Do All Religions Lead to God?

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Before answering this question, a word of warning is in order: Anyone who answers in the negative may well be ostracized for being narrow-minded and intolerant. That being said, my answer is, “No, not all religions lead to God, and it is incorrect and illogical to maintain that they do.”

First, when you begin to examine world religions such as Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, you will immediately recognize that they directly contradict one another. For example, Moses taught that there is only one God; Krishna believed in many gods; and Buddha was agnostic. Logically, they can all be wrong but they can’t all be right.

Furthermore, the road of religion leads steeply uphill, while the road of Christianity descends downward. Put another way, religion is fallen humanity’s attempt to reach up and become acceptable to God through what we do; Christianity, on the other hand, is a divine gift based on what Christ has done. He lived the perfect life that we could never live and offers us His perfection as an absolutely free gift.

Finally, Jesus taught that there was only one way to God. “I am the way and the truth and the life,” said Jesus, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, emphasis added).

Moreover, Jesus validated His claim through the immutable fact of His resurrection. The opinions of all other religious leaders are equally valid in that they are equally worthless. They died and are still dead. Only Jesus had the power to lay down His life and to take it up again. Thus, His opinion is infinitely more valid than theirs.

Breaking Away

Suppose you’re invited to an elaborate feast. You walk into the large banquet room, ready to partake of the exquisite foods that entice your senses to draw near. The mouth-watering turkey glistens with honey-colored glaze; the scent of cookies reminds you of Christmas time; and the touch of soft, fine table linens makes the experience even more delightful.

Yet as you approach the first of many rows of tables that compile this tasty smorgasbord, you notice something different: there are no utensils. Everyone is picking up food with their hands, not using a serving spoon or a fork, unaware of the taboo in which they’re partaking.

You glance around, certain to find someone as appalled as you are. But nobody else seems to mind.

Still, you decide the feast can’t be enjoyed properly without a spoon or fork, so you exit the banquet hall.

Unfortunately, you won’t only be missing a sumptuous meal; you will also be abstaining from the joy of camaraderie.

Had you simply taken the food the way it was served, you would have sat down to enjoy conversation with others who were vocal about their nervousness, yet found the new manner of eating to be fun, adventurous, and uniting.

Similar to the fictitious feast, oftentimes as Christians we fail to experience the fun, adventure, and unity as the body of Christ—all because we’re afraid to abandon the comfortable and familiar.

In their book, The God Who Hung on the Cross, authors Dois Rosser, Jr. and Ellen Vaughn portray the Christian life as a faith-filled adventure. Vaughn references Luke 5:4, where Jesus commanded His disciples to “put out into deep water and let down [their] nets for a catch.”

Vaughn writes, “And then the shimmering fish leapt into the nets, the men strained to haul the catch, and Peter fell at Jesus’ feet, overwhelmed by the power of the living God.

“That’s what Jesus does! He woos us constantly to come farther in and farther up, to dive deeper into the river of His grace.

“Sometimes I resist. I like comfort and the illusion of being in control. But if I stick with what is familiar, I box my faith. It becomes human enterprise rather than godly exercise.

“But what if we take even the smallest step of willingness—‘Oh, Lord, I know not what lies ahead. I can’t control it. But I trust You!’—we break out of the box.

“Then God takes us on new adventures we could never have imagined.”

However, the adventurous Christian life is impossible apart from yielding your will to the Lord’s.

Webster’s Dictionary defines yield as “to give way to someone or something superior.” In essence, when you yield your will to the Lord’s, you “give way” to Him because of your understanding that His ways and His wisdom are superior to yours. (Romans 11:33)

Vaughn says one of the most practical ways to begin yielding one’s life to the Lord is to start each morning in prayer. “If we start each day on our knees asking the Lord, ‘What would You have me do to fulfill Your eternal, holy will for this day?’ He will do wild stuff.

“If there’s any sense that I would love readers to carry away from the book, [it’s] the sense of surprise, of miracles, and of the power of God at work. And if we can even just taste a little bit of that, it gives a fresh sense to our everyday lives, no matter what you’re doing.”

The God Who Hung on the Cross is based on Rosser’s experiences traveling the world, working in partnership with international believers and ministries to spread the Gospel by planting churches in remote, often hostile, areas. And this was Rosser’s second career.

At the age of 59, this entrepreneurial businessman felt God tugging at his heart to use the business skills he had acquired to partner with mission-minded people and ministries. “The whole thought behind the book is just an attempt, through the use of stories and experiences, to share what God is doing, not what we’re doing,” shares Rosser.

