Do all religions worship the same God?

Interfaith

Written by Brian Edgar, Director of Public Theology, Australian Evangelical Alliance, Inc Tuesday, 30 November 1999 12:00

Sometimes people try to bring to an end any discussion of religious differences with something like, ‘Well, anyway, we all worship the same God.' At a time when many of the world's disputes seem to have a religious dimension such a claim comes across as an argument for tolerance and mutual understanding. It also seems suitable for a pluralist society that is reluctant to make any claim about absolute truth. But the reality of the situation is not easily summed up, not even in the following five statements let alone in a single phrase.

1. Truth can be found everywhere. It is important to recognise that truth can be found in all cultures, traditions and fields of human endeavour, including science, economics and literature, as well as art and religion. As it is often said, all truth is God's truth. This means that we should have an appreciation for all those who speak and live truth wherever they are, and it means humbly recognising that what we know is incomplete and may be less than perfect.

2. Human beings are, by their nature, engaged in a common, universal search for God. There is a universal desire to find ‘God' (or ‘meaning', ‘significance', etc) which may be expressed in ‘religious' or ‘secular' ways (searching for meaning in sport, sex, spending or social standing). This inner desire exists because all people are made ‘in the image of God' (Genesis 1:26) and is seen in the worship of ‘the unknown God' of the Athenians (Acts 17: 16-34). The best known expression of this desire is found in Augustine's comment, ‘You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you'.

3. A general understanding of God is possible through reflection on the world which God made. Christians believe that it is possible for all people to gain genuine knowledge about God by understanding something of the nature of the world and its people. The apostle Paul spoke of a general knowledge of God's ‘eternal power and divine nature' (Romans 1:20). Knowledge gained by what is often called ‘general revelation' is available to all because God's fingerprints are left on the natural world and its people. This knowledge may relate to what other religions such as Judaism and Islam claim to know about God, but is not necessarily the same and may actually conflict with the conclusions of these or other world-views and religions. When people say ‘we all worship the same God' they are ignoring the fact that some religions simply do not believe there is ‘a God' in anything like the sense in which Christians believe there is. Nonetheless, at other times we must recognise certain similarities.

4. The Christian understanding of God is Trinitarian and therefore unique. Despite any similarities Christianity has a unique understanding of God, and the differences can be summed up in the doctrine of the Trinity - the understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Using the same term does not justify assuming that all references to ‘God' are to the same person. God understood as Father, Son and Spirit has an essential nature and relationships that are different to any other conception of God. This must be held to very firmly as it is the distinctive Christian belief.

5. Definitive truth about God is only found in and through Jesus Christ. The difference between Christianity and all other beliefs is Jesus. Others may have sound morals, a profound understanding of spirituality or an awareness of God as the creator of the universe, but one is not a Christian until one worships Jesus.

The person of Jesus sometimes appears in other ‘religions' (the secularist ‘good teacher'; the anticipated Jewish Messiah; the Islamic prophet of God; the Hindu recognition of Jesus as ‘a god') and there may be elements of truth in the way that some non-Christians appreciate the person of Jesus for neither the sheer attractiveness of Jesus nor the working of the Holy Spirit in the world should be under-estimated. There are many situations where points of contact may be established between Christianity and another religion but what is always essential is for a person's understanding of Jesus to become a certain faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the unique Son of God, the only Saviour of the World.