Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Is Christianity a good "religion" to follow?
I was just wondering... with all the religions and different kinds of Bibles there are, how do we know that Christianity is a good religion to follow? Doesn't it say that the Jews are God's chosen people? If that's true then why did God only choose one group and not all of us?
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3 comments:
Thanks for your honest questions. Its actually 3 different questions that you asked. I've responded to the first question in this comment. In response to your question, I'm going to quote an article written by my good friend Matt Slick (www.carm.org).
(taken from www.carm.org)
The truth of Christianity rests completely in the person of Jesus. The gospels are the written accounts, by eyewitnesses, of Jesus' life and deeds. Jesus said that:
1. He alone was the way to the Father (John 14:6)
"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
2. He alone revealed the Father (Matt. 11:27)
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
(Luke 10:22)
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
3. Jesus claimed to be God
(John 8:58)
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
(Exodus 3:14)
"God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
3.1 Who forgave sins
(Mark 2:5)
"When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
(Luke 5:20)
"When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
(Luke 7:48)
"Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”,
3.2 Who rose from the dead
(Luke 24:24-29)
Luke 24:24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
Luke 24:25 ¶ He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Luke 24:26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24:28 ¶ As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther.
Luke 24:29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
(John 2:19-21)
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”.
Jesus said that He was the only way. Jesus is unique. He was either telling the truth, He was crazy, or He was a liar. But since everyone agrees that Jesus was a good man, how then could He be both good and crazy, or good and a liar? He had to be telling the truth in order to be good. He is the only way.
Furthermore, Christianity is not just a religion; it is a relationship with God. It is trusting in Jesus and what He did on the cross...
(1 Cor. 15:1-4)
1Cor. 15:1 ¶ Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
1Cor. 15:2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
1Cor. 15:3 ¶ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
1Cor. 15:4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
...not on what you can do for yourself
(Eph. 2:8-9)
Eph. 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
Eph. 2:9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
It is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and dependence upon the One who died and rose from the dead
(John 2:19-21)
John 2:19 ¶ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
John 2:20 ¶ The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
John 2:21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
Buddha didn't rise from the dead, nor did Confucius or Zoroaster. Muhammad didn't fulfill detailed prophecy or rise from the dead either and though there is far less reliable information written about them, they are believed in.
The scripture is right when it says in 1 Pet. 2:7-8, "This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, 'The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,' and, 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense'; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed," (NASB).
It is Jesus who we look to for the validity of Christianity. If Jesus is false, then Christianity is false. If Jesus is who He claimed to be, then Christianity is the only correct religion.
The Mathematical Odds of Jesus Fulfilling Prophecy
"The following probabilities are taken from Peter Stoner in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies, ‘we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017." That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that "we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man."
Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, "we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10157, or 1 in 10,00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 000,000,000."
(This information was taken from the book Evidence that Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell.)
The estimated number of electrons in the universe is around 1079. It should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies by accident. He was who He said He was: the only way (John 14:6).
Doesn't it say that the Jews are God's chosen people? If that's true then why did God only choose one group and not all of us?
Deut. 7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
God chose the Jews, (the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) to bring redemption to the world through Jesus Christ, the Savior. God made a Covenant with Abraham which establishes this very fact. God chose the Jews to be a people separated unto God. Through the Jews, God revealed Himself to mankind. The Jews were a people through whom the salvation (Messiah/Jesus) would come to the whole world.
Yes, you are correct in saying that Jesus was Jewish. God chose to send His only Son, Jesus, as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of mankind, who would die in their place, be buried for 3 days, and rise from the dead to ascend back into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God. We are told that if we have faith in Jesus and his resurrection (faith meaning believing this to be true and submitting our lives to His authority ONLY) that we may have eternal life (John 3:16).
It is incorrect to think that you must be Jewish to be a Christian. So why did God make Jesus Jewish? The best answer is because He wanted to. He's the Creator, we are the creature. God can and does do what He wants to do. Salvation is offered to all nationalities, not just Jews. In fact, many Jews do not believe in Jesus.
Thanks for your question,
Derrick
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? These kinds of questions are asked all the time of Christians and unfortunately the answers aren't always very good ones particularly when dealing with people who have a relativistic truth base and don't believe in absolutes.
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 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. Therefore, all belief systems cannot be true since they often contradict each other in profound ways.
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 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 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), this all becomes incredibly important.
Again, making a claim is one thing. Backing it up is another. Did Jesus also back up His words with His deeds? Yes, He did.
* Jesus changed water into wine (John 2:6-10).
* Jesus cast out demons (Matt. 8:28-32; 15:22-28).
* Jesus healed lepers (Matt. 8:3; Luke 17:14).
* Jesus healed diseases (Matt. 4:23,24; Luke 6:17-19)
* Jesus healed the paralytic (Mark 2:3-12).
* Jesus raised the dead (Matt. 9:25; John 11:43-44).
* Jesus restored sight to the blind (Matt. 9:27-30; John 9:1-7).
* Jesus restored cured deafness (Mark 7:32-35).
* Jesus fed the multitude (Matt. 14:15-21; Matt. 15:32-38).
* Jesus walked on water (Matt. 8:26-27).
* Jesus calmed a storm with a command (Matt. 8:22-27; Mark 4:39).
* Jesus rose from the dead (Luke 24:39; John 20:27).
* Jesus appeared to disciples after resurrection (John 20:19).
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 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 the 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.
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 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, 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. 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.
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.
(taken from www.carm.org)
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