The Old TV Analogy

"Sir, we would like to see Jesus" John 12:21

I have been using an analogy lately when faced with questions of comparative religions/denominations. I call it the "TV analogy". See if this makes sense to you.

Your religion is like an old TV. You know the ones before cable, when we had to adjust the rabbit ears.

People on channel 4 are Jews, channel 7 is Christianity, channel 9 is Islam, etc....

Say you are tuned in to channel 7 - does that mean you are getting the "program"? Not necessarily. Your reception may be fuzzy. It may be terribly fuzzy, so that you don't even know what you are watching. Or it may be pretty clear - with only a vertical hold problem or some intermittent static. Tuning the rabbit ears is your denomination.

I believe Confessional Lutheranism not only has the right channel, but has the rabbit ears adjusted for the clearest picture of what Christianity actually teaches. In other words - the truth!

Does that mean that Christians of other denominations are all going to hell? No. I suppose they will most often "get the picture" even if it is fuzzy or unclear. Perhaps it becomes so unclear at time that they DON'T actually get the picture, and this is a tragedy.

Don't believe the people who tell you it's the same show on every channel. It's not! And don't believe those who say you can watch two channels at the same time. You can't! And don't believe those who tell you it doesn't matter how you adjust the rabbit ears - that "it's all in the interpretation"!

Don't we want the clearest picture possible?

Anyone want to build on this analogy?