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Other religions – the big differences

“The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.”
– D. L. Moody

“When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.”
– Arab proverb

We need to understand the big differences between biblical Christianity and every other religion (including apparently ‘Christian’ cults):

• Other religions do not believe that Jesus Christ is both God and man.
• They believe that the way to salvation (whatever they understand that to mean) is in trying to do good things and avoiding bad actions. So they see it as earned, not free.
• ‘God’, as they understand him, is distant and usually angry rather than loving. No personal relationship is offered. In some religions (including New Age) ‘god’ is seen as a sort of force within the physical universe, instead of being the creator and life-giver beyond space and time.
• They have no firm promise of forgiveness and eternal life.
• They have no understanding that God offers people a new and changed life by placing his own power inside them through his Spirit.

So we can see that all other religions are ‘self-effort’ – people struggling to do the best they can with their own strength. Of course, there are true and commendable things in other religions such as their teachings on standards of human behaviour. We can agree with these things and find common ground for our discussions. Other religions do not offer an inner power to fulfil such requirements. In this sense, the Gospel is the true fulfilment of the aspirations and hopes of other beliefs, and can be presented in this positive light, rather than “you are wrong, we are right”. This is in no way to condone religious pluralism.

Learn more about other religions at World Religion Index and see CARM for what c’tts believe.

What’s different about Christianity?

The unique aspects of Christianity are:

• God loves his creation, especially people.
• He has made a way for people to escape the human problem we are all born with – self-centeredness and sin.
• He sent his Son Jesus to be born as a person, so that:
   – we can see and understand what God is like.
   – He could pay the punishment we deserve. If Jesus had been only a perfect human person, his death co’td only pay for the sins of one other human. If Jesus was God but not also a true man, he co’td not really die. But because he was completely God and completely man, his life was of sufficient value to pay for all the sins of everyone, ever. (That’s why his mother Mary was a virgin – because he had human and divine parentage.)
• Because there is nothing we can do to deserve God’s goodness, or in any way pay for the things we do wrong, everything we receive from him is free. That’s what ‘grace’ means. All that we can do is ask, trust, and receive. He promises us a place with Him for ever, which we do not deserve and can never earn!
• Everything we can do for God flows out of the fact that we are already accepted by Him. We cannot earn any more acceptance or love from him, because we already have it, 100%. Wow!
• Jesus actually understands the pains, problems and temptations we have, because he suffered them too.

Few people outside the Christian community have any grasp of these issues. It is important to understand how non-Christians view us.

Sensitivity to other religions

• Never criticize someone’s beliefs.
• Be positive – share what Jesus gives you in your life.
• If speaking with Muslims, use their words: ‘Isa Masih’ for Jesus Christ, ‘Injil’ for New Testament.
• Some Orthodox Jews prefer not to spell God’s name in full. So do the same when writing to them: G-d. To all Jews, it is better to refer to Jesus as Y’shua or Yeshua. There is big need to reach Jewish people online.
• It is important to understand that Islam, for example, is a ’shame-based' culture.

Understanding modern thinking and other religions

The ‘worldview’ in the West today is secular postmodernism which does not believe in absolute values. Mixed with it is a considerable amount of New Age belief, which has much in common with Buddhism. We need to understand these if we are to communicate with people around us.

• Learn more about other religions at World Religion Index and cults at CARM
• Reaching multi-cultural–communities – advice from CCC
• Effective Evangelism – includes sections on different religions

Read more

related pages within the ‘Finding faith’ menu links