how do you see other religions?

[anti_nietzsche]

I would like to know how you see and think of other religions. Are they all wrong and bad things for you or is there truth in them?

I see two different points of view:

a) Other religions are from the devil and only serve to distract people from the true God. They mean harm to us and must be challenged and if possible its adherents must be converted to christianity. Loving these people is okay but only to show them Jesus.

b) Other religions are in themselves first and foremost valid searchings of humans for God. They do not have the full revelation of God as that requires Jesus to be made known and believed. But nonetheless they have found some things of God and have been grace by Him with things that we also ought to grope for to understand them. So Zeus, Allah, Krishna, Buddha and all the other gods and religious figures are important for us too insofar as their teachings do not contradict Jesus. At least in their respective times and circumstances they served as placeholders for Jesus in a way similar to the jewish law system.

What kind of view is correct for you? I am a christian UR believer but I have looked for Zeus and found that he is simply "god in another language". He is a spirit of God meant to guide and take care and give joy to people until Jesus came and showed the new divine ways. So in a way it's useless to think of Zeus, his time has gone. But in another way he once stood for God in the minds of people and the stories surrounding him and his family of children are still valuable and great testimonies to the literary skill of the greeks and romans.

[eaglesway]

The teachings of Zeus, Buddha, Allah, Zoroaster, the Bhagavd Gita, Quoran, etc. all run contrary to to the teachings of Jesus, proposing systems of works, or sacrifices to heavenly identities. God is not a five faced author of confusion who proposes various ways to approach Him. He "Is Who He IS"(YHWH) and He has expressed Himself in Jesus the Messiah (Yeshua HaMashiach). More than as an arbitrary identity- Jesus is the expression of the divine nature- the  love, the wisdom and the light of God.

Christian Universalism teaches

1) that God is "gathering all things into one in Christ"(Eph 1).

2)That "Every knee shall bow......and Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father"...... (Phil 2)

3)That "if anyone has not received our gospel it is because the god of this world has blinded their eyes so that they cannot see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"( 2 Cor 4)

Zeus and Allah and Buddah are faces of the "god of this world". So was the face of the version of YHWH that the Pharisees were painting for the Jews in their day. So is the face of some of the "versions" of Jesus being presented today(false prophets and false Christs abound).

God is who He is, and He sent Jesus to express and explain Himself to man. We are illuminated by a personal revelation of Jesus as Messiah, our Savior and Lord, and Savior and Lord to the whole creation.

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

5 For to which of the angels did He ever say,

"You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You"?

And again,

"I will be a Father to Him
And He shall be a Son to Me"?

6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says,

"And let all the angels of God worship Him."

7 And of the angels He says,

"Who makes His angels winds,
And His ministers a flame of fire."

8 But of the Son He says,

"Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.
9
"You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness above Your companions."

10 And,

"You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the works of Your hands;
11
They will perish, but You remain;
And they all will become old like a garment,
12
And like a mantle You will roll them up;
Like a garment they will also be changed.
But You are the same,
And Your years will not come to an end."

13 But to which of the angels has He ever said,

"Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies
A footstool for Your feet"?(Hebrews 1)


Jesus is the Logos. He is the fulness of deity in bodily form.

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. (Col 1:13-23)


The Good News of God's kind intention which He has purposed in Christ is the gospel of our salvation and the salvation of the whole world. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only face given, the only name named among men, the only Lord unto which every knee will bow along the way to the whole creation being set free from futility into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

God loves everyone, and we are to do the same. But we are not to be confused by the teachings of the principalities and powers, the "angels of light" and the religions of this world. We proclaim the revelation of Jesus- Messiah, Savior and Lord, bringing new life to the whole creation.


22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all. 1Cor 15

In due time, the kingdom of God will have gathered all things into it. Jesus will reign as a beneficent Lord in the freedom that 100% pure love provides. All "rule power and authority will be abolished"(1 Cor 15) because when that which is perfect is come, all that is imperfect will be done away.

Unitarain Universalism teaches that all ways lead equally to God, and in my opinion it is not Christian, and promotes a false revelation- altho there are confused believers trapped in it,as with many other false revelations which are designed for just that purpose, to trap people, binding and blinding them from the full revelation of Jesus Christ.

[anti_nietzsche]

Hi eagle,

you're right in all these things. But the question is whether these other religions also had experiences of God in their time, so there'd be something to learn from them. In Judaism, for example, there is a distinction between being a servant or a slave of God, much like we distinguish between servants and sons and daughters. No one would question that the Jews have no understanding of God. So why then would a muslim not also be able to say something about God and know him to some extent. When is christianity the legitimate faith in Jesus, and when is it a mere ideology?  Must we paint all other religions as criminal or can we not simply coexist with them?  Paul also wrote, in God we weave and breathe and have our being, and he said this to unbelievers quoting from Zeus worshipers and philosophers. I don't think a muslim can't say something about God too. Allah is just the name for God in another language and much of muslim thought is very similar to jewish thought. Or take hinduism, it can be very monotheistic too. We are worried about their idols but they don't see them as incarnations of a God and instead as a visual teaching opportunity, much like the statues and crosses and paintings in our churches.

I'm not advociating that all roads lead to Rome. I'm saying that we're all alive and are loved by God and that leaves his marks not just in our faith but in other religions too.

[sheila]

Acts 17;30........

[jugghead]

Acts 17;30........

excellent verse Sheila, says it all

[jabcat]

yep, good answers all.

as for the OP, i really think we've explored other religions enough lately.  i'd like to see us get away from that and get back to the Victorious Gospel, and all that entails.  can we do that?   :thumbsup:   :dsunny:

[WhiteWings]

Option c.

All religions are honest* searchings but the desire to search comes from satan.
*=from the followers. The ones in charge often are only in the game for the money.

[Batty Bible Page]

Option c.

All religions are honest* searchings but the desire to search comes from satan.
*=from the followers. The ones in charge often are only in the game for the money.

I wouldn't say I agree with that observation concerning searching.

Many a Christian, myself included, felt a pull toward something innate, greater than themselves, drawing them to search for the link to satisfy that hunger to connect to what was calling them , me, forth.

Emmanuel told us no one comes to him but that the Father calls them. And we do not enter into God unless through Emmanuel, who was God among us.
That pull toward seeking out God isn't Satanic. Satan is averse to our finding our way home.

I think all religions are an example of people looking for what they know is their innate source for being. We humans are egocentric after all. It is all about us. Always.
We create a god in our image and likeness and then we worship the higher image we imagine for ourselves.

When there is only one God, "hear oh Israel our God, our God , is one....", there can be no religion that worships any thing other than the one.
Remember. God created Lucifer. And Omniscience is not able to be surprised.

Life is a game of seek and find.