THE EMPTY PROMISE OF GODISM

by | Oct 2, 2024 | Articles

Peter Sammons reflects on the Interfaith-Multifaith agenda. Is it of God?

Back in 2009 my book “The Empty Promise of Godism” was published. A link to a free PDF edition can be found at the foot of this article. What has happened since? Where are we today?

Elsewhere in this Edition, see “Is the Pope A Catholic?” Essentially the Church of England today seeks to ‘reunite’ with the Church of Rome in some form of ‘common witness’. Whether this linkage will be merely symbiotic or fully organizational remains ‘up for grabs’. The Catholic Church is reaching out to the broader ‘religions’. Methodists have long identified with syncretism (or as Godists) but refuse officially to use the terminology. A relative of the author (a supposed Methodist) told me years ago, “I am a Christian, and Mohammad is God’s final prophet”!!! Most ‘denominations’ in UK have today succumbed to the broad ‘woke’ and cultural-Marxist agenda, and lost confidence in the Gospel. They are so compromised on ethics that linking up with The Religions, and so denying the Lord Jesus, is merely a reflection of what can only be called apostasy (see linked study at the foot of this article).

MANY PATHS?

What is Godism? It is a philosophy, and an idea that has growing popularity with the ordinary man (and woman) in the street, as well as with some church people, that all religions lead to God and that God is not so much interested in what you believe as the way you lead your life.

Godism is not just Theism by another name, although Godism seems to draw upon, or re-invent, a number of heresies that have been encountered by the church right down the ages. According to the Godist view God has sent many paths to peace with Himself (albeit that some of these incorrectly claim to be unique and sole paths) and we should be glad to splash freely in the comfortable, and vaguely comforting, sea of faiths. An interesting idea, but is this what Almighty God has revealed about Himself?

Why is Godism attractive? At the most basic level it enables Mankind to place everything into our relativist moral framework. There are no absolutes, except perhaps the need to recognize ‘God’ in some way (in contrast to the biblical command to love God with all our heart) and secondly the absolute need to be nice (or compassionate) to all other people.

We are today increasingly aware of other religions – what this author describes as The Religions, in contra-distinction to authentic Christianity. The author considers real Christianity to be no more – and no less – than a living relationship with God through Jesus His Son. A relationship of child to loving Father. Not only is he loving Father, he is also loving Saviour.

In The Empty Promise of Godism the choice for people today is shown to be between Religion or Relationship, and the author urges that people choose Relationship.

ONE HAPPY FAMILY?

Today many church-goers, and indeed many non-Christians, are awkwardly concerned that The Religions (sometimes narrowed down to “the higher religions”) should not be thought of as completely wrong, perhaps just a little bit wrong! Five decades ago the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defined a Pagan religion as a non-Christian one. Today the OED defines Paganism as a belief that does not subscribe to “one of the main religions of the world”.

Institutional Christianity has lost its nerve, in some ways, and fails to defend the New Covenant of grace offered by God to all people. Westerners, in particular, meet and mix with people from The Religions every day, in our decidedly multi-cultural Western world. Can we look them in the eye and say, even gently and compassionately, ‘your religion is ultimately of no help to you in your quest for the Divine’? Is this intolerant? Will it offend? And indeed, is it right? Finally, is this what Jesus is saying to us through the Bible?

SELF REVELATION

If we read the Bible candidly and diligently, it will be found that God has chosen to reveal Himself progressively through the Hebrew people and their history under the Old (Mosaic) Covenant, and then expansively to all humans through Jesus and the New Covenant which extends and fulfils the Old Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31). This leaves a big question-mark over The Religions, and how God views them and their adherents.

This short article does not try to address that silent elephant in the room, which is ‘can those of The Religions be saved in the way that Jesus meant by John 3:16’? This is a subject that is explored exhaustively in The Empty Promise of Godism, but straightway we must observe that there is no explicit answer, because the Bible does not provide one.

ALL RELIGIONS ARE ESSENTIALLY GOOD (?)

What we cannot do, however, is to shrug and say “all religions are equally good. You be saved in your way, whilst I will be saved in mine”. As Christians we cannot say this because it runs counter to virtually everything the Bible says and that Jesus taught.

Sadly many (all too many!) church-attending Christians are virtually illiterate as regards Bible reading and Bible study, and so are ill-prepared to think around the implications of this challenge. The prevalent idea that ‘all nice people from The Religions will be “saved” by Jesus, and will be amazed as they recognize Him and gladly accept His love and mercy’, is just too convenient, too trite and too simplistic a proposition.

Sometimes there can be strength in simplicity, but in the shape of this argument, there is wooly thinking (at best) and intellectual laziness masquerading as tolerance (at worst). We need to engage diligently with God’s Word as we try to understand and explore this issue.

Sadly many church-attenders have a low view of Scripture and are unwilling to submit to its authority. Some say that ‘men have polluted the Bible and therefore it is non-dependable’, to that extent. Others say that the Bible is largely allegory. With such ‘Christians’ it is difficult to engage in any meaningful discussion. If Scripture is considered to be sullied by poor translation and/or meant to be taken as broadly metaphorical and neither definitive nor true, then it is impossible to find common ground.

