ARE ALL RELIGIONS THE SAME? NO!

Every major religion on earth mentions or points to Jesus.

Islam: Honors Jesus (Isa) as a major prophet and the Messiah who was born of a virgin and performed miracles

Buddhism: Some teachers compare Jesus’s teachings on love and compassion to the ideals of a wise master

Hinduism: Often regards Jesus as an enlightened guru, an avatar of divine consciousness, or a great teacher, but not the only incarnation of God

Judaism: Worships the One True God, but views Jesus as a historical Jewish teacher or prophet, not the promissed Messiah

CHRISTIANITY: Jesus Christ points to Himself as the ONLY way to the One True God. Jesus fulfilled ALL of the Law and the Profits – the Old Testament. Jesus appears throughout the Old Testiment.

DO ALL RELIGIONS POINT TO GOD?

A Simple Answer: NO.

Christianity is not one path among many. Jesus Christ is the only way to God.

Human beings instinctively know there is more to life than what we can see and touch. Every civilization in recorded history has sought something eternal—some god, spirit, power or higher meaning. We try to fill that spiritual emptiness with religion, philosophy, pleasure, money, work, sex, drugs, alcohol, achievement and endless distractions. None of it lasts. Nothing created can fill the place reserved for the Creator.

The world’s religions differ in countless ways, but nearly all share one fundamental idea: man must somehow reach God. He must perform, sacrifice, obey, meditate, ascend, become enlightened or make himself worthy.

Christianity declares the exact opposite.

Man could not reach God—so God came down to man.

The Napkin

In the mid-1980s, while I was working in the New York music business, my wife found a briefcase left in a taxi. She brought it home and located a business card inside. After several telephone calls, its owner rushed to our apartment.

He was overwhelmed with relief. The briefcase contained irreplaceable documents worth approximately $3 million. This was before laptops, smartphones and cloud storage. If those papers disappeared, they were gone.

The man explained that he was in New York raising corporate donations for a Christian organization. That started a conversation about religion.

New York was—and remains—a crossroads of beliefs. I knew Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, atheists, agnostics, New Age spiritualists – people involved in transcendental meditation and astral projection. Many of them were sincere, generous and morally upright—some appeared to be much better people than I was.

At the time, I leaned toward agnosticism. I believed some kind of God might exist, but I distrusted organized religion. I told this man that surely a loving God would admit all good people into Heaven, regardless of what they believed.

Then I asked what I considered an intelligent question:

“What makes Christianity different from every other religion?”

His answer stopped me cold.

He picked up a pen and drew two horizontal lines on a leftover wedding napkin. He wrote GOD above the first line and MAN below the second.

He named one religion after another, drawing arrows upward from man toward God:

Man attempting to reach God.

Then he drew one arrow downward—from God to man.

Christianity: God reaching down to man by sending His Son, Jesus Christ.

That simple drawing demolished the idea that Christianity was merely another religion.

Every man-made religion says, in one form or another, “Do.”

Christianity says, “Done.”

Religion says man must climb his way to God.

The Gospel says God came down because man could never climb high enough.

Religion offers rules, rituals and human effort.

Jesus Christ offers forgiveness, reconciliation and eternal life as a free gift.

All I could say was:

“Wow.”

God Came Down

Sometime later, I heard Paul Harvey’s Parable of the Christmas Storm. It told of a man who could not understand why Almighty God would become human—until he saw frightened birds trapped outside during a deadly winter storm.

The man wanted to lead the birds into the safety of his barn, but they were terrified of him. He realized that if he could become one of them, he could lead them to safety.

Then he understood Christmas.

God did not remain distant and demand that mankind somehow find its way to Him. God entered His creation. Jesus Christ became one of us, lived without sin, willingly died in our place and arose from the grave.

The arrow points downward from Heaven.

God came to rescue man.

Those two moments—the drawing on a napkin and Paul Harvey’s story—planted truths I did not yet fully understand. Years later, they became part of the foundation of the most important discovery of my life.

Good People Cannot Save Themselves

Sincerity does not make a false belief true. Good intentions cannot erase sin. Moral behavior cannot purchase salvation.

A counterfeit path does not become genuine because the person walking it is kind, intelligent or sincere.

The question is not whether someone is “religious” or comparatively good. The question is whether Jesus Christ told the truth.

He did not claim to be one teacher among many. He did not say He knew one possible way to God. He declared:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
—John 14:6, KJV

That statement is absolute. Either Jesus Christ is exactly who He claimed to be, or Christianity is false. There is no middle ground.

Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God. He was crucified, buried and physically raised from the dead. He conquered death. Salvation is found in Him alone—not in religion, good works, ceremonies, church membership or human merit.

You cannot earn salvation. You cannot purchase it. You cannot work off your sins or balance them against your good deeds.

Jesus Christ paid the entire price.

Salvation is received by grace through faith. Turn to Christ. Believe that He died for your sins and rose from the dead. Receive Him as your Lord and Savior.

The Bottom Line

All roads do not lead to God.

All religions cannot be true because they make contradictory claims about God, sin, salvation, eternity and Jesus Christ. Contradictory beliefs cannot all be true merely because people sincerely believe them.

There is one God, one Gospel and one Savior.

Jesus warned that the true way would be narrow:

“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
—Matthew 7:14, KJV

He also warned that counterfeit teachers would come disguised as truth:

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
—Matthew 7:15–16, KJV

Peter repeated that warning:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.”
—2 Peter 2:1, KJV

Christianity is not man’s attempt to reach God.

It is the true account of God reaching down to rescue us.

The arrow points downward from Heaven. God came to man. His name is Jesus Christ.