RIGHT OR WRONG? Are All Religions Really Teaching the Same Things?
It’s a common assertion, that all of the world’s religions basically teach the same thing about how to live and to get to a desirable afterlife — Do this and this and this, but don’t do that and that and that, and you will earn your way to the good place after you die.
But is it actually true that Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Zorastrianism, Confucianism, Bahai, etc. etc. teach the same things? There are two huge problems with this common belief: First, Christianity teaches salvation by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, not through the good works of man (see Ephesians 2:8-10) and, two, Christianity teaches that none of us can ever do enough good to earn our way to Heaven (see Romans 3:23).
In fact, it’s not true, as Jimmy Wallace — son of J. Warner Wallace of Cold-Case Christianity fame — explains in the following video from his series, “The Incarnate Investigation.”
Well, not all versions of Christianity are the same. Protestantism, for instance, is certainly not the same understanding of Christianity as Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. Non-liturgical Christianity is wildly different than liturgical Christianity.
Is Mormonism Christianity? Are Lutherans really fully Christians? Are Methodists? Baptists? Are “faith alone” or “Scripture alone” or “grace alone” really Christian principles, or are they just a parody of actual Christianity?
Jesus says “I am the Way, the Truth and the Light. No man comes to the Father but through Me” at John 14:6. He didn’t say “Fill-in-the-Blank is the Way, the Truth and the Light. No man comes to the Father but through Fill-in-the-Blank.” If you recognize you can do nothing to earn salvation, that it comes only by asking Him to forgive your sins and to be your savior, then you will be saved.
And yet when we see conversion accounts in the Book of Acts, we don’t see a single example of “the sinner’s prayer”- instead we see the apostles following Christ’s commandment to make disciples of all the nations by baptizing them into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When the Jews on Pentecost were convicted of their sins and asked “Men and Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter didn’t instruct them to accept Jesus as their personal savior, he told them to repent and be baptized.
And how does one repent? Paul explains it at Romans 10:9-10: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Faith without works is dead. While we cannot accomplish our salvation but ourselves, we have to do something. The prodigal son had to start on the journey back to his father’s house. The wise thief had to confess the Lord on the cross.
But why did the Prodigal Son start that journey? Jesus tells us why at John 6:44 – “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7L21
Mark, I think your comment is right on the dot.
In its essence, Christianity is a simple yet powerful faith. It’s human pride that allows us to believe we (or theologians whom we choose to follow) are capable of revising, correcting, and extending Christ’s teaching to correct the flaws in his teachings that he got wrong, or the important parts he forgot to tell us.
I think answers to the questions you pose are within what we accept as Christ’s teachings. In his time, there were no Mormons, no Catholics, no Lutherans, no Methodists, no Baptists, no Muslims. There was not yet a theology of “faith alone” or “Scripture alone” or “grace alone”. For that that matter, there was no “Christianity”. Just a teacher. Just Jesus offering us his simple way to and for all. John 14:6 is but one expression of it. It was we humans, not Jesus, who decided that his simple way is not good enough for us.
About repentance and forgiveness, I suggest everyone read (or, re-read) the parable of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-32). We are all prodigal children. In this parable, the son repents and confesses his mistakes to his father – who had already forgiven him when he saw him from afar off, returning home. But notice, too , that even before the son confessed his mistakes to his father (21-22 ) he confessed them to himself (18-19). What can this mean? I think it means without confession to one’s own self, there is no turning around, no true repentance. Obtaining forgiveness is based on true repentance. This parable appears to teach repentance requires both confessions.
Or could it be that both confessing (or admitting) one’s sins to oneself is half of the process of repentance, with the confession to the Lord being the other half?
They may have developed different practices and precepts, but most religions grapple sincerely with the same profound riddles of the human condition. Truth is truth, and whatever ray of truth a particular religion may reveal ought to be acknowledged.
Very few of us have sufficient knowledge of religions other than our own to honestly, fairly and credibly critique them.