Not so long ago - as little as several hundred years back the world was a very small place. There was very little contact between different countries, let alone between continents. Things are very different today, you jump on an aeroplane today and tomorrow you could land anywhere in the world. Today we have telephones, internet, computers and networks, television and satelites. Communication is vast, easy and accessible. Not so several hundred years ago and all the years before that.
People were born, lived their entire lives and died in a fairly small area of land. Apart from very few travellers, people in one area didn't know or realise the rate at which a group of people in another area was progressing. As speach developed from the grunts of cavemen - in certain parts of Europe they would begin to form the word 'one' with their mouths when indicating a singular of something (these would later call themselves 'English'). In another part of Europe - not too far away, they in their own development began to utter the sound which eventually became 'ein' for the same thing (these would later call themselves 'German'). Further across the continent on the other side of what is known as Asia where a group of people who would eventually utter the word 'yi' (these would later call themselves 'Chinese'), and further to the East yet the 'Japanese' would form a word not unlike 'ichy'. All of these words having the same meaning. Not only did individual words progress differently from other areas, the entire language as we know it today did.
If everybody on the earth had been in contact with each other all the time from day one - we would all now be speaking the same language, because as far as language development would be concerned we would have progressed together.
Would it then not have been strange if the same groups of people developing separately and apart from each other were all to share the same religion and system of beliefs? As groups of people progressed apart from others, they all felt the need to worship and from those humble beginnings the different religions in their most primitive form began to take shape. The name by which they called the one they worshipped was different to the name used by other groups of people. The methods of worship varied, their beliefs surrounding their faiths varied. Apart from worship itself there was very little similar.
The group developing as the 'English' worshipped one they called 'God' (the English name for it), the 'Germans' called it 'Gott' (the German name for it), those developing as the 'Chinese' called it 'Fo', some called it Allah, some eventually Jehovah, some Jah, and many, many other names as the different languages allowed.
The question now being who is worshipping the true Creator, those calling Him 'God' perhaps, how about those who call Him 'Gott', perhaps those who call Him 'Allah'? All are correct as long as the one being worshipped is, in the mind and in the heart of the one worshipping, the true Loving Father.
There can be no such thing as a wrong religion if that religion guides you in your worship in the right direction. If it makes of you a better person, if it helps you to help others, if it allows you to treat all of God's Creation with respect and dignity - this is the true test of a true religion.
