Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Do all roads lead to Heaven?

I was reading this morning and came across the passage below. It reminded me of people that I meet on a regular basis that proclaim the New Age theology (most protagonists are quite unaware that what they teach is New Age) that all religions are inherently the same and will eventually lead to the same conclusion. This lie has almost gained more popularity than atheism has and is, in my humble opinion, a greater threat than out and out atheism that is easy to recognise and oppose. It is instead the subtle serpent in the Garden of Eden who comes along and promises the hapless victim that tasting the forbidden fruit will bring special revelation, and knowledge, and make them equal with each other and God. Very tempting, very logical, very intellectually satisfying, and pandering to the pride and worldly lusts of the individual.

Here is the passage I was talking about:

To believe that two contradictory religions are both true is like saying, “2+2=4, or 5, or 37, or whatever you like.” To believe all religions simultaneously is to become hopelessly entangled in self-contradiction. One simply cannot accept the Hindu belief that there are 3 000,000 or more gods and at the same time accept the Muslim belief that there is only one god.  Nor can one embrace either Hinduism or Islam and Buddhism because historic Buddhism does not believe in a personal God at all. Or consider the religious opinions about the afterlife. Shintoism says there is no afterlife, just the here and now, so make the most of it. Buddhists seek Nirvana, the complete absence of desire. Christianity teaches that heaven is a place where all pure desires are satisfied in Jesus Christ (Rev. 22:4). Who is right? If there is a heaven at all, does it negate or satisfy desire? Opinions about judgment differ as well. Christianity teaches that “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Heb. 9:27). Hindus believe in a seemingly endless series of reincarnations. Well, which is it? Both views cannot be true.
Religion is not a preference. Although people are allowed to hold their own opinions, they cannot make up their own truth. This cannot be done with religion any more than it can be done with mathematics. To insist that all religions are equally true is another way of saying that all religions are equally false… If every religion is compatible with its opposite, why bother with religion at all?
- Philip Graham Ryken

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Acts 4:12

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