Why Are There So Many Religions?
Joel Gorveatte · Tidal Church Moncton · May 15, 2022 · I Can't Believe in God Because... series
Joel Gorveatte looks at Romans 1 to explain why people everywhere seek God, and why Jesus is the only way to the Father. He also addresses those who never hear His name, trusting God's justice, kindness and patience.
More from Joel Gorveatte · The I Can't Believe in God Because... series
Transcript
[0:00] I'm just reminded this morning, man. He the worship of God's people your faith helps strengthen my faith when you hear me declaring the praises of God and shouting His name. Hopefully it bolsters and strengthens the weakness in you for faith to rise up. That is why it is so good to worship together in community, both here in the room and wherever you are right now as well, online around the world. We hope that you've been lifting your voice up and you are ready, because we'll see that casino. Eskov. Who's that friend? Here, we, here's the question. Are you ready to study God's Word today?
[0:52] The foundation for our lives. But we're in the series where we're actually trying to take a look at some of the challenges to the Christian faith. And so today we're going to try to answer this question: Why are there so many religions? In the world. And we're also going to, I mentioned this in the chat on YouTube and Facebook, that we're also, so today a little bit later, going to look into the question of what happens to those who never hear the name of Jesus. How could they be saved? And so the reality is there are so many expressions of spirituality in this world, from Baha'is to Buddhists and Christians and Hindus, Jews and Muslims, Rastafarians and Shintoists and even Wiccans. It's like humans have this deep spiritual longing for something supernatural. In fact, one of the things that's really interesting is when you think about these stories where they'll go into these remote jungle villages where they've never had any exposure to the outside world, and yet you will find that even in these isolated civilizations, that even they have developed beliefs about God. It's really amazing when you think about it. You wonder, how does this happen? Why are people like this?
[2:39] And did you know the Bible actually gives an answer to that? Guess what the Bible says. Romans 1 verse 19, and we're going to spend a lot of time today in Romans 1. In fact, we're not going to do the whole thing. But maybe later you could go home and actually read the entirety of Romans 1. Maybe you'll get inspired and read the whole book of Romans, which is an amazing letter in the New Testament. But Romans 1:19 answers that question this way. It says, "They know the truth about God." Why? Because He has made it obvious to them. "For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky.
[3:28] Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." See, I think the Bible is saying three things here. I think first of all, the Bible is pointing to how humans are born with spiritual instincts. All around the world, people are born with this sense that there is more to this world than just what the eye can see. Why are we afraid of the dark? Why are children afraid of boogie monsters and ghosts? Why do we make countless TV shows and movies about the supernatural?
[4:20] The Bible suggests it's because instinctively we know that there is more to this world than just what the eye can see. And so first of all, all throughout human history, we see this internal longing for something supernatural, something spiritual. And secondly, Romans says that the creation leaves us clues about the Creator. Philosophers call this general revelation. It means that everywhere we look in this world, we see evidence of God's design. Why are we drawn to the beauty of a purple and orange sunset?
[5:07] And we just look at it and say, "Wow." I don't know about you, but my dog, when we go for a walk in the evening, seems to have no appreciation for it. My dog does not stop and say, "Wow, human dad, stop. Look at the sunrise, this, look at the sunset. It's so amazing. There must be a God." Why do we stand in awe of a mighty waterfall like Niagara? Why do we pause at the serenity of a rose in full bloom? Again, my dog will stop and smell the roses, but then he pees on them. Really, he has no appreciation.
[5:53] The Bible says, listen, here's the point: those moments in the majesty of nature are actually designed to point us to the majesty of the Creator. You see, there's something about nature and beauty that resonates with the human soul. And it's because it was designed to give us glimpses into the glory of God. But then comes the problem. Still in Romans 1, but if we continue down a few verses to verse 23, it says the problem is, instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols.
[6:44] Now, why do we do that? God gives us all this to worship Him, but instead we start worshiping other things. We worship money or success, sports or sex or pleasure or entertainment, our music, or even many people worship nature itself. Why do we do that? It's because, the Bible says, it's because humans are wired to worship. It's part of our God-given DNA that's designed to point us to God. For some, we worship a sports team. And for Maple Leafs fans, that's harder and harder every day and every year, right?
