One Way

She was an intelligent woman.  Well read.  Educated, I'm sure.  She seemed rational and reasonable, and her words demonstrated an ability to communicate effectively.  And she was sincere.  It was written all over her face, reflected in her eyes and the timber of her voice.  Her body language emphasized the strength of her conviction as she leaned forward, looked right into my eyes, and poured out the driving philosophy of her life.

"I've investigated them all," she said.  "I've read all the books.  I've looked at all the variations.  And I discovered something!  All religions are the same.  God is energy and light, and he is everywhere and in everybody, and everybody is going to get to Him in their own way.  No religion can claim they are the only way."

All religions are the same???  I wanted to take this sincere, intelligent, educated, rational, idiotic woman by the shoulders and shake her senseless!  Do you even know what "all" religions believe about God, about man, about salvation and eternal life?  How can you put "all" religions side by side and come to the conclusion that they are all the same and all are leading to the same place?  Honestly, the only people I've ever heard say this are people who don't have--and don't want--any religion at all.  By saying that each belief-system in the world is the same as every other, they are really just giving themselves permission to believe whatever they want and feel justified and secure.  And they are sadly mistaken.

We do not have the time or space in this venue to explore every religion in the world--likely there are multitudinous myriads of belief systems among the 7 Billion people on this planet.  But we can look at a handful of the major, more recognizable religions and determine if they are all teaching the same thing.

What do the five major world religions teach?  Do you know?

Hindus believe that God is a universal spirit, everywhere and everything, that everything (including you) is part of it, and that God is manifested in (some have estimated) 333 Million gods and goddesses who can all be worshiped.  Humanity is engaged in a cycle of reincarnation, with each life being a step toward (or a step away from) oneness with the universal spirit.  That oneness is achieved through ritual meditation and accumulating enough good karma through good behavior to outweigh the bad karma of bad behavior. 

Buddhists don't believe in any specific deity, but rather in a universal consciousness into which all thing will eventually merge.  Suffering is brought on by desire, so the goal of humanity is to escape suffering by eliminating desire.  There is no eternal soul, but feelings are transferred from one life to another in a cycle of reincarnation that ends when those feelings have become enlightened by all the right stuff and ceased from desire, thereby escaping suffering, merging with the universe in nirvana (which has been described as the state of perfect nothingness).

Muslims believe there is only one God, whose name is Allah, and that Mohammad was the last and greatest in a long line of prophets revealing the will of God, to which one must submit.  Humanity is basically good, but the destiny of the immortal soul in heaven or hell is determined by doing enough good deeds to outweigh the bad deeds.

Jews (in the traditional religious sense) believe there is only one God who has revealed Himself and His will through Moses and the prophets.  Through prayer, repentance, and obedience to the Law (the 10 Commandments and all the additional rules, laws, commandments, and traditions that go with it) one can be saved and have hope of the resurrection and eternal life.

Christians (for the most part) believe in one God, eternally existent in the triune Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God, born of a virgin, sinless in life, who died a sacrificial and substitutionary death to pay for the sins of humanity.  We are born in sin, for which we will be condemned unless we repent and follow Christ.  Salvation and eternal life are obtained through belief in Christ as savior and trusting in the grace, mercy, and love of God to forgive and accept us as His children.

Hindus view Jesus Christ as one of many incarnations or manifestations of God.  Buddhists view Jesus Christ as an enlightened man, just like their founder.  Muslims view Jesus Christ as a prophet, virgin born, but not the Son of God and Savior of the world.  Jews view Jesus as a revolutionary extremist at best, a false messiah at worst, and are awaiting the coming of their true messiah.

But Jesus Christ Himself made the following statements:

I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.

 He who hates me, hates the Father.

The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Whoever believes in me will have eternal life.

Now let me ask you a simple question:  Do these five religions teach the same thing?  Do they believe in the same God?  Are they all leading the same way?

Is God everything and nothing, the Only One and one among many, all at the same time?

I've got an even better question:  If God wanted His creation to come to Him, would He leave it up to us to figure out how, or would He tell us how?

People say that a loving God would not make only one way to get to heaven and receive eternal life.  But I say to you that a loving God would not present a dozen different roads, each of them leading in a different direction, and expect you to believe that they will all end up in the same location.

There is only one God, and only one way to get to Him, and that way is through Jesus Christ.  Salvation is not by my works; I know myself well enough to say that the good deeds and the bad deeds might be just about even.  And from what I've seen, it's the same with most other people.  Our works will not tip the scales in our favor.  Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And you want to know the funny thing about that woman who told me she had it all figured out, that all religions were the same?  She was concerned that Harry Potter would warp her kids' sense of reality.