What about Other Religions?
Does Christianity wrongly exclude those of different creeds and cultures? After all the Bible seems to make some seriously exclusive claims. The first of the ten commandments given to Moses claims that there is only one God (Exodus 20:3). Jesus claimed to be that God incarnate, and the only way to God (John 14:6). And the Apostle Paul told the Greek philosophers in Athens that their pagan religions were not enough; they needed to repent and turn to Jesus (Acts 17:30-31). There are no two ways about it: Christianity is built on exclusive claims, and no amount of origami with the text of the Bible can skirt the reality that Christianity claims to be the one true religion amidst a world of spiritual options.
Now it’s not hard to see why that tends to put people off. Exclusivity seems arrogant. Who are Christians to say they have discovered the truth when other people have been searching their whole life? And exclusivity seems intolerant. How can Christians claim they have the monopoly on the right path to God, and that other religions, and billions of people, are all wrong? So what does the Christian story say about other religions? Is Christianity too narrow?
The first thing to note in responding to this difficult question is: Christianity being true doesn’t make everything in other religions false. Hindus believe that a supernatural realm operates alongside our own, Muslims believe that there is only one God, and that he speaks by revelation. Jews believe that God provides the basis for objective morality, Secular Humanists believe that human beings have inalienable rights. So not every claim from other religions is false. Our shared ground can be celebrated.
Rather the claim of the Christian story is that Jesus tells the whole truth about spiritual reality, and that whoever departs from what Jesus teaches, however sincere their belief might be, and however admirable their life might be, where they contradict Jesus they are sadly mistaken.
Now before we get upset at Jesus for being too narrow, he is not really alone. Everyone has an exclusive take on spiritual reality. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism all have their own exclusive view of truth. And if you think that all of these people are too narrow, and that all religions are basically the same, then you probably have your own exclusive take on spiritual reality.
Consider the infamous story of the blind men and the elephant:
One blind guy grabs the elephant’s tail, and exclaims God is like a rope.
Another the ear, and argues God is like a palm leaf.
Another grabs the elephant’s leg, believing God is like a tree.
And still another the elephant’s trunk, proclaiming God is like a great python.
Now this parable is often used as a parallel for religion. That even though all religions are basically grasping at the same spiritual reality, their blindness leads them to make exclusive claims. This seems to make sense, until we realise the other elephant in the room: why can the narrator see everything when everyone else is blind?
You see this story, in a noble bid to be more inclusive, ends up being every bit as exclusive. Because for the story to work, religious people have to be wrong. Jesus is not the only way to God. Muhammad is not the last and greatest prophet. Buddha’s eightfold path is not the way to nirvana. In fact, worse than saying all religious people are wrong, the narrator claims to be the only one able to see all of spiritual reality, whilst everyone else, because of their blindness, can only grasp a smaller slice. So even those who think all religions are basically the same have an exclusive take on reality.
There’s a reason that those exploring religious claims will run into exclusivity; because truth, by definition, is exclusive. When a scientist claims to have developed a better hypothesis to explain quantum gravity, do we label them arrogant for excluding other hypotheses? No. When a doctor claims to have diagnosed our symptoms, do we call them intolerant of all the other potential ailments? No. The question is not whether they are exclusive, the question is whether they are right. Now when it comes to spiritual reality, every big story, secular or religious, offers a set of answers to life’s deepest questions:
Does God exist?
Where do we come from?
Why are we here?
How should we live?
What’s wrong with the world?
How can it be set right?
What happens to us when we die?
What is God like?
These competing answers to spiritual investigations remain irreconcilable. Their differences are fundamental rather than superficial. So what do we do? Well, like with scientific hypotheses, we test them - which story makes the best sense of all of the data? The reason why someone should be persuaded by Christian story is because of its explanatory power, and has the best evidence to support it. That Christianity, while centred on Jesus’ claims, makes the most sense of reality.
Yet, while Jesus may make exclusive claims they are surprisingly inclusive in their scope. And it all starts, like with the doctor, with Jesus’ diagnosis of the problem. Jesus’ diagnostic claim of what’s wrong with the world comes back to the human heart. That we all, having been created for good by God, have chosen, and become damaged by, evil. And this sin condition is terminal and eternal, for all people everywhere. Which is why of all of the spiritual gurus, Jesus alone stepped in to offer himself as a cure. He died our death on the cross to satisfy justice, and he defeated death His resurrection to offer us eternal life. And the miraculous resurrection of Jesus is not only the substance of what we can hope for in the future, when God will return to set everything right, but it is what sets Jesus apart. And what makes Christianity so inclusive is that all are invited to come to Him.
God’s love has no cultural or creedal boundaries. And whereas other religions are all about doing things in order to be accepted or rewarded, Christianity centres around what Jesus has done for you. In Christianity, you get grace. So no one has to be excluded because they are not good enough for God.
As much as we are to respect other religions as earnest attempts to answer life’s deepest questions, they can’t all be true at the same time. And if Jesus was right about sin being our terminal condition, then only He actually claims to be able to do anything about it, opening up a door for people of every tribe and tongue to be with God forever. Yet, no other religion offers such an open invitation to come as you are to experience God’s grace. And if Christianity is true, then it isn’t arrogant to accept Jesus’ invitation. If God really did die in my place to save me from evil, then if anything, it seems arrogant to turn his invitation down.
