Let’s say you just arrived on planet earth, and were trying to pick a religion to follow. You didn’t know much about any of them, and so decided to interview various members of each particular faith, and ask them why you should join their religion, and more importantly, why they believed their particular religion was true.
In a previous post, I stated that in general, Christians would give four different answers:
- I’ve experienced God and so I know it’s true.
- Following Christianity results in more substantial life change than other faiths. In other words, Christians live better lives, so it must be true.
- The Bible, which Christianity is based on, doesn’t have the errors and contradictions that are present in the “Holy books” of other faiths. It doesn’t contradict itself, nor does it contradict the facts of history and science (considering evolution is a theory). Therefore, the Bible can be trusted as true revelation from God.
- God answers prayer and provides signs and wonders, which proves Christianity is true. This includes things like prophecy and healing.
There may be a few others that Christians would use, but these are the four most common.
But did you know that people of other religions would use almost the exact same reasons for why they believetheir religion is true? Let me give examples of the four explanations.
- If you have ever talked with a Mormon, you know that most of them believe Mormonism is true because they had an experience with God such as an inner warming of the heart or a vision, proving to them that Mormonism is true. Nearly all religions have similar experiences.
- I don’t care which religion you pick, if you talk to someone of that religion, they will say that in general, their adherents are more obedient than people of other religions. This is true of Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus…possibly even Satanists. (If you saw my post on Satanism a few weeks ago, in the comments, a Satanist informed me that while Satanists don’t practice mercy, their teachings “prohibit all illegal activity.”) When it comes to morality, Christians would be hard pressed to prove that we are morally superior to those who practice other religions.
- Did you know that every religion practices apologetics? We Christians are not the only ones who try to explain the supposed factual, historical, and scientific “problems” in our Scriptures. All religions do this, and many of the arguments are quite sophisticated and compelling. For example, I am currently reading a book called What Jesus Really Said which is a book in which the author tries to prove that Jesus actually taught the Muslim faith! It is a book of Muslim apologetics.
- People of nearly all religions pray for healing (and see frequent healing as a result – See the recent TIME magazine article on this), receive visions, have ecstatic experiences, speak prophetic words (and see them come true), and observe signs, wonders, and miracles performed through the power of their god(s). Some groups even speak in tongues.
So in four of the ways that Christians believe their religion is better than others, it really is not. At least, not to an outside observer who is only doing surface-depth investigation.
So why hold to Christianity? Why should people believe in Jesus and follow Him? More personally, why do I? I’ll tell you my primary reason in the next post.
Good question!!!
I think I would tell someone that Jesus is the ONLY One who can take me to God because I’m a sinner and can never be good enough to reach Him on my own. Jesus alone made it possible for me to have eternal life because He alone is righteous, and He alone took the full punishment for my sins so that I could enter into God’s presence. What other religion can say that? They’re all “works” bound religions. Then I would just have to trust the Holy Spirit to convict those I’m speaking to of sin, righteousness and judgment. That’s HIS job. I’m just the vehicle He uses. Praise God!!!
🙂
Diane
I agree with Diane.
Why believe in “Christianity”? One word: grace.
For me, probably the most compelling evidence to the truth of Christianity is that the Bible tells us of men who died rather than deny it. Men from every walk of life, that had absolutely nothing materially to gain, refused to recant under pain of death. The apostles were proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God and that He had died and risen from the dead. If they knew these claims were false, at least one would have confessed the truth to spare his own life.
Christianity is not the exclusive source of martyrs. Sikh’s and Bah’ai also have it as an integral part of their “testimony” to the truthfulness of their faith.
I confess, I am unfamiliar with the place maryrdom occupies in either the Sikh’s or Bah’ai faiths. What conviced me about the Biblical examples was not the fact that these men died, but that they actually knew the man they were proclaiming. If Christ hadn’t actually risen from the dead and appeared to them, why would they be willing to die for saying He did? It would be similar to me being willing to face torture and death for proclaiming that Barak Obama was not the first black president.
I’m not saying that martyrdom in either of those faiths is directly equivalent, and in fact I believe it is not. However, I think that they would assert equivalency.
I would especially agree with #3 & #4 of the first post, but in addition to this, the more I study the Bible, and the more I live in this world, the more I see that the Bible describes this world with incredible accuracy. It tells me I’m a sinner, and that we live in a corrupt world of people that are in desperate need of a Savior. I know this is true deep down in my soul. Jesus’ promise of life to all who believe in Him (John 3:16, etc.) is the way it has to be, because no one is worthy of heaven. I have a lot of questions, but when a religion tells me that I have to be good enough, that is a red flag to me that it is not from God. There are many more things I think the Bible hits right on the head, but you get the picture.