We live in a society characterized by a multitude of religious beliefs. Pluralism seems to be the order of the day.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus. And of course, don’t forget the athe­ists. You meet them out on the street. Some of them might even be your neighbors.

All the various religions out there each have their own view of truth and reality, their own perspective on life. But the question is, what atti­tude do we take to these other views of reality? This is one of the most important questions facing the church in our times.

Mind you, this issue has been around since the beginning of the church, when the early Christians had to consider their relationship to the pagan religions that surrounded them. And in fact, the issue goes further back than that. The Old Testament nation of Israel was also confronted with the issue of how to deal with the religions of the peo­ples around them.

Still, it seems to be a particularly live issue these days, thanks to global communications and increas­ing immigration from non-Western cultures. Even the clothes some people wear tell us that they hold beliefs completely foreign to our own. And this awareness of other religions raises the question: what attitude should we have to­ward them?

Relativism and Syncretism⤒🔗

Some opt for relativism. They say it really doesn’t matter what you be­lieve. You can believe whatever you want to believe. No one is right. No one is wrong.

If you want to believe that beings from outer space put us here on this earth, and they are watching us from the other side of the moon, then that’s entirely up to you. If you want to say that the creator of the earth sent his Son to die on a cross and pay the price for your sins, well, that’s your privilege. Just don’t try to tell me what I should believe.

You don’t have to think too hard to see that relativism doesn’t make sense. To say that there is no truth is making a statement that attempts to say something about truth.

But even more importantly, the Bible leaves no room for relativ­ism. It claims to be the truth. To advocate relativism is to deny everything the Bible stands for. Another response to the existence of other beliefs is syncretism. This approach says that we can find elements of truth in all relig­ions. There is such a thing as truth, it’s just that no religion can claim exclusive rights to it. There’s nothing new about this approach. Looking back to the time of the Old Testament, the people of Israel were often warned against syncretism.

Deuteronomy 12:1-4,

These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispos­sess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and un­der every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.

It would seem that God was not too keen on the idea of syncretism.

A Third Response←⤒🔗

So, relativism and syncre­tism, both of these ap­proaches are lacking and unbiblical. However, there is a third response to the question of what approach to take toward other relig­ions. I should warn you, though: this third response is not very popular. It is not respected by the world. It is often considered to be ignorant and close-minded. This is the response of the Apostle Peter when confronted by the Jewish lead­ers Acts 4:11-12,

This Je­sus is the stone that was rejected by you, the build­ers, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name un­der heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

You want salvation? You want to get close to God? You want truth? Look to Jesus. Look to the one who is God and rules in heaven. Look to the one who came to earth as a man, the one who died on a hill outside of Jerusalem, the one who rose victori­ous from the grave. Look to the one who will return again in glory and will take his people to live with him forever. If you want to know God, if you want to experience the pres­ence of the divine, if you want true religion, then you must look to Je­sus.

Intolerance Challenged←⤒🔗

But wait a minute! That sounds pretty intolerant and close-minded. All this talk about Jesus being the only way to God, well, this doesn’t seem to leave much room for other points of view. If Jesus is the only way to God, then all those other religions that say they have access to God, must be wrong. If Je­sus is the only way, then there can’t be any other ways.

This intolerance is something the world cannot tolerate. They will ask us: “Do you think that you can say that you are right and that others are wrong?” And we must reply: “Absolutely!”

But the world will not let the matter rest. The world will challenge us.

The devil will challenge us. The devil will say: what gives you the right to say that your way of thinking is correct? What makes you think that you have the truth while others are mistaken?

Well, we have to admit that we are no better than anyone else. We do not say that our way of thinking is correct because we think we are so smart. If it were a matter of us relying on our own worth and our own intelligence to prove that we are right, then we would not have a leg to stand on.

