Truth Unites - If Christianity Is True… Why So Many Religions?

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

Gavin Ortlund explains why religious diversity doesn’t disprove Christianity and how believers can confidently affirm Jesus while engaging others with humility.Truth Unites (https://truthunites.org) exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth.Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites, Visiting Professor of Historical Theology at Phoenix Seminary, and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.SUPPORT:Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunitesFOLLOW:Website: https://truthunites.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truth.unites/X: https://x.com/gavinortlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/

There are thousands of different religions in the world. It's actually hard to say exactly how many. And for many of us who adhere to one particular religion, coming to terms with this can create this dizzying feeling because you're wondering, who am I, to say that all these other alternatives are wrong while I'm right, in my view. Maybe you've had an experience like this.

Often this comes up when you meet an adherent to a different religion that you really like and you think they're so sincere, they're so smart, how do I make sense of this? In this video, I want to encourage those of us who are Christians, both to celebrate the supremacy and uniqueness of Jesus and to be personally humble and curious toward other religious people, because those things are not actually in tension if you understand who Jesus is and what it means to believe in

Jesus. Let's unpack that with five reflections that I hope are honest and sort of pressure-relieving and helpful. The fifth is the most important. Number one, you can believe in one religion, and find elements of truth in others. This is actually a really modest point, but it's helpful to tease this out. C.S. Lewis can help us here. Great chapter in mere Christianity on other religions. I don't think I can say this better than he did. Quote, if you are a Christian, you do not have to believe that all the other religions

are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist, you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all the, these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist, I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most. When I became a Christian, I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean that thinking that where Christianity differs from

other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong, as in arithmetic. There's only one right answer to a sum and all the other answers are wrong, but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others. That arithmetic metaphor is something we might return to here. But let's just start with his comment. I know that was a longer quote, but there's a lot of good stuff in there. Let's start with his comment that even the strangest religions contain some hint of the truth. What I want to try to impress upon our hearts, because I think this is important both for relieving tension and anxiety, but also just for making us kinder, more pleasant and more reasonable people, is that that idea is not compromise.

That's actually good theology to be able to recognize there's elements of truth in other religions. That's actually consistent with what Christian theology teaches, especially two convictions that I want to draw attention to. Number one, general revelation. This is the idea that God reveals himself to everyone through conscience and through the physical world. And number two, creation in the image of God.

Every human person is made in God's image, and they also live in God's world. these are constraining realities that mean no matter how distorted the world becomes, people still see something of the truth. And this means we should not be flippant and dismissive when we're relating to other Christians. This is a real danger. I think this is a problem that we see. And we'll say this and then we'll also articulate other dangers as we go. But sometimes Christians so emphasize saving grace that we neglect common grace. This is the grace that God gives to all people.

And may I suggest that without reducing our appreciation for saving grace, we need to increase in our understanding of common grace, especially evangelical Christians. This is something we sometimes forget about, because this is going to help us a lot. Here's a good phrase that can come into our heart and mind. All truth is God's truth. As James 1, 17 says, every good gift comes down from above. Here's how John Calvin put this. Quote, if we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful

as we would avoid offering insult to him, not to reject or condemn truth wherever it appears. In despising the gifts, we insult the giver. How then can we deny that truth must have beamed on those ancient lawgivers who arrange civil order and discipline with so much equity? shall we say that the philosophers and their exquisite researches and skillful description of nature were blind? Shall we deny? And then he goes on from here. I'm not going to read this whole passage, but I'll put up the remaining bits on slides so you can see. He's talking about rhetoricians and doctors and mathematicians and all these other people that have gifts because of common grace.

And the simple application, which is actually not too complicated. I hope I don't lose anyone here because this is an important pastoral point. It's just to say, when you meet someone who's respectable, show them respect. When you meet someone who's admirable, admire them. When you meet someone who is intelligent, learn from them. Show honor to non-Christians. That is not undermining Christian theology. That's actually an expression of Christian theology. Remember the keystone verse for apologetics. And how it ends, show gentleness and respect in the way you defend Christ. Second point, religious diversity is actually not that surprising. Sometimes, we have an unrecognized false expectation floating around in the back of our minds that if one

particular religion is true, then the only alternative will be secular irreligion as it's foil, or there'll be three options. If one particular religion is true, then there'll just be two alternatives, secularism or one particular alternative religion. But probably as soon as we articulate that, we can see, why couldn't there be lots of different alternatives? In fact, it would be surprising if there was a true religion, but then every other religious person somehow end up agreeing with each other. You know, to think of a metaphor, that might be like you're a teacher and you're grading 100 tests. And on question five, half of the class gets it wrong. So 50 tests get this question wrong, but all 50 write the exact same wrong answer.

