Religion is a personal matter. One's religion, one's faith and beliefs may be influenced by, or even dictated by, a church or other individuals. But deep down in a person's heart of hearts, he cannot be dictated to. Each individual spirit claims the freedom to believe for himself. If we were to analyze each person's deepest beliefs—including assumptions, guesses and hopes—we would never find two people who believe exactly the same thing, even within the same religion. In all the affairs of humankind, matters of faith are intensely subjective and are colored by individual interpretation and desire. Therefore it is safe to say that no two of us believe in exactly the same religion.
God understands this. He is perfectly aware of our diversity of belief. After all, he is the one who drew the veil over our knowledge of him and of the pre-mortal world. By this he ensured mortality as the perfect place for each of us to discover our own natural level of light, knowledge, and spirituality and then to progress beyond that level if we so choose. Without his powerful presence to sway us, we exercise agency to either follow his Spirit or forsake it, to heed the enticing of our own spirit or to ignore it, to seek greater light or to cleave to shadows. Nobody is forced to become faithful or to believe in God.
Each of us makes natural decisions about who and what we are and who and what we will place our faith in. Along the way, we seek out others of similar dispositions, and churches spring up in response. They serve our collective beliefs and needs for fellowship and worship. Throughout history and all across the globe, people of like-minded faith have congregated to unitedly offer thanks and praise to God. They study and share truths as they understand them and rejoice in the portion of the Spirit they receive.
When I entered the spirit world I basked in the love and light of Christ, and at that moment two burning questions arose in my mind. Since I now knew God as a being of unconditional love, I wondered why some religious leaders made him out to be angry and vengeful. And I wanted to know why there were so many different religions. Jesus kindly answered both questions with the same answer.
Each religion on earth, he explained, exists at its own level of truth. Religions mingle truth with man's beliefs. But each religion is important because it unites and nurtures people at a distinct level of spiritual growth. As people explore truths at one level, a desire awakens in them for the next level. And that level—whatever it may be—is the next step in that person's individual growth. I understood that everything which awakens us to truth is good. And that even the simplest of truths are better than no truth at all. I was told that all truth eventually leads to Christ—even if we have to find him in the next life. Each person returning to the spirit world will come to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he was sent by our Father to restore His truth. Jesus is known by many names around the world, but what we call him is not as important as what he represents, especially in the sacrifice he made to bring us home to our Father. Christ came to earth to take superstition out of religion. Then by dying on the cross, he opened the gateway to heaven, showing that love will ultimately take us all back to the Father.
Many faiths on earth do not include Christ but are loved and used by God nevertheless. Our Father never turns away a person who searches for him. He created our mortal conditions and knows perfectly what we face in sometimes godless circumstances. A person born to a home that does not recognize God is not cursed, but rather blessed with the needed opportunities for growth uniquely available in that home. Any person searching for any degree of light, in any religion or system of belief, is graced by God with opportunities for greater light. To accomplish that, God uses many means. Sometimes he prompts a person toward one religion or another. Sometimes he places teachers of greater knowledge into a religion to raise its level of awareness and growth. His goal is to bring us all to a knowledge of the pure and perfect truth.