A common statement or claim today is that all roads lead to God? The basic idea behind this statement is that all "religious" claims are equally true. Also imbedded in this statement is the belief that religions are "fundamentally" the same with only small difference. They are just different "perspectives" of the same God. As nice as this "we are all the same" claim we can't just blindly accept that, we need to ask: Is the claim that all religions lead to God true? This is a big claim that needs to be questioned. Let's look at a few fundamental beliefs between a few different religions and ask: are these religions fundamentally the same (this will be very brief and not comprehensive)
Differences
Who is God?
Hinduism: Believes in many gods
Christianity: Believes in One Truine God
Atheism: Believes in no god.
What Happens after you die?
Hinduism: Reincarnation
Christianity: Either go to heaven or hell
Atheism: You no longer exist (there is no afterlife)
Is there Salvation?
Hinduism: Reincarnation until you break from of the cycle
Christianity: Jesus paid the debt of sin. When one trusts in Him they are forgiven and "saved"
Atheism: There is no salvation
This is only a few fundemental beliefs from a couple belief systems and they are completely different. What I mean by that is that they are fundamentally different. If you dug deeper in the topics such as: the problem of evil or purpose in life you would see even more fundamental differences. Though there might be some common "aspects" the core fundamentals are at odd with one another. For example: the core belief that there is: one God, many gods, no god are completely at odds. They can't all be true. Therefore the statement that "all roads lead to God" is a nonsense statement.
Where do we go From here?
Now that we see that religions are not the same and the claim that all religions lead to God is wrong we must ask how do we know what is true. Without getting into a lot of detail about the nature of truth (read my earlier blog "Why Truth") I will ask one simple question. Who do you trust to lead you to truth? We are all trusting someone or something my question is why and is that person or thing trustworthy? Is what you are following truth worthy and true?
Why I Trust Jesus?
I want to end this blog with a exampling beliefly why I trust Jesus. Why Jesus is truth worthy. There are three things that stand out for why I trust Jesus: 1) What He claimed, 2) What He did, 3) How He lived
What He claimed
Jesus clearly claimed to be God. In fact the reason that he was crucified was for this claim. He was sinless, forgave sins, and taught that He was the Only way to heaven. His claim to be "the only way" goes against the statement that "all roads lead to God". Jesus is making clear that people understand that He is the only road.
What He did
He didn't just claim this but he backed up his claim through his resurrection. Three days after he was crucified he rose from the dead (wanting to know more about the resurrection read my blog "Common Objections to the Resurrection"). His resurrection changed his disciples, changed his enemies (ex. Paul). It is recorded by both Christian and Non-Christian Historians (ex. Josephus). In conclusion Jesus claimed to the the only ways to heaven. He claimed to be the promised Messiah that had come to pay the debt of our sins and he backed this claim up through the miracle of his resurrection.
How He Lived
Lastly, how Jesus lived while on earth is mind blowing. Jesus loved and cared for children, women, outcasts and those many had rejected.
I love a quote by Stephen Prothero referenced in Pastor Mark Driscoll's book Vintage Jesus. In it he states,
"Jesus never wrote a book yet the Library of Congress holds more books on Jesus than any other historical figure. Jesus never ran for political office yet he has more people chosen him as their leader than anyone else. Jesus never had a formal education yet he has more students than anyone who has every lived. Jesus was not a therapist yet he has helped more people than counselors, therapist and psychologist combined. Jesus was not an artist but more artwork has been commissioned of him than anyone else in history. Jesus loves, forgives, heals, restores, encourages, empowers, and transforms."
This is why I trust and follow Jesus. I leave you with this question. Who do you trust and follow? Why do you follow them?