But these church-attenders, as religious people, inevitably have some serious questions to answer. Just what sort of God do they believe in? Is He incompetent insofar that He cannot achieve a dependable translation of His Scriptures? If all roads lead to God, in the shape of The Religions, then are we to conclude that God is oblivious to the prospect of misunderstanding between the religions, and indifferent to the inevitable conflict of ideas, philosophies and occasionally armies that flows from those differences?

A DEFINITION OF GODISM

So what exactly is a Godist? Godism is too malleable a philosophy to provide any easy or “pat” definition. However in The Empty Promise of Godism we posit a pseudo definition of Godism’s key component parts. It runs like this:

Godism = G + R[N] + RI + AK – TS.

And this we compare to an alternative pseudo formula to define Christianity, which is simply

Christianity = KD + M.

You will need to read the book to get clarity on this (especially chapter 8), but we “park” this element of our debate with these thoughts: if God developed many religions via many revelations, knowing all the trouble that this would bring, then can God be defined as Good? Or Holy? Or Righteous? Or Loving? Or even competent?

It is the author’s view that God is revealed consistently through the Old and New Testaments as indeed being good, holy, righteous and loving. But these wonderful attributes simply cannot be squared with a God Who simultaneously reveals Himself in many diametrically opposed ways. It is simply inadequate to say that God might be sought in the “good” elements of all religions, for who can determine what is good?

Westerners talk about a God of Love and project this idea onto the other types of “god” of “gods” revealed in The Religions. Yet The Religions themselves do not allow such concessions. It is surely both ironic and cavalier to tell those of The Religions, and indeed Christians, that their basic understanding of their faith systems are wrong, and that “truth” is to be found in some new synthesis of religions.

A GODIST KING FOR BRITAIN?

Prince Charles (now King Charles) made it clear that he wished to end more than 1,500 years of British Christian history by becoming a King who would defend not ‘The Faith’, but the much vaguer idea of defending ‘faith’. What actually transpired at his Coronation in 2023 is not precisely known. Whilst the 2023 ceremony was broadly ‘Christian’ in ethos, it remains unclear what precise prayers were offered by the multifaith leaders attending, and to what extent Charles acceded to, or acquiesced in, such prayers.

MAN-IN-THE-STREET RELIGION

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that those who avow Godism ultimately have a low and dismissive view of God, no matter what they may say to the contrary. If God has truly revealed Himself in umpteen mutually exclusive ways, then He is culpable. Perhaps that is the key point: people want a culpable God for a culpable God cannot judge. Indeed some will quip “judge not, that ye be not judged” – at God Himself!

The Godist “god” is a convenient “god” – indeed we might almost say, a convenience “god”. He is not too demanding and we can always answer Him back: “I’m sorry, God, but you failed to make yourself clear in all those religions. How was I to know the difference between right and wrong?”

Those who fly the flag of Godism are usually pretty ignorant of true Christianity. Indeed Godism is very much a man-in-the-street philosophy. Ignorant of Christianity, it is then unsurprising that they are equally ignorant of The Religions through which they claim to recognize the compassionate face of ‘God’.

HARD QUESTIONS FOR GODISTS

If people persist in this view that all religions lead to God, they will ultimately have to provide compelling answers to at least the following, although it must be said there are vastly more specific questions that could be posed:

  • Is your ‘god’ good?
  • Why did Jesus say that no one would go to the Father except through Him? (And in advance we can riposte that it is inadequate to say, simply, that Jesus will “save” everyone who is compassionate, no matter what their religious allegiance. That may be an answer of sorts, but it does not match anything that the Bible says). Was Jesus lying? Was He incompetent? Is He misquoted?
  • Why has God revealed Himself as Prince of Peace to Christians and the god of Jihad to Muslims?
  • How does Scripture support the idea of Godism?
  • Just how has God revealed Himself to this world? As a Holy God of Righteousness, and as the self-giving Saviour, or as a sort of “chief executive officer” of some religious conglomerate?
  • Do the “great religions” have the same concept of compassion? (Taking a few de-contextualised quotes from the writings of The Religions proves nothing!)
  • Are the so-called “extreme” beliefs of The Religions actually mainsteam beliefs? (Think ‘jihad’).
  • Is Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13: 8). Is the cross definitive? How many more ‘prophets’ can we expect God to send?
  • Since the Old and New Testaments warn against idols, has God forgotten His opposition to them?
  • Precisely what is deficient in the Cross at Golgotha, that God should need to supplement it?

There are many, many more questions that the determined Godist will need to answer. We are only scratching the surface in this article.

© P A Sammons, 2024

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We are heading towards a one-world religion:

https://christiancomment.org/2023/05/22/coming-world-religion/

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The roads to apostasy – a short Bible study: https://christian-publications-int.com/images/PDF/BibleStudent/29%2020110419%20APOSTASY.pdf

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“The Empty Promise of Godism” can be downloaded here freely as PDF chapters:

https://christian-publications-int.com/default-65.html