[7:39] For some it's a career. For some it's a hobby or a relationship. But here's what happens, see. Whenever we don't worship God with our lives, we naturally take that instinct, that drive, that necessity, and we start to take what is deserved by God and give it to other things, or as the Bible says, we worship the creation rather than the Creator. And so, put it all together, and Romans 1 says, number one, that every person is born with an instinct for the supernatural. Number two, that this world is filled with clues that are designed to lead us to God.
[8:26] And number three, that people are wired to worship something greater than themselves. Now, if you take these three truths from Scripture, what would you expect to find when you look at the world, if all of that is true? Wouldn't you expect to find massive, you know, worldwide expressions of spirituality? But if all of that is true, wouldn't you expect to find people gathered together with rules and guidelines on how to tap into the supernatural? You would expect to find that when you discover a remote civilization in a jungle somewhere that they would have developed beliefs about God. Can we stop and just say how amazing it is that what we find in this world is exactly as the Bible describes?
[9:20] Just like Romans 1:19-20 says, this time from the NIV. What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. And so, when you piece all of this together for intelligent, skeptical people, it leaves us with some really common questions that we hear all the time. And these questions make a lot of sense, and I think we need to deal with them today. Number one: Aren't all religions just different paths to the same God? How many of you have heard this question? Maybe you've wrestled with it before. We hear it a lot in our culture today, that all these different religions must be just different paths to the same God.
[10:27] But here's the problem with that idea. When you actually begin to study, when you get into depth and study these religions for themselves, what you find is that they don't all lead to the same conclusions. For example, what happens when you die? What happens when you die? The Bible talks about heaven and hell. Many Eastern religions say, no, you'll be reincarnated. You'll be, after you die, you'll become a baby and be, you know, come back and live another life and then another life and another life. And, you know, somebody here today, maybe you were Hitler and somebody else, maybe you were Mother Teresa, like that. We just recycle life forms.
[11:14] And other religions say, no, no, that once you die, this world is all there is, and that you will cease to exist at all. And so we see the problem that you can't do all three at the same time, right? You can't go to heaven and be reincarnated and cease to exist all at the same time. Those are in contradiction with one another. It either has to be one or the other. If one is right, the others have to be wrong. And probably the biggest dividing line, the thing that makes Christianity unique and different from all other approaches to God, is this: every other religion is about man striving to earn our way up to God, man reaching up to God.
[12:11] But the Bible says the exact opposite, that God loves us so much that He reaches down to us, and that He Himself is the one who provides the way for our salvation. Instead of us reaching up to God, Jesus is about God reaching down to us. Josh McDowell says, Christianity and Islam cannot both be true at the same time. Neither can Mormonism and Buddhism both be correct simultaneously, nor can Scientology, you know, the Tom Cruise religion, and Hinduism. All religions cannot be true at the same time, because they teach many things completely opposite from one another.
[13:08] They all may be wrong, but certainly they all cannot be right. For the claims of one will exclude the other. The second question people ask is, well, isn't tolerance more important than truth? You know, as long as we're just kind to one another, won't it all just work out in the end? And the third question that people ask is, isn't it arrogant of Jesus to claim to be the only way? And we won't go into depth on that one, because two weeks ago on May 1st, we looked at that in detail. If you want to check out that message from two Sundays ago, on May 1st, it's called the Claims of Jesus Seem Crazy.
[13:56] And on that Sunday two weeks ago, we looked at the claims of Jesus in John 14 verse 6, where He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." And that's Acts 4:12: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." And Galatians 1:8, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned." And John 8:24, Jesus said, "If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." Can we just be honest for a minute?
[14:46] This is a hard teaching. In John 6:60, "On hearing it, many of His disciples said, 'This Jesus is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?'" But as Adrian Rogers says, it is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It's better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals than falsehood that comforts and then kills. It's better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie.
