The Christian Gospel and World Religions

Modern Christians live in a religiously pluralistic world.  The modern establishment of legal freedom of religion has allowed non-Christian religions to grow and thrive in Western societies.  Furthermore, globalism has made our world more interconnected than ever, such that interactions between our society and societies dominated by non-Christian religions are unavoidable.  In a way that most medieval Christians did not have to, modern Christians simply cannot avoid the question of the relationship between Christian faith and the various religions of the world.  

Unfortunately, Scripture does not directly tell us what attitude Christians should have toward, for example, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.  This is because Islam did not exist when Scripture was written, and none of the biblical writers were near areas where Hinduism or Buddhism existed.  If we want to know what attitude Christians should have toward these religions, we must first  examine what the biblical authors have to say about the other religions they did encounter, and then draw implications from this for how we should relate to various world religions today.  

Polytheism in the Bible

The Bible has quite a lot to say about polytheistic religions.  The Old Testament often speaks of Ancient Near Eastern polytheism, while the New Testament often speaks of ancient Roman polytheism.  

In the Old Testament, God repeatedly and sternly forbids His people from worshiping the gods and idols of surrounding nations.  Instead, they are to serve and worship Him alone.  Much of the Old Testament seems unconcerned with affirming metaphysical monotheism per se; instead, its focus is on getting Israel to be solely devoted to YHWH at the practical level.  However, some Old Testament passages make a strong affirmation that YHWH alone is the one true God (Isa 45: 18-22).  If these other “gods” exist, then they are nothing compared to Him, since He is the Creator and Ruler of all that exists.  The Old Testament prophets and psalmists mock the idols of other nations as worthless and ineffectual.  Clearly, the Old Testament presents a consistently negative view of Ancient Near Eastern polytheism.

We see a similarly negative view of ancient Roman polytheism in the New Testament.  For example, the apostle Paul writes, “We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist” (I Cor 8: 4-6).  This may sound as if Paul is saying that the Roman gods are completely imaginary.  However, interestingly, Paul goes on to say that “the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God” (I Cor 10:20).  Here, Paul suggests that, rather than polytheism and idolatry being merely empty and worthless, they are actually ways of communing with evil spiritual powers of darkness.  

Scripture thus repeatedly makes it quite clear that polytheism and idol worship are absolutely forbidden for God’s covenant people.  They are perverse manifestations of human religiosity that are, at best, worthless and empty, and, at worst, positively demonic.  The Christian attitude towards them must be one of complete rejection, without compromise.

Judaism in the Bible

The only other case in which Scripture makes comments about another religion is when the New Testament speaks about Judaism.  The early Christian movement was, at first, actually a form of Judaism, one among the many “Judaisms” that existed in the first century.  So, it may be somewhat anachronistic to speak of the relationship between “Christianity” and “Judaism” in the New Testament.  However, the New Testament does clearly make some claims regarding the relationship between the “Jesus is the Messiah” movement and other forms of Judaism, which, by extension, can inform our understanding of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism today.  .

The “good news” of the Christian Gospel is that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, and that in Him all of God’s covenant promises to Israel are at last fulfilled.  In Jesus, the presence of God has returned to His people.  Jesus replaces the temple as the place where heaven and earth meet, where God’s people have access to His presence.  Jesus supersedes Moses (Heb 3:1-6) and the Torah (Gal 2:15-16) as the ultimate Teacher of God’s will.  Now that Jesus the Messiah, who is YHWH in the flesh, has come, the only way for God’s people to be in right relationship with Him is to believe in Jesus.  The apostle Peter tells the leaders of the Jewish people that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  

It is clear, then, that the New Testament teaches that the “Jesus is the Messiah” movement is the only true, legitimate form of Judaism, and that the adherents of all other “Judaisms”–the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, the Zealots–lack a proper understanding of how to rightly relate to God.  Jews who reject Jesus “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom 10:2).  As long as they reject Jesus, they are cut off from the benefits of a covenant relationship with God (Rom 11:11-22).  

This is what the New Testament has to say about first century Judaism.  Now, there have been many changes in Judaism since that time.  Most significantly, following the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD, the Torah replaced the temple as the center of Jewish religion.  However, as noted, the New Testament is clear that Jesus has superseded the Torah just as much as He has superseded the temple.  None of the changes in Judaism since the first century provide a reason to shift away from the New Testament attitude towards non-Christian Judaism: it lacks a proper understanding of how to rightly relate to God, and does not bring salvation.

Many modern Christians are afraid to make this claim, for fear of sounding antisemitic.  Some modern Christians even go so far as to claim that Jesus is only the Savior for the Gentiles, and that Jews are secure in their covenant relationship with God without believing in Jesus.  

There is, unfortunately, a long history of Christian antisemitism, which Christians should mourn, and which requires that Christians exercise care in how they speak about the Jewish people.  But this should not lead us to deny clear biblical truths and to cease proclaiming the good news of Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles (Rom 1:16).  As Christopher Wright puts it, “Jesus is the savior of the world because he is the Messiah of Israel.  He cannot be one and not the other.  If he is not the Messiah for the Jews, then he cannot be the savior of the Gentiles.  So if evangelism among Jews (in the sense of graciously calling them to see in Jesus the Messiah who fulfills their historic scriptural faith) is disallowed, it cuts the nerve of all other evangelism.  The Gospel has to be Good News to the Jewis if it is to be Good News for anyone else.  And if it is Good News for them, then to fail to share it with them is the worst form of anti-semitism.”^[1]Christopher J.H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014).  

A Biblical View of Other Religions

It is clear from what Scripture has to say about ancient polytheism and Judaism that Christians cannot possibly endorse the idea that other religions are alternative paths to God alongside Christianity.  At worst (polytheism), non-Christian religions are positively demonic.  At best (Judaism), even a religion that is similar to Christianity in many ways, and includes a belief in the same God as the Christian God (the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) fails to provide a legitimate way to be saved and to be reconciled to God.  

Most world religions–Buddhism, Islam, monotheistic Hinduism, etc.–fall between these two extremes.  They may contain some true beliefs.  They may inspire their adherents to live more virtuous lives.  But, in the end, they must be rejected by Christians insofar as they do not line up with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

If we have genuine Christian faith, we cannot regard the Gospel as just one “religion” among others.  Rather, we must believe and proclaim the Gospel as the message that tells us the fundamental truth about the nature of reality: the Creator God is at work in Christ to reconcile all things to Himself, and all people everywhere are invited to participate in this work by putting faith in Christ and becoming part of His body, the Church.  The Gospel is not a “religion” that provides a path to God; it is the good news about God’s path to us.  Our hope should be that all people everywhere will accept this truth and abandon whatever beliefs they have, religious or otherwise, that are not consistent with the Gospel.  

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