If God is real, why is there so much evil in the world?

This is one of the biggest questions we can tackle in Christianity.

Over the Month of March, our church worked to answer this and 4 other top questions teens are asking today.

1. Do All Religions Lead to the Same Place?
2. Can We Trust the Bible?
3. Are Science and Christianity Enemies?
4. Why is there so Much Evil in the World?
5. Was Jesus Really God?

I taught the first one as well as the 4th one. It doesn’t transcribe well to this format (read, a little long) but I hope you find it informative, faith building and maybe even something that really answers the tough questions you’ve been having in this area.

Off we go…

Bertrand Russell asks this question differently when he asks “How can you believe in God when kneeling at the bed of a dying child?” This is Bertrand trying to say that God isn’t the answer in times like this.

We all can get this way.

When something big happens in our life that drops us to our knees, we can be awfully quick to wonder “where is God in this?” We can feel like “does God see this? Does God care?”

Evil and pain and suffering in our lives or in the world around us stirs all kinds of questions. “Why did he let this happen?” “What have I done wrong to  deserve this?” “This isn’t fair! Why me?”

One Christian apologist answered Bertrand Russell by saying “what would Bertrand Russell say when he’s kneeling at that child’s bed?” The point here is, everyone experiences these hugely challenging events in their lives and even Bertrand Russell will seek to find an answer. Whether he believes in God or not, he will still have to wrestle with this pain and seek answers to these questions.

Let me tell you a relevant story from my life.

A year after we were married, Melissa became pregnant. 20 weeks later, at the first ultrasound, we were filled with anticipation to find out if it was a boy or girl so we could start making arrangements at home, eager to share our family with a new little one. Do we paint the room pink or blue? I think we decided on yellow being a little neutral.

We always liked the name Nathaniel if it was a boy and Aleah if it was a girl. From the time we found out, we gave “it” the nickname “bean”. Nathaniel means “gift from God” little did we know how true this would turn out to be.

At the ultrasound, after what seemed like a very long time waiting outside excited to go in to join Melissa and hear the results, they called me in. When I saw Melissa in tears, I knew something was really wrong. We discovered that there were some major issues. It turns out that our little Nate had no amniotic fluid and no kidneys. Without amniotic fluid, his lungs couldn’t properly form. Among other things, these issues pretty much ensured his eventual death. Even if he made it to full term, he would die within minutes of being born because he wouldn’t be able to breathe and if that didn’t get him somehow, the lack of kidneys wouldn’t help.

Over the next 20 weeks, we had non-stop ultrasounds, meetings with multiple doctors, geneticists, and specialists. At every turn, we were told to terminate the pregnancy, “he’s going to die anyway, why would you choose to keep going through this?” Even our parents on both sides, friends and other family members would suggest the same thing.

In this, there was a lot of room for us to have all these questions we’re asking today.

• Why is this happening to us?
• This isn’t fair, we’re Christians and faithful?
• What did we do wrong to have this happen?

Eventually, Nathaniel went full term and was stillborn. He died at some point during the labour. And our experience with Nathaniel really was an immeasurable gift from God.

We know we can’t have everything be perfect all the time but the amount of pain that comes from a hard situation is real and overwhelming and we want to get some answers on how we’re supposed to deal with it and how to make it go away. So, what do we do when this happens to us? How do we reconcile this? How do we deal with it? Had we turned to Bertrand Russell, how would he respond? Depending on where we turn, we would get different answers, let’s look at a few.

From the lesson on different religions, we’ll take a few examples.

Buddhism:

Life is full of suffering. Suffering comes from selfish desire. Rid yourself of selfish desire by:

• Have correct understanding of your position in the world
• Think the right way
• Have the right speech
• Have the right actions
• Live the right way
• Make the right effort
• Keep your mind right
• Meditate right

Would this answer satisfy you?

I don’t feel much better about my situation now. I get “you can’t do anything about it, this is how the world is, ‘be the change you want to see in the world’ and it will eventually get better” (yes, I know I’m mixing a little Gandhi in with my Buddha). This doesn’t do anything for me to answer my questions. How about for you?

Here are two Atheists responding to such a question:

Suffering happens for a reason, not always understood at the time e.g. the Black Death in the middle ages. As we acquire more (scientific) knowledge of bacterial and viral infection from vermin, for example we find ways to avoid/prevent illness. We can forecast storms, tsunamis, and many other potential catastrophes and avoid them. (Whether we do or not in practice is another matter.) We can treat many medical complaints, and we’re getting closer to being able to predict earthquakes accurately… Of course, there are trivial ways in which suffering can be a punishment: the man who deliberately fails to take his anti-malarial drugs and then catches malaria is being punished for his negligence. The agency, if any, is himself.

