“ALL RELIGIONS ARE BASICALLY THE SAME” OR “ALL RELIGIONS LEAD TO GOD”

Love all Religion

This morning I use the term “religion” in a positive sense, meaning belief in God that genuinely changes how we live and what we do.  For Christianity that means a personal relationship with God which is based on forgiveness from Jesus’ death on the cross, given by God’s grace to those who humble themselves, admit their wrongs, have faith in Jesus’ death & resurrection and commit themselves to Jesus as their Savior and Lord.  We dealt with this positive use of the word “religion” in the NT for the first 10 minutes of last week’s sermon.

There is a famous story from India that is used by some to describe the relationship between different religions.  The story describes a group of men who have all been blind since birth.  They come upon an elephant standing still, and each man goes to a different part.  The first feels the large, thin ears and says, “An elephant is like a banana leaf.”  The second blind man grabs on to a leg and says, “You are wrong, and elephant is like a tree trunk.”  The third blind man is up front and holds on to the elephant’s trunk.  “You are both very mistaken, an elephant is like a thick snake.”  The fourth blind man is way in the back and grabs that little, thin tail and says, “None of you know what you are talking about – an elephant is like a rope.”  So off they go arguing about what an elephant is like, each sincerely convinced that they are right and each certain that the others are totally wrong.  NOW the reason that this story is told is to say that people who believe their faith is correct and other religions are wrong are themselves mistaken - - because all religions are like the blind men describing the elephant - - they have a piece of truth, but not the whole truth.  So all religions are just describing the same God in different ways.  Thus they conclude that all religions are basically the same despite their differences.

There is another way people think that religions are all basically the same.  John Hick, a theologically liberal Christian, summarizes this position by quoting the Hindu Bhagavad Gita (4:11), “Howsoever men may approach me, even so do I accept them; for, on all sides, whatever path they may choose is mine.”  The illustration usually given for this is that there are many different paths to get to the top of a mountain.  Some are quick, some seem to wander endlessly around.  Some are easy and some are hard - - but eventually all the paths reach the top of the mountain.  The same is true, they say, of all the religions in the world.  While they seem to do different things, the end result is all of them will get to God.

Both of these positions are very attractive to many people today because people think this kind of perspective would solve many problems.  There is no basis for conflicts based on religions because we should all just say that all religions are right.  That way people won’t feel bad when someone’s faith disagrees with theirs - - they can just be comforted that all religions are basically the same.  Peace, harmony, tolerance, brotherhood – what more could anyone want.  Surely, it must be the case that all religions are basically the same or that all religions lead to the same God - - because that’s what the world needs.  Then we can all be one.

We must also mention that there is currently a third way that people think of all religions being basically the same - - it is captured by the words to a song I found on the internet.

          All religions make me want to throw up
                   All religions make me sick
          They all claim that they have the truth
                   That’ll set you free
          Just give ‘em all your money and they’ll set you free
                   Free for a fee.
          They all claim that they have “the Answer”
                   When they don’t even know the Question
          They’re just a bunch of liars.

In this view all religions ARE equal - - equally bad.  More and more the secular mindset is moving away from a kind of tolerance of faith to a downright antagonism towards all faith, and any mention of God.

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