[15:35] It's better to stand alone with the truth than to be wrong with the multitude. And so this becomes the dividing line, because if Jesus really is the only way to the Father, if Jesus is right and other faiths are wrong, then that leads to some really uncomfortable questions that we have to address. For example, number one, if Jesus is the only way, what about those who don't believe? And this is a really important question that smart people want to have addressed and and many Christians kind of wrestle with this. They're like, we're not sure exactly what to say because you're... what about that person who is born in the jungle? Like we talked about, who never heard the name of Jesus. Maybe we were asked, what about the person who grows up in some part of the world or with some religion where they never hear the name of Jesus? What about a baby? What about a young child who dies before they ever have an opportunity to understand their need for a Savior in the name of Jesus? Does the Bible say that they are condemned to hell?
[16:57] Just to affirm again before I answer the question, I just want to remind you of John 3:36. Jesus is whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. So there is no forgiveness and salvation apart from the cross of Jesus Christ. But some Christians have not thought about it beyond that point. What about the person who's never heard the name of Jesus? Well, check out this interesting verse. This interesting verse in Genesis 15:6. It says Abram, who we talked about a couple of weeks ago, believed the Lord, and He credited to him as righteousness.
[17:51] And in John 8:56, Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day. He saw it and was glad." Now think about this. We learned a few weeks ago that Abraham lived 2,000 years before Jesus was born, and so how could he be saved by faith in Jesus, as Jesus Himself said, if he never actually heard the name of Jesus? Remember, let's put this together. Remember what Romans 1 19 and 20 said: "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."
[18:48] And so what does that seem to be saying? That if God reveals Himself to every person through nature and through the Holy Spirit, then even if somebody lives in a jungle somewhere and never hears the name of Jesus, God Himself reveals our sinfulness and our need for a Savior enough that all of us can be held accountable for our choice to accept or reject Him based on the level of revelation that God Himself has given us. The same is true for a child who dies, who never has the opportunity to understand. In other words, here's the point.
[19:38] Here's where I rest assured in the justice of God, and it's this: No one ever goes to hell by accident. Yet we struggle with this question of fairness from our perspective. And we ask, number two, is this really fair of God? I mean, how can it be that so many people die in their sins and are separated from God for eternity? How can it be that I am saved by grace, but seemingly good people out there go to hell simply because they never surrendered to God?
[20:28] Because I'm no better than those people, and that doesn't seem fair. And if God is not fair, can we just be brutally honest in a way that almost is going to seem like blasphemy for just a minute? Who would want to follow a god like that anyway? We think, if bull who are trying to be good and sends them to hell, that does not sound like a fair and loving thing to do. But maybe, maybe, just maybe, there are some things that we are missing. And maybe we are not such good judges of what actually is fair.
[21:22] Maybe there are some things about the big picture that we do not see. Maybe there are some things about sin and judgment and eternity that we fail to understand on this side of eternity from our limited perspective here in this world, just as you, as a parent, have to say to your five-year-old child, "Trust me. There are things that you do not yet understand." Because the fact is, listen, many people who do hear the name of Jesus reject Him anyway. Romans 1:21-24 says, "They knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks.
[22:09] And they began to think of foolish ideas of what God was like, and as a result their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols." And see if there's anything that we're missing. I wonder if it's this. I wonder if what we're missing is that we don't recognize how appalling our sin really is to God. We are so used to living in this world with pride and selfishness. We live in and around sin in this world every single day. And so we don't see how utterly appalling it is to a holy and perfect God. In Isaiah 59:2 it says, "But the problem is that your sins have cut you off from God.
[23:09] Because of sin He has turned His face away and will not listen anymore." See, in the spiritual realm all of this is a much bigger deal than we realize. And notice that it is not God who cuts people off. It's our sin. And I wonder what it will be like when we get to the other side of eternity. I wonder when we finally get to the other side and we finally see Jesus face to face, and we begin to look back at this world and see things from God's perspective in a way that we didn't understand when we were living in this world. I wonder if we will begin to understand the devastating grossness of our sin.
