Hammer on Anvil '

For those who claim that all religions are basically the same, an illustration often used is that of a mountain. At the top of the mountain is God or the divine and all the religions are following their respective paths. Same summit/goal, different paths/methods. A nice idea but far from accurate. I will not here try to describe all the significant differences between the major religions, but want to focus on the idea of climbing the mountain.

As Americans and Christians, we are very fond of slogans and catchphrases. Unfortunately this is often accompanied by forgetting the origin and intention or overuse to the point of cliche. How many wore a WWJD bracelet at some point? I'm guilty. Own any of the merchandise parodying another corporation? Another example in my mind now is the "it's not a religion, it's a relationship." It would be better said: it isn't religion but the Gospel.

In reading the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11), it is worth noting and somewhat humorous the use of direction/space words. The men gathered to build (goes up) "a tower that reaches the heavens" but even then God had to come down to see what they built. It's humorous because the greatest accomplishment of men was still so small that God had to come down to even get a glance at it. The Tower and the Religion Mountain seem to be related here. Even if all religions are going up different paths on the same mountain toward the same summit, they will all ultimately fail. As Isaiah said, "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." So what is the Gospel?

In his book The Reason for God, Tim Keller contrasts religion and the Gospel this way: "Religion operates on the principle 'I obey--therefore I am accepted by God.' But the operating principle of the gospel is 'I am accepted by God through what Christ has done--therefore I obey.'" We cannot on our own effort climb the mountain to him. Instead all we can do is accept what Christ has done with gratitude.

Thoughts?