I recently started a new Bible study, which some Iranian parishioners whom I baptized on Easter are attending. We are studying Ephesians, which I selected, among other things, for its wonderful opening chapter on the doctrine of election—that is, that our triune God chose every one of His people from before the beginning of time. What an amazing and also comforting thought…Another reason I chose this Epistle is because it underscores the exclusivity and necessity of Jesus Christ as the sole access to the Trinity: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in *Christ* with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as [God the Father] chose us in *Him* before the foundation of the world” [Eph 1:3-4a]. To illustrate this, I walked over to the door. “Look at this little hallway,” I said. “Imagine that God the Father is in that room back there, the one with the window. And God the Holy Spirit is in the other room off to the left. How can I get to these two rooms?” I asked. “Through the door,” they all agreed. “Exactly. Jesus is the door. There is no other way I can get to the other rooms than through it. Jesus Himself says, ‘I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved’ (Jn 10:9) and then again, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’ (Jn 14:6). I stepped over to the wall to the right of the door and slapped on it. A very solid German wall… “There’s no way I could get through that wall either…” One of the parishioners blurted out, “And if I tried to get to those other rooms by climbing out the window and going around the back, I might hurt myself and even get run over by a car… That would be like trying to find another way to God—like through Islam.” Everybody exploded with laughter at that comment. What a blessing to walk alongside our Iranian friends every day and watch them grow in their Christian faith.
The Tiews in Germany 