Rather, we can say with assur­ance that Jesus is the only way to salvation because the Bible tells us so. It is the witness of Jesus to himself found in the Word of God that lets us know that our way of thinking is correct and other relig­ions are wrong. Quoting Acts 4:12 again: “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Spirit-filled Conviction←⤒🔗

No one else. No other name. No other way. No other chance. No­tice, Peter did not here say to the leaders of the Jews, “You can believe whatever you like. You can have your own way of thinking. Just let us believe what we want to believe, and we can live together peace­fully.” Peter did not say, “Hey, your religion has some validity to it. You have a legitimate way of reaching God. We know that your religion is just as true as ours. Why don’t we work together?”

He said no such thing. Instead, he confronted the false religion of the Jewish leaders. He told the Jew­ish leaders that they were wrong. He told them that their way of thinking was wrong. He told them that he knew the only truth and the only truth is Jesus Christ.

Peter did not say these things because he felt he was so smart. Nor did he say what he said because he was an arrogant jerk. He told them the truth because, as verse 8 of Acts 4 says, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was giving Peter the knowledge, the faith, the conviction to say the truth. The Holy Spirit was working in the heart of Peter, giving him the wis­dom to recognize the significance of Son of God.

Jesus himself is quoted in John 14:6, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life. No one can truly know God unless he knows Jesus. You won’t find God through the Muslim relig­ion. You won’t find God through the Buddhist religion. You absolutely will not find the Father unless you look through the Son. That’s just the way it is. It’s futile to look for salvation elsewhere.

Learning From Other Religions?←⤒🔗

But now, you might ask yourselves, is it not possible that there might be something in some of the religions around us that might be worthwhile, something we can learn from? Well, we have to remember that because Jesus is the perfect savior, we have in him all the truth that we need. Because Jesus is the perfect Savior, we can have in him all that we need for a true, complete, suffi­cient faith. Because Jesus is the perfect Savior, we do not need to look to other religions to find out whether they can teach us some aspect of the truth.

This is not to say that we cannot learn anything from people who have a different religion than ours. For instance, a non-Christian driving instructor will be able to teach you how to drive a car. But he will not be able to teach you how to use your driving ability for the glory of God.

A non-Christian biology professor will be able to teach you about how life operates. But he will not be able to teach you about how God is the giver of life.

A non-Christian musician will be able to teach you about how to play a musical instrument. But he will not be able to teach you about how we are called to use our musical gifts for the glory of God.

Of course there will be times in life when we learn something from non ­Christians. But if we want to know God, if we want to know what it means to be saved, and if we want to know what it means to serve our Lord in every area of our lives, then we need to look to Christ, and we need to look to the true religion re­corded for us in the Holy Scriptures.

Subtle Syncretism←⤒🔗

But now, you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t try to mix my be­liefs with the beliefs of other religions. I do not add to my Christianity pagan ideas like reincarnation. Syncretism is not a problem for me.” If you think along these lines, you better be careful, because syncre­tism can sometimes be very subtle. For instance, do you try to mix ma­terialism with your Christianity? Do you try to serve both Jesus and the god of money at the same time? Do you worship Jesus on Sunday and then during the rest of the week try and get as many posses­sions as you possibly can for your own benefit?

Or how about the god of self. One of the religions of the people around us is individualism. Do you try to trust in Jesus and trust in yourself at the same time? Do you rely on your own strength? You can’t serve two gods at once. One will take over. If you try to place your loyalty to some idol alongside your loyalty to Christ, then it doesn’t take much for that idol to take over. We must reject all the false gods, all the idols. We must turn to Jesus Christ alone.

Ask yourself: “Do I look only to Jesus Christ for truth? Do I trust in him alone?” May we recognize that salvation cannot be found in anyone else. Jesus Christ is the only truth.

To proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ will not be easy. Many will say that the truth we proclaim is intolerant. Many will hate us. But we must return hatred with love. We must demonstrate the truth of God’s love in Jesus Christ. And above all, we must obey God rather than man and hold fast to the one true faith.