Don’t all religions lead to the same God?

This is a common notion and a frequently asked question.

Usually, the person asking it would like the answer “Yes”, because that would mean they could carry on worshipping whichever god they wanted but know that if they have backed the wrong horse it doesn’t matter – the true god will turn around and say, “Well, you have never worshipped me, but you have worshipped somebody, so that’s good enough!”

A little clear thinking shows how nonsensical this notion is.

Firstly, on what logical basis could a supreme God who requires worship be accepting of a person who not only never worshipped them, but – worse than this - worshipped another god instead? If the true God adopted this approach, then they never actually required worship in the first place, which means they are not the true God.

But this argument requires that they are the true God in order for them to have the power to receive the person who did not worship them… Do you see the difficulty?

Secondly, very often the gods people would like to think of as being “really all the same thing”, are described in such different ways that this cannot be.

To give just one example, the God of the bible has a son (Matthew 3:17) but the God of the Quran does not (2:116). How do you square those two?

Many people may want all religions to lead to the same god, but they don’t.

And why should they? Do all sums add up to four? Do all recipes make a curry? Do all roads ACTUALLY lead to Rome – the one going past my house doesn’t.

These examples may appear to be ridiculous, but they are designed simply to make the point that in many areas of our lives we neither require or expect all “fill in the blank” to be or lead to the same thing, so why would we with gods?

Christian teaching asserts that there is one true God, and that he has revealed himself to mankind through the Bible. He has always existed (Psalm 90:2) and he created everything (Colossians 1:16). Amongst his attributes are the facts that he is righteous (Daniel 9:7), holy (Leviticus 11:44), “merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).

Now here’s the thing. The God of the bible is entirely exclusive and at the same time fully inclusive. How so, you say?

He is entirely exclusive because he offers salvation only to those who approach him in the way he requires. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Note the words “no man”.

He is fully inclusive in that he offers this salvation to everybody who approaches him in this way, – “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11).

And again, “For there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11).

This means that God is not selective on the basis of nationality/creed /colour/sex/age/appearance/height/weight/ wealth/lifestyle/job etc, who he offers salvation to. He is fully inclusive, and offers it to everyone.

That means incidentally that he offers it to those who have until that point worshipped other gods.

At the moment anyone puts their trust in Jesus (that is, in his death as paying the price which they deserve for their sins, and in his burial and resurrection for eternal life) they get saved.

From that point on, who they worshipped in the past becomes irrelevant. But until that point, who they are worshipping is entirely relevant.

So, to return to our question. Don’t all religions lead to the same God? No, they don’t.

But thank the true God that all who turn to him – even from false gods – will get saved.