1.15.2013

Do All Religions Lead to Heaven?

 I've heard many skeptics (including myself once) ask the question, "With all the religions that are in the world, how can anyone claim that only Christianity is true? This is a fair question, and many Christians avoid it because they really don't know why they are Christians themselves. Many people just go to church because it is the thing they do. They follow the tradition that was laid out before them by their parents, and don't dare question why. I personally believe that God deserves more than this. I believe He wants us to prove Him, and I believe He has not only made it a possible thing to do, but I believe God has made finding Him very obvious. 

Christians are sometimes accused of being intolerant to the other religions of the world. Is there room for tolerance? I say yes, in the sense that we are to "live peaceably with all men." (Romans 12:18) and this would include accept them as they are, their faith and all. However, does this mean we are to accept the other religions of the world as truth? To this I say, "No." For in doing so we cheapen our own faith that we share with the world. 

For if we believe in the Bible, then this is not a possible thing for us to do to accept other faiths as being true. In John 14:6, Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." For Christians to believe that any other religious belief can help us get to Heaven would mean that we do NOT believe the claims that Jesus made about Himself in the Bible. 

I often get annoyed when I hear people say that Jesus was a good teacher, or that He was a very moral man. Of course I believe that Jesus was both of these, but the truth is, Jesus never once said these things about Himself. Jesus made a different claim. He claimed to be the Messiah, He claimed to be the Son of God (calling Himself God).

So the question is not whether Jesus was good, or moral, or a great example for us to try to emulate in our own life. The question is, "Is Jesus who He claimed to be, is He God?" The famous theologian C.S. Lewis once said, "If Jesus was not whom he claimed, then he must be a lunatic, a liar, or worse." Worse meaning He was possibly a demon from hell sent to deceive.

Of course C.S. Lewis believed himself that Jesus' claims were true, that He is God. If Jesus is God, then this means that to be a Christian you would have to believe everything that Jesus said about Himself.  So when you read the above verse John 14:6, you must believe that Jesus is the way. Jesus is the way to where? His claim was that no man can come to the Father but by Me. This means that Jesus is the way to the Father. Jesus is the way to Heaven! 

That is therefore an ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Jesus could have easily stopped there, but He went on to say that He is "the Truth." Many today would tell you that the truth is something relative, and is not absolute. However, if the truth is something relative, then this very  statement itself, "the truth is relative" would be an absolute truth - would it not?" Therefore, such a statement would be self-defeating for it  proves that truth is NOT something relative.

The truth is and has to be absolute. If truth is absolute, then the statement "truth is absolute" is a true statement, and this means that the truth is not relative at all. So Jesus' actual claim is that He is the absolute truth, being that it would not be possible for Him to be a relative one. Jesus could have easily stopped there, but He went on to also say that He is, "the life."
If Jesus is THE TRUTH, then this has to also be a statement of absolute truth. He claimed these things, so they must be investigated. We must look at Jesus Christ Himself to see if the claims He has made have evidence enough to be deemed as truthful. 

First, we must first understand the simple logic of it all before we go on. The whole question about whether or not all religions contain truth is rendered a foolish one if the truth is absolute, and not relative. All religions containing truth would only work if the truth was relative. Just as a compass has a true north, the truth is absolute. It is an absolute truth that I am sitting here typing this sentence, and now it is an absolute truth that you are now reading this one. Could you have closed your eyes and then read it? No, you could not. So if you told me that you did so, then I would know that you are not telling me the truth. Just as this is simple in such a small thing, it also applies as a universal law to all else, including the bigger questions in life. There is absolute truth in physical matters, so it is only logical that there would also be absolute truth in spiritual matters.

Question: Do all religions lead us to to Heaven?

The answer would have to be no, for all religions cannot be true if they are contradicting every other one. If I were a Mormon, then I would believe that I could one day become a god myself. This conflicts with Christianity, where there is only one God. The Muslim faith teaches that Jesus was a prophet, but they find it blasphemous to call Him Lord. To Muslims  there is no god but Allah, and his prophet is Mohammed. This certainly leaves no room for Jesus and His claims to be God. Buddhism teaches of reincarnation and Karma. This differs from many other religions in the world including Christianity. 

