Aren’t There Multiple Roads That Lead To “God”?

Make Sure You Know Where You’re Headed.

So who likes road trips?  Being on the road in our RV is always an “adventure”.  My sister also has an RV and one time her and my brother in law had quite the “not so great adventure”.  They were getting ready to camp for the night and my sister had the campground locked in on her phone.  As they approached their destination they entered a neighborhood.  As they drove farther it became clear something wasn’t right.  When my sister double checked she noticed that the campground shared a similar name as the neighborhood!  By the time she figured it out they were stuck, literally.  They were forced to disconnect their car and slowly but painfully try and turn their RV around on a dead end street.  Needless to say my brother in law was not the happy camper at that moment.  Since that time she always double checks to make sure they’re headed to the right destination.

If There Is A First Cause, There Has To Be Multiple Ways To Find Him, Right?

In my last post I discussed why I believe the creation of the universe means there is a First Cause, a.k.a. God. So you might say, OK what if I agree that the most logical explanation is that there was/is a First Cause. Because the number of different people and cultures there MUST BE multiple ways to God, right?  All anyone needs to do is just pick one and most importantly be sincere.  After all isn’t religious bias the cause of so much of the world’s strife?  I mean why can’t we all just play nice and get along with each other?

I know it’s my blog so I should be the one answering questions but I’m just curious, if you think all religions are equal what are you basing your opinion on?  See in my former life as an attorney I learned that authority is the basis for everything, it doesn’t necessarily matter what my opinion is.   What matters is what the law states, “authority” must support my opinion or its just my wish for how things should be.  Can’t the same be said about many other things?  Just because I want the sum of 2+2 to be something other than 4 it doesn’t make it so.  That is true regardless of what race or nationality that I may be or when I lived on the planet.  Why is it that we are so demanding that we follow the “facts” in every other area of our lives but when it comes to religion and morality we shift to this completely subjective mode of hey what’s good for you is OK as long as it’s not hurting anyone.

So let’s get back to the idea that there could be multiple paths to the First Cause a.k.a God.  When it comes to your personal philosophy of religion, can I ask just how informed are you?  How much time have you actually spent researching the validity of your position?  Be honest, have you spent more time researching your last major purchase or whether there is a First Cause and if so what religion(s) accurately represent Him?

Different “Roads” Lead To Different Destinations

I could write a comparative religion post but that’s already been done repeatedly.  But be sure of this, each belief system is distinctly unique and headed in different directions, they are not going to identical destinations. If you compare the major belief systems in the world you will find they believe/teach VERY different things. 

 As Michael Green states in his book But Don’t All Religions Lead to God?:

 “It is really ludicrous to suppose that all religions lead to God, when Buddhism does not believe that there is any God at all, when Islam makes him. so far removed, when Hinduism offers extinction after many incarnations…How can all religions lead to God when they have such different beliefs about God, the afterlife and how one can attain it?”

Michael Green, Baker Books, 2002.

How Much Time Have You Spent Checking The Map? Or Are You Just Wandering?

I would wager most people aren’t in a quandary trying to chose between Christianity and something else. Most people just don’t want to think a whole lot about it.  We are relatively wealthy, free, and having too much of a good time to think about God, that is until things don’t go as we want them to.  Then when a crisis comes we quickly want to ascribe blame to a God we don’t really follow.

Let me ask you, if you believe that there are multiple pathways to God, are you actually on ANY of them?  If you are betting your eternal destiny on the concept that all religions are equally viable, which one are you practicing?  Buddhism (or Bobism)?  Shintoism (or Sherylism)? Christianity (or Christianism)?  Do you understand what I’m trying to say?  Are you following something that you cobbled together from some different things you have heard over the years?  If that’s you I have at least one question;  What are you basing your position on?  On what authority are you staking your eternal destiny?  How much time have you spent researching the basis and validity of what it is you believe?

Let’s double back for a second on something we touched on earlier, it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.  What if I sincerely believe that the holocaust didn’t happen?  What if I sincerely believe that I can beat a gunshot wound to my chest without any treatment?  Get the point?   Sincerity is important but it is not the only thing that matters, objective truth is more important.

So what is it that I am trying to say?  

I am saying that, even if it were true that there are multiple roads to God, if you’re not on any of those roads where are you going?  What makes you think you would get in just because someone who’s a Buddhist or a Muslim were to get in, because you’re not either of those, you’re a Bobist or a Sherylist, or  maybe an atheist?

What’s More Important Your Next Car Or Your Forever?

Spend at least half the amount of time you spent investigating your last major purchase on investigating the person Jesus Christ.  He was an actual person, pretty much no one credibly denies his existence.

Let me spend a moment discussing something that I think that I might ask if I were not a follower of Jesus.  What about all the evil and hypocrisy done by those who claim the name of Christ?

First I apologize to all who have been genuinely hurt by those who claim to be followers of Jesus.  I am sure that I have hurt people and I have have also been hurt by those who claim Jesus.   So let me tell you what that doesn’t mean, it doesn’t mean that there’s a flaw with the person of Jesus.  People will always let you down sooner or later, Jesus will never leave you.  You may get mad at him but he will never leave you.  So real life examples, has anyone in your profession had a massive flame out, big time failure?  How do you feel when your whole profession comes under attack?  You say correctly, hey we aren’t all like that…there are some completely dedicated, awesomely devoted individuals in my profession that really care about people and who are great at what they do, don’t judge all of us by the actions of a few….

Likewise, your profession may have some who follow a certain perspective on how things should be done, maybe there are divisions in your profession, some conservative, others liberal, some old school…you get the point I’m trying to make, right?

Some bring credit to the profession while others bring shame.  But the people in the profession who aren’t good at it, or the ones who shame it don’t get to define its value or validity.  Bad actors are not the sole determiners of the validity of the profession 

So if you say there must be something fundamentally wrong with “Christianity”  because of the actions of a few of the people who claim the name, then the professions of medicine, law, law enforcement, academia, science, business, politics … must also be fatally flawed based on the same evaluative standard.   

Take 5 Minutes A Day This Week

Give God a try.  Take the 7 day challenge.  Spend 5 minutes a day for 7 consecutive days asking God if he’s real to reveal himself to you.  FYI don’t recommend asking for something grand, say like parting the Red Sea, been there done that.  Be genuine,  God’s word says he rewards those who earnestly seek Him.     

I would be very interested in hearing about your experience with this challenge.  

Thanks for taking the time to read this, as always, if you have questions/comments please send me an email at lifeboat11min@gmail.com, all inquiries are considered confidential.