Articles
Is There Only One Faith?
The idea or belief that there is only one faith or one religion is for many people ludicrous, dangerous, arrogant and borderline psychotic. Many consider the idea of there being only one faith extremely divisive and the greatest enemy of world peace. And the truth is that these thoughts, while not necessarily new, have been most certainly praised, advocated for and publicized on almost every available platform whether that be media, politics or education. Such a question may not even be taken seriously when asked today and it is probably not considered anything more than a fanciful myth or legend. But yet, the question exists and for good reason. Even though society denies the authenticity, sanity and reliability of such a question the fact is, there yet remains a book called the Bible which not only asks and answers this very question but it strongly suggests there is a significant moral and spiritual dilemma embedded within the nature of this question. So let us ponder on the question: Is There Only One Faith/Religion?
In truth, it does not take rocket science to do a simple word search to find the number of singular pronouns/descriptions in the bible and in particular the New Testament. That search will lead us to the answer we are looking for. There are numerous passages in the NT that confidently and boldly assert the existence and establishment of only one faith (Acts 6:7; 13:8; 19:23; 24:14, 22; Gal. 1:6-7; Eph. 4:5; Tit. 1:1; Jude 1:3). I would strongly encourage you read for yourself all these passages. You will find that they illustrate the singularity and exclusivity of a certain faith by referring to it as “The Way” “The Faith” “The Gospel”or simply “One Faith”.The answer to our question then, according to the scriptures, is that there is indeed only one faith/religion. But that leads us to another essential question: What is the nature of this One Faith?
This follow up question is only logical and it supplies us with further knowledge and evidence concerning the singularity and exclusivity of “The Faith.”Note that in each of the following passages, the mention of such singularity and exclusivity reflects the unity and singularity of its origin or more appropriately its author: GOD (Matt. 16:18: Gal. 1:6-8, 11-12; Col. 1:22-23; 2 Pet. 1:1). The singularity and exclusivity of this one faith reflects the nature of God Himself. Another way to state that is that God is not divided nor divisive (Deut. 4:35; 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:4-6) and He cannot be bought and bargained with to the point of compromise!
There are not multiple gods or multiple lords where there is only one faith. And conversely, from one God there cannot emanate multiple faiths and multiple religions. And so we have to ask: Why do so many faiths/religions exist? Unfortunately we cannot escape the fact that everywhere we turn, everywhere we look and everywhere we listen, there are as many churches with all kinds of stipulations, beliefs and goals as there are fast food restaurants across this country. And therein lies the problem. They exist not because it’s the will of God but because we want to have religion fabricated, cut and tailored to suit our every want, comfort and physical desires much like everything else in our culture. Self-centered, self-righteous, self-reliant people have distorted the view of the Creator, His plan of salvation and His faith. Thus, the advent of so many religions/faiths do not come from God but from man (2 Pet. 2:1-3; 10-19).
We must understand that this one faith comes from the one and only God but there’s more to it than that. There are plenty of people in the religious world today who believe in that one God but the message, the principles, the standards, the doctrines they practice are a far cry from what He handed down and established via Jesus Christ and that’s what we need to understand.
The God of the bible has always been the same and will forever be the same and His purpose has always been to have one holy standard through which His most wonderful creation, mankind, would live by and thus be saved. Yet there is an Old Covenant and a New Covenant. Skeptics and opposers to Christianity and the one faith will use this as an argument to suggest that the bible doesn’t even teach one faith. I would suggest to you that these are those who don’t understand the scriptures and its intent.
The Old Covenant and the New Covenant were envisioned with the same purpose in mind. They are not necessarily two completely different faiths but one led to the fulfillment or the perfection of the other. The purpose of the Law all along was to bring men to Christ (Gal. 3:21-26). Herein it is clearly understood that the OC and NC worked together to fulfill God’s promises and His plan.
So, this one faith then, is predicated on the existence, testimony, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The nature of The Faith is such that there came a Savior and a Redeemer. He educated us into all things concerning The Way or The Gospel and that was solidified and established with the shedding of His blood and His resurrection from the dead (Matt. 16:18; Acts. 20:28; Heb. 8-10). Christ died for us and He offered Himself up for us! But why is that so important to mention? Because through His death and His resurrection, He was given all authority, all sovereignty (Matt. 28:18).
And since He has all authority and supreme control, if He says we must be baptized for the forgiveness of sins then we must. If acapella singing, free-will giving and eating the Lord’s supper is what He wants, then it is what we must do. If He says I must not put my family, my job, my money, my feelings or whatever it is before Him then I must adhere to that.
Hence the term “Christians.” Those folks in Antioch (Acts 11:26) who recognized this fact, that the nature of the one faith was such that they needed to surrender themselves wholeheartedly to Jesus and that they needed to follow Him and do everything He said, they were for the first time called Christians. They were followers of Christ and His teachings. So we need to ensure that we are followers of this one faith. We need to ensure that we are serving the resurrected Christ and if we aren’t we need to fix that before it’s too late.
