WHAT ABOUT OTHER RELIGIONS?

A common belief today is that all religions are basically the same. This idea contends that, although they don’t know it, all religious people worship the same God.

This idea sounds appealing on the surface, but it quickly unravels under examination.

First of all, the world’s major religions vary radically from one another. Some teach the worship of ancestors, while some worship inanimate objects. Some believe in thousands of Gods, while some believe in only one. Some hold Jesus to be a prophet or teacher, while Christianity alone holds that He is the Son of God. It doesn’t make sense to say that the following can all be true:
1. Jesus is the Son of God
2. Jesus is a prophet of God, but not the Son of God
3. Jesus was simply an ethical man, not a prophet of God or the Son of God

All of these statements could be false, but they cannot all be true. We do not allow ourselves to think this way about other facets of life. For example, we would not allow ourselves to think, “1+1 = 2, but it also equals 3.” We would call this kind of thinking absurd. In a similar way, we should not let our thinking become clouded when we consider spiritual issues.

Some say, “What really matters is if you sincerely believe something.” While sincerity is laudable, it is not a test of truth. Previous generations have sincerely believed that the earth was flat, and that the sun revolved around the earth. However, they were sincerely wrong. Truth, not sincerity, is the standard for our beliefs.

In addition, Jesus doesn’t leave room for other religions to be true along with His. He says: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father [God] except through me.” – John 14:6

This is not to say that other religions do not offer positive contributions to the world or that they do not contain elements of truth. But if we are to take Jesus at His word, He does not give us the option of entertaining multiple faiths as options. Either Jesus was right about His identity, or He was wrong.

As C.S. Lewis has famously written in "Mere Christianity": "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of Hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Jesus would certainly oppose persecuting or vilifying people of other faiths. This is not the issue here. God does not force anyone to worship Him. The question is, who was Jesus? If He was who He claims to be, then there are personal implications for everyone to consider.

The unique distinctive of Christianity is that the Son of God came to earth in the form of man. His life is historically attested. He died and rose again to eyewitnesses to prove that He was not a mere human, but God’s Son. His life is still affecting the world 2,000 years later.

If you really want to know why Jesus is unique, read what He said, starting with the biblical biographies of Luke or John.

Questions? Please contact us.

Common Questions
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