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All religions do not point to God. All religions do not say that all religions are the same. At the heart of every religion is an uncompromising commitment to a particular way of defining who God is or is not and accordingly, of defining life?s purpose.
Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions but also a caricatured view of even the best-known ones. Every religion at its core is exclusive.
But the concept of ?many ways? was absorbed subliminally in one?s life as a youngster. One is conditioned into that way of thinking before he or she had found out its smuggled prejudices. It takes years to find out that the cry for openness is never what it purports to be. What the person means by saying, ? you must be open to everything? is really, ?You must be open to everything that I am open to, and anything that I disagree with, you must disagree with too. ?
Indian culture has that veneer of openness, but it is highly critical of anything that hints at a challenge to it. It is no accident that within that so-called tolerant culture was birthed the caste system. All-inclusive philosophies can only come at the cost of truth. And no religion denies its core beliefs.
Jesus on the other hand:
Historians, poets, philosophers-and a host of others have regarded Him as the centerpiece of history. He himself made a statement that was very dramatic and daring when He said to the apostle Thomas, ? I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me ? (J 14:6). Every word of that statement challenges the fundamental beliefs of the Indian culture, and in reality, actually stands against an entire world today.
Just look at the implicit claims in that statement. First and foremost, He asserted that there is only one way to God. That shocks post-modern moods and mind-sets. Hinduism and Bahaism have long challenged the concept of a single way to God. The Hindu religion
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