In a recent trip to Singapore, Pope Francis said “All religions are a path to God… There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths [to God].” Why do many Catholics consider these statements controversial?
My daughter started her senior year at a private Christian High School last month. The first chapter of her Bible curriculum was about doctrine. It pointed out that there is primary, secondary, and tertiary doctrine. The Primary doctrine that binds all Christian faiths together is that Jesus is the Son of God. He is our path to salvation. While other religions, such as Islam and Hinduism recognize Jesus as a historical figure and even a great prophet, they do not believe that he was divine.
We Christians throw around this term “salvation” quite a bit. To find what we mean by that word, let’s go back to the opening story in the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created Adam and Eve and put him in a beautiful garden. He walked and talked with them every evening. In the middle of the garden, He placed two exceptional trees. One was the tree of death which he told Adam and Eve not to touch. The other was the tree of eternal life.
Man rebelled against God and ate from the tree of death. A curse was brought on all creation. So what is death according to God? There are many cases in the Bible where something in the physical world is a shadow of the spiritual world. Just as death of the physical body means separation from our loved ones who remain in this world, death of our spirit means eternal separation from God. Lucky for us, God created a way to save us from the death that entered the world through Adam’s disobedience.
Christianity
The Bible teaches that no person is righteous enough to earn our way back to a Holy God. We cannot even keep the ten basic rules God gave Moses. Just as death entered through Adam, life entered through a single man, Jesus. He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through Me.” Jesus was the only perfectly righteous human to ever live. He was also the only human to conquer physical death. This was possible because he was God the creator wrapped in human flesh. It is only through trading our sin with Jesus’ righteousness that we can be good enough to have a relationship with the Holy God.
Islam
Muslims would also disagree with the Pope’s message that all religions are a path to God. In the Qur’an 6:153, Muhammad says “And, moreover, this is My path, which is straight, so follow it; and do not follow other ways, for you will be separated from His way. This has He instructed you that you may become righteous.” While Muslims agree that Jesus was a good teacher and prophet, they do not believe he was Devine. They believe that the only path to God is via Muhammad. However, Muhammad could not even escape the first death, so why trust him to help you escape the second death? His body is buried under the Green Dome in Saudi Arabia.
Buddhism / Hinduism
The Eastern religions may agree more with the Pope than Christianity and Islam. They agree that other religions are a valid path to God, where they differ from the Pope is in their idea of God. Christianity is a monotheistic religion meaning that there is one God. The Eastern religions have a Pantheistic view which means everything is God. Like Muhammad, Buddha is also still dead. His body was cremated and scattered near the Parinirvana Stupa. Hinduism is likely the most complex of all the major religions. It has no single founder or prophet. They believe that we have an unlimited number of lifetimes and physical deaths. If we live enough righteous lives, we can eventually stop the death/life cycle and become a part of God.
Atheistic Materialism
Although the Pope likely wasn’t thinking of Atheism as a religion when he made these comments, I would argue that Atheism is a religion. It takes a lot of faith to believe that this fine-tuned universe just sprang up on its own. The materialist’s Holy Book, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, replaces God with random chance. Since Atheists do not even believe there is a God, their religion is not a valid path to God.
Conclusion
One thing the Pope said to the students in Singapore is “interfaith dialogue among young people takes courage.” I completely agree with that statement. I have Hindu, Buddhist, and Atheist friends, and sometimes it is easier to talk about some meaningless football game instead of engaging in conversation that has eternal consequences. The older I get, the bolder I am to have these conversations. I am bolder because I am more convinced that Christianity is the True religion. God has revealed Himself to me through His Creation, His Word, and His Spirit.
All religions live in the same creation. God’s Spirit can talk to all of his creation. The unique attribute of Christianity is God’s Word. A key scripture in the Bible is when John describes Jesus like this. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Bible is more than just words on a page, it is Jesus. Everything in the book from Genesis to Revelation is Jesus. Good works cannot save us from death. Holy books cannot save us from death. Dead prophets cannot save us from death. Only Jesus, God’s resurrected Word can save us from death. This is the Christian truth that the Pope should have shared with our friends in Singapore.
“The true religion would have to teach greatness and wretchedness, inspire self-esteem and self-contempt, love and hate.”
Blaise Pascal, Pensées
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