All Paths Lead to God?

Jesus can’t be the only way, can he? Your Christianity is fine for you, but everyone has their own way of approaching the divine; all religions are true… Whenever I talk about the events surrounding my conversion to Christianity, this kind of response has been most common – hearers are quick to put my Christianity on an equal footing with every other possible spiritual manifestation as if to say “Jesus is not special.” It should come as no surprise to you that I am going to argue the opposite: Jesus is special. In fact, I’ll go so far as to suggest that he is the only true path to God.

There is one simple reason why the “all paths” theory is wrong:

Religions are usually mutually exclusive. For example, when the Islamic prophet Muhammad claimed to be the “seal of the prophets,” he asserted that everyone claiming to be a prophet after him was false. When the LDS prophet Joseph Smith claimed to restore the true church of Christ and exclusive priesthood authority, he declared the others to be in a state of apostasy and corruption. The Roman Catholic Church claims that outside its baptism (and other sacraments) there is no salvation. It takes some skillful mental gymnastics to justify the idea that all three of these traditions are simultaneously true; it’s simply an oxymoron. If each claims to be true to the exclusion of all others, they cannot all be correct.

There is one simple reason why the path of Jesus stands out above the crowd:

All other paths try to bring man to God… Christianity brings God to man. Christianity claims that God himself stepped into his own creation to restore the relationship that we broke through our rebelling against him. He came to reclaim his lost sheep, so to speak, and lovingly bring them back into the fold.

No other “religion” or “spirituality” offers this. Buddhism prescribes the eight-fold path to enlightenment which includes strict adherence to ethical standards and other ritual actions. Islam prescribes five pillars which include daily ritual prayers and good works which adherents expect will get them on God’s good side come judgement day. Look at any other religious tradition and the onus is on man to somehow work his way to the ultimate goal (whatever that may be).

Jesus did not advocate a system of actions that a person could do to get to God. He simply pointed to himself, claiming to bridge the gap between man and God single-handedly. When he died on the cross, the veil of the Jewish temple was torn in half from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). This veil separated man from the most holy place in the temple (representing God’s presence), and the only one who could enter into it was the high priest who had to be ritually purified beforehand; the symbolism of this veil’s demise immediately after Jesus’ death (paying the price for our sins) is significant. Man no longer must be separated from God, because the relationship can now be restored through what Jesus did for us!

Many non-Christians love the idea of Jesus, thinking of him as a wise teacher or a radical reformer. But he didn’t think of himself as just another teacher or just another reformer. Rather, he referred to himself as the bread of life, the light of the world, the door whereby people could enter and be saved!  He asserted himself to be the exclusive way to God: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

Jesus offers a path which he claims is the only path to God. It’s not a path of doing enough good things or not doing too many bad things, or doing rituals just right, or belonging to the right organization. It’s a path focused on himself – that one monumental historical figure. If you want to be on the right path, I would suggest you have to start and end with Jesus!

The best way to begin down that path is to read in the Bible about what Jesus said and did. Next week I hope to begin a series on the importance of the Bible. Thank you for reading!