What About Sikhism, and Other Universal Religions?

I’ve met many people who view God as being like the peak of a mountain with many paths leading up to it. Is Christianity just one of those many paths? Oprah Winfrey thought so, when she famously said “Well, I am a Christian who believes that there are certainly many more paths to God other than Christianity.”

This creates a problem, however, when we read what Jesus had to say about it: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Hmmm. Should we listen to Oprah, or Jesus?

Actually, Oprah was by no means the first to embrace universalism. Many “new age” religions have rejected the exclusive claims of Christ and other religions in favor of the belief that all religions are valid and lead toward some sort of heavenly reward in the end. One of the oldest of these “new” religions is Sihkism, which developed in India not much more than three hundred years ago. It was an attractive alternative to the exclusive claims of Hinduism and Islam, which were in conflict with each other at the time.

There are about 6 million Sikhs in the world, and Sonny, a man I spoke with at the park, is one of them. Sonny grew up in a Buddhist household in Burma, before converting to Sikhism and moving to the United States. He says that the beliefs of Sikhism are flexible enough to accommodate his strong belief in science and that he still holds to a scientific worldview, while believing in a universal God and the validity of all religions.

I talked with him about how Christianity is both exclusive and universal. It is exclusive in that Jesus claims to be the only way to a right relationship with God, but it is universal in that this right relationship with God is available to all who put their trust in him.

But there is another way that Christianity is universal. It is universal in that we are all descendants of Adam who have all inherited the same God-given moral conscience, and we have all rebelled against it, doing what we know we shouldn’t, and failing to do what we know we should. All the major religions recognize this, and offer many paths with the goal of resolving this universal problem.

Some offer an exclusive way to God through religious ritual . Others offer an enlightened leader who will teach us the truth. Still others teach us to live a moral life through various lifestyles and work toward meaningful causes. But the universalism of the new religions is to offer all three – an exclusive way, an enlightened truth, and a meaningful life by embracing all religions at once.

Not so with Jesus. Instead of a way, a truth, or a life to bring us to the top of the spiritual mountain - or even all three – Jesus IS the way, the truth, and the life. And instead of requiring us to somehow find our path up that mountain, He comes down to join us, right where we are, and loves us, just as we are.

It’s only human that we should think we somehow need to discover the right path to God. Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, told him ““Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus’ response was his well-known declaration: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Notice that Jesus didn’t say “I will teach you the way, or teach you the truth or how you are to live life” – He said I AM the way. In the same way God identified Himself to Moses hundreds of years earlier by saying “I AM”, Jesus declared himself to be the great “I AM”. He followed his statement to Thomas by saying “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Oprah, Sonny, and all those who believe in universal religion - Jesus is not just another path up the mountain of God. He is God, and in Him the “mountain” has come to us.