If any one of the religions in the world were absolute in truth, then this would mean that by simple default, all of the others have to be wrong, but is there any proof that Jesus is God, and thus making Christianity that absolute truth?

There are prophecies in most religions, however none have been fulfilled in as solid a way as in the Bible. Even if a person set out to fulfill prophecies written about Him there would be no way for any mere man to fulfill a prophesy telling where His birthplace would be (Micah 5:2), but Jesus did it (Matthew 2:1). 

Could anyone be born of a virgin? What about fulfilling a prophecy of being born by a virgin? (Isaiah 7:14) Well, Jesus did it (Matthew 1:18-25). 

In Isaiah 40:3, we see that it was prophesied that there would be a fore-running messenger prior to the Messiah's birth. Matthew 3:1-2 tells us that there was such a man born, thus fulfilling this prophecy, and he was called John the Baptist, and he later identified Jesus as the very  Messiah he preached in the wilderness about.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 53:3 that this Messiah would be rejected by His own people. We see this prophecy fulfilled in John 7:5, 7:48, and of course later as Jesus was  crucified by His own people's demands. 

Psalm 41:9 gives us the prophecy that the Messiah would be betrayed by a friend. Of course we know that this happened to Jesus when Judas Iscariot betrayed Him. This is recorded in John 13:26-30. 

It would be a miracle alone for a man to fulfill a prophecy about His own birth, and one could reason that while walking the earth and knowing the prophecies that were written, that a man could purposely fulfill many or even all of those, but what about His death? 

A vivid description of this Messiah's death is prophesied in Psalm 22. In this chapter a crucifixion is described. Psalm 22 was written 1,000 years before the death of Jesus, as depicted in John 19:23-24. At the time this Psalm was written, Roman Crucifixions were not the method of capital punishment that was practiced among the Israelite people, so when King David wrote Psalm 22, he had no knowledge of this form of execution. This only provides more evidence that the scripture was written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and not from the imagination of man. 

Let's say that for the sake of argument that Jesus did plan it all out to be crucified (as if He would have even been given the right to choose the method), but still let's say He did for a second...

In Zechariah 12:10 another prophecy was given about the Messiah. This one is about side side being pierced. Jesus (WHILE HE WAS DEAD) fulfilled this prophecy as recorded in the Gospel of John 19:34. How can a man while dead do anything?

Something that both Atheists and Christians will agree on is that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the focal point to either prove or disprove Christianity. In the bible we find the prophecy of the resurrection in Psalm 16:10. All 4 of the gospel accounts speak of Jesus' resurrection, then in Acts 13:34-37 we see a passage speaking of Jesus' fulfillment of this prophecy. The Bible even admits this in 1st Corinthians 15:14, where it tells us that "Without the resurrection, our faith is useless."

If you were to wish to create this story as the greatest hoax of all time, then you would have to admit that the apostles did a lousy job at it. They recorded things like Peter's denial of Christ, the apostles not believing the women who had seen the risen Jesus, Thomas doubting that Jesus was risen until "he could see Him and place his fingers into the nail wounds." Why on earth would these things be written if you were attempting to depict this story as being true?

Furthermore, it is alleged by skeptics that the disciples stole Jesus' body from the Roman Guards that were placed in front of Jesus' tomb. Are they talking about the same group of men that fled in fear from the Garden of Gethsemane during Jesus' arrest? This also makes no sense. The fact that these little imperfections of men are included only further proves the perfection of the gospel message. Every bit of it is honest, and every bit of it is true! 

Logically we could conclude that a man could purposely fulfill some, or maybe a good portion of these prophecies. In all there are over 300 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament however, and Jesus fulfilled everyone of them! The fact that He did this validates that He is of a divine nature, for no man could do this unless He is God. 

