All Paths?
Recently Pope Francis told a group of interfaith youth in Singapore that "all religions are a path to God." In the unscripted remarks, he said, "[Religions] are like different languages that express the divine." "There is only one God, and religions are like languages that try to express ways to approach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian."
And many people would completely agree with his remarks. I am not one of those people. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful or set up some argument where, "Look at me, I'm smarter than the Pope!" This isn't about my opinion over Pope Francis'. I disagree because that's not what the Bible teaches. Now some of his representatives explained, he was attempting to build bridges to diverse cultures - and while that is a good thing, what he said is not true! And not according to me, the Pope doesn't answer to me - but according to Jesus Himself!
I want to look at that idea of, 'all religions lead to God'. And I want to start by going back to the beginning. The first Christians of the early Church had one key distinction from every other 'religion' or belief system that had come before. They proclaimed the truth of…
I. Salvation only in Jesus
In the book of Acts you find the birth of the Church. They were excited about the mission of the Church and it grew by the thousands, despite the hostile environment in which it was founded. There's also an account of how Peter and John healed a crippled man and then boldly preached about Jesus to the crowds that gathered. And then, the religious leaders of the day challenged them. Let's pick up the story in Acts 4:7-12 (NIV)...
They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" (8) Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! (9) If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed,
(10) then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. (11) He is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.' (12) Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
The teachers of the law decided that they knew how things ought to work, but they ignored the One who created the rules! Because the facts that Peter and John were preaching didn't fit into their belief system, and would have actually required them to change their beliefs and actions – Peter and John were threatened to stay silent. But what Peter and John were preaching didn't start with them. Their claims would have been outrageous and 'closed minded' - if it hadn't been for the fact that…
A. Jesus said it
Admittedly, for anyone to claim to have cornered the market on absolute truth does appear a bit arrogant. How could these uneducated men claim to know more than the teachers of the law?
It wasn't that Peter and John were being 'narrow minded', preaching that they alone had the truth and knew the true path to salvation. They were simply sharing what they had learned from Jesus Himself! I don't claim that everyone of another religion is wrong because 'I say so'. I believe Jesus is The only way to God the Father because Jesus said it…
John 14:6 (NIV)
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Repeating that claim isn't judgmental – it's speaking truth. What many people in this world don't understand is the fact that…
B. Salvation is real
Salvation means being saved from something. That something is an eternity of separation from God. That something is Hell. We can avoid thinking about it all we want – but eternal separation from God and all of His blessings is the destiny of those who choose not to trust Jesus.
- 'But isn't that just your opinion...?' Let's look at the idea of truth here - there are opinions and there are objective truths. If I say, 'This Snapple is the best tea!', you could disagree, 'No, Lipton is the best!' And we could each have our opinions. But if I say, 'Snapple is tea.' - That's truth, it's water flavored by tea leaves, that's kinda the working definition of tea. People can have their own opinions, but truth is exclusive.
Every religion makes truth claims. Christianity says that Jesus is The one and only Son of God, and another might say, Jesus was just a prophet of God. They can't both be right. Not every religion can be right. There may be good and true things in other religions. There may be very good people of other faiths. There are probably people of other faiths who are better human beings than I am. But there is only one Son of God who proved it by rising from the dead! And Jesus, Himself, said…
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. (14) But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Jesus came to save the world! Jesus came to bring His creation back to its Creator; to the Father! That's the message that Jesus came to proclaim and even die for – now it's simply a matter of…
II. Responding to truth
In our diverse culture we value tolerance, 'live and let live'. We value our freedom of speech and religion, and our individual rights. But it's come to the point where we tolerate anything but 'truth'. Just speaking truth is called 'judging' and 'mean spirited'. Simply saying, 'God made us male and female' is now controversial. We are called to a 'social tolerance' in that we are called to love our neighbor, even if we disagree. But not every belief system is true or equal or valid - and that's not mean.
It used to be that our society could agree that pedophilia is wrong... Period. But now the rules of tolerance have changed in the last handful of decades. Now, in some circles, people who sexually abuse children are supposed to be called 'minor attracted people'. Some claim that there really is no right or wrong, that it's all arbitrary.
They can say 'there's no right or wrong', but try and steal their wallet from them and see if they change their tune! 'That's wrong!' Really? Who says? (point upwards...) Christianity is targeted because Jesus says He is THE way and The Son of God! Do you accept it or reject it? You have the right to reject it - but rejecting the truth doesn't change the fact that it's still true. Let's look back to the book of Acts and see the response to Peter's claims of truth in Acts 4:13-18 (NIV)...
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (14) But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. (15) So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. (16) "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked.
"Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. (17) But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name." (18) Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
They couldn't deny the truth. They saw the power of the miracle that Peter performed. They could have accepted the truth about Jesus – but they chose to reject it and even tried to silence it. Now, we may not have personally witnessed this miracle of a man being instantly healed – but we do have the story recorded for us with eyewitness accounts. And we also have the benefit of a great…
A. Body of evidence
You can visit the actual tomb of Confucius in China today, and you would find that his body is still there. You can go to the tomb of Buddha, his body was cremated and buried in this mound. You can go to the tomb of Muhammad, – His body is still there. But if you go to the tomb of Jesus – it's empty! That's the biggest difference between Christianity and all other man made religions! That is why salvation is found only in Jesus!
