What do you believe?

So I’m standing outside of LAX, waiting for my ride and a man comes up to me and strikes up a conversation. It turns out that he used to live near where I currently live and we have a casual conversation for not even a few minutes before he tells me he has a gift for me:
the Bhagavad-gita.  It turns out that this man, dressed in regular clothes is a Hare krishna. I decline his book and tell him that I am a Christian.

He tells me, “Hey that’s ok. We believe in Jesus Christ too.” He then proceeds to show me an endorsment written in the book by a monastic priest.

“You say you believe in Jesus, but what do you believe about Jesus?” I respond.

“We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” He says while opening up to a page in the book and showing me a couple of sentences which talk about Jesus walking the earth as a teacher and dying on the cross, stating that he could not be “killed.” “You see, we even believe that he was ressurected.” I read a couple of sentences before and after so I could get a better context and saw that the paragraph talked about Jesus dying to help spread “God Consciousness.”

“See? We believe in Jesus Christ? Go ahead… you can have the book.”

“No. Jesus wasn’t crucified just so he could spread “God Consciousness,” Jesus was crucified and ressurected so that humanity can be forgiven of their sins.”

“Oh, we don’t believe that Jesus had to die for our sins.” He said.
I pressed the issue a little more and he admitted, “We believe Jesus is the Son of God, but he is not God.”

“Jesus himself said, “I and my Father are One.” I replied.

“But a person can’t be son and father.” He replied.

I said, “You are looking at that from a strictly human point of view.”

“You and your father are not the same person.” He said.

“No we are not. But I have all the rights and privileges and inheritance that he does. I’m the only one, outside of my mother and brother, who can walk right into his office and see him. Others have to bo through his administrative assistant and if he’s in a meeting, they won’t be able to see him. But because I’m his son, I can go right in. You say you believe in Jesus, then why don’t you believe what He actually said?”

“He’s been misrepresented.” The man replied.

“Misrepresented?”

“Does God have limits?” The man asked.

“No…” I responded.

“There you go,” he said. “Why are you limiting God? Why can’t there be other sons?”

“God does not have limits except for the ones He imposes on Himself.” I replied. “If God has designated a specific way in order for us to approach Him, then that is the way He has set.”

Silence…

“You say you follow Jesus, but who else do you worship?”

“Do you know who this is?” He asked while pointing to the picture of a man on the cover of the book.

“No. I don’t”

He proceeded to tell me, “That is Lord Krishna. He is god.”

“What?”

“Yes, over five thousand years ago, he declared himself to be the manisfestation of God. We follow his teachings.” The conversation continued as he began to show me the names of many different “authorities” who back up his claim to divinity.

I replied, “There’s a guy in Belleview right now who claims he’s god. Should we follow him?”

He began to change the subject and talk about how modern day Christians misrepresent Jesus by their actions and don’t follow a simple rule like, “Thou shalt not kill.” I agreed with him. Many of us do misrepresent Christ. We talked, for a moment, about the difference between killing and murder and then I shared with him the fact that, “Not every Hare Krishna keeps all the laws contained in the book you are trying to give me. No one can keep the whole law, which is why we need Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“You say you worship Jesus, but Jesus said he was God.”

At this point, for a moment, his smile went away and he frowned, “Jesus, did not say he was God. You show me where he said he was God.”

Unfortunately, I did not have my bible with me to show him some scripture passages that speak to Christ’s Divinity.

A short moment later he smiled again and told me to have a nice day. “It was good talking with you.”

“Yes, it was good talking with you too. Have a nice day.”

I watched as he walked away with his small cart and went to another man, thirty feet away and struck up a conversation with his trademarked smile. Then my ride pulled up shortly thereafter. I could not help but think about a few things:

1. I thought he was just trying to be hospitable. I did not realize he had an ulterior motive. When he did reveal his true intentions I felt like I was being manipulated… the moment was cheapened.

2. When people say they believe what you do, it always serves to press the issue and dig deeper to find out what they truly embrace. The same terminology may be used, but the definitions of the terminology may not be the same. It may sound good on the surface, but may not be what they attempt to lead you to believe.

3. It’s not enough to know ‘right doctrine’ if I don’t live out what I say I believe. The man did have a point when he said, “Many modern day Christians misrepresent Jesus by their actions and don’t follow a simple rule like, “Thou shalt not kill.”

4. As Christians who share Christ with others, let us try not to create a “sense of connection” with the person we’re talking to, just so we can try to get them to believe what we believe. This is false and cheapens the moment. We have to connect with people on a deeper, more genuine level. The sharing needs to come more naturally.

5. I did genuinely enjoy the conversation and prayed for the man, as he walked away.

6. He never did tell me his name… and I never did offer mine.

Filed under: Articles • Spirituality

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