Jun 17, 2008
When All Religions Appear Equal
Sometimes the hardest discussion you can have about religion is with someone convinced that every religion is correct or that all paths lead to God. If we’re talking about the merits of one religion over another, then we can compare and contrast. However, when one person is absolutely convinced that every path works, then we run into an impasse.
On one hand the beliefs of a Christian will be accepted by a universalist (my working word for those who believe all paths lead to God). However, the universalist will be ticked at the Christian because the Christian thinks his beliefs are the only way to God. The universalist will say, “How do you know you have the right way?” The believer will say, “How do you know all ways lead to God?” Both are convinced of their positions, and the universalist may feel slighted because he’s working so hard at being open and accepting, but the believer is ruining it all.
I’ve been trying to dissect this conversation a little, looking at some of the assumptions. I have to confess right off the bat that I’m not sure what a universalist bases his assumptions on other than the fact that no one can prove definitively that one religion is correct. If we can’t show some kind of data or proof, then we’ll never be able to say for once and for all that religion A is the one to follow. Hence the statement, “How can you say you’ve found the right way?”
And here is where the Christian responds with some points the universalist will be unwilling to accept. First of all, Christianity, and many other religions, are based on some kind of experience of God. It’s all about God’s revelation. Jews believe God spoke to Abraham and the prophets, Muslims believe an angel spoke to Muhammed, Christians believe Jesus came to earth, and so on. Most every religion is rooted in some kind of revelation of God that changes people. As a Christian I believe that God was revealed in Jesus and continues to be revealed through the Holy Spirit. This is something experienced both personally and in community, but ultimately it is an unscientific spiritual experience. Even if someone claims to have been healed physically, cured of an addiction, or to have been given a desire to live a holy life, these are all hard to prove to the skeptic or universalist who thinks that all ways lead to heaven.
The other part of Christianity is the content of the revelation itself as recorded in scripture. There is a particular way that God has chosen to reveal himself in contrast to other religions. In other words, God is on the record as saying that his way is correct and all of the others are shams. We see this tension in the Old Testament where God’s people are constantly turning away from the worship of the true God, continually violating the command that there should be no God before the God of Israel. In the New Testament Christianity spreads amidst controversies about its differences from Judaism and Greek religion with its many gods. The New Testament writers were trying to preserve the integrity of God’s revelation in Jesus, contrasting his teachings with the other religions that would have added on to, distorted, and changed the message of Jesus.
And so our universalist friends may ask, “Why do we have to keep Christianity separate from these other religions? Aren’t all paths valid?” This is the point where Christians have to insist that they have had a religious experience with God and therefore are trusting in his revelation, including scripture that presents a picture of the correct way to worship God–a way that excludes other religions. In addition, Christianity has existed as a fairly stable consensus over the years in the forms of the various creeds such as the Nicene and Apostles Creed. Our scripture manuscripts are a bit of a hodge-podge, but on the whole are consistent and reliable even if some scholars today can pick apart some passages. So historically speaking, Christianity is on relatively solid footing.
All of this will most likely not be good enough however for the universalist. They may persist, “But how do you know your experience is valid? How can you say that your scriptures and revelation are the only correct ones?” And then you can respond, “How do you know that every path leads to God?”
And now you’ve spent a lot of time explaining yourself only to arrive at the point where you began. Maybe it was a waste of time, but hopefully it wasn’t. At this point the debate is basically over so far as I can see. Hopefully you can agree to disagree and leave it at that.
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