Why the Sum of All Religions Can't Amount to Knowledge of God

It seems logical to reason that one can achieve spiritual enlightenment through the acceptance and practice of the good aspects of every religion. However, like any other discipline, religion has a foundation of core teachings that determine if one is even permitted to accept instruction from other belief systems.

It's interesting to note that the Protestant Bible actually aligns the building of faith in God to the construction of an invisible, but very real, building into which the believer is to move permanently. Scripture even advises one to sit down and think over such a task before undertaking it, to determine if he really wants to construct a sound structure that must not fail him later. Certainly if one cannot even plan a foundation, he can never hope to lay one. If he cannot lay a foundation, he has nothing on which to raise walls, place a ceiling, and add barriers, making his building a fortress.

Jesus asked, "for which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient (will power/desire) to finish it (KJV, Luke 14.28)?

What would cause the believer not to be able to finish his building in Christ? Obviously, the lack of supplies would stop him. What are his supplies? The teachings of the doctrine of Christ, in Christianity, are his supplies, along with his willingness to follow them. This is only one of literally a vast number of scriptures that should cause a person to realize that the materials used to construct knowledge of the sound doctrine, or building of Christ, cannot be grabbed from any source. If this were not the case, all the builder would have to do when he ran out of supplies is take from another source, in other words, from any other doctrine.

One might suggest that a person then lay his foundation from materials not belonging to the restrictive doctrine of Christ. The logic would be that an inter-faith foundation would be a lot more flexible to accept the good building supplies from many sources (doctrines). However, Christ doesn't allow the taking of his materials to be added to a foundation that he did not supply. This is why he was very descriptive in what kind of content makes up his foundation.

In a nutshell, any foundation that denies and rejects him as the one and only Christ of God is identified in the Bible as being of the spirit of anti-Christ (1 John 2:22-23). Any foundation that denies and rejects his divinity is also identified as being of the spirit of anti-Christ. Where does the Bible say this? The scripture of 1 John 4.1-3 speaks of the significance of Jesus' coming to Earth "in the flesh". "In the flesh" refers directly to divinity--God in the flesh. How can one be sure of this? In the very first verse of the New Testament book of St. John, it's recorded that, "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Later, verse 14 of the same chapter (one), says that, "the Word was made flesh." Having previously called the Word "God", the reader is being plainly told that God came "in the flesh".

People continue to mix and mingle the beliefs, teachings, and doctrines of various religions. However, when they attempt to include bits and pieces from the doctrine of Christ which will not be broken into pieces, they end up with neither a foundation, nor a building that is acceptable to Christ.

Jesus spoke plainly and authoritatively when he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (St. John 14:6).

Christ is the foundation for every believer in his word. These various believers cooperate with him in the building on to that foundation. However, the foundation, completed structure, and adornment that they work with, are all encompassed in the one and same doctrine.

Again, the Bible teaches that, "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11).

The Bible teaches why the sum of all religions can't amount to the knowledge of God.

© 2008 Heavenly Manna and Hannah Henderson