One of the most surprising conversations I’ve ever had was with a professing Christian who believed all religions lead to heaven. I remember it was my freshman year of college and I had travelled back to Thailand to visit my parents. As part of my trip I had to go to the immigration office and that meant waiting in a long line for the paperwork to get processed. While waiting I struck up a conversation with a self-described “seeker” who had traveled from the U.S. to southeast Asia on a religious pilgrimage. We talked for a long time about his travels and life. He told me about his fascination with Hinduism and Bhuddism. I asked him what he thought about Jesus Christ, and this friendly ex-pat told me he was a Christian. I remember being surprised because I had never met anyone who was so confused. He told me a phrase I have unfortunately heard many times since then, “I think all religions lead to God.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to such relativistic thinking, but I knew I had to say something. Looking back I think it would have been helpful to ask him a few diagnostic questions to show him the error of his ways, but instead I said, “Sir, I am a Christian and I know the Bible says there is only one way to heaven and that is through belief in Jesus Christ.” I wanted to press the point home so for the first time in my life I told someone to stop calling themselves a Christian. I said, “Please do us all a favor and stop calling yourself a Christian. You are only going to confuse other people and you are going to hurt the reputation of those who are true believers.”
I thought he would get upset, but he didn’t. Clearly, he had never studied the Bible enough to know you can’t use it to create your own spiritual mash-up of religions. I’m not sure how many other people he had talked to about his views, but I wanted to make sure he didn’t leave our conversation thinking Christianity had room for his philosophy of life.
As I reflect back on that conversation I know the most surprising part was not that he was a professing Christian, it was that I was emboldened enough to tell him he was wrong. I did not consider myself an evangelist or an apologist. I just wanted to make sure he knew he couldn’t get away with such intellectual dishonesty.
I’ve prayed for the man and I have often wondered how God used that conversation in his life. I hope he was surprised enough to go back and study the Bible for himself. I hope he read Jesus’ teaching in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Or he could have read Acts 4:21, “Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
That conversation took place more than twenty years ago. Now, that man’s relativistic attitude has turned mainstream. I have heard dozens of people say they are Christians when the Bible would say they are not. They think they can be a Christian and say “All roads lead to heaven” because no one has shown them the folly of their ways. They need Christians to lovingly tell them about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. You can’t create a piecemeal version of spirituality that adds other religions to the Bible. Other religions can add teaching under their umbrella of philosophy, but Christianity has no umbrella. There is a narrow gate that leads to life, and Jesus urged the crowds listening to him, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14) May we all strive to enter by the narrow gate to heaven which is only through Jesus Christ.