 

We have developed pain receptors, negative emotions and other tools with which to involuntarily suffer because suffering brings our attention to the fact that something is wrong. This has always been advantageous to our survival and prosperity. If a lion bites your arm, the pain will alert you and give you a chance to find a weapon with the other arm, or simply run. If your spouse or child is missing or injured, you feel the agony of having failed in your self-appointed responsibility to protect them, whether or not you are really to blame. Family solidarity strengthens. The suffering itself has no purpose, but knowing its source is of use to us. When I suffer I know there’s a reason, but I also know that there’s no ultimate purpose for it, or to rephrase, no reason why I should continue to suffer. My suffering is a symptom of some situation I may be able to change. So I try to change it.

Okay, first off, the lion on my arm and looking for a weapon with the other hand distracted me a little. Aside from that, do you feel this is a good enough answer to quell your pain?

The fact that we have pain receptors is a good explanation on why we experience pain and sure, there is benefit to this but we’re really looking for something to help us understand how we deal with such desperate pain. If there is no purpose to the pain, we should be able to just “stop crying”. “Oh, you’re son died? Get over it, it’s all just part of life”.

There, no you feel better, right?

Would this answer your suffering? It doesn’t for me either. I agree that if we have pain receptors, there must be a reason for it. Situations like Nathaniel are a very personal form of pain and suffering. Maybe it hits home for some of you as well.

God put those pain receptors (physical and emotional) in us for a reason and I see why in the answers below.

Let’s break evil (or pain or suffering) into some different categories to understand the answers better

Some evil comes from our own hand.

Self-Inflicted Evil

I was trying to come up with good examples of this and, unfortunately, needed not look any further than my own life.

I shall not ask “why is God allowing us to lose our house” when I failed to pay a couple mortgage payments and remained behind for over a year.

I shall not wonder “why God allowed my licence to be taken away” when I had thousands of dollars of speeding tickets and points and I couldn’t pay them. (this is almost 2 decades ago, honestly)

I shall not complain that we had to go into bankruptcy when we were spending every penny we had coming in and lived far beyond our means.

I can’t push responsibility to God that I can’t get up for a quiet-time when I’m consistently staying up too late and choosing to hit snooze 7 times.

Here’s an example fortunately not from my life. One that we see happen out there.

If I neglect my kids or my spouse for years and now they don’t want to spend time with me anymore, I can’t say “why is God causing so much pain in my life?”

There are consequences for our choices. Sometimes those consequences seem like they might be from the last category we talk about today but are really from our own actions…

Disasters.

• If you buy a house on a flood plain and disaster comes in the form of, say, a flood, this is a consequence.
  • Did you know there are hundreds of stone markers from over 600 years ago in Japan warning people not to build below the stones in order to protect them from future tsunamis?
• If you live in an area with a massive fault line and then have an earthquake ruin you, God isn’t the one responsible for your pain.
• If you build a trailer park in tornado alley, everyone is going to think God hates trailer parks… it’s just not true.

I think we know this stuff. I believe we’re smart enough to distinguish when suffering is actually coming from our own hands and should not be all “woe is me” when these things happen. We can sometimes bring on the suffering ourselves. Even though we know this, it’s hard to avoid at times.

What’s the point?

There are lessons in those consequences. The bible helps us understand what we can learn in one of my favourite scriptures.

[our earthly fathers] disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:10-11 NIV

Holiness means set apart. God is helping us to be set apart as he is. When the Jews didn’t die from illnesses that the neighbouring cultures did in the Old Testament, it was because God shared some life-saving lessons that set them apart. Discipline from God helps us be different.

We make the choice that causes our suffering but understanding God helps it to be a lesson learned.

After the bankruptcy, we don’t act the same way as we used to. Sure I have tendencies towards foolishness and I believe we all do towards our areas of weakness. Hopefully, we gain wisdom and learn from it and decide to make better choices. I think this is another reason why we’re given one another. I’ll get to that in a bit.

We are given freewill and when we have it, we are free to make mistakes that cause ourselves pain.

So, why are we given freewill? It makes sense that freewill should be taken away because of how dangerous it can be. But that tension must remain.

The tension is

• The downside is freewill can be dangerous if people choose poorly
• The upside is freewill can be amazing for all parties involved.

Let’s look at an example.

Why do we want kids? There’s risk in having kids. The kid could grow up to reject you. Freewill also means they could grow up to be the one who goes postal and takes out an entire school. Kids can give us more heartache than almost anything else in this world. I have experienced some of the greatest heartbreak in my life from my kids and also some of the greatest joys.

That’s only possible with freewill.

