Why Christianity and not other religions?

This blog is taken from a talk I did at the youth club that we run at King’s Church High Wycombe. We have a small God spot in the middle of the evening, and this term we have been trying to answer some of the questions that the young people have raised. This time I tried to answer the question, ‘Why Christianity and not other religions?’

Firstly, I will quickly give you a background about myself and the angle that I am coming from. As a young boy I didn’t believe in God, and I didn’t go to church. When I was 14 I decided that all of this religion stuff was important to think about and I set out to prove, to myself at least, that it was rubbish. I initially looked to Islam, as I thought Muslims seemed the most devoted religious group, and I read the Koran (an English translation), but after deciding that it seemed really unlikely I went along with my friend to a local church. It wasn’t until I was nearly 16, so just less than 2 years later that I decided to become a Christian.

Now I want to talk about two things in particular that arise when considering this topic. Firstly, there is a view point that religion is specific to where you are from, and actually that all religions point to the same thing and therefore all religions lead to God.

I want to address this, in particular focussing on the 5 major world religions;-

Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism

I know there are plenty of others, but I would like to look at these five. I think a lot of people look at three of these in particular and point out that they have the same God with different names, be it God, Allah or Jehovah. However, if you look at these religions they all contradict each other in a fundamental way, and there is no way that they can all be true.

Buddhism for example says that there is no creator God, but all of the other major religions say that there is. Focussing for a moment on Islam, Christianity and Judaism; the issue of Jesus’ death on the cross is divisive for all three. The Christian faith is built around the idea of Christ’s death. Followers of the Jewish religion believe that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Messiah, Jews view the coming Messiah as a saviour or warrior and having him die doesn’t make sense. In Islam the cross is still crucial. The point of the Koran is that it is literal, and that Allah dictated the Koran in its entirety to the last Prophet Mohammed. The Koran teaches about Jesus, and that he was the second most important prophet behind Mohammed. However, the Koran also teaches that Allah would never let one of his prophets die in a way as demeaning as crucifixion. In Serah 4 of the Koran there are 6 long arguments directed to a group of Jews in Medina who claimed to have killed Jesus, saying that they were mistaken and in fact Allah had raised Jesus to be with him

Now, Jesus was either crucified or was not crucified; therefore both religions cannot be true.

I would be happy to discuss the validity of the Koran in this instance but that is not the point of what I am saying, I just want to use it as an example to show that not all religions can possibly be true. It could be that one is correct, but either one or none in fact will lead to God.

Secondly I want to discuss what is different about Christianity compared to other religions.

Religions are about man’s attempt to reach God. Every religion has things where if you do this, then you can get to God. In Islam there are 5 things you must do, the 5 Pillars of Islam to get to paradise. In Buddhism there 8 steps to reaching enlightenment and the list goes wrong.

Christianity is in fact the exact opposite. The Bible says that there is nothing that YOU can do, to get to heaven. In the bible it says that we have ALL fallen short of the glory of god. We believe in a God that is perfect, and therefore, anything short of perfection is not good enough for him.

However, the bible tells us that God loves us, so much that he came up with a plan for us. The bible says that if someone who was perfect was willing to take the punishment for our imperfection, then we would be covered by that and would be able to be with God. Now the only person who could be perfect was God himself, so he gave himself in human form, He died on a cross so that we could be covered by Him. Being Christian literally means to be in Christ, and to be in Christ means that you are covered by perfection.

In that way, the Christianity that is written about in the bible is the anti-religion. If religion is Man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for Man.

Jesus said I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Now, I know that some people reading this will be thinking that this sounds arrogant. To say that the Bible is right and everyone else is wrong, certainly sounds arrogant, but to understand Christianity and to acknowledge that we are flawed and can do nothing to save ourselves is actually the most humble thing.

We have to acknowledge that the only way is if Jesus helps us. Most people don’t like admitting that there is something that they cannot do. I for one am struggling to admit that at the age of 22 and at 17 stone, I am never going to be a professional sportsman. When you become a Christian, you say that I cannot do this on my own, I need Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, I cannot get to God, unless Jesus’ helps me. And Jesus offers that help to me, to you and to everyone.

The other thing that comes of God’s rescue plan is that it goes further than getting us to heaven. The bible tells us that the redemption found in Jesus, means that we can have a friendship with God. I remember when I was at infant school we were taught the Lord’s prayer, but it wasn’t until I became a Christian that the line ‘Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven’ made sense. God’s love and forgiveness doesn’t start when you die, it starts from the moment you accept Jesus into your life. Unlike Islam or the other major religions you can have a relationship with God today, by acknowledging that we are not perfect, we don’t match up to the perfect standards of the God who created the earth and the heavens, and that we need the help of Jesus.