During the past year I was enrolled in a Master of Arts program in the Department of Religion at a local university. The department offers areas of study in the five great world religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Studying in that context I came into contact with the popular idea that each religion is as legitimate and true as the next. They are all different roads to the same Divine Mind.

Is this idea true? Are any of these five religions, or any other one for that matter, as valid as the next?

Not too far from where I live there is a huge Hindu Temple. At the end of our block there is a Jewish Synagogue. The community in which I live is not peculiar in this regard. Many of you have temples, mosques, and synagogues in your neighbourhoods as well.

How do we perceive these “other religions”? Have they found their way to God while we, as Christians, have found our way to the same God? Are the five Pillars of Islam the way to God for the Muslim just as Jesus Christ is the way to God for the Christian?

To speak of “other religions” is to refer to two thirds of the world's population. And these other religions are no longer continents away. They are on our doorstep. In the West, Christianity is declining in numbers while the other religions are increasing. Like it or not, the concept of “Christendom” has given way to “the Pluralist Society.” Today in North America there are over 7 million Jews, more than 5 million Muslims, about 1 million Hindus and an estimated half million Buddhists. Especially the number of Muslims is growing. In the past decade they have surged in North America from 2 million to over 5 million.

What are we going to say about these people who live, work, and worship in our towns and cities? Are they saved, or are they not? And what about the two billion people living today throughout the world who have not (yet) heard the gospel? Have they no hope for salvation?

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ has always insisted on the uniqueness of Christ. It has consistently proclaimed that salvation is only through Him. E.g. article 29 of the Belgic Confession affirms that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.

Many people who claim to be Christians say that we must let go of this exclusivistic notion. (By the way, you can make almost any word sound like a dirty word if you add “istic” to it.) They have swallowed the rampant relativism of our 20th century culture which says that all religious beliefs are determined wholly by culture and experience and therefore it is the height of conceit to say that your religion is the only true one.

What are we going to say? Must we continue asserting the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way to God the Father? Yes. We must. Why? Because we Christians, in our brilliance, have figured this out? No. Because we, in the strength of our spiritual conviction, are able to resist contemporary relativism? No. Because the Bible, God's Word, tells us so? Yes.

The Church of Christ continues to look to the revealed Word of God for its answers and does not begin to look at phenomena as they present themselves to it. And the Church discovers in its reading of Scripture that in Isaiah 45:22 God said, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” Pretty clear, right?

In Acts 4:12 Peter says, “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.” Exclusive? Yes. Peter excludes all other saviours or names by which we might be saved.

In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by Me.” How many ways to the Father? One. What is the way? This way is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Paul, in 1 Timothy 2:5, speaks the same language. He says, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” How many possible mediators between God and men? One. Who? Christ Jesus.

Does proclaiming Christ as the only Saviour allow for intolerance against those who subscribe to other religions? Does it allow for the desecration of tombstones in Jewish cemeteries? Absolutely not! It demands a completely different attitude. The uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ calls upon us to point out the only way to God the Father. We are to be witnesses of the only One who came to lay down his life for the ransom of many.

And what are we to say about the billions of people who died without having heard the name of Jesus Christ? Do we fire them all off to hell? No. That's not our job. We do better to speak with the Scriptures on this point where the Lord Jesus says in Luke 12:47 & 48:

And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating. But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.

We do not judge. We continue to repeat faithfully what the Scriptures say about the Lord Jesus being the only Saviour and refer all people to Him.