“The pure evidence of that is the fact that we wouldn’t have thought of some of the things that have happened and have unfolded as we, maybe in ignorance almost, just stepped out believing. [God] would reveal to us awesome things in the lives of these people as we moved throughout the world.

“I sit here every day in complete amazement of what I’m seeing; it isn’t that I’m sitting here with a big five-year plan. We just want to be where God is, and we believe that He’s given us a tool. In my personal life, I feel like he equipped me in the business world all of those years for doing what I’m doing now.”

It is scary, though, to leave the familiar behind and wade into uncertain waters. Caleb and Joshua knew that all too well. They were among 12 spies sent on the furtive mission to report to Moses what Canaan was like.

While the other 10 spies returned with negative reports about how big the giants were and how different the cities were, Caleb and Joshua saw the adventure that was wrapped in the bundle of risk. Numbers 13:30 tells us that Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.”

He understood the fear that comes with risk, but was willing to make necessary changes in order to experience the abundance of God’s plan. He knew that God was trustworthy and powerful.

What is it that God is asking you to break away from today? Spend some time in prayer, and ask Him to reveal to you the key to enjoying the feast He has prepared. It may be as simple as beginning your day in prayer, as Vaughn suggested. Or it could be as dramatic as going to a distant land.

However God leads, think of the journey as an adventure during which you will come to know “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward [you] who believe” (Ephesians 1:19).

Know What You Believe

As children, many of us played "the gossip game." After forming a line, the child at the beginning would tell his neighbor a story. Then, the narrative would be passed down, with each child having the opportunity to hear and relay the message.
The point to the game was to see how the story had changed by the time it reached the end of the line. Interestingly enough, the final tale was rarely similar to what was said at the beginning.

Sadly, the Gospel can be distorted in the same manner. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He commanded the disciples to spread His Word throughout a lost and sinful world. His message of truth was untainted, one hundred percent pure.

They followed Jesus' command, but, as the Gospel spread, the opportunity for error arose. Wherever the apostles preached, false teachers would quickly follow, instructing the early church to obey legalistic rules and regulations that God Himself did not require.

Two thousand years have passed since Jesus walked the earth. With this inevitable passage of time comes more opportunity for God's truth to be distorted. Teachers from all faiths are prepared to tell you whatever you want to hear. Paul warned Timothy about this when he wrote:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
(2 Timothy 4:3-4)

False doctrine is rampant in our world. We are surrounded by beliefs and guidelines that fail to match up with the litmus test that is the Word of God. The Lord not only wants us to come to know Him as Savior, He also desires that all men "come to the knowledge of the truth"
(1 Timothy 2:3-4).

In the Great Commission, Jesus commands His followers to reach the world with His Gospel. But how are we as Christians to spread His Word if we do not understand what we believe?

The Apostle Peter tells Christians to:

Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
(1 Peter 3:15-16)

Even as false doctrine was widespread in Peter's day, he realized that believers would always be tempted with the lure of doctrinal error. In 2 Peter 2:1-3, he says:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

In order to defend our faith from false doctrine, we must first examine our beliefs. We shouldn't read through the Bible only to pull out verses that confirm what we already hold true. Instead, we should take all of what we believe and examine it against the entirety of truth found in the Bible. Are your beliefs firmly set in the Word of God?

If someone asked you, "tell me about the Bible," what would you say? If they asked you why baptism is important, what would you tell them? If you were asked to explain the Trinity, how would you answer?

We should be entrenched and deeply rooted in God's Word, formulating a mental grid of beliefs in our minds. If we understand the Bible's truth, false teaching will not infiltrate this mental grid. God will alert us to error, allowing us to eliminate untruths from our understanding of His Word.

Why should you want to defend your beliefs? The world may tell you that as long as you believe something, then you will be okay. This is not true. When we believe the truth - the Bible - we are:

* Prevented from being misled by false doctrine
* Protected from those who attack our faith
* Prepared to answer those who are honestly seeking truth
* Persuasive in our expression and presentation of what we believe
* Prosperous in our personal relationship with Christ

We are surrounded by those who are eager to tell us that salvation is based on works and legalistic rules, that Christ was a "great teacher" but not the Son of God, that Jesus is not coming again, and that baptism is the only requirement to being saved.

Rarely will we find someone that believes exactly as we do. However, if their values are not rooted in the Word of God, then they are adhering to false doctrine.

Jude tells us that false teachers are like "clouds without water, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever" (Jude 1:12-13).

There are thousands of teachers that are attempting to sell us something that sounds good and appeals to our "sensuality." However, when we are grounded in the principles of the Bible, we can wisely discern the difference between truth and error.

In a world saturated with untruth, let God guide you to all the answers that you seek. Know what you believe!
by: Dr. Charles Stanley