All Roads…

Posted by Christian St John in Faithblogs | 3 comments

[audio:AllRoads.mp3|titles=All Roads...|artists=Christian St John]
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There’s a lot of talk these days regarding God and truth. And it seems that there are as many variations of God and truth as there are people. When it comes to God and truth we just can’t agree can we? Well sure, some of us might agree on some of the more fundamental things, but there’s still room for our own ideas and interpretations on just who God and what truth is.

It’s like a piece it together “God/truth smorgasbord” out there. Some people believe in many gods and have a god for every day or situation or problem that may arise in life. Others believe in no god at all and believe that this life is all we have, while others say they’re not sure – they think there’s something out there but they’re not sure what. Some believe in a singular god but can’t agree on the details, while others believe that we are indeed god.

Some say that all roads lead to God, that all truth is relevant to the person who holds that truth dear, but my question is can they all be right? If there is indeed truth out there are we speaking one truth or many? And if there are as many truths as there are people whose truth is right, if indeed there is one truth?

No wonder the majority of people out there are confused and give up or refuse to dwell on such things.
But for the purpose of this Faithblog, and if you can bear with me a little while longer, let’s examine this further. If one person says that the truth is that there is no God and another person’s truth is that there is a God, who’s right? If one person says that their truth is that they believe killing people will cleanse their soul and yet someone takes a stance of passivism because they believe it is God’s will, who’s right? If someone’s truth is that there is one God and another says there are many gods and yet another says that God is us, again who’s right?

Aldolph Hitler believed that if he wiped from the face of the planet all Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, blacks, and anyone else who didn’t fit his idea of what a perfect human race should look like, then this world would be a better place. This was his truth. Don’t believe me. Then read on.

Adolph Hitler believed in a divinely active deity, which he frequently referred to as “Creator” or “Providence”. In Hitler’s belief God created a world in which different races fought each other for survival as depicted by Arthur de Gobineau a French aristocrat, novelist, and infamous father of the modern racialist movements, who became famous for developing the racialist theory of the Aryan master race in his book An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races.

Influenced by the writings and letters of Gobineau Adolph Hitler believed that the the “Aryan race,” supposedly the bearer of civilization, is allocated a special place. To justify his “truth” he wrot in his notorious book Mein Kampf: “What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and the reproduction of our race … so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe. … Peoples that bastardize themselves, or let themselves be bastardized, sin against the will of eternal Providence.”

The Jews he viewed as enemies of all civilization and as materialistic, unspiritual beings, again writing in Mein Kampf: “His life is only of this world, and his spirit is inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine.” Hitler described his supposedly divine mandate for his anti-Semitism: “Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” (1)

This was Adolph Hitler’s truth. Now you might find that you don’t agree with his truth (and I pray that you don’t). But the fact remains that there are those out there who would say that his truth is no less valid than someone who believes in loving everyone of every race and color.

I think some important questions to ask in regards to this: Can both love and hate lead to the same truth? Can lies and deception be of equal value as honesty? Can the murder of over 11 million men, women, children, and babies, be considered as a path to God?

The “all roads lead to God” argument begins to fall apart when we start to place value not only on truth but on human life, as I think that the “all roads” idea doesn’t value life at all. Because if “all roads” do in fact lead to God what do we do with serial rapists and killers, evil dictators who are hell-bent on the genocide of certain people groups, those who would use people and God for their own greedy gain, and anyone else who is living an ungodly self-seeking life?

Personally I believe that there is one truth, call it an inconvenient truth if you will. Why? Because the truth I’m referring to is uncompromising and doesn’t bend to fit into the lifestyle we choose for ourselves. The truth I believe in is set in stone, cannot be altered, and is the truth whether we believe in Him or not. The truth I refer to is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah and Savior of this world.

There are supposedly many truths in our world but I find the whole “all roads lead to God” idea as ridiculous as saying all the physical roads here on earth lead to San Francisco. From my experience, there is truth and it’s the only truth that sets a person free. Jesus told us that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that he is the only way to God (John 14:6). He also told us, “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”” John 8:31-32

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
August, 2009

1) All quotes from Mein Kampf taken from The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945, Richard Steigmann-Gall, (2003), Cambridge University Press