Human sentiment says, What's the difference with all the world's religions? Don't they all have the same goal of being kind to your fellow man, and improving yourself to be a better person?"
Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? But truly only a moral relativist can embrace that philosophy- because absolute truth ruins that whole idea. For instance, under the all-inclusive position, you rule out the possibility that false religion even exists. But if you acknowledge it does exist, you are also admitting there is a true religion from an absolute standpoint. This leads to the claim of Christianity that says Jesus is the exclusive way to eternal life.
Then how can that be fair? It's fair because God makes it possible for anyone to enter in through Jesus. He also went to the extreme by letting His only Son be tortured & die so you could obtain everlasting life. If anything is unfair, it's that He went through all that trouble and some don't honor it! God is not wanting to exclude anyone. But if you ignore His sacrifice that enables you to get to Him, why should He be accused of being unfair? THE FACT IS: WE DON'T GET TO PICK THE WAY WE CAN REACH GOD. If so, it is a human religion.
Not only does this type of thinking prevail in the world; you can also find it in the church. One Christian allows God to use his life under His Lordship. The other "christian" uses God only to add more to his own life. Will the real Christianity please stand up? Don't sons look & act like their Father? How in the world is it possible for many to claim they are Christians and yet they all have different value systems? The answer is that some are Christians according to the truth while others are "christians" according to their own understanding. I know many of you will ask "How can one possibly know for certain which belief system is the truth"? There are answers to the one who wholeheartedly seeks the truth, but most are not seeking the truth- they are seeking some way to justify what they believe!
The first indicator of sincerity is whether you want the truth to govern you or if you want to pick a belief system that serves your interests. Consider the way of Jesus. It is deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. A religion devoid of the truth does not do that. Here is more to ponder from A.W. Tozer:
Holiness before Happiness
A selfish desire for happiness is as sinful as any other selfish desire. Its root is in the flesh which can never have any standing before God. "The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so" (Romans 8:7).
People are coming more and more to excuse every sort of wrongdoing on the grounds that they are "just trying to secure a little happiness." Before she will give her consent to marriage the modern young lady may ask outright whether or not the man "can make me happy" instead of wondering selflessly whether she can bring happiness to her life partner. The lovelorn columns of the newspapers are wet with the self-pitying tears of persons who write to inquire how they can "preserve their happiness." The psychiatrists of the land are getting fat off the increasing numbers who seek professional aid in their all-absorbing search for happiness. It is not uncommon for crimes to be committed against persons who do nothing worse than "jeopardize" someone's happiness.
That we are born to be happy is scarcely questioned by anyone. No one bothers to prove that fallen men have any moral right to happiness, or that they are in the long run any better off happy. The only question before the house is how to get the most happiness out of life. Almost all popular books and plays assume that personal happiness is the legitimate end of the dramatic human struggle.
Now I submit that the whole hectic scramble after happiness is an evil as certainly as is the scramble after money or fame or success. It springs out of a vast misunderstanding of ourselves and of our true moral state. The doctrine of man's inalienable right to happiness is anti-God and anti-Christ, and its wide acceptance by society tells us a lot about that same society.
The effect of this modern hedonism is felt also among the people of God. The gospel is too often presented as a means toward happiness, to peace of mind or security. There are even those who use the Bible to "relax" them, as if it were a drug.
How far wrong all this is will be discovered easily by the simple act of reading the New Testament through once with meditation. There the emphasis is not upon happiness but upon holiness. God is more concerned with the state of people's hearts than with the state of their feelings. Undoubtedly the will of God brings final happiness to those who obey, but the most important matter is not how happy we are but how holy. The soldier does not seek to be happy in the field; he seeks rather to get the fighting over with, to win the war and get back home to his loved ones. There he may enjoy himself to the full; but while the war is on, his most pressing job is to be a good soldier, to acquit himself like a man, regardless of how he feels.
The childish clamor after happiness can become a real snare. One may easily deceive himself by cultivating a religious joy without a correspondingly righteous life. No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he shall be.
For those who take this whole thing seriously I have a suggestion: Go to God and have an understanding. Tell Him that it is your desire to be holy at any cost, and then ask Him never to give you more happiness than holiness. And ask Him to make you holy whether you are happy or not. Be assured that in the end you will be as happy as you are holy; but for the time being let your whole ambition be to serve God and be Christlike.
