Why Christianity is Different From All Other Religions
A scene depicting the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem shortly before he went to the cross.
It is estimated that there are 4,200 religions in the world, but most of those are some variation of the major 12 religions, Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism. Practically every religion in the world, except for the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are polytheistic religions, meaning they believe in and worship more than one god.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, believe in and worship only one God, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, but beyond that they are vastly different religions, but Judaism and Christianity are more similar than either of them are to Islam. The biggest difference between Judaism and Christianity is the Jews are still waiting for the Messiah to come, and Christians know that the Messiah already came in the form of a man named Jesus.
Before we move on to what makes Christianity different from all other religions it is extremely important to discuss what the core beliefs of Christianity are so there is no confusion and so that religions that are fundamentally anti-Christian that masquerade as Christian will not get lumped in.
There are a lot of variations in doctrine and practices among Christian denominations in areas where the Bible does not take a firm stance, but where the Bible is clear all of Christianity agrees, and if a person or group does not believe the following ten truths from the Bible than they are not Christian:
God is 1 God and 3 Persons - God is one substance ("what He really is"). The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God (2 Corinthians 13:14; Matthew 28:19). The 3 Persons are equal, but they take on different jobs in creation and salvation (I Peter 1:2; John 7:18; 8:50). For a simple explanation of the trinity, click here.
God is the Maker of Heaven and Earth - In the beginning of time God created the heavens and the earth (John 1:1; Genesis 1:1-2; John 1:3; Hebrews 11:3; Isaiah 45:12).
Jesus Christ is Both Human and Divine - Jesus is perfect God and perfect man. He is one person with two natures, and these natures exist "without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation." (John 1:1; 10:30; 11:25; 14:6; Colossians 1:15; Matthew 1:18; I Peter 2:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus was Conceived by the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary - The angel Gabriel told Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:30-35; Matthew 1:20-21)."
Jesus was Crucified, He Died, and Was Buried (Matthew 27:35-61; Mark 15:21-47; Luke 23:26-56; John 19:16-42).
Jesus Rose Again From the Dead and Ascended into Heaven - After Jesus rose again, He ascended into Heaven and is interceding on our behalf (Matthew 28: 1-10; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12, 50-53; John 20:1-9; Acts 1:1-11; Hebrews 9:24).
Every Person is a Sinner, and Jesus Offers Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Life - We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23; 6:13; 10:13).
There is a Heaven and Hell, and Every Person Will End Up in One of the Two After Death (Luke 18:22; Romans 10:6; Philippians 3:20; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1; Matthew 5:22; Luke 16:23; 2 Peter 2:4).
The Bible is the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
We are saved by the grace of God; that is, we cannot add to or take away from Christ’s finished work on the cross as full payment for our sin (Ephesians 2:8–9)
For a lot of people who are not Christian, when they see Christianity they see just another religion among the multitude of other religions in the world and they judge all religions to be equally false; just another part of the same cloth. A lot of people who are not familiar with Christianity, or at least true Christianity, don’t see any difference between Christianity and all other religions, but Christianity is fundamentally different than any other religion, and the two most fundamental, and most important, ways in which Christianity differs from all other religions is the belief that people are saved by grace alone through faith alone, and the belief that we can have assurance that we will be saved after this life. There is also a lot of compelling scientific and archeological evidence for Christianity.
With the notable exception of Christianity, all religions in the world teach that we are responsible for our own salvation and that we have to somehow earn our state in eternity by the actions we do in this life while here on earth. A lot of Eastern religions teach that we are reincarnated and this life determines what state we are born into in our next life, and when we have finally amassed enough good works to tip the scales, so to speak, we will reach a state of eternal happiness. What our eternal state is believed to be differs widely among religions Eastern religions, as does the beliefs on reincarnation, but the thing that unites them all is that a happy or fulfilling eternity has to be earned. There are also a number of fairly popular religions that claim to be Christian, but really aren’t, that deny the grace of God and teach that we must earn our place in heaven. The Bible teaches that if we could earn our salvation than Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21).
With any religion that teaches we are saved by our works, which includes every religion in the world except for Christianity, it is not only all but impossible to do enough good to earn salvation, it is also impossible to know for sure whether we have done enough and those who believe in those religions go out of this world unsure of their eternal state. Even in religions that have fairly straightforward rules about what supposedly gets a person into heaven if adhered to, if the leaders or followers are pressed, admit that they can’t be sure that they have done enough to reach the highest reward their god has to offer them. Even one of the prophets of the Mormon Church said that his greatest fear was that when he died God would say that he had not done enough (1).
