Are there many paths to God?

That's the popular concept of those philosophies that are not exclusivist. There are religions that claim exclusivity, and those who claim no such thing. The latter usually emphasize the truths that are largely common among religions, and ignore their differences. The former focus on the differences between religions and show why their particular religious belief is superior to the others. If they can't demonstrate superiority in terms of how their adherents live, they will appeal to the superiority (usually read as recency) of the revelation which launched their religious movement. As examples, Judaism had spinoff movements claiming more recent (and therefore superior) revelation; they were Christianity and Islam. (this doesn't even consider the differences between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism.) Christianity had spinoff movements also claiming the same thing, namely Protestantism, Mormonism, Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses. Islam had similar spinoff movements, such as Sunni vs Shia, and last of all Ba'hai.


Even among the exclusivists, there are branches contending that they alone hold the truth about God.


So, the question remains: do all paths lead to God?


To me it makes much more sense to say that each path to God is unique, not because we strive to find our own way to God, but because God travels down many different paths to reach us. We are all unique individuals, one person's story about "finding God" is different from everyone else's story. Christianity claims (in Rom 3:10-12, which quotes from Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccl. 7:20) "there is no one who seeks God; no, not one." It claims instead that God pursues us as if we were lost sheep from the flock in God's care. God takes the initiative to offer salvation to us, we do not take the initiative to pursue God.


So, do all paths lead to God? No. I can't follow someone else's path to God. God blazes the trail uniquely to get to me where I am. God creates as many paths as are needed to save those whom God is calling. Yes, there are many paths to God, but only one for me to follow... the one God created exclusively for my use.