So Many Gods?!

I think one thing that can be confusing is the vast number of religions out there. I mean, with so many religions out there--how can there just be ONE way to heaven? A lot of people think that we essentially believe in the same thing, whether we call it God, a higher power, Allah, Jesus, etc. They think it's just semantics and that even though we may take different paths to get there, we are all headed in the same direction.

The truth is that we live in a fallen world. We aren't always dealing with things we can see with our eyes:

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12

Unfortunately, there is an enemy among us, Satan. The devil knows that God created us with a void that we would seek to fill; that void was created to be filled by God. Satan knows that we will seek to fill this void one way or another, so his only hope is to try to get us to fill it with something else other than God (i.e. false gods, romantic earthly relationships, drugs, etc.). Satan knows there is one true God. He knows humans are created with a void only God can truly fill. So his plan is to throw us off track. Jesus calls the devil, "a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). So, hundreds of religions have been created with the help of Satan's lies. He is the master of twisting the truth with a little bit of lies, and ultimately, leading to the destruction of many souls.

The enemy knows our human nature. Since the Garden of Eden he has fed into our sin nature. Even from our early days of childhood we are saying "I do it!!" He used this strategy with the very first humans when telling them about the forbidden fruit: "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:5 Since those first days of creation, humans have had a desire to be their own god.

So where am I going with all of this? Well there is ONE distinct difference between the truth (Christianity) and all other false religions. In every religion (aside from Christianity) people make themselves god in some way. For instance, atheism. Atheists believe there is no god, so their ultimate authority is themself. In other religions it is believed that your good works will get you to heaven. By "doing" good stuff, or praying a certain prayer, or going through the motions of certain rituals and sacraments, then you will end up in heaven. These religions place salvation in the hands of the individual. Christianity is the only religion that places salvation in the hands of God. Regardless of how many good or bad things I do and regardless of how many rituals I perform, with Christianity, my salvation is in the hands of Christ who died once and for all for my sins. There is nothing I can do, no matter how good or bad, that can change my salvation status IF I have made Jesus Lord and Savior of my life. Jesus put it this way:

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." John 10:28

I am so thankful my eternal salvation is in the hands of a sovereign God and not in mine!! It would not take me long to mess it up. And to sum up, Jesus refutes the idea that there are many paths to God and makes the answer very black and white for us:

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" John 14:6