How Christianity Stands Out Above All Other Religious Faiths

I recently sat across a lunch table from a person who is of a religion that follows the teachings of a human founder. All religions, other than Hinduism, were begun by some person who was merely human, but not divine, except for Christianity. Buddhism was founded by Gautama Buddha, Islam by Muhammad, Judaism follows Moses, Catholics have their popes, Mormons have Joseph Smith, Scientology was founded by L. Ron Hubbard, and Jehovah’s Witnesses was started by Charles Russell.

I thought, what could I say to that individual who was sitting across the table from me?  Then the thought came to mind that since Christians have a faith that is based upon Jesus rising from the dead, why adhere to the teachings of anyone else? Christianity stands out above every other religious faith for several reasons.

First and foremost is that Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, was God in human flesh. Jesus is the only religious founder who rose from the dead and is alive today? No other religions can say that of whatever person they follow. I don’t know about you, but I would rather follow Jesus, than someone who is dead and gone! His resurrection is a historical fact recorded in all four of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus himself declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live…(John 11:25).

Another distinctive difference is that Christianity believes the Bible to be the divinely inspired Word of God, above all other sources of so-called “spiritual truth.” II Peter 1:20-21 says, “Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy  was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Author Ray Comfort sums it up: “Unlike any other religious books, the Bible offers a multitude of specific predictions-some thousands of years in advance-that either have been literally fulfilled or point to a definite time when they will come true. No other religion has specific, repeated, and unfailing fulfillment of predictions many years in advance of events over which the predictor has no control.”

The third difference about Christian teaching is that God came down to the level of humanity. It has been said that whereas religion is humanity’s attempt to reach whatever is their god, the God of Christianity has come down to us. Philippians 2:6-7 says that though Jesus “was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 

Fourth, Christianity is not based on following rituals and rules, (though certain ordinances like baptism and communion are an important part of the faith), but rather it is based on love and grace in the context of a personal relational with the one true God. Plus, in contrast to seeking to obtain righteousness and salvation by doing good works, or appeasing some god, those who have made a personal decision to accept Jesus as their one and only Savior, have been justified and declared righteous by God. Because of the death of Jesus on the cross 2,000 years ago, he paid the price for your sins and mine. “A person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ”(Galatians 2:16). “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”(Ephesians 2:8-9).

With all that is true of Christianity, why would you or anyone else want to follow a founder or teaching of another religion? Nothing else is needed!