Why Christianity? |
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 the answers. Therefore, in an attempt to demonstrate why Christianity is true and all other religious systems are false, I've prepared the follow 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 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. 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 irregardless 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.
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 in (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. 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. 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. |