[24:05] I wonder if we'll be able to look back when we get to the other side and begin to understand things that we did not understand while we were alive in this world. I wonder if we will finally realize why say, "Depart from Me," to those who die in their sin, and I wonder if we get to the other side, we will finally see how truly gracious and merciful God has been. because on this side we wonder why God doesn't just let everybody into heaven, but I think on the other side we'll wonder why God allows anyone into heaven at all.
[25:00] On this side, we wonder how narrowed would provide only one way. But on the other side, maybe we'll be amazed when we recognize how gracious it is that God would provide any way at all. And how gracious God is that He would have given us not just one chance, not just a second chance or a third chance, but literally that He gave us a hundredth chance and a thousandth chance, how God continued to pursue us throughout our lifetime, how He again and again called out to us and sought after us and tried to call us unto Himself.
[25:47] As Isaiah 59, or I'm sorry, Romans 2:4 says, "Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" God, in His kindness, gives us every possible opportunity to repent and ask for forgiveness. You see, it is His kindness that actually leads us to repentance. And here's why. 1 Timothy 2: 4-6 says, "Because God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus, Himself on the cross, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people."
[26:54] Can you imagine a God that would love us that much? That He would send His very own Son into this world for the sake of people who have rejected Him and turned their backs against Him. And yet He came and lived the perfect life that we could never live, and He died on the cross to take the punishment for sins that we deserve, so that we can be forgiven and have a way to the Father. And when you begin to see the beauty of it all, you realize what an incredibly generous and loving thing it is for a perfect and holy God to do. Amen.
[27:40] Let's stand together and give glory. Lord, You deserve all the glory and all the praise, because You alone are the One who is worthy. We, and our pride and our human, our humanity, our arrogance, our shortsightedness, we think we have all the answers. And yet You have been gracious. And it is Your kindness that leads us to repentance, and we thank You that You have provided a way because of Your love for us, we, Your creation.
[28:36] You literally made us because You wanted to have a relationship with us. You care for us. And Lord, today as You reveal to us in our hearts our need for You, that there is no other way apart from You. Lord, I pray first of all for Christians as we struggle to understand the theology of it all. Lord, maybe there are some today that the call to action that You're putting on our hearts is that we need to become more diligent in the study of Your Word, as Peter says, that we always need, 1 Peter 3, that we always need to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask us the reason for the hope that we have.
[29:32] And that maybe we need to be more diligent and make the commitment today to be more diligent in studying Your Word so that we can rightly handle it and be ready to give an answer to those who ask us. Peter says that when we answer, we need to do it with gentleness and respect, with gentleness and respect, so that they'll see the goodness of God in our lives, the reason for the hope that we have. And that in our gentleness and respect for them, they'll even be ashamed, Peter says, of their slander when they speak against us, that we in humility would respond with gentleness and respect, simply presenting the good news of Jesus.
[30:23] Lord, help us, as You have called us to be Your ambassadors in this world, to carry light into the darkness. Lord, we also pray today for those who may have never crossed that line of faith, maybe have never yet surrendered to Jesus, or maybe some people who, maybe years ago, they walked closely in fellowship with You, but they have wandered off like the prodigal son and they've been far from You, and today they hear You calling out their name. Today You're showing them, even right now, a picture, a glimpse into how You have been pursuing them throughout the years. How You've given them not just one or two or three or even a hundred but thousands of chances, how You have continued to call out to them and bring them to this moment of surrender, this moment of transformation that You have prepared for us.
[31:25] And so if there's anybody here today who needs to surrender to this truth and receive the grace of Jesus, right now in your heart just say, "I confess, I confess my sin, my pride, my selfishness, how I've tried to do it on my own, how I've made myself God. I've put myself on the throne of my life, in the place that You deserve." God, right now, confess to Him and believe that Jesus died on the cross so that you can be forgiven for your sin. Believe and receive His gift of grace. Invite Him to come in and transform you now. Lord, come in and take control of our lives. Have Your way. We are Your servants.
[32:18] You are our Master. We follow You wherever You lead. We order our steps according to Your Word. We live our lives for Your glory. And it is in the name of Jesus we pray. As we stand on the solid foundation of Christ alone, in Jesus' name.