Now, depending upon how specific that answer is, that might raise your eyebrows. That would be what you need to explain. That would actually be more surprising to have all the same wrong answer rather than a bunch of different wrong answers. Similarly, when you think about it, religious diversity is not all that surprising given human diversity, global cultural diversity. Human beings disagree about pretty much everything, so why not religion too? On a Christian worldview, with the recognition that we live in a fallen world and with

particular stories like the Tower of Babel. Religious diversity is not really surprising. Now, I'm not saying it's surprising for other worldviews, too. Like, you know, if you're an atheist, it's not all that surprising either. I'm not saying this is an argument for Christianity. I'm just saying it's not really an argument against it. Third, different religions cannot all be equally true. sometimes it's fashionable to say this that, you know, all religions are basically on equal footing and it's either said or it's implied that it's kind of arrogant and imperialistic to affirm one religion over others or sometimes even one religious idea over other religious ideas. But as soon as you start to think about this, you realize this is very problematic.

I mean, one of the reasons we need to be honest about is that some religions, especially some smaller religions have some pretty brutal practices like particular forms of child sacrifice. And honesty means we have to acknowledge this and come to terms with this. But also the big challenge here is simply the law of non-contradiction. We just are going to have to make judgments about which particular religious ideas are true and which ones are false, just like in any other area of life. Remember C.S. Lewis's arithmetic metaphor. Now, sometimes people advocate for religious pluralism because it feels more humble.

humble and compassionate. One thing we have to remember is that pluralism is also a very specific and ambitious claim. If we try to set all religions on equal footing, we're actually opposing most religions in their authentic historical claims. Whether that's right or wrong, that is a very ambitious thing to claim. Tim Keller used to say it's no more narrow to claim that one religion is the right one than to claim that you're one way to think about all religion is the right one. And I've teased that point out more in my response to Rain Wilson's religious views in this video. Link below if you want to chase down that a bit more. Number four, amidst their differences, world religions often have common features.

I am not speaking absolutely here because there are lots of religions out there. I've not studied them all. I mean, there's some really peculiar and small religions. It's hard to chase down every single one and how you even categorize them is difficult. What even counts as a religion? You know, this gets very complicated. But generally, religions do contain some common aspects of our human condition that are worth thinking about. And we want to draw these out a bit because whatever worldview or religion we land on, we want one that can explain and account for these different themes that seem to be across different human cultures.

Amidst all the diversity, there's some commonality. First, I'll just mention five of them here. First of all, there's a sense of the transcendent, often with an accompanying desire for worship, all throughout different religions. The big difference here, of course, will be whether this transcendent reverent is personal, like a personal God. This is a big difference in the east and in the west. And arguably, some religions are a little bit more focused on social harmony than transcendence,

like some forms of Confucianism. nonetheless, almost all religions involve this sense of something beyond, something above, something transcendent. Second, almost all religions, actually these second and third might be absolutely universal, tell a narrative about reality that infuses human existence with meaning and with purpose. That is, I honestly wonder, I mean, I'm open to being corrected, I honestly wonder if that's just an absolutely universal human phenomenon. I mean, if there's one thing that's true about human beings, we are obsessed with meaning and purpose. Third, almost all religions have a pretty

pungent backdrop of good versus evil. There's going to be differences in how good versus evil are understood, but pretty much every religion involves this claim that there's a battle going on between good and evil and it matters. There's some sort of rich significance to this battle. fourth, almost every religion has this sense of a need for salvation in some way or another. Even the word salvation is tough to target there. But there's some kind of need in the heart, some kind of desire for redemption. And this will often be achieved through various rituals. And it is interesting.

I mean, we're trying to just boil this down to the most liminal commonalities here. But some of these rituals are surprisingly common amidst all different cultures. whether you're in North America 3,000 years ago or Asia 3,000 years ago, you're going to find sacrifices, you're going to find sacred spaces, you're going to find mediators or priests or specialists of some kind. So there's commonalities in how salvation is understood to be achieved, though again, we're not trying to reduce the diversity. Lastly, this is common but not universal that you have some kind of vision of the afterlife, which offers some kind of ultimate hope. Now look, these are pretty basic, right?

Pretty common things. Someone's going to say, well, secular worldviews do this as well. I'm going to get to that. That's actually, that's true, but the question is, how do they execute that? Can they do it as well? Religions are there for a reason. I mean, here's the point we can make from this. Religions are not infinitely diverse because human beings are not infinitely diverse.

There are parameters. The human heart seems to long for something transcendent, some kind of thick meaning, some, the triumph of good over evil, some kind of redemption or forgiveness, and some kind of ultimate hope is what all of our stories are telling us. If you ever watch any movie or read any novel, it's all involving these kinds of themes. And this tells you something important that the human heart is religious. Human beings are religious. And therefore, whatever worldview you land on, you need a worldview that can explain that.

