All Roads

People are being taken captive by a tremendous lie. The idea that all religions are equally the same and all people worship the same god is utterly and obviously false. But our young people, in particular, seem to be defenseless to understand why. I am here to hopefully shed some “light” on the puzzle.

Imagine you have 4 friends sitting with you at lunch one day. A conversation begins . . . One says, “You broke the lamp!” Another one says, “No, I didn’t; that guy did it!” The third friend says, “You’re both wrong, the lamp isn’t broken!” Finally, the fourth friend says, “Don’t be silly, there is no lamp!”

I think that everyone can agree that some of those statements have to be false, and quite possibly, all of them. If you look carefully, you’ll also notice that, at most, only one of them can be true. Why do we know this? We know this because they each contradict the other.

In the world of religion we have the same sort of conversation taking place every day. One religion says Jesus is the Messiah, another says he is not. Still others say there is no Messiah at all. To say that all those ideas are right is to put your brain in neutral. Every religion contradicts what the other religions teach. Let me say that again – EVERY religion contradicts every other religion. They ALL claim that they, and they alone, teach the truth.

So which religion should you follow after? For me, the answer is NONE! I see Christianity as being so different than every other religion that it really isn’t a religion at all. Let me explain . . . The world’s religions all teach men how to reach up to God; they all have a plan of works you perform to get to heaven. But Christianity is completely different; it teaches that God has a plan to reach down to men through faith in the death of Jesus on the cross.

Christianity is the only HOPE that is real. The requirements of religion set you up to fail with impossible expectations. But Christianity isn’t about measuring up and doing good deeds, it’s a step of faith that says God has already done the work for you.

So what do you do now? Read the Bible; start with the gospel book of John. Find a church that teaches the Bible is the Truth and it doesn’t add or subtract anything from it. And let me know if you need help.

If you would like more information on the teachings of different religions, please check out these books: The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin and The Compact Guide to World Religions by Dean Halverson.