When All Religions Become One

It's been stated that there are only two religious systems in the world, though there are thousands of religions. The most popular system is that man makes his own way to God and does various works to please Him, to be accepted by Him (or her, or it). The other way, the true way -- that God came from heaven, became man, did the work for mankind that no other man could do, and man needs to accept it and live by it.

All religion's have men pleasing God by [their] own hands, by their deeds. They are trying to reach upward to God; building their stairway to heaven. The difference: Christianity teaches that man is unable to reach God, so God himself reached downward with His own Son from heaven [and] became a man to accomplish the solution to our dilemma, which has always been sin. His offer of the gospel to each one of us is [our opportunity] to make a personal decision to follow Christ, not [to] join a religion or become a member of a church.

There are many in our postmodern culture who claim that the creator God in the various cultures is the same. This is validated because of some similarities of what is said to be good and what is evil. But none match ANY of the qualities, or descriptions, of the God of the Bible! You find immense differences when you [look beneath] the surface-level arguments.

Ecumenism says that since other nations (and religions) do not accept us, we must change and adopt some of their beliefs -- conglomerate, so that we can move toward a peaceful coexistence. This means they want us to surrender our convictions to those who have a different set of beliefs.

The new openness [seen] in church[es] [veils what] are really re-education centers. They call this progress for a new age.

In almost every culture around the world, the religions found [there] usually had a supreme creator God (above other gods) who lived in the heavens. Most were not Monotheistic, but had multiple gods who often were associated with nature (Romans 1 explains this). Many had a supreme being, with other gods under him; some have a goddess. Some claim that God to be the same one in all cultures, but the cultures describe his nature very different [from the God of] the Bible.

All these descriptions of the different religions have irreconcilable differences with God's nature, His principles, and man's relationship to Him. That is because all religions are not the same. There are major contradictions in their fundamental core beliefs.

While there was a common beginning, according to Romans 1, as the civilization... moved further away from the time of Genesis, their knowledge of God [was] already corrupted and became more corrupted until we arrive in history at where we are today.

In Genesis, God ...pronounced His judgment on these gods and man's departure from Him by a flood. After the flood, when God was developing Israel into a theocracy, not one culture around the Mesopotamia area was accepted. First Chronicles 16:26: “For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.”

The Bible says, “God is not a man that he should lie." James writes that there is no variation or shadow of turning in Him. Jesus said, "I am the truth, thy word is truth."

God is not going to tell people...different things on same subject. Truth by its very nature is internally and eternally consistent. If there are various teachings that are contradictory, then they cannot come from the [true] God.

We see the [result] of syncretism, as many take the god[s] of their cultures and religions and presume that their god is the same [as the] God (Yahweh) of the Bible. [Syncretism is the belief that] all the different religions worship the same God [but] [use] different names. Worshiping a different God does not only mean [worshiping] one with a different name; it can also [mean to worship] a different concept of God with the same name. God did not consider these other gods another name for Himself and neither should we.

http://letusreason.org/ecumen20.htm