Guest Writer
WHY BELIEVE IN CHRISTIANITY
OVER ALL OTHER RELIGIONS?
Critics often ask why Christianity is any better than any
other religion in the world. After all, of all the
religions that exist, how can it be that only Christianity
is true? If God exists, why can't God use different
religions? Don't all paths lead to God? Skeptics
ask these kinds of questions all the time and, unfortunately,
few Christians have the answers. Therefore, in
an attempt to demonstrate why Christianity is true and all
other religious systems are false, I've prepared the following
list of reasons for Christianity's superiority.
"Either Jesus is true and all other
religions are false, or other religions are true and Jesus
is false. There are no other options."
There
are such things as absolute truths
If truth is relative, then the statement that truth is relative
is an absolute truth and would be a self-defeating statement
by proving that truth is not relative. But, if truth
is absolute, then the statement "truth is absolute" is
true and not self-defeating. It is true that truth
exists. It is true that truth will not contradict itself,
as we have just seen. In fact, it is absolutely true
that you are reading this paper.
If we can see that there is such a thing as truth in the
world, then we could also see that there can be spiritual
truth as well. It is not absurd to believe in spiritual
absolutes anymore than physical or logical absolutes. Even
the statement that "all religions lead to God" is
a statement held to be a spiritual absolute by many people. This
simply demonstrates that people do believe in spiritual truth. Why? Because
truth exists. However, not all that is believed to
be true actually is true. Furthermore, all belief systems
cannot be true since they often contradict each other in
profound ways -- and truth is not self-contradictory.
Religions
contradict each other; therefore, they cannot all be true.
Mormonism teaches that there are many gods in existence
and that you can become a god. Christianity teaches
that there is only one God and you cannot become a god. Islam
teaches that Jesus is not God in flesh, whereas Christianity
does. Jesus cannot be both God and not God at the same
time. Some religions teach that we are reincarnated
while others do not. Some teach there is a hell and
others do not. They cannot all be true. If
they cannot all be true, it cannot be true that all religions
lead to God. Furthermore, it means that some religions
are, at the very least, false in their claims to reveal the
true God (or gods). Remember, truth does not contradict
itself. If God exists, He will not institute mutually
exclusive and contradictory belief systems in an attempt
to get people to believe in Him. God is not the author
of confusion (1
Cor. 14:33). Therefore, it is reasonable to believe
that there can be an absolute spiritual truth and that not
all systems can be true regardless of whether or not they
claim to be true. There must be more than a mere claim.
Fulfilled
Prophecy concerning Jesus
Though there are other religions that have prophecies in
them, none are 100% accurate as the Bible's, and none of
them point to someone like Jesus who made incredible claims
and performed incredible deeds. The Old Testament was
written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Yet,
the Old Testament prophesied many things about Jesus. This
is undoubtedly evidence of divine influence upon the Bible.
Please consider some of the many prophecies of Jesus
in the following chart.
Fulfillment of prophecy can have different explanations. Some
state that the NT was written and altered to make it look
like Jesus fulfilled OT prophecy (but there is no evidence
of that). Others state that the prophecies are so vague
that they don't count (but many of the prophecies are not
vague at all). Of course, it is possible that God inspired
the writers and Jesus, who is God in flesh, fulfilled these
prophecies as a further demonstration of the validity of
Christianity.
The
Claims and Deeds of Christ
Christianity claims to be authored by God. Of course,
merely making such a claim does not make it true. Anyone
can make claims, but backing up those claims is entirely
different. Jesus used the Divine Name for Himself (John
8:58), the same Divine Name used by God when Moses asked
God what His name was (Exodus
3:14). Jesus said that He could do whatever He
saw God the Father do (John
5:19), and He claimed to be one with the God the Father
(John
10:30; 10:38). Likewise,
the disciples also called Him God (John
1:1, 14; John
10:27; Col.
2:9). By default, if Jesus is God
in flesh, then whatever He said and did would be true. Since
Jesus said that He alone was the way, the truth, and the
life and that no one can find God without Him (John
14:6), His words become incredibly important.
Again, making a claim is one thing. Backing it up
is another. Did Jesus also back up His fantastic words
with miraculous deeds? Yes, He did.
The eyewitnesses recorded the miracles of Jesus,
and the gospels have been reliably transmitted to us. Therefore,
we can believe what Jesus said about Himself for two reasons: One,
because what He said and did agrees with the Old Testament,
and two, because Jesus performed many convincing miracles
in front of people who testified and wrote about what they
saw Him do.
Christ's
resurrection
Within Christianity, the resurrection is vitally important.
Without the resurrection, our faith is useless (1
Cor. 15:14). It was Jesus' resurrection that changed
the lives of the disciples. After Jesus was crucified,
the disciples ran and hid. But when they saw the risen
Lord, they knew that all that Jesus had said and done proved
that He was indeed God in flesh, the Savior.
No other religious leader has died in full view of
trained executioners, had a guarded tomb, and then risen
three days later to appear to many many people. This
resurrection is proof of who Jesus is and that He did accomplish
what He set out to do: provide the only means
of redemption for mankind.
Buddha did not rise from the dead. Muhammad did not
rise from the dead. Confucius did not rise from the
dead. Krishna did not rise from the dead, etc. Only
Jesus has physically risen from the dead, walked on water,
claimed to be God, and raised others from the dead. He
has conquered death. Why trust anyone else? Why
trust anyone who can be held by physical death when we have
a Messiah who is greater than death itself?
Conclusion
Why should anyone trust in Christianity over Islam, Buddhism,
Mormonism, or anything else? It is because there are
absolute truths, because only in Christianity is there accurate
fulfilled prophecies of a coming Messiah. Only in Christianity
do we have the extremely accurate transmission of the eyewitness
documents (gospels) so we can trust what was originally written. Only
in Christianity do we have the person of Christ who claimed
to be God, performed many miracles to prove His claim of
divinity, who died and rose from the dead, and who said that
He alone was the way the truth and the life (John
14:6). All this adds to the legitimacy and credibility
of Christianity above all other religions -- all based on
the person of Jesus. If follows that if it is all true
about what Jesus said and did, then all other religions are
false because Jesus said that He alone was the way, the truth,
and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through
Him (John
14:6). It could not be that Jesus is the only way
and truth and other religions also be the truth.
Either Jesus is true and all other religions are false,
or other religions are true and Jesus is false. There
are no other options. I choose to follow the risen
Lord Jesus.
http://www.carm.org/atheism/why_believe.htm
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