The Pastor's Page - 11/19/08
No Religion Says All Religions Are Equal
One of the characteristics of the pluralism of our day is the claim that all religious points of view are equal. One is as good as the other in regards to spiritual benefits and the belief in an afterlife. Yet when one examines this claim in a logical comparison it is easy to see that those who repeat this mantra are speaking more from a politically correct point of view than from an informed one.
Consider first that no religion makes such a claim except perhaps in a superficial manner. I saw recently a newspaper article by a Muslim man who said that Christians and Muslims serve the same God and have the same prophets. Whatever his motivation for saying such a thing the fact is that the Muslim and Christian concepts of God are completely different and at odds with each other. Muslim scholars teach that Jews and Christians have corrupted the writings of the ancient prophets. If we do have not the actual or accurate writings of those men how can we say that they are the same as Islam? If Islam and Christianity are the same why is such a claim necessary? What we see is an equality based on one sides claim of what is and isn’t true. All religions and even some denominations within the Christian framework strive to change or take issue with the central claims of Christianity. Such is unnecessary if equality really existed between them. Equality means the field is already level not that it needs leveling.
The objection to this reasoning is that the claim of equality refers only to spiritual fulfillment or entrance into the afterlife. In other words they all lead to God. But here also the claims fails because of the distinct difference between their views of God. Christians believe in one God eternally existing in three persons namely Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Muslims believe that God has no son. Mormons are taught that Jesus is a separate God from the Father. Jehovah Witnesses believe Jesus is Michael the archangel. In many others Jesus was only a man and not God or the Christ. It’s baffling that anyone can claim that these are equal points of view.
Which God do we get to when we get to the afterlife? Is there only one God to get to?? Some have argued yes but that he reveals himself differently. There is in fact one destination but many paths or roads to get there by. The old saying asserts that all roads lead to Rome. Yes but when you get to Rome there are characteristics which are true of it that are unchanging no matter which way you came. This is not true of the varied views about the god and destination we are trying to reach.
The afterlife is disagreed upon. Christians believe in a place where personal purposeful existence goes on forever as originally intended in Eden. Muslims believe in a paradise where beautiful women serve the sensual needs of men forever. Eastern religions generally lean away from such a tangible place to a mere blending of ones life force into the allness of God. Reincarnation teaches an almost endless cycle of rebirth to reap the good or bad from the previous life. New Age beliefs deny the existence of a literal heaven or hell. How can they be equal in where they lead if in fact some deny there is a place to be led to??
Something which is true of all religions is that they expect things of their followers. If one God is behind these expectations why are they so contradictory?? Mormons are required to abstain from coffee and tea.
Followers of Hare Krishna can have sex only for procreation. Christians
believe God suffered in Christ to show His love and compassion for those who are hurting, but Christian Science and Hinduism believe that pain and suffering are only illusions. The lack of continuity in these expectations suggest a capricious god who is only interested in making humans jump through hoops for his pleasure, and again show no basis for the claim that they are equal points of view.
Finally note four other brief points that argue against the idea that all
religions are equal:
- ALL RELIGIONS ATTEMPT TO GAIN FOLLOWERS This proves that religions do not believe that all other religions are equal. When a Mormon of Jehovah Witness tries to convince a person of another religious belief to join them they are claiming that they are more truthful or accurate. An impossibility if all are equal.
- ALL RELIGIONS HAD A BEGINNING WHILE OTHER RELIGIONS EXISTED This is especially true in the last two hundred years when we have seen the rise of Jehovah Witnesses (1879), Mormonism ( 1830), Unification Church (1954), Christian Science(1875), Scientology (1954), Baha’i (1844), and Transcendental Meditation (1955). The founding of each one of these was a claim that truth either did not exist or did not exist in its fullest form prior to their beginning. Their continued existence is a continued insistence of that claim. No new religion is necessary if all the others are equal!
- ALL RELIGIONS DENY THE CHRISTIAN CLAIMS REGARDING CHRIST It is hard to understand how any religion can claim equality with Christianity when they all deny the central Christian message about Christ. If Jesus was wrong about being a path to God then Christianity cannot be equal to other religions in providing that path. On the other hand if Jesus was right then everything they deny about Him is wrong. You cannot claim equality when one side or the other is mistaken about who Jesus was.
- THE CLAIM THAT ALL RELIGIONS POSSESS PARTIAL TRUTH DENIES EQUALITY There are really only three doors in this debate. Door #1 says there is no truth. Door #2 says only one has the truth. Door 3# says all have some truth. When we acknowledge the possibility of partial truth we also acknowledge the possibility for one religion to have more truth than another one, thus they cannot be called equal in their possession of truth.
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