AIF has been preaching through I Peter on Sundays, and to make I Pet 3:15 practical, we took questions about Christianity last week and answered them. If you want to listen to those answers, go to the media page on this website and click on the sermon for Feb 19th. On that day, however, we had many more questions than we had time for, and since we will not devote more time in church to those questions, I thought I would take time and address some of them in the blog. Today is the first week of that project. This means that I will be taking a break covering the Christian teachings on the human race.
Q: Why Christianity and not other religions?
A: Wow. That’s a hundred questions all in one. If a Muslim asked that, he would likely mean, “Why Christianity and not Islam?” If a Jew asked it, he would likely mean, “Why Christianity and not Judaism?” If a universalist asked it, he would mean, “Why Christianity and not any religion?” And my answer would be a bit different to each of those situations. Therefore, for the purposes of this blog, I will have to paint with broad brushstrokes, but please understand that I would not normally paint this way in a live situation with a real person. Instead, I would first ask some questions to see where this person is coming from: “Why do you ask the question? Which religion do you think is as good as Christianity? Why?” I would then address my answers to the specifics, but here I can’t do that.
So then, Why Christianity and not other religions? Here are some thoughts:
1. Let’s turn the question on its head for a minute and ask, “Why other religions and not Christianity?” OR “Why no religion?” OR “Why all religions and not one?” If we are going to ask the question one way, we should be able to ask it any of those other ways as well. Now I’m not saying that a Muslim or a Hindu will give you no reasons to adopt his faith, but I am saying that if you see the question as a sort of criticism of Christianity, then it is equally a criticism of any belief —including the beliefs of the person who asks it.
2. Why Christianity and not other religions? Let me give a short answer with an explanation. The short answer is Jesus. I know that may sound trite, and I don’t mean it to be. I’m dead serious. You see, Jesus sets Christianity apart from all other religions. In no other religion will you find anything like the Christian teaching that God visited Earth to save people from themselves. This idea is radical. The Bible teaches that in Jesus, God came to Earth to die, that His death was the payment for sin, that He bodily rose from the grave on the third day, and that all who trust in Him are made new now and will inherit His future later. This death and Resurrection brings you to God, and the One who did the work is Himself your Creator, to whom you will bow.
These teachings are either true or false. If they are false, then Christianity is the biggest hoax ever played upon the human race. But if Christianity is true, then other religions will not lead you to God. If the problem of the human race is that “your sins have separated you from your God” (Is 59:2), and if God came to Earth to remove your sin and called you to trust in what He had done, then you cannot move toward God by praying to idols in your living room, by emptying yourself of desire, or by fasting at Ramadan.
Let me put it simply. If Jesus is risen from the dead, then all these other options are not options. If Jesus is not risen from the dead, then Christianity is not an option. You can’t have Jesus and other religions at the same time.
3. Why Christianity and not other religions? Let me describe what I said above in reverse. Let’s suppose all religions could get you to God. Why then would God need to send His Son to die on a Cross? If you were God, would you submit yourself to the pain of Crucifixion for no reason? If the Cross of Christ is not necessary for human salvation, why go through with it?
4. Why Christianity and not other religions? I find Christianity to be the most realistic to the human condition and the most focused on God. I’m going to make general statements for the sake of space, but here is how most other religions work. In Buddhism, you practice the philosophy and reach nirvana. In Islam, you do good deeds, including the Five Pillars, and maybe Allah takes you to heaven. In Hinduism, you live a good life, worship the gods and goddesses, practice the right rituals, and you escape the cycle of rebirth. The central point of these religions is what you do. Christianity is quite the opposite. The central point of Christianity is what God has done. The Cross and Resurrection are God’s work, not yours. This is immensely freeing. This means that you do not have to perform to perfection in order to attain God. God has attained you. In Christ, God has given you a gift. Himself. In Christianity, our responsibility is not to perform but to say, “thank you.” It takes faith to say “thank you,” but when we do so from the heart, God comes to live inside us. He makes us new creatures, and we then go on to live new lives. The new life does not bring us to God. God brings us to the new life.
This puts a greater emphasis on the glory of God. In addition, it is the simplest religion on the planet. I don’t mean simplistic, just simple. In Christ, salvation is a gift. This fact makes salvation accessible to everyone on Earth. A three-year-old with a right heart can do this.
5. Why Christianity and not other religions? If you have been following what I said above, you see that you cannot have Christianity and other religions together. They operate on different principles. Whether it is Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, spirit religions, whatever, you are going to have to perform. You will have to be good in order to achieve the ultimate goal. You will have to perform the prayers or the incense or the rituals or get rid of your sin. But Christianity says that you don’t have to do any of that stuff. God loves you and has died for you while you were yet a sinner (Rm 5:8). Christianity says, “Come as you are. Confess your sin. Believe that Christ has wiped it away, and receive the gift of God.”
Christians call this approach grace, and the reality is that you can’t have a grace-based religion and a performance-based religion at the same time. The moment performance is part of your salvation, grace isn’t. These two approaches can’t both be true. You will have to choose which you think is the better approach. If you pick performance, I hope you perform well because God is holy. If you pick grace, you’re picking Christ.
Those are a few reasons why I would say Christianity and not other religions.
“The central point of Christianity is what God has done. ” — it is indeed a great point.