Do all religious paths lead to God?

Leon ♦ November 12, 2011 ♦ 8 Comments

I have heard in the past, that all paths of a religious nature lead to God. We may be on different paths, according to our own understanding of God, or our particular upbringing or circumstances. One person likened it to a mountain, with God at the peak. There are many paths to the top of the mountain, we may even approach the summit from different sides or directions, but we are all striving to reach the top. Can this be accurate? Lets take a look at what other major faiths of the world believe.

First Muslims – 1. Muslims believe in One God “Allah”, Supreme and Eternal, Infinite and Mighty, Merciful and Compassionate, Creator and Provider. 2. Muslims believe in a chain of prophets starting with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Elias, Jonah, John the Baptist, and Jesus, peace he upon them. Muslims believe in all messengers of Allah without any discrimination among them. Every known nation had a warner or messenger from Allah who were chosen by Allah to teach mankind and deliver His Divine message. But God’s final message to man, a reconfirmation of the eternal message and a summing-up of all that has gone before was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel. 3. A Muslim believes in the Day of Judgement. This world will come to an end someday, and the dead will rise to stand for their final and fair trial. People with good records will be generously rewarded and warmly welcomed to the Heaven of Allah, and those with bad records will be punished and cast into Hell. A Muslim believes that Jesus was a prophet and not the Savior of the world. And that man will be judged according to his works.

Second- Buddhists – 1.Buddhism is a religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who lived about 25 centuries ago in what is now Nepal and northeastern India. He came to be called “the Buddha,” which means “awakened one,” after he experienced a profound realization of the nature of life, death and existence. In English, the Buddha was said to be enlightened, although in Sanskrit it is bodhi, “awakened.” 2.In the remaining years of his life, the Buddha traveled and taught. However, he didn’t teach people what he had realized when he became enlightened. Instead, he taught people how to realize enlightenment for themselves. He taught that awakening comes through one’s own direct experience, not through beliefs and dogmas. Buddhist do not seek a particular God , rather that man through following the eight fold path of enlightenment can achieve enlightenment for themselves.

Third- Hindu-1 Hindus believe that divine beings exist in unseen worlds and that temple worship, rituals, sacraments and personal devotionals create a communion with these devas and Gods. 2.Hindus believe that an enlightened master, or satguru, is essential to know the Transcendent Absolute, as are personal discipline, good conduct, purification, pilgrimage, self-inquiry, meditation and surrender in God.3.Hindus believe in karma, the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny by his thoughts, words and deeds. 4.Hindus believe that the soul reincarnates, evolving through many births until all karmas have been resolved, and moksha, liberation from the cycle of rebirth, is attained. Not a single soul will be deprived of this destiny. In conclusion Hindus believe that personal discipline, good conduct , purification , meditation and the like, will ultimately release the soul from its continuous cycle of birth and reincarnation and the soul will finally be liberated to spend eternity with God.

Fourth – Judaism 1.God is the creator of all that exists; He is one, incorporeal (without a body), and He alone is to be worshipped as absolute ruler of the universe. 2.The first five books of the Hebrew Bible were revealed to Moses by God. They will not be changed or augmented in the future. 3.God has communicated to the Jewish people through prophets. 4.God monitors the activities of humans; He rewards individuals for good deeds and punishes evil. 5.The 613 commandments found in Leviticus and other books regulate all aspects of Jewish life. The Ten Commandments, as delineated in Exodus 20. 1-17 and Dueteronomy 5. 6-21, form a brief synopsis of the Law. 6.The Messiah (anointed one of God) will arrive in the future and gather Jews once more into the land of Israel. There will be a general resurrection of the dead at that time. The Jerusalem Temple, destroyed in A.D. 70 by the Romans, will be rebuilt. Judaism in conclusion believes God is one being, not three, Father,Son and Holy Spirit . And that Jesus was not God in the flesh. They are still awaiting their Messiah and they do not believe in the need for a Savior.

Finally – Christian –  I have gone to various web sites, to try and gain knowledge of the believes of the major religions of the world, and then condense them into a few major points. I would now like to write about Christianity, as I understand it, through my own reading of the Bible. Being a Christian is like no other religious belief in the world. All religions believe that man, through his own efforts, can gain access to God, and in turn gain access to eternal life. Because of this, it is reasonable to assume that many paths can lead to God, as long as the path one is on helps a person to be more righteous, and God like. Christians believe that man is a fallen being,  and cannot meet Gods perfect standards, no matter how hard they try or diligently  follow a certain path or discipline.  Rom 3.23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  A Christian believes that God made a set of laws that would benefit man, and that disobeying these laws must result in a punishment, just as disobeying man made laws result in punishment.  Rom 6.23- “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”   Man cannot perfectly keep these laws, and a just law giver must punish the law breaker. A Christian believes that Jesus was God in the flesh and came to earth, kept the laws of God perfectly, and then died on the cross, taking the punishment that was meant for us, upon himself. 1 Pete 3.18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:    Christ the just, suffered death on the cross for us the unjust. By this he took upon himself the punishment required by the law. A Christian believes that we are saved by Jesus finished work on the cross, not by our own efforts.  Eph. 2.8 -For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast.  Salvation is a gift of God. We cannot earn it, we receive it, as someone would receive any gift from a generous giver.  And how do we receive this priceless and precious gift?   Rom.10.9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.    The Good News is, that it really is that simple. God wants us to recognize we are sinners, in need of a Savior. When we do this, and welcome him into our heart and our lives, he can then send us his Spirit to dwell inside of us, and change things from the inside out. Things we could never change on our own. Another amazing thing about God and his goodness toward his children is, after we except Jesus as our Savior, God no longer judges us according to our behavior. Rom. 4.7-8      Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.  ⁸Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.    When Jesus dwells in our heart we want to change .Rom. 2.4 – Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  When we come to see how good and giving God is, and that he wants to be our Father,  we want to change to please him. But what about the question that I first raised? Do all religions or religious paths lead us, from different directions, to the same God? What did Jesus say concerning this? John 14.6 – Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.  Acts. 4.12     Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.  God loves the world, and all mankind. We are his creation, and he wants us to become his children. He has done everything necessary for us to become his children, but he will not force his will upon any of us. It has to be our choice. John. 3.15-17   That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.¹⁷For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. Amen!