If we just invented a robot who would do what we want and tell us “I love you”, would we be happy? Would we feel loved? No. There is something so special when our kid comes to us in their own freewill and says “I love you dad”

The whole point is we want someone to give love to and get love back from.

Same with my wife. When she comes to me and loves me even when I’m a doofus, that love is a choice and it means far more than hearing what I want to hear under compulsion.

God created us with freewill for the same reasons. If we were made to love God without any choice in it all, would we really feel that love… or feel his in return? God gave us freewill and that’s the special sauce that makes humanity so awesome. There is power and amazing things that come from us having the choice to seek him or reject him.

This comes with an immense amount of risk too, though.

If someone decides not to follow God or choose not to love him, bad things can happen. This is where we get the next type of evil: Evil committed against one another.

This is where we get the next type of evil: Evil committed against one another.

Evil at the hand of humans

• Property crime
• Personal crime
• Genocide
• Racism
• Terrorism
• Selfishness

These definitely fit into “why is there so much evil in the world” I made these PG and not R rated for the sake of the kids here. You guys can fill in your own levels of evil.

• Someone breaks into your house and steals your stuff.
• The stabbings we hear about in the news occasionally
• Stories like Columbine
• 9/11 and bombings and other terrorist acts.
• And as minor as “guys driving up the shoulder to get way ahead in the line of cars”

This is what happens when we reject God. These are the consequences of a world of people with freewill.

King Solomon reports his understanding as to why all these things happen.

But I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 NLT

God made us virtuous and we chose our own path instead – and it wasn’t good.

Jesus summed up his hope to get us back to where God wants us in this statement.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

John 13:34 NIV

Imagine what the world would be like if we just got this one command right. We wouldn’t have any of this stuff.

When people love only themselves, there is automatically an effect on others.

You’re in a line of cars and someone drives past you way up to the front and pulls in. Who benefits? Who loses?

Someone flies a plane into a building to make a point, does anyone really benefit?

Contrast that to what the Bible says it should be like:

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God,
    he did not think of equality with God
    as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
    he took the humble position of a slave
    and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
8     he humbled himself in obedience to God
    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Philippians 2:3-8 NLT

Consider others better than yourselves. Jesus, who had every right to demand glory and honour for himself set himself up as a servant. We have been called from the very beginning to love God and Love our neighbour.

…the Lord has told you what is good,
    and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
    and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8 NLT

 

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27 NLT

When we treat each other this way, we would never get these problems. We have to ask ourselves what are we going to do with the freewill we have been given? Are we going to only look after ourselves or others? Are we going to Love God and serve him or just serve our own needs? We see evil at the hands of humans because we forsake the direction from God and choose our own path.

Let’s look into the last set of evils. They are what I call the “God only knows why”

Evil for God Only Knows Why

This is things like:

• Natural disasters
• Random diseases
• Freak accidents

God created the universe and everything in it. So it can be thought that all this stuff is God’s fault. Like somehow, if it’s not our fault, it must be his.

Sometimes bad things happen. Although they affect us negatively, they’re not, in themselves, bad things.

Let’s follow this for a minute.

In the 70’s Carl Sagan said it would only take two factors for a planet to sustain life.

1. the right kind of sun and
2. the right distance from the sun

After years in technological advancement in astrophysics and government sponsored searches for such planets (SETI), the number of criteria for a planet to sustain life are now well over 200. These factors point to such an infinitesimal chance of another planet sustaining life, apart from God, we shouldn’t be here.

Where I’m going with this is, that in order to have much of what we have here on this blessed planet, we must have over 200 precisely tweaked variables to achieve this fragile balance. We don’t get the weather we have without some big weather happenings occasionally. Every part of what goes on in this world is necessary to maintain the balance that sustains life.

So, as hard as it for us to suffer through some times, there are also good things that come from stuff like Hurricanes. Check this out.

Interestingly, hurricanes may also provide ecological benefits to tropical and sub-tropical environments. Rainfall gives a boost to wetlands and flushes out lagoons, removing waste and weeds. Hurricane winds and waves move sediment from bays into marsh areas, revitalizing nutrient supplies. Fragile coral reefs can also receive benefit from hurricanes during the warm summer months, as the storms’ upwelling of cooler waters help to alleviate thermal stress. In addition, waves and tidal water movements scour some areas, removing macroalgae and exposing the solid limestone structure of the reef, which provides a firm foundation on which corals can settle and grow

I didn’t know this.

We live in a harsh environment that gives us sun and warmth and all that weather we love AND it can also kill us. As unfortunate as it seems, it’s not a bad thing. Death has to happen. Death is a part of life.

Death comes from weather and death can come from random accidents. The new husband to my sister was crushed by a 20-ton beam at work 3 months after their marriage at 19.

It’s hard to make sense of these random things.

Let’s look at disease for a few minutes.

