Today's reading from my daily C.S. Lewis readings really cuts to the truth:
"There is no half-way house and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him 'Are you the son of Bramah?', he would have said, 'My son, you are still in the vale of illusion.' If you had gone to Socrates and asked, 'Are you Zeus?', he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Mohammed and asked, 'Are you Allah?', he would first have rent his clothes and then cut off your head off. If you had asked Confucius, 'Are you Heaven?' I think he woudl have probably replied, 'Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste.' The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who cans sawy that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man. If you think you are a poached egg, when you are looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, there is no chance for you. We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met him. He produced mainly three effects - hatred, terror, adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval."
Sometimes, as a struggling follower of Christ (I try not to call myself a Christian since so many who do are not followers of Christ, but only shallow and proud mimics of those who actually ARE followers of Christ), I find Lewis' arguments so often hit the point. His argument here is that many give Jesus the credit of being a fine moral teacher, so they can ignore that statement which makes Him precisely NOT that, and therefore, allow themselves to live the lie that they don't have to become Christian since it's just "moral teachings", such as you get from those that Lewis mentioned. Years ago I came to this Truth due to dating a woman who considered Jesus just that - a great moral teacher. She'd been a Muslim, who became a follower of eastern mysticism. Obviously we did not last long. But it forced me - actually made me focus - on that core truth: that Jesus IS and WAS who He said He IS and WAS. To me, that is IT! All else is prefunctory.
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