Do all religions lead to God?

Pope Francis has caused controversy by seeming to suggest all paths lead to God. But if this was the case, the apostles wouldn’t have so passionately preached the gospel to the Greeks, Romans or Jews - or died for their exclusivist beliefs, says John Stevens. And Christians wouldn’t need to share the gospel today

Speaking to an interfaith group of young people in Singapore recently, Pope Francis said that “all religions are a path to God.” He compared the various religions to “different languages that express the divine” and said that, while there is only one God, we are all his children, adding that the various world religions “express ways to approach God.”

The Pope’s remarks were controversial because they seem incompatible with Roman Catholic teaching. Historically, the Roman Catholic Church not only rejected universalism but taught that there was “no salvation outside the church” - meaning only the Roman Catholic Church.