Death can also come from disease. There are some horrible diseases out there. Seemingly random diseases really make us question what God is allowing. What good can come from disease?

Well, in the atheists or Buddhists world, they’re going to work on self-improvement or saying “it’s just part of life, deal with it, learn from it and improve yourself”

Look at the contrast in people who follow the Christian bible.

Let’s look at how they dealt with some of the ugliest diseases and the death all around them.

Instead of fear and despondency, then, the earliest Christians expended themselves in works of mercy that simply dumbfounded the pagans. For them, God loved humanity; in order to love God back, one was to love others. God did not demand ritual sacrifices; he wanted his love expressed on earth in deeds of compassion. The first Christians not only took care of their own, but also reached out far beyond themselves. Their faith led to a pandemic (pan = all; demos = people) of love. Consequently, at the risk of their own lives, they saved an immense number of lives. Their elementary nursing greatly reduced mortality. Simple provisions of food and water allowed the sick that were temporarily too weak to cope for themselves to recover instead of perishing miserably.

Pandemic Love – Charles Moore 2009

This is amazing.

At the risk of their own lives they helped others live. When everyone else was running away, they were running in to help. This is the response God wants from us. Because of this selfless focus, Christians have initiated some of the best things we have over the millennia.

Look at what we have because of the response to God’s love for us found in the scriptures.

The biggest response we can have to suffering and pain in our lives and the lives of others is, rather than turn inward and try to deal with what we’re experiencing on our own, to move towards the tension and recognise it’s an opportunity to be like Jesus and serve others.

The thing is, we get a dose of reality when someone close to us gets sick or dies or experiences tragedy and we get a glimpse of our own mortality and the best response is to seek out answers. Suffering leads us to understand the other person and even if we don’t know how, we can provide help.

We learn compassion when we suffer

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 NLT

We suffer and we see suffering so that we can comfort and understand others. We have the scriptures to search out and understand suffering for our benefit and for the benefit of others. This is the crux of it all. Suffering is there for a reason.

• Sometimes it’s at our own hands,
• Sometimes it’s had the hands of others who are not following the direction God wants for them.
• Sometimes it’s for seemingly random things.

Through it all, we are to

• Draw closer to God and
• Use what we learn to comfort others.

Here is a brief summary on why there is so much evil in the world:

Self-inflicted evil

• So the consequences will train us (Hebrews 12:10-11)

Evil at the hands of other humans

• Because there is freewill and this is a good thing
• God made us to be virtuous but we choose otherwise
  (Ecclesiastes 7:29)

Evil for God only knows why

• So that we can seek comfort in God (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
• So we can comfort one another (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

Back to our son Nathaniel for a minute.

When my wife and I went through this, we spent every day pouring through the scriptures try to understand the challenges we were going through. Here are a couple scriptures that really stood out to us.

David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground. ¹⁷ The elders of his household pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused.

¹⁸ Then on the seventh day the child died. David’s advisers were afraid to tell him. “He wouldn’t listen to reason while the child was ill,” they said. “What drastic thing will he do when we tell him the child is dead?”

¹⁹ When David saw them whispering, he realized what had happened. “Is the child dead?” he asked.

“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”

²⁰ Then David got up from the ground, washed himself, put on lotions,^[b] and changed his clothes. He went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. After that, he returned to the palace and was served food and ate.

²¹ His advisers were amazed. “We don’t understand you,” they told him. “While the child was still living, you wept and refused to eat. But now that the child is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again.”

²² David replied, “I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.’ ²³ But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.”

1 Samuel 12:16-23 (NLT)

David did all he could to try to compel God to change his mind and save the child. After seven days of trying, it wasn’t to be so he got up, washed, ate and went on with his life.

Our joy in the face of great challenge was because of this level of surrender. We prayed and fasted and wept to try to save our son’s life and yet, we were surrendered to the outcome. Our thoughts were “we know God can save him and we hope he does but even if he doesn’t, we’re okay with it.” Also, why would we terminate when we don’t even know the answer yet?

Like the advisers in David’s life, the people in our lives didn’t understand. They were asking how we could be so joyful so “okay with it all?”

While David’s suffering with his child born with Bathsheba was because of his sin, ours wasn’t necessarily from something we did wrong. I don’t believe we were being punished. Another scripture that helped us was this:

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.² “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

³ “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.

John 9:1-3

Not all negative events are because of our sin. It’s easy to beat ourselves up because we think we deserve the negative things that happen to us. As it states here, Jesus says it’s “so the power of God could be seen in him”.

One of the most amazing things that happened through our time with Nathaniel is how much the church in Vancouver was moved. Their faith was built as ours was. They rallied around us and we saw the power of God at work. There were many more amazing things than negative things that happened because of Nathaniel.

