.” (Philippians 3:20)

I do not have the skills to write of the joy and happiness the Christian will experience in heaven.  The excellence of heaven is too rich for me to describe.  Richard Baxter acknowledged this when he wrote:

“My knowledge of that life is small,

The eye of faith is dim;

But ‘tis enough that Christ knows all,

And I shall be with Him.”

Indeed, what comfort must fill the soul of the Christian who now possesses Christ in heaven for all eternity?  We were meant to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  Heaven is where we will enjoy Him fully and best.  Heaven will be the final satisfaction of our souls.  The Lord of lords and King of kings calls us to be with Him.