Do all religions lead to Heaven?

The stacks of books was teetering as they were stacked one upon the other. It was this past Sunday morning in my adult Sunday school class. I had begun a short series comparing and contrasting different world religions. The books were from many of those religions, and my Bible was, as always, on the pulpit in front of me.

In previous years it had begun to be somewhat popular for preachers to say or infer that all religions are equally valid and beneficial. In our day, the line has been moved even further into error; preachers now often give the message that all religions are actually they same, their adherents just do not realize it.

All gods by all names are viewed as merely different manifestations of the same God, and all books revered as holy are merely different ways God has manifested himself. It is the old wagon wheel illustration; different spokes, but all leading to the same place, the center...

Truth, by its very nature, is exclusionary. When one finds what is true, that which is contradictory is thereby easily identifiable as false. Since two plus two equals four, we know two plus two does not equal seven or three or five. Since I am Bo Wagner, I know I am not Barack Obama or Rush Limbaugh or Little Orphan Annie. Since my mother is a woman, I know she is not a man.

And it is this very nature of truth which tells us one thing very clearly about all of the world religions: they cannot possibly all lead to Heaven. They most certainly can all have positive qualities about them; many of the world’s religions espouse acts of charity, and clean living, things that would do everyone good to observe.

But they also disagree, not on the minor issues, but on the major ones. This is not an issue of whether or not to sweep the floor of the nuclear power plant on Tuesday or on Friday; it is an issue of whether or not you should keep the reactor cool and safe or allow it to overheat and blow up and kill tens of thousands of people.

The Bible says there is one God. Many other religions are polytheistic, believing there are millions of gods. The Bible says God is the author of creation, and far above that which He has created. Other books and religions are pantheistic, believing that creation itself is God.

The Bible says Jesus is the very Son of God. Some of the books of other religions say God never had a son. Some go so far as to say it is the highest order of blasphemy to say He does, and makes a person worthy of death.

The Bible says Jesus died on the cross for our sin. The books of some other religions say He did not die on the cross. The Bible says He rose from the dead. Many other authoritative books of other religions deny the resurrection entirely.

The Bible teaches salvation by grace through faith, other religions lay out a list of works we must do to earn salvation. The Bible says those who hold other religious beliefs or none at all are to be witnessed to, loved, prayed for and offered the chance to freely receive or reject the message. Other religions go so far as to say those who reject their message are to be forced to convert, and killed if they apostatize.

The totality of world religions is therefore not at all like a wagon wheel. They all start at different points, take radically different paths, and end at different destinations. Our question then becomes, which one is correct? The God who made us has clearly made us to seek him out, and therefore has surely left us a revelation of himself for us to follow.

We live in a free country, and everyone is welcome to peacefully and respectfully speak up as to why they believe their religion is the correct one. What one cannot logically do is claim things which are in diametrical opposition to each other in so many essential aspects are all correct or even somehow the same thing.

Having read many, many books from religions ranging from popular to obscure, and having studied their founders and history, I have concluded that what Jesus said of himself in John 14:6 is utterly, thoroughly true, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Mooresboro, N.C., a widely traveled evangelist, and author of several books, including a kid’s fiction book about the Battle of Chickamauga, “Broken Brotherhood.” He can be emailed at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.