This is what C.S. Lewis is pointing out in that quote. I read that entire long quote because it's really important and it's really helpful. He's trying to say that belief in a religion, like Christianity, for example, is better at explaining the fundamental religiosity of the human heart than a strict atheism. Remember his words. When I was an atheist, I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most. What a sentence. Now, there is a sense in which I would say that is really true. Yeah, you know, if there really is nothing ultimately transcendent, no afterlife, no thick, capital S story that is going on, it really makes you look at all of human history and you have to be very revisionist and say, human beings are fundamentally diluted about the most important things. Now, I know this is contested. What most trendy right now are these efforts to retain these various elements of human longing and, you know, a sense of the transcendent, for example, within. a secular framework. So you have people who want spirituality and transcendence and a lot of religious-like things without traditional religion and orthodoxy and so forth. And if you find that approach compelling, I suggest this article which critiques what it calls religious non-theism. And what it's showing is how hard it really is to lose God and yet keep these other God-like things that come with him. It turns out when you lose a personal God, it's really hard to

keep God-given rights and some sense of deep moral accountability. It's hard to avoid the kind of flattening out that tends to follow. I say more about that in this video. I know the title is provocative. Sometimes I have a provocative title, but I intend it to be. You know, the title of this video on screen is atheism is devastating and unlivable. I don't mean that to be offensive to atheists, it's just honestly how I feel. That is how I personally find the evidence. I think atheism is devastating in the way that gravity pulls you down. I honestly think that's where it leaves you if you really think it through. But I know all that's contested. You can see that video. In this video, let's end on a happier note. And I don't know how else to word this. I'll do my best.

There's no one like Jesus. Jesus is unique, even compared to other religious leaders. If you study other spiritual teachers, you will find that most religious leaders claim to teach the truth about God or the truth about salvation or to show us the way to God or salvation. They're a conduit or messenger. Now, that's not universally true, but that's true for the big religions. And even where you have religious leaders claiming to be divine, it's usually in some different sense. So you think of Muhammad teaching the five pillars of Islam, Buddha teaching us about enlightenment. and meant, so forth. Jesus is different. Jesus claimed to be God himself. Now, of course, I know that's contested. I have a video arguing for that, and this is also a chapter in my forthcoming book,

Why Christianity Makes Sense, which I'll say more about, and both of those are linked to the video description. So I argue for that there. Here I'll say this. If that is true, then it does follow that Jesus is unique, because here's the consequence of that. Other religions like Islam or Buddhism could have technically been founded by someone else. Because this is a human person through whom religious divine truth is coming. By the way, West Huff made this point really well lately. Something that sets apart the Christian worldview with Jesus, that he's a real person that really lived that we can point to. In one sense, if the Buddha didn't exist, you could still technically have Buddhism. You have the philosophies. You could have the noble truths and path and all of those

things. It didn't have to be Gutarmist, Sadartha, who came up with those things. Could have been anybody. And likewise, in Islam, it could have been anybody. It didn't have to be Muhammad. The god of Islam could have chosen any person to be the prophet that he revealed his truth to. But it does have to be Jesus. It cannot be anybody else. And there is a historical grounding of the Christian faith, that the tomb is either empty or it's not. And if it's empty, C.S. Lewis, he said Christianity of true is of infinitely importance. If it's not true, is of no importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. But the Christian claim is that Jesus is not merely a human figure through whom divine truth is coming.

No, he's the divine truth. The Christian claim is, this is God himself. It never gets old to me to think about it. God himself as a man, the creator coming into the creation. And the claim is, well, that couldn't have happened any other way. You couldn't have done it any other way because the salvation we needed is the creator dying for us. The Christian claim is there is a personal God and he made us all. There's a problem called sin.

This has severed our relationship with him. It's why the world is so broken. It's like a disease throughout the world. Jesus came to fix that problem. And that is what his death and resurrection are all about. And now our job is to respond to Christ to accept that salvation. And we do that on terms of grace, just repenting of sin, turning away from it, receiving his salvation and following him.

And it had to happen that way. because this isn't just a person telling us about something. This is God himself. Now, that message is either true or it's not true. You know, as Wes put it, he either rose from the dead or he didn't. And if he didn't rise from the dead, then we don't really need to take these claims seriously. But if he did, then Jesus is the end and fulfillment of all religion. The questions that are being asked in the religious human heart find their answer in Jesus.

Put it like this. he's the one we're all looking for. This is the most important question we can figure out. It's worth, I mean, I keep coming back to this and thinking about it. It's one reason I'm grateful to have the job that I do when I get to basically try to do evangelism because there's really nothing more to come to terms with than this. I mean, what good is it to make a lot of money

or even other lesser goods if you don't know what happens after you die, right? This is the most important question of life. And that's why I've written a book that tries to lay out a case for why Christianity makes sense. And the effort of this book is to try to serve people and be a friend to people who are wrestling with whether Christianity is true. Whether they're Christians wrestling with that, others, people who just want to share their faith better, I wrote this book to be as popular level and accessible as I could without

dumbing down the arguments. I wrote it to try to be fun to read. The introduction takes you 30 seconds to read. Each chapter moves quickly. It tries to build. It assumes no background knowledge. It just starts off saying, hey, you should be curious. about religion. So this is the kind of book I hope you could give to anybody, and I really poured my

heart into it, and I hope it would serve you. It's linked to the video description. So if you're wondering, you know, what's the next step? I hope that could be a tool for you. All right, so let's sum up. What have we said here? Number one, we should be respectful to all religions because they contain elements of the truth, and we should be respectful to all people. Number two, religious diversity is actually not that surprising. Number three, all religions cannot be equally true. Number four, religions have common features that explain a need in the human heart. And number five, Jesus is the answer to that need.