Lesson 13 Explore 1: Are All Religions the Same? Do They All Lead to God? | Bible Questions
The Bible’s answer
No, all religions are not the same. The Bible contains many examples of religions that displease God. These fall into two basic categories.
Category 1: Worshipping false gods
The Bible describes the worship of false gods with such terms as “delusion,” “futility,” and “useless.”
(Jeremiah 10.3-5: For the customs of the peoples are a delusion. It is just a tree of the forest that is cut down, Worked by the hands of the craftsman with his tool. They adorn it with silver and gold And fasten it with hammer and nails so that it will not fall over. Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, they cannot speak; They have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good.”)
(Jeremiah 16.19, 20: O Jehovah, my strength and my stronghold, My place to flee in the day of distress, To you the nations will come from the ends of the earth, And they will say: “Our forefathers inherited utter falsehood, Futility and useless things of no benefit.” Can a man make gods for himself When they are not really gods?)
Jehovah God commanded the ancient nation of Israel: “You must not have any other gods besides me.”
(Exodus 20.3: You must not have any other gods besides me.)
(Exodus 20.23: You must not make gods of silver alongside me, and you must not make gods of gold for yourselves.)
(Exodus 23.24: You must not bow down to their gods or be persuaded to serve them, and you must not imitate their practices. Instead, you must demolish them and smash their sacred pillars.)
When the Israelites worshipped other gods, “Jehovah became enraged.”
(Numbers 25.3: So Israel joined in worship of the Baal of Peor, and Jehovah became enraged with Israel.)
(Leviticus 20.2: “You are to say to the Israelites, ‘Any man of Israel and any foreigner who resides in Israel who gives any of his offspring to Molech should be put to death without fail. The people of the land should stone him to death.)
(Judges 2.13, 14: They abandoned Jehovah and served Baal and the Ashtoreth images. At this Jehovah’s anger blazed against Israel, so he handed them over to plunderers who pillaged them. He sold them into the hand of the enemies around them, and they were no longer able to hold their own against their enemies.)
God still has the same attitude toward the worship of such “so-called gods.”
(1 Corinthians 8.5, 6: For even though there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many “gods” and many “lords,” there is actually to us one God, the Father, from whom all things are and we for him; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and we through him.)
(Galatians 4.8: Nevertheless, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those who are not really gods.)
He commands those who want to worship him to stop associating with those who practice false religion, saying: “Get out from among them, and separate yourselves.”
(2 Corinthians 6.14-17: Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? For we are a temple of a living God; just as God said: “I will reside among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “‘Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in.’”)
If all religions are the same and lead people to God, then why would God give such a command?
Category 2: Worshipping the true God in a way he does not approve
At times, the Israelites worshipped God using beliefs and practices borrowed from the worship of false gods, but Jehovah rejected this attempt to mix true religion with false.
(Exodus 32.8: They have quickly deviated from the way I commanded them to go. They have made for themselves a statue of a calf, and they keep bowing down to it and sacrificing to it and saying, ‘This is your God, O Israel, who led you up out of the land of Egypt.’”)
(Deuteronomy 12.2-4: You should completely destroy all the places where the nations you will dispossess have served their gods, whether on the high mountains or on the hills or under any luxuriant tree. You should pull down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, burn their sacred poles in the fire, and cut down the graven images of their gods, obliterating their very names from that place. “You must not worship Jehovah your God in that way.)
Jesus condemned the religious leaders of his day because of the way they worshipped God; they made an outward show of being religious, yet they hypocritically “disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice and mercy and faithfulness.”
(Matthew 23.23: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you give the tenth of the mint and the dill and the cumin, but you have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These things it was necessary to do, yet not to disregard the other things.)
Likewise today, only religion that is based on truth leads people to God. This truth is found in the Bible.
(John 4.24: God is a Spirit, and those worshipping him must worship with spirit and truth.”)
(John 17.17: Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth.)
(2 Timothy 3.16, 17: All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.)
Religions whose teachings conflict with the Bible actually steer people away from God. Many teachings that people think come from the Bible—including the Trinity, the immortal soul, and eternal torment—were borrowed from those who worshipped false gods. Worship that promotes such teachings is “in vain,” or useless, because it replaces God’s requirements with religious traditions.
(Mark 7.7, 8: It is in vain that they keep worshipping me, for they teach commands of men as doctrines.’ You let go of the commandment of God and cling to the tradition of men.”)
God detests religious hypocrisy.
(Titus 1.16: They publicly declare that they know God, but they disown him by their works, because they are detestable and disobedient and not approved for good work of any sort.)
To help people draw closer to God, a religion must affect their everyday lives and not just consist of rituals or formalities. For example, the Bible says: “If any man thinks he is religious but does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he is deceiving his own heart, and his worship is futile. The religion that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.” footnotes)
(James 1.26, 27: If any man thinks he is a worshipper of God but does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he is deceiving his own heart, and his worship is futile. The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.)
[Footnotes] Or “is religious.” Or “does not bridle.” [End of footnotes.]
The King James Version uses the expression “pure religion” for this clean, unhypocritical worship.
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