When we were comforted by God, we were able to comfort others (2 Corinthians above). And, have had the opportunity to do so since, as well.

There is a spiritual battle going on. He wants us to work together for the benefit of each other and to point each other to him.

God is not evil nor does he desire evil in our lives. Satan wanted to be God and was kicked out of heaven. We wanted to be like God and chose to eat the fruit and get kicked out of the garden. Since then, God has been doing everything he can to reconcile us. To win us back to him… To the point of sending his own son to die in our place.

We weren’t every promised an easy life, a pain free life. We may not feel as bad as those other people should feel but we know, we know we’ve done stuff that deserves consequences. What we were promised is the CHOICE to have a relationship with God through his son Jesus.

On that note, pain doesn’t ever seem fair.

But think about this for a minute.

Could you watch your only son be tried with lies, falsely accused, tortured, spit upon and mocked and eventually killed in the most humiliating way and just let it happen?

God did.

If God sat by and let his own son go through this level of pain, what do you think we really should expect. There is a HUGE story going on outside of what we see. He let his son suffer the most so we can see how important it is to get to through this life with our relationship with God intact. He wants us and desires us all to get to heaven where there is no suffering, no pain, no evil and no tears. I believe all the pain and suffering we get here are being used to point us back to him.

Job experienced major suffering and loss. It wasn’t God who wanted this for Job, it was Satan. He wanted to take Job out and believed if he could ruin him, Job would curse God and become Satan’s. Satan is like a sore loser in the school yard. He can’t win so he wants to ensure everyone else loses with him and he makes everyone’s life miserable to try to make them fail. God wants us to win, he wants us to be with him. He will put whatever he needs to in front of you to get you to move to him.

We just choose the response to the things that happen. Do we turn to him to search out meaning or do we turn into ourselves and try to comfort ourselves?

• Self-medicate
• Seek out pleasure
• Keep ourselves busy

God is asking

• “Do you trust me when you lose your job?”
• “Do you seek me when you are in pain?”

Without God, there is no purpose. Without God, we have no good answers to why there is so much pain in the world. In the scriptures and in God, there are answers. There is comfort. Give up whatever you need to. Do whatever it takes to get a relationship with God through Jesus. Then you will start to understand how and why everything is like it is.

Give up whatever you need to. Do whatever it takes to get a relationship with God through Jesus. Then you will start to understand how and why everything is like it is.

To God be the glory.

 

What have you done to deal with the evil or suffering experiences in your life?

Do All Religions Lead To the Same Place?

When it comes to religion, there seem to be more questions than answers. I get it. I’ve been there and I’m still always asking. The difference is, I now have answers to some of my biggest questions… the important ones at least.

If you’re a curious person and like to get to the bottom of that big ol’ question “why”… Keep reading.

This is a sermon I preached last month and the response was good so I figured I’d attempt adapting it for my blog. I’ll apologize in advance because the paragraph structure might be a little poor at times. Since this was spoken, it translates a little different in written text.

Over the Month of March, a few of us tackled the top 5 questions teens are asking today.

1. Do All Religions Lead to the Same Place?
2. Can We Trust the Bible?
3. Are Science and Christianity Enemies?
4. Why is there so Much Evil in the World?
5. Was Jesus Really God?

It’s good to be curious and ask lots of questions. These 5 questions are good ones and many religious people fear others asking questions like this. We embrace it. Don’t buy into someone who says “because that’s always the way we do it here” or “because I said so”. Anything great has come from people asking “hmmm, I wonder…”. Especially about our own convictions.

So…

Why are we here? (Not here, as in front of a computer, but here on earth) What is the purpose of our lives? What does it all mean? These are big questions and this article is the start of some of the answers.

Although philosophy, Science, and religion all try to answer these questions, we’re going to focus on religion today. First, let’s look at some definitions of religion:

Def.1. Religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.

Def.2. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe.

When we are talking about religion, there is a ton of debate. In fact, I would say there is little that can stir up more trouble than talking about religion. Heck, even discussing religion in a group that all believe the same thing can get heated.

Why is that?

Religion is emotional. Religion is very personal. Religion is not typically black and white. There are a lot of gray areas, so a lot of room for opinions.

Extra research and experience has been put in before this article so please feel free to connect with me afterward to dig in. Also, there is so much material on this, I cannot possibly cover it all today and I’m just touching on some of the basics.

When people ask “Do all religions lead to the same place?”, they usually mean “ending up in heaven or paradise”. That being said, you could also include enlightenment as the place in which to end up. So, it’s valid to include everyone and all religions in this question.