And that's not the only evidence! The Bible is filled with hundreds of ancient prophecies. The mathematical odds say that it would be impossible for anyone to fulfill all those Biblical prophecies, yet Jesus - and only Jesus - managed to do it.
When the Gospels were actually being written and circulated, there were living eye-witnesses who had also seen what Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were writing. If the Gospels were fabricating facts to make things look better for Jesus – someone at that time could have come forward and said, "Hey, that's a lie! I was there!" But they didn't.
The Jewish community of the time would have jumped on any opportunity to discredit the Gospels by pointing out falsehoods. But even though the Jewish Talmud does refer to Jesus in derogatory ways, it never once makes the claim that the fulfillment of the prophecies was falsified. Not one claim.
How could Jesus arrange for His ancestry, or His method of execution, or soldiers gambling for His clothing, or that His legs remained unbroken on the cross? How could Jesus arrange to perform multiple miracles in full view of skeptics? How would Jesus arrange for His resurrection and empty tomb?
In the Book of Daniel, it foretells that the Messiah would appear a specific length of time after King Artaxerxes I issued a decree for the Jewish people to travel from Persia to rebuild the walls in Jerusalem. That puts the anticipated appearance of the Messiah at the exact moment in history when Jesus was born. How could He possibly have arranged the time and city of His birth?
There is a great body of evidence that Jesus is who He says He is – The way to Heaven! Everyone has a choice to respond to that truth. When the Jewish leaders heard the truth from Peter – they commanded him to be silent. Will we keep the truth to ourselves or will we live and share that truth with a lost world of people?
Do you see those around you, those in your family – those who've not accepted Jesus – as people who are lost and in danger of being separated from God forever? If you don't, you'll probably keep the truth to yourself – and those people may be lost forever. How do we change that and become people who see others the way that God sees them?
B. The power of God's Spirit
Without the power of God's Holy Spirit in our lives – not a one of us can make a bit of difference in eternity for anyone. Without that connection to God's power – we're just spectators, filling the pews, keeping the doors open so we have a place to gather on a Sunday morning. But that's not the mission of the Church!
Without God's Spirit – Peter denied he even knew Jesus. With the power of God's Holy Spirit – Peter couldn't stop talking about Jesus. After Peter was threatened and commanded to stop speaking about Jesus, we pick up again in Acts 4:19-21 (NIV)...
But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. (20) For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." (21) After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.
If you can't even imagine yourself talking to someone about Jesus – you need to pray more. It's never because of our intelligence or ability to speak well or our perfect grasp of the scriptures that anyone will ever come to Jesus. It's only by the power of God in us - and we only gain that power through prayer!
– Why doesn't Jesus just appear to some famous person today like He did to the Apostle Paul and have them become an outspoken evangelist? - Someone like Taylor Swift or The Rock or Tom Cruise? Can you imagine the influence those people could have for God's Kingdom?
However, it appears that God isn't going to do that. But I do know that God is interested in what you will do for His Kingdom. God doesn't choose people based on their power, or wealth or talents or name recognition but on their willingness to be used by Him for His purposes. Why does God want us to spread His message?
1 Corinthians 1:25-30 (NIV)
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (26) Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. (27) But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
(28) He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, (29) so that no one may boast before him. (30) It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
God called me not because I was anybody special. It was precisely because I wasn't anybody special. God wants a 'foolish guy' like me to share the spectacular news of Jesus!
So What?
'Why would there be only one way to God? Certainly God is more creative than that, more loving than that…?' 'What about - 'good people' who aren't Christians, or raised in other religions?' - I don't know. But I do know God. God is loving and just and God will always do the right thing! Always! Never underestimate the heart of God!
Maybe we're not asking the right questions… Let's look at the bigger story. Jesus did claim to be THE ONE and only way to the Father, THE only way to salvation. But let's jump back and see what occurred before Jesus' exclusive claim.
- In the beginning, God, a perfect, holy and loving God created everything, the mountains and skies, the stars and all of space, everything! And then He created mankind, man and woman, and set them in His creation for them to enjoy and live with Him forever. And He gives them one rule to live there - but His creation rejects Him, and disobeys Him, and are cast out of the garden.
But God doesn't give up on them – He decides to make a covenant, a special promise with people He will call His own, the nation of Israel. He tells them He wants to bless all peoples everywhere through them – if they will only keep His commandments and love Him. But they turn away, they make idols and worship them, they commit all sorts of immorality.
So God then sends prophets reminding the people of God's love and the promise they made. But for hundreds of years, they reject God's prophets – they stone them, kill them. But God still wants to make a way for them to live with Him forever. So the Creator comes in the flesh, in the person of Jesus to demonstrate His love for them. And they mock Him, and beat Him and crucify Him.
But God still wanted to show His love, and Jesus rose from the dead, and all He asks is that we believe in Him and trust Him and He will forgive our sins and bring us to live with Him forever! And in light of all of that some still say, 'There's only one way? That doesn't seem very loving and open minded.'
Maybe the better question should be – after all of that, why is there ANY way? - Because of God's supreme love for His creation! Jesus is the Christ, The Son of the Living God! What are you going to do with that Good News?