The Arrogance of Christian Truth-Claims

Slides to accompany Bristol Vineyard podcast dated 17th April 2016.

1. ‘Christians claim they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Isn’t that arrogant?’

2. Sam Harris

3. “There is, in fact, no worldview more reprehensible in its arrogance than that of a religious believer : ‘the creator of the universe takes an interest in me, approves of me, loves me, and will reward me after death; my current beliefs, drawn from scripture, will remain the best statement of the truth until the end of the world; everyone who disagrees with me will spend eternity in hell …’ ”

4. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me .” John 14: 6

5. ‘ Christianity makes exclusive claims’

6. ‘All religions are equally true’

7. ‘No single religion has the whole truth. They each see part of the truth.’

8. ‘How could you possibly know that no religion can see the whole truth unless you yourself have the superior, comprehensive knowledge of spiritual reality you just claimed that none of the religions have?’ Tim Keller The Reason for God

9. ‘All religions are false.’

10. All the knowledge that humanity will ever possess.

11. All the knowledge that I will ever possess.

12. All truth-claims are exclusive

13. ‘There’s no such thing as truth.’ Or ‘The truth cannot be known’

14. ‘If you insist that no-one can determine which beliefs are right and wrong, why should we believe what you are saying? The reality is that we all make truth-claims of some sort, and it is very hard to weigh them responsibly, but we have no alternative but to try to do so.’ Tim Keller The Reason for God

15. Tolerance

16. The way we argue is even more important than what we say

17. ‘In Christianity there is an elitism of ideas and an egalitarianism of people.’ Ravi Zacharias

18. Ahmed Deedat