All religions: Just various roads all leading to God?

ARE ALL RELIGIONS TRUE?

If by the term ‘true,’ as used as an adjective for ‘religion,’ we mean “leading to God” and “recognized and accepted by Him,” then to claim that “all religions are true” is to suggest, in essence, that all faiths are fundamentally the same.

Indeed, this is what many people in this age of pluralism believe. As various faiths incessantly emerge in every sector of our society, many are led to suppose that religions are only superficially different—that it does not matter which religion one belongs to as long as he believes some sort of something.  Maintaining that different religions are just various roads all leading to God, the modern religious relativist advocates that all religions are basically the same and no religion can be wrong.

Though at first glance it may appear very loving and tolerant to pronounce that all religions are true, but if truth be told, this view, to say the least, is indefensible and extremely problematic. For if all religions were true, then faiths such as Satanism would also be true. If no faith could be wrong, then likewise ‘true’ would be those groups, which, upon the cult leaders’ capricious desire, require human sacrifice, carnal initiations, ritual child slaughter, and the likes. And what about the sick sadism of the American cult leader who, with his followers, murdered people in the late 60’s? How should we consider also the mind-bending techniques of the religious leader who persuaded 900 of his followers to commit communal suicide in 1978? At worst, these types of faith make people lose trust in any religion at all; at best, they render ‘false’ the notion that “all religions are true.”

False also is the thought that all religions are talking about the same thing and are only putting it in a different way. For how could they be essentially the same if some faiths preach that God is a person, while others that there are many gods, and still others that God is just an impersonal force? In some eastern religions, God is everything and everything is God, while the Bible is unequivocal that there is only one God, He is spirit, and as the Creator, He is distinct from His creation.

There are faiths which believe that we come back for life after life; but others maintain that we live once and then are judged and rewarded or punished immediately after death. Whereas some faiths believe that man undergoes continuous rebirths until he reaches eternal bliss, the Bible teaches that each person is unique, not part of everything, and even if that unique person dies, he will be resurrected and judged on Judgement Day.

Even the worldviews promoted by various faiths strikingly differ from one another. To some, history has no purpose or meaning and is a never-ending struggle. The Bible on the other hand indicates that history is providential, as it portrays a super-natural God, who is working toward the ultimate goal of setting up His eternal kingdom. Some religions see this world as ‘real’ while others profess that the material world is an illusion. While sin is regarded by some as wilful rebellion against God, others consider it as nothing but ignorance about the fact of illusion.

Forgiveness of sins, redemption, and salvation are attained through Jesus, so pronounces the Gospel. But other religions, though recognizing Jesus to be a religious man, do not acknowledge Him to be the Son of God who died for the sins of those who will be saved. While some Christian-professing religions confidently claim that faith alone is necessary for salvation, the Holy Scriptures teaches that good works are also indispensable—such as striving to be part of the church which Christ purchased with His blood and remaining in it until the end.

Beyond doubt therefore, people today are dealing with different religious ideas that are not compatible with one another. As we have seen, some faiths are not only opposed to one another—they are even not starting from the same premises. And though some religions seem to be the same on the surface, the closer one gets to their doctrines, the more evident the differences become. So if all religions in the whole world were the same, as others unwittingly accept, then what are the fundamentals that unify all religions as being the same?

Love, sincerity, and faith—though indubitably essential for a religion to be worthy before God—are nonetheless not conclusive bases for religions to be ‘true’. Cult leaders who led their flock to do awful wrongdoings might have sincerely believed in what they were doing—but they were sincerely mistaken. A mother in an eastern tradition may very lovingly offer her child as a sacrifice to a certain goddess, but her love will not alter the disaster. One may have faith that he himself is the immortal God, the Creator, but all his faith will not change the fact that he is just one of God’s finite and mortal creatures.Therefore, if we would accept that all religions are true, then no set of doctrine—no matter how bizarre it is, and no amount of religious decrees —no matter how harmful they are to our society, can make any religion ‘false’.

All religions cannot be equally true when they all contradict one another. For how could opposing convictions be both true when they cancel one another out? They all may be wrong, but certainly they all cannot be right, for the claims of one exclude the other. So, either they are all false, or there is only one true religion.

As tolerance is, no doubt, a virtue, we must definitely tolerate the religious beliefs of others and respect their right to hold their views. Nonetheless, there is nothing in the name of tolerance that requires anyone to declare that mutually contradictory religions are equally true. A religious tolerance which refuses to proclaim any religion ‘true’ and others ‘false’ misses the very essence of religion which is to uphold truth. Truth, by its very essence, is intolerant of error.

Thus, it is never hash and haughty to tell the truth lovingly. In effect, those who condone false faith as true are mean to those who pursue a wrong way. The most thoughtful thing to do to someone following a road towards an abyss is not to respect his conviction and sincerity, but to compassionately inform him the truth and show him the right path.

If Christ is indeed—as taught by the Holy Bible, many declarations of which have been verified even by secular historians and scholars—the God-appointed Savior and He built a Church for which He gave His life, then to reject the church that the Savior will save is to refuse the right religion that leads to God.

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