Honest Talk: Do all roads actually lead to Heaven?

“All religions lead to God.” That’s such a dangerous statement as there are stark differences between them. In fact, Christianity is completely different than all other religions, and this is what I’m hoping to show you here.

It's a very serious question with big consequences

No, I’m not trying to run other people down who practice these faiths. I just want you to know where the differences are in theologies and let you make the decision. But why do we have to know this?

Let me offer up Pope Francis as an example. There’s a dangerous theology making its way through Churches across the world. In a Breitbart article you can read here, the Pope said in October of last year that the world’s assorted religions are all “different ways of coming to God, representing a richness deserving of respect.”

I want you to judge for yourself. The other major religions in the world all require “works,” or the things you do as a way to save yourself and get to Heaven. Not so with Christianity.

Islam:

Salvation in Islam is based upon a person’s deeds (works). People are saved by the will of Allah through obedience to his law. “Those whose balances shall be heavy, shall be blest. But they whose balances shall be light, they shall lose their soul, abiding in hell forever (Surah 23:102-104). There is no sin as Islam doesn’t believe humans committed original sin.

There is no assurance of salvation in this life. Islam cannot offer it. It’s only at Judgement Day when people will discover whether they’ve been accepted by Allah. This means there is no security in this life regarding where they will be in the next. “As for those who disbelieve, they shall have a severe punishment, and as for those who believe and do good, they shall have forgiveness and a great reward (Surah 35:7).

Biblical response: “All of us have become like one unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags: we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sin sweeps us away. (Isaiah 64:6).

In this life, you can know you have eternal life. “So, whoever has God’s Son has life: whoever does not have His Son does not have life. I write this to you who believe in the Son of God so that you may know you have eternal life (1 John 5:12)

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Judaism:

When you research what Jews believe about the afterlife, it can get a little confusing. Got Questions Dot Org breaks it down this way: Traditional Judaism teaches that after death, our bodies go to the grave, but our souls go before God to be judged. God is the one who knows our motives as well as our works.

Facing the only true judge, Jews are assigned a place in heaven according to a merit system based on God’s accounting of all our actions and motives. Traditional Jewish thought is that only the very righteous go to Heaven.

All others must be “cleansed” of their residual sin after death in a place called Sheol or Gehinnom. Some Jews view Gehinnom as a place of torture and punishment, fire and brimstone. Others look at it less harshly, as a place where one reviews the actions of his or her life and repents for past misdeeds. Hell is Judaism is a place where the soul is cleansed or refined.

Biblical response: What the Bible clearly teaches is that sin demands a price get paid by someone. The Bible says, “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.” God, because of his holiness, has to punish sin. He can’t tolerate it. But Jesus paid that debt for us to make a way into Heaven. In Christ, both Jew and Gentile (non-Jewish people) are able to have a place in Heaven through faith in Him. Those who don’t have Jesus as their Savior and reject His offer are sent to a place of eternal torment.

Another good question with enormous consequences

Again, notice the difference? Judaism is based on works with no guarantee of getting to heaven with God. With Jesus as your Savior, eternal life is 100 percent certain.

As an aside, I spent a lot of time ministering on the Christian chat site JesusCares.org and chatting with a Jewish woman who’d recently received Jesus and His salvation. She said something that’s stuck with me: “Christianity is so comforting. There is no guarantee of getting to Heaven through Judaism.”

Hinduism:

A very complicated theology in that they recognize millions of Gods. In fact, that number approaches 330 million gods. It does have one supreme God named Brahma, an entity believed to inhabit every portion of reality and existence throughout the entire universe. He is impersonal and unknowable and often believed to exist in three forms: Brahma – Creator; Vishnu – Preserver; and Shiva – Destroyer.

Summarizing Hinduism is a difficult job because the various Hindu schools contain elements of almost every theological system.

Hinduism views mankind as divine. Because Brahma is everything, Hinduism asserts that everyone is divine. The Atman, or self, is one with Brahman. The spiritual goal of a Hindu is to become one with Brahma, thus ceasing to exist as your individual self. This freedom is called “moksha,” and until it’s achieved, a Hindu believes they will be continually reincarnated until they reach self-realization of the truth. How a person is reincarnated is determined by karma, which is a principle of cause and effect governed by nature’s balance.

Again, it boils down to works. What someone did in the past affects and corresponds with what happens in the future, past and future lives included.

Biblical response: Hinduism and Christianity are in opposition on almost every count of their belief systems. Christianity has one God who’s personal and knowable (1 Corinthians 8:6), has one set of Scriptures, teaches that God created the Earth and everyone living on it, and believes that man was created in God’s image and lives only once. Of course, the most important difference is that salvation is available in Jesus Christ alone.