Do All Religions Lead to God? Live Q&A for February 20, 2025

Do All Religions Lead to God?

A. Understanding the issue.

1. An often-heard disagreement with Christianity is “Jesus and Christianity are fine, and it is great that you have a way to God. But I have my own way, and the Muslim has his, and the Buddhist has his. All roads lead to God if we are sincere in seeking Him.”
2. If a Christian objects to such a statement, they are often met with “What right do you have to send me to Hell just because I don’t believe in Jesus the way you do?”
3. The idea the world has is that God is on top of a mountain, and we are all seeking Him. There are many roads up the mountain, and we just need to follow one that seems right to us. The important thing is making it to the top of the mountain, not which particular road we are on.
4. “As one can ascend to the top of a house by means of a ladder or a bamboo or a staircase or a rope, so diverse are the ways and means to approach God, and every religion in the world shows one of those ways.” (Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)

B. The exclusive claims of Jesus.

1. Examples of what Jesus said on this subject.

Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (John 6:28-29)

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.” (John 8:42)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

The words of Jesus Himself say that there are not many roads to God. There is only one road, and He is it. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14: Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

2. Logic also says that Jesus is the only way to God.
3. Is Jesus at least a way to God? Was He a true or a false prophet? Was He at the very least an honest man?
4. If Jesus is a true prophet – or at least an honest man – then what He said about Himself is true.
5. Therefore, Jesus is the only way to God.
6. Simply put, if Jesus is not the only way to God, then He is not any way to God. If there are many roads to God, then Jesus is not one of them, because He absolutely claimed there was only one road to God, and He Himself was that road.
7. If Jesus is not the only way to God, then He was not an honest man; He was most certainly not a true prophet. He then would either be a madman or a lying devil. There is no middle ground available to us
8. Can we come to God any way we please, as long as we are sincere?
9. The Pharisee and the tax collector each came to God sincerely, but one was accepted and one was not (Luke 18:9-14).
10. The rich young ruler came to Jesus sincerely, but was rejected because he did not give up everything to follow Jesus (Luke 18:18-23).
11. In Numbers 10:1-3, the story of Nadab and Abihu – and God’s judgment upon them – makes it clear that we cannot come to God any way we please, and that sincerity is not enough
12. Peter clearly preached that Jesus was the only one in whom salvation could be found (Acts 4:12)
13. Proverbs 14:12 is instructive: there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
14. We must never think God is pleased with religion in and of itself. “Religion” can be a substitute for the truth, a man-made way of distorting the truth about God.

This isn’t about winning an argument or having the “best religion.”

• It’s about a real relationship with a real God who loves you so much.
• It’s about the only one who died on a cross, giving His life for yours.

If one thinks that God is obligated to provide other ways – that one way, through Jesus is not fair or is not enough – then they should make a mental visit to the cross of Jesus Christ. Look at the cross; look at Jesus dying there in all agony – not only physical agony, but in spiritual agony as He bears upon Himself the guilt and the shame and the deserved punishment of the whole world – and look at the loving, giving, agonized Jesus on the cross and say, “Thanks, but that isn’t enough. God needs to do more than this to bring salvation to man.”

We can learn about how to deal with the religious beliefs of others from Paul’s message to the people of Athens in Acts 17:

• Paul did not mock or criticize the religious beliefs of others, even when he knew they were wrong.
• Paul looked for common ground between the wrong religious beliefs of others and the truth found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Paul did not let the wrong religious beliefs of others go unchallenged.
• Paul recognized our common brotherhood as humans, but did not take it to mean that all beliefs are commonly true.
• When he could, Paul showed how the prophets even of false religions pointed in some way to the truth of God.
• Paul called on men to repent of their wrong ideas about God.
• Paul knew that it all came back to Jesus.

Is Christianity bigoted? Certainly, there are some who claim to be Christians who are in fact bigots. But Biblical Christianity is the most pluralistic, tolerant, embracing of other cultures religion on earth.

1. In fact, Christianity is rather pluralistic – it is the one religion to embrace other cultures, and has the most urgency to translate the Scriptures into other languages. A Christian can keep their native language and culture, and follow Jesus in the midst of it.
2. An early criticism of Christianity was the observation that they would take anybody! Slave or free; rich or poor; man or woman; Greek or Barbarian. All were accepted, but on the common ground of the truth as revealed in Jesus Christ. To leave that common ground is spiritual suicide, for both now and eternity.