This question comes up in different forms too:

• “Every religion is based on the same fundamentals, right?”
• “Do good and get good. And do bad and get bad, right?”
• “Every religion has a ‘do to others as you would have them do to you’, right?“

This last reference is found in the bible in Matthew 7. Interestingly enough, many religions have this in their teachings. Take a look:

• Christianity: do to others what you would have them do to you.
  – Matthew 7:12
• Confucianism: Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state.
  – Analects 12:2
• Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.
  – Udana-Varga 5,1
• Hinduism: This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you.
  – Mahabharata 5,1517
• Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
  – Sunnah
• Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.
  – Talmud, Shabbat 3id
• Taoism: Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.
  – Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien
• Zoroastrianism: That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself.
  – Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5

This is just one example of how all religions seem to point to the same place. Although they seem to teach the same things, when you look deeper, there are much bigger differences. We’ll get to that.

Here’s another way people view religions.

• I live a good life, I don’t hurt anyone, I pay my taxes, I’m a good citizen,
• Sure, I’ve done some bad things in my life, haven’t we all?

I learned an interesting phrase this week for something I’ve noticed before. The Fundamental Attribution Error. We judge others by their results and we judge ourselves on intent.

Let me ask you a question to prove my point. What do you think when someone is late? “Man, that person doesn’t care about me”, “they’re so selfish”. We all want to believe we’re thinking “Man, I hope they weren’t hit by a bus”. Maybe we do after a minute of ranting.

When we’re late our response is “hey, I tried super hard to get here on time”. We believe the other person did this intentionally and when we do it, we were intending the best outcome.

We do this when it comes to religion too. We say “that other guy really isn’t a nice guy, he probably won’t get to heaven”. With us, we say, “my intentions are good, surely that’s good enough”. 

What people really want to know is “can I live life the way I want to, and still get to heaven?” Or, “how good do I actually need to be to get to heaven?”. How about this one. “Surely a loving God won’t punish everyone for trying their best to do good and falling short.”

It’s very easy to see the bulk of religious and philosophical teachings out there and wash over it with a broad brush and think everything is roughly the same. Like that do onto others piece and that each religion just expects roughly the same things from us. What we really need to do is to get above our view of things and understand the bigger picture.

The thing is, we get into these questions because we know there are things we’ve done wrong and no matter what we do, we can’t seem to shake them. We want to know that we’re doing okay by the rules. The truth is, we can’t even hold to our own standards. Want proof again? Who’s ever cheated on a diet? This comes from believing that we are reliant on our own actions to get us to where we want to go. That’s not completely true. More on that in a bit.

Back to answering the question.

I was talking to someone the other day at work about this subject and her mom changed religions because one served her needs better than the other when she was sick. This is a prime example of looking at things from our human level only. We see someone do a better job of serving and we just assume that person is better or closer to God because of it.

Again with the fundamental attribution error.

My friend continued “about your question, do you believe they all lead to the same place?”

Here is the answer to the question:

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”

John 14:6-7 NLT (emphasis added)

The Author John, an eyewitness who walked with Jesus and one of the key players in why we have the bible today, is quoting Jesus here. This is a bold statement. He’s saying “if you have seen me, you have seen the father” He’s talking about God. Right here though, he actually answers our question. Don’t all religions lead to the same place? NO! (to be cheeky, I suppose they all do, aside from one). This sounds frightfully exclusive. Believe it or not, there is nothing more INCLUSIVE. I’ll get there in a bit, though.

You might be looking at this and thinking, “well, I’m really not all that sure I even believe in Jesus.” “Where does that leave me?” And “who does he think he is, God?” Yes…

Let’s back up a little first. We are here talking about “religions” so let’s go into detail for a few minutes. I’ve had a colourful life. I’ve been through a lot of stuff I wouldn’t even wish on those who don’t like me. Last weekend was my 20^th birthday as a disciple of Jesus and this is my greatest “accomplishment.” I wasn’t always committed to God, in fact, I ran the other way for years. See, I grew up with some intrinsic faith and believed in God, I’d say, naturally.

I didn’t go to church growing up, although, I remember my grandma taking me to a catholic play group that was led by what I used to call “penguins”. Maybe that’s where I got the idea of faith. That being said, I believe this:

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart,

Ecclesiastes 3:11a NLT (emphasis added)

This is written by King Solomon, historically regarded as the wisest man who ever lived. Other kings from around the world would come visit him to gain wisdom. I don’t have to tell you this though, we know this. We have an inkling of something more than what we see here in this life. We are curious that there is more out there. Religion has been around as long as we have. We have a fundamental belief in something more than just what we see. We’re born with that innate sense of something more. But, Religion doesn’t leave

However, religion doesn’t leave man because of he grew up. It’s not something like Cinderella that was a great story when we were young and we’ve now matured and don’t believe any more. No! It’s the experiences we have with it that make our faith what it is today. Events happen that rock someone’s world or change the way they see religion and they choose differently based on that. Or, the world beats it out of them by everyone’s lack of faith around them.

