Do all religions lead to God?
Do all religions lead to God? I often hear it said and want to believe it, but it gets alarm bells ringing inside of me.
People say all religions lead to God to counter those using religion to divide the world through conviction their brand is right and all others wrong, but what if that is the case?
My first question to those who say ‘all religions lead to God’ is ‘How do you know so? By whose authority – do you know what God knows?’
My second would be ‘Who says religion leads to God anyway?’ Jesus Christ showed by his words and sacrificial deeds we humans aren’t worthy to enter God’s presence since we are sinners and God is holy. If anyone leads us to God it is God himself in so loving the world he gave his Son Jesus for us.
All of that being said, I recognize there is some holiness in all humans, and therefore in practitioners of every religion, so something of God is to be found outside Christianity.
God is clearly bigger than all of us, including our religions. Jesus was harsh with nit-picking religious leaders. He all but said to them ‘Your God is too small’.
Which brings me to a last question – if ‘all religions lead to God’, what sort of God would matter to me.
Having caught a glimpse of the God and Father of Jesus I have no intention of being sold short on God as less than the good, joyful and loving God I have come to know as a Christian – and that would make me look twice at other faiths!
John Twisleton
Broadcast by Fr John Twisleton (Rector of St Giles, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex) on Premier Christian Radio DAB Digital Radio Freeview 725/ Sky digital 0123 in London on 1305 1332 1413 MW