Thursday, May 5, 2011

Why believe in Christianity over all other religions?

Critics often ask why Christianity is any better than any other religion in the world.  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.

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, where Christianity does.  Jesus cannot be both God and not God at the same time.  Some religions teach that we reincarnate, 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 is the Bible, 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:
Prophecy Old Testament Prophecy New Testament Fulfillment
Born of a virgin Isaiah 7:14 Matt. 1:18,25
Born at Bethlehem Micah 5:2 Matt. 2:1
He would be preceded by a Messenger Isaiah 40:3 Matt. 3:1-2
Rejected by His own people Isaiah 53:3 John 7:5; 7:48
Betrayed by a close friend Psalm 41:9 John 13:26-30
His side pierced Zech. 12:10 John 19:34
Crucifixion Psalm 22:1,
Psalm 22:11-18		 Luke 23:33;
John 19:23-24
Resurrection of Christ Psalm 16:10 Acts 13:34-37

Fulfillment of prophecy can have different explanations.  Some state that the New Testament was written and altered to make it look like Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy (but there is no evidence of that).  Others state that the prophecies are so vague that they do not 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 in Exodus 3:14.  Jesus said He could do whatever He saw God the Father do (John 5:19), and He claimed to be one with 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 what 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.  Only in Christianity are there accurately 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.  It could not be that Jesus is the only 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. 

(by Matt Slick; http://carm.org/)


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