Let’s look at a Case study: ME

After a bad church experience as a pre-teen, I got turned off the whole religion thing and got into much worse. Previous to the last 20 years, I’ve studied through and lived out:

• Satanism
• Wicca
• Buddhism
• New age, Psychic arts and tarot
• Agnosticism
• Atheism and, ultimately,
• Christianity

I could have stayed in Christianity from the beginning if I saw a different example. Maybe you’ve had a similar experience. Maybe this is where you are. Maybe you’re feeling that there is no way there could be a God because of what you’ve experienced. (This other article details more about this)

There is a whole new group of people best-called Anti-Theists. These people are not out to argue whether there is a God or not, they are out to destroy religion. In reading one of the highest regarded Anti-Theists, Richard Dawkins, it’s evident to me he’s had a major event or several in his life that turned him off religion. If we had better examples of what religion is supposed to be, we wouldn’t have as many divisions as we do. For me, I had to get out of what I experienced, put my bias on a shelf and really commit to finding some answers.

So let’s talk a little about what I’ve discovered for a minute or two.

I want to make the case for believing what Jesus said when he sounded so exclusive when saying “I am the way the truth and the life.”

“No one comes to the Father except through me” – Jesus

This illustration really describes what he’s trying to say. All religions will get you so far. Only passing through Jesus will get you to God. Obviously, this is a big claim so, let’s dig in.

Pagan and Theistic Religions

I’ve chosen to distinguish between mostly humanistic or philosophical and mostly theistic (believe in a super-being or an invisible God). The big three on the theistic side are: Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. These three make up over 5 Billion people.

Let’s have a little qualifier here. Hinduism is not fully a theistic, homogeneous, organized system. Many Hindus are devoted followers of Shiva or Vishnu, whom they regard as the only true God, while others look inward to the divine Self (Atman). But most recognize the existence of Brahman, the unifying principle and Supreme Reality behind all that is.

Still, I grouped this in with theistic religions.

Although the size of the words do illustrate comparative size, the two sides don’t relate. Atheism with 1.1 billion, Buddhism with 360 million and Chinese religion at 394 million PLUS all the rest of the non-theistic religions don’t even total half the big three.

Here in Edmonton, we’re likely to run more into other Christians, Muslims (Islam), Atheists, Anti-Theists and Pagans (believe in natural spirits such as aboriginal religions). We’re going to just get away from all the humanistic religions because we’re trying to get to heaven. We understand they likely won’t get us there.

If we are truly trying to get to heaven, the humanistic religions won’t get us there. If you look at this well-researched website, you can see many of the world religions and philosophies and what they believe in.

For the theistic religions, let’s review them quickly.

Hinduism, Hare Krishna, Taoism, Baha’I and many others shown here believe in enlightenment and reincarnation. I don’t know about you but I don’t particularly want to come back here once I leave. I just want to settle into eternity and stay there. (That last link will allow you to go into more detail than I can here)

The graphic above shows we need Jesus to get to God. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists all believe in and have Jesus as part of their central message. I chose to narrow down the field to those that have regard for Jesus because he is a real and tangible man and he is the focus of our study today. Each of these believe Jesus was a real man and he walked the Earth and died on a cross at the hands of the Romans and Israelites. There is more than sufficient evidence to believe Jesus lived, died and was resurrected. This isn’t the subject of our talk today. For more information on this, see the resource PDF attached.

Judaism, Islam, Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses see Jesus as a prophet and some see him as the son of God. None of them see Jesus as God in the flesh. Judaism and Islam do not see Jesus as the Saviour, Messiah, Christ (all mean the same thing in English, Hebrew and Greek respectively)

Only Christianity and Seventh Day Adventists believe in the Trinity and that Jesus is God in the flesh. This is very important as we get to the heart of the matter. Because, in order to fully buy into Jesus saying he is the way and if you have seen him, you have seen the father, we need to believe Jesus is God.

Just to narrow it down as much as possible. Let’s discuss the Seventh Day group for a second. Seventh Day Adventists believe in maintaining the Sabbath as holy. While many of the other Old Testament laws have been “renewed”, they see this one as still in place and therefore they have church on Saturday, the seventh day. There are a number of other differences, but that’s where their name comes from.

The Holy Bible is the most complete and best place to see what we need to know about Jesus. Looking at this scripture again, we need to answer one vital question: Was Jesus who he said he was or was he a nut-bar or lying? Turns out, if the guy predicts his own death and resurrection and pulls it off, we should all be following him.