Christianity stands alone in having assurance that we are saved. It says in the Bible, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life,” (1 John 5:13). Becoming a Christian does not make us perfect, and none of us can ever be perfect, and that is why Jesus came to save us. We can’t even live up to our own standards and is therefore impossible to live up to God’s standards, but because of what Jesus did on the cross, if we believe in Jesus and accept him as our Lord and Savior we can have an assurance of salvation.
The reason Christianity can give assurance that those who believe it and adhere to it are saved is not because of anything they do, but rather it is because of what God has done for them. From the Bible we learn that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16). We also learn from the Bible that we are saved on what Jesus did alone and not by any merit of our own. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
I have a number of friends who identify as agnostic or atheist, a lot of which come from a pseudo-Christian cult such as Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witnesses, and upon learning that practically everything they had been taught to believe was a lie, they took the next leap and decided that there is no God. I completely understand where they are coming from, and when I first learned that Mormonism was not and could not be true and left the organization I lost my faith for a while and set out on a one man crusaded to end religion, but God found me and saved me from myself, and if you are interested in hearing about that, I talked in great detail about it in earlier posts, and here is one such example.
I firmly believe that it is a huge victory for Satan that cults have found such success around the world because their damage is two fold; they get people to believe false and damning doctrine, and then if the people manage to escape the clutches of the cult they often decide there is no God and they become bitter and angry with God and everything religious. I am part of an ex-Mormon group on Facebook and the majority of people in the group have completely abandoned God and most of them identify as atheist, but a sizeable number have even taken up witchcraft, paganism, and some have even started to openly worship the devil.
A lot of people who are without faith use the popular catch phrase that they just believe in one less god than I do, and they say that because they don’t see any difference in the God of Christianity and all other gods throughout human history. Sometimes it is because they are simply uninformed, but sometimes it is because they don’t want to know.
Even renowned scientist and atheist, such as Richard Dawkins, author of the famed The God Delusion, admits that the universe looks as though it were created, and created with a purpose. As a Christian I know that the reason the universe appears to have been created with a purpose is because it was.
If we are to look at the creation, especially the creation of life, as a crime scene and determine who the suspect is in the case, some suspects can easily be ruled out immediately, and that is why I don’t believe in all of the other gods out there because there is no credible evidence for them. There us no disputing the fact that life was created, regardless of how it is believed it happened, and to make the claim that an atheist just believes in one less god than I appears to make sense on the surface, but upon closer inspection falls apart.
In the crime scenario, imagine if a defense attorney would tell the jury that they should acquit his or her client on the same grounds upon which the prosecution dismissed all other suspects and that the prosecution just believed in one more suspect than they did. The reason the prosecution dismissed all other suspects was because there was no evidence to indicate that they had done the crime, and the reason the suspect that is facing trial was chosen was because there was enough evidence to strongly suggest that they had, at a very minimum, been involved in the crime. The crime had been committed and no one can dispute that, and for the defense to suggest that their client be dismissed since all others were dismissed is ridiculous.
In a jury trial the standard is not to know beyond any doubt that the person is guilty, the standard is to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. If we were only to convict people when there was no doubt than no one would ever go to prison, and if we were only to accept something as truth when there is no doubt than we would never accept anything as true, but the standard is, and has to be, beyond a reasonable doubt, not beyond a doubt.
For anyone who actually wants an answer and is not just trying prove what they already believe, which is that there is no god or higher power, there is an abundance of evidence. A lot of so called “free thinkers” will not critically examine any evidence and they fall into the trap of listening to respond, if they listen at all, instead of listening to understand. However, there have been some staunch atheist who have set out to prove that Christianity is false and, because they critically examined the evidence and accepted where it led, they became Christians. A few of the atheist who set out to destroy Christianity and when confronted with the facts became Christians were Peter Hitchens, the brother of the late Christopher Hitchens, C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel and Jay Warner Wallace.
Anyone who says that all religions are the same or that they all have the same probability of being true has not educated themselves on the facts, and those who do educated themselves and follow the facts where they lead become followers of Jesus. Christianity is truly different from all other religions, in all the ways that matter.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1981/10/examples-from-the-life-of-a-prophet?lang=eng