thoughts out !oud

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Lazy Myth: all religions are equal

Posted by Mathew | 7 May 08

Those of you who have been following along with some of my posts over the last several weeks will likely, no doubt, appreciate the irony with this post. I’m referring to an earlier post of mine, Covering Some Lazy Myths, the intent of which was to step through and critique those lazy, half-baked objections to the truth of Christianity. Well, if you haven’t guessed already, the irony about my Lazy Myth series is that I’ve been lazy in writing about them! (Where does that road lead again that was paved with good intentions?)

So, after much deliberation (or laziness), here’s the first. Lazy Myth: all religions are equal.

All religions are equal. That’s the claim of this lazy myth. No matter which religion you choose to follow, they all lead to the same place, to the same god. Or, putting it another way, in the words of Mahatma Ghandi:

“The soul of religion is one, but it is encased in a multitude of forms.”

Which is to say, the chief end of all religions are the same (the ’soul’), but they have different methods/means on how to recognise it or achieve it (the ‘multitude of forms’). Interestingly enough, the people who espouse this myth typically deny all religions … so is their apathy toward religion another means to the same end as religion as well?

What this myth claims is, for instance, essentially that the major religions are no different from eachother: Christianity = Islam = Judaism, etc. A common statement that is heard about the three monotheistic religions, is that they all share the same god - ie. The God of Abraham. But even a cursory observation of these three will quickly show that this is far from the truth. Let’s look at four key aspects. (And for the most part, I’ll stick to the three major world religions, if only for brevity of this post.)

1. God’s nature
There is one God. All three believe this. And then we can leave it there, because after this point of similarity, each religion differs greatly.

Christianity contends that the nature of God is One God in substance, expressed in Three Persons. Which is what we call the Trinitarian God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Judaism and Islam do not accept the person hood of the Trinity. They would claim that the Trinity doctrine either teaches that there are three gods not one, or that this doctrine is nonsensical. They usually adopt the former, labeling Christians as worshiping false idols. Thomas Jefferson went on record as labeling the Trinity as ‘incomprehensible jargon’.

It has also been said:

If you deny the Trinity, your will lose your soul; but if you try to explain it, you will lose your mind.

But perhaps the simplest explanation I’ve heard about the validation of the Trinity was proved by mathematics: 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. ;)

Back to our myth, if all religions lead to the same god, then already the Jews and Muslims totally disagree with the Christians and likewise the Christians disagree with them. None of these worship the same god.

2. Divinity of Jesus
‘I am the way, the truth and life. No one comes to the Father except by me.’ These words of Jesus should straight away tell you that Judaism and Islam again are in sharp disagreement with Christianity.

To the Jews, Jesus was just an ordinary Jew. He was definitely not the Messiah and certainly not divine. As for the Muslims, Jesus was simply a prophet, sent by Allah, but not divine.

3. Sin and Salvation
Both Christians and Jews agree that all are born with an inherent sinful nature. Muslims do not. Muslims believe that human weakness leads to sin - which seems to suggest that man was created as an imperfect being.

Jews state the atonement for sin is achieved through seeking forgiveness from God by prayer and repentance. It is a continual state that must be repeated and so they have an established Day of Atonement each year.

Christians believe sin is inherited from Adam and Eve and that man now cannot not sin.

Hence, on the nature of sin there is disagreement. The Muslim view tends to indicate that it is Allah’s will that man sins - he created them weak. The Christian and Jew believes man was created perfect, but that he then willingly chose to rebel against God.

4. Salvation and Hell
For the Muslim, salvation is earned by good works. Allah holds a record and keeps a running tab. So, if at the end of your life, your good deeds outweigh the bad, Allah takes you to paradise. Hell in Muslim belief has several levels and is not necessarily permanent/eternal.

For the Jew, salvation is a combination of good works, sacrifice/atonement and God’s grace. For punishment in Hell, there are varying degrees of temporary punishment, but some sins merit eternal punishment.

The Christian’s salvation is imputed to him. This means that it is obtained not by any works or deeds or sacrifices that the Christian makes, but that his salvation is given him by God’s grace alone, through acceptance of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. So the Christian needs only accept Jesus as his Saviour. In regards to Hell, it is eternal punishment. There is no cross over between Heaven and Hell.

These four areas are fairly crucial areas of difference. How can someone haphazardly claim that all religions are the same when Christianity, Judaism and Islam differ so greatly on what God is like, who Jesus is, and what the after life will be like and how to get there?

There are a great many other differences, both small and large, as to why all religions are not the same. And if all religions are not the same, they most certainly cannot be equal. That is, not all religions can be right about what they believe and teach - at least, logically, not at the same time.

Unlike the Trinity, Christianity, Judaism and Islam differ both in essence and substance.

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