The scary thing is, when he was here, he spent an uncomfortable amount of time raising the bar to crazy standards. We talked about “what if I just live a good life?” Let’s take a look at some of severe, bar-raising examples.

 “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

Matthew 5:20 NLT

Jesus is talking to mostly Jews, those who grew up understanding it was important to obey and live out the God of the Jew’s commands. The Pharisees were the most religious of all religious people. If you were doing everything perfect, you might be considered to place membership as a Pharisee. Jesus says, that unless our righteousness (living for God) was even greater than them, we can never enter. Yikes! What about just avoiding getting speeding tickets.

How about this:

You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

Matthew 5:21-22 NLT (emphasis added)

Okay, we know murder isn’t a good thing. Now Jesus is saying “if you are angry with someone”, “if you call someone an idiot”, “if you curse someone, you are in danger of hell”? WHAT? Are you guilty of any of these? Yep, me too.

“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:21-22 NLT (emphasis added)

Our society can be messed up but we still understand Adultery isn’t going to get you closer to heaven. Jesus says “if you even look at a woman lustfully.” Isn’t this just common practice?

When you look at all these things, it’s obvious that Jesus set a standard too high for us to achieve. There are rules and then Jesus takes these rules to a new high. He does this for a reason though. All religions tend towards rules. We like rules because we can judge how we’re doing by them. It’s like a check-list. Did I have my quiet time, check. Was I nice when I didn’t want to be, check. Did I avoid that prideful feeling in my heart? Nope. DARN. Well, I guess I’ll have to do better tomorrow. We like these checklists because we can measure ourselves. Jesus comes in and

• Did I have my quiet time, check.
• Was I nice when I didn’t want to be, check.
• Did I avoid that prideful feeling in my heart?

Nope. DARN. Well, I guess I’ll have to do better tomorrow. We like these checklists because we can measure ourselves. Jesus comes in and tell us we’re never going to get the check list good enough.

This is maddening! Does that really mean we’re all doomed?

YES.

The whole point of Jesus going there with all of this is he’s making the point that we’re all doomed. If you thought you might be okay, after listening to Jesus, you get the idea you’re not. You’re not. And, you can’t be.

I know, this isn’t sounding like one of those gospel messages, But wait, it gets better. Much better. This is really, really, REALLY good news.

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”

John 14:6-7 NLT

This is the point. Jesus died for our sins! He picked them up and carried them away when he died on the cross.

• All that stuff you feel guilty about
• All those missed check-boxes
• All that stuff you can’t get out of your heart
• All those new levels of righteousness Jesus was talking about

Jesus just wanted to make sure everyone of us would sit back and go “I can’t get there”. He wanted us to be broken. If we don’t think we need a saviour, we won’t turn to Jesus.

Check out what Paul said just a few years after Jesus’ death.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

Romans 3:23-25 NLT (emphasis added)

We know this. We have all done things we’re ashamed of. We try to bury them and they just keep rearing their ugly head. Well, God sent Jesus to die in our place. And he took at that crud with him.

You see, all religions give you ways to deal with your sin, your guilt, your shame. Often they are rules, or penance, or processes. Here are some examples:

• but they should also offer interior acts of penance, works of virtue, sacrifices, inconveniences, and all the pains and hardships under which we labor.
  – Catholicism.
• Ramadan is coming and you’ll have plenty of time to earn good deeds, get your rank raised and your sins forgiven.
  – Islam.
• Learn from those actions and promise to try not to repeat them.
  – Psychology
• Humbly apologize for all the mistakes you have been doing. Do it emotionally and not by mechanical recitation of some dialogues or mantras.
  – Hinduism

In Contrast, here is what Jesus says.

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Matthew 11:28-29 NLT

Christianity is the only religion that states “I am the way”. All others state ways for you to fix it. Christianity states Jesus is the way.

You see, God doesn’t want something from you, he wants something for you. He gave us his only son as a ransom for our foolishness, our sin.

All other religions give you prescriptions, Christianity gives you the cure.

Do all religions lead to the same place? Except one, yes… NOT to God.

Maybe this is the first time you’ve heard of something like this. Maybe you’ve heard this and are a great believer. Maybe you’re like I used to be and aren’t sure of anything and are searching for some answers. Hopefully this created some curiosity and some hope.

My encouragement to you is to look into this yourself. I can’t convince you of all these answers in one article. You have to study it out yourself.

For me, I walked away from faith in God. At that time, I would never come back. It wasn’t until I really wanted to know the truth that I dug in to really seek answers. It’s up to you now to go and scrutinize and be willing to put your doubts and set mind aside to ask more questions.

Don’t leave here without committing to find out more. This is free and it’s available to everyone. Here, there, everywhere. All colours, all races, all religions, all of you.