Jesus not only fulfilled prophecy enough to be considered God, but He called Himself God. In numerous places Jesus did this either by alleging it, or just outright saying it. The people and religious leaders of the day knew fully well that He was doing this, for on these occasions they would attempt to stone Him to death, but Jesus never died until it was His appointed time on the Cross. This way He would once again fulfill prophecy written about Him.

In the book, "Science Speaks" written by Peter W. Stoner and Robert C Newman, an article was written about the odds of any one man in all of history fulfilling even only eight of the 60 major prophecies (and 270 ramifications) that were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Fulfilling just eight would be 1 in 1017. That's 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000. Peter W. Stoner went on to conclude that if you had this many Silver Dollars, they would cover the entire state of Texas stacked 2 feet deep. The odds of a man being blindfolded and sent out to pick out the 1 specially marked Silver Dollar out of this on his first attempt would be what would need to be accomplished to do what Jesus did. By this account one could only conclude that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be. Jesus is God!

Then there were the many miracles He did while He walked on the earth.
  • Jesus changed water into wine (John 2:6-10). 
  • Jesus cast out demons (Matt. 8:28-32; 15:22-28). 
  • Jesus healed lepers (Matt. 8:3; Luke 17:14). 
  • Jesus healed diseases (Matt. 4:23,24; Luke 6:17-19). 
  • Jesus healed the paralytic (Mark 2:3-12). 
  • Jesus raised the dead (Matt. 9:25; John 11:43-44). 
  • Jesus restored sight to the blind (Matt. 9:27-30; John 9:1-7). 
  • Jesus restored / cured deafness (Mark 7:32-35). 
  • Jesus fed the multitude (Matt. 14:15-21; Matt. 15:32-38). 
  • Jesus walked on water (Matt. 14:25-27). 
  • Jesus calmed a storm with a command (Matt. 8:22-27; Mark 4:39). 
  • Jesus rose from the dead (Luke 24:39; John 20:27). 
  • Jesus appeared to disciples after resurrection (John 20:19).
In a court of law you need eyewitness accounts as evidence. The testimonies of the men that recorded these miracles are evidence. The major events all recorded by these men are the same. This is remarkable since they wrote and sent their accounts at different times and in different places. Their accounts have a slight variation, and some try to say this is proof that they are not authentic. However, if they were fabricated from lies to be a hoax, wouldn't they be identical?

Given the evidence presented, Christianity goes through greater lengths to defend itself more than any other religion. Christianity is also the most persecuted religion on the earth as well, with  estimates climbing as high as 40 million people in the 20th Century alone dying for their belief in Christ. If there in fact is a devil, then it appears that Christianity in his biggest threat, for he attacks it more than any other religion. The apostles (except for John who was exiled) went to their deaths defending their faith in Christ, for they knew that Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be. 

So Jesus is either Absolutely the True God, and therefore makes all other religions of the world false, or again as C.S. Lewis once said, "If Jesus was not whom he claimed, then he must be a lunatic, a liar, or worse." 

I would say that so far based on this evidence alone that Jesus seems to not be the latter, but is in fact God. There is something else though. There is a testimony that I've not included. This testimony is my own. Since I have placed my faith in Him, and have lived my life for Him (not always perfectly), I've been able to sense His presence working in my life. As an older man looking back in life's rear view mirror, I can trace where His hand has directed my path. 

With the love of Jesus in my life I have become more empathetic to others in need. I realize that a person is able to love others without Jesus, but in my own experience I can honestly say that I love more and deeper now than I did before. I have experienced a change in my life that cannot be described in just mere words.  I have felt Jesus presence in worship. I have had the saints of God (my brothers and sisters), pray for me and I have received healing in my body. I cannot imagine my life without Jesus, and I long to be with Him one day forever in the place He has prepared for me. I choose to follow the risen Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and as my Savior.

He is the Absolute Truth. 

He is who He claims to be, The Way, the Truth, and the Light!