Where Does Christianity Fit With All The Other Religions?

Teen Our Daily Bread

WHERE DOES Y T I N A I T S I R H C L L A H T I W T I F THE OTHER RELIGIONS?

INTRODUCTION T

he world offers us a lot of stuff to believe in. From meaningless existence to reincarnation or life after death, you can live your life for loads of different faiths, causes and religions. So how do we know Christianity has it right? Can we mix the religions up a bit to suit what we want? Can we know for sure that Jesus is the answer?

These Our Daily Bread Teen Edition articles will help you start getting your head round why Jesus is the only way, what the danger is of mixing religions and how we can share our beliefs with others who may have a totally different perspective on life.

Come and check it out for yourself . . .

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Romans 4:4-8 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

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7 ‘Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.’

MISTAKEN CONFIDENCE It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed . . . but with the precious blood of Christ (1 PETER 1:18-19).

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once heard someone say: “Almost every religion talks about a saviour coming. When you look in the mirror in the morning, you’re looking at the saviour. Nobody else is going to save you but yourself.”

As Christians we know this isn’t true. Not only do we know how bad we are at changing and saving ourselves when things get messy—but we know the Bible says there is a Saviour! Peter said this about Jesus: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (ACTS 4:12).

In Romans 4, we have clear teaching that it is by trusting in Jesus, not by what we do, that we can have a new relationship with God: “To the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness” (ROMANS 4:5). And we read in Romans 3:28, “We maintain that a person is justified by faith [not by] the works of the law.”

There is no way for us to save ourselves—not by what we do or what we have. Only Jesus can change us and make us brand new.

Make no mistake, we can be saved only by Jesus, who lived a sinless life, died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins and came back to unending life.

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What I’m thankful for . . .

Thank You, Jesus, for saving me. I know there is no other way for me to be right with God. You alone have done it!

I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME. JOHN 14:6

Acts 17:16-34 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market-place day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’ Others remarked, ‘He seems to be advocating foreign gods.’ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.’ 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

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Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

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24 ‘The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 “For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.”

29 ‘Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.

30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.’ 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed.

Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

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RESPECTING OTHER RELIGIONS The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful (2 TIMOTHY 2:24).

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n Acts 17 we see an example of how to respect people with other beliefs, without feeling guilty or changing our own beliefs.

When Paul came to Athens, he was upset by the statues and images of fake gods he saw all over the place. But he talked with the people there kindly, even using the words of some of their own poets (ACTS 17:28). He didn’t tell his listeners off or make them feel bad. He didn’t criticise what they believed. He simply talked about God’s greatness (VV.24-25). He said that God is actively working in each of our lives so that people will look for Him themselves and find Him (VV.26-28).

Paul didn’t change the truth to make things easier for himself. He stuck to what he knew of God from His own relationship with Jesus, confidently telling everyone to turn to Him for themselves. He said that God has given Jesus to be the judge of the world, and proved this by bringing Him back to life (VV.29-31).

In our schools and on our streets, we meet more and more people with different religious beliefs. Our relationship with Jesus will stand out most clearly when we avoid arguments, and simply share what we believe with kindness and gentleness.

Then we can pray for God to help the people we meet understand who Jesus really is for themselves.

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To pray about . . .

Thank You, Father, for making Your plan to save us so clear. Help us to remember just what Jesus did, to live in thanks and to share the truth of who He is with the people we know.

ALWAYS BE PREPARED TO GIVE AN ANSWER TO EVERYONE WHO ASKS YOU TO GIVE THE REASON FOR THE HOPE THAT YOU HAVE. BUT DO THIS WITH GENTLENESS AND RESPECT. 1 PETER 3:15

Matthew 7:7-11 ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

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‘Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

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POWER OF PRAYER Everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (MATTHEW 7:8).

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twelve year old Cambodian boy named Lem Cheong began to question his family’s religion. He had been taught that anyone needing guidance should go to a temple and shake a box of numbered bamboo sticks until one fell out. The priest would then interpret the meaning of the number. But this didn’t satisfy Cheong’s need for clear answers. It still left him feeling like something was missing in his life.

According to Harold Sala in his book Touching God, Cheong asked his uncle, a priest, if he had ever had a prayer answered. The man was shocked by the boldness of his nephew’s question, but he admitted that he couldn’t remember a single time one of his prayers had been answered.

Later Cheong asked a Christian if God had ever answered his prayers. The man retold many stories where God had clearly heard and answered his prayers. Cheong was so impressed that he accepted Jesus as his Saviour that day. Since then, prayer has become central to his life.

Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (MATTHEW 7:7). Christian prayer is powerful because God is the living and true God who hears and answers. Nothing can stop Him! VG

To pray about . . .

Thank You, Father, for giving me what I need. Help me to trust that You will provide, even when Your answer seems long in coming.

THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE ON THE RIGHTEOUS AND HIS EARS ARE ATTENTIVE TO THEIR PRAYER. 1 PETER 3:12

Zephaniah 1:1-6 The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah:

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‘I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,’ declares the Lord. 3 ‘I will sweep away both man and beast; I will sweep away the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea—and the idols that cause the wicked to stumble.’

‘When I destroy all mankind on the face of the earth,’ declares the Lord, 4 ‘I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem. I will destroy every remnant of Baal worship in this place, the very names of the idolatrous priests—5 those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molek, 6 those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor enquire of him.’

Zephaniah 2:1-3 Gather together, gather yourselves together, you shameful nation, before the decree takes effect and that day passes like windblown chaff, before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s wrath comes upon you. 3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.

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AND IN TRUTH In his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing (ZEPHANIAH 3:17).

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went to a wedding where two people from different countries got married. Such a mix of cultures can be great, but this ceremony included Christian beliefs mixed with beliefs from a religion of many gods.

Zephaniah clearly rejected the mixing of other religions with trust in the one true God. The people of Judah worshipped God, but they had also started to rely on the fake god Molek (ZEPHANIAH 1:5). Zephaniah described how they had started to copy the ways of the countries around them who didn’t know God (V.8), and warned that as a result God would remove the people of Judah from their homes.

Yet God never stopped loving His people. His judgement was to show them their need to turn back to Him. So Zephaniah encouraged Judah to “Seek righteousness, seek humility” (2:3). Then God gave them kind words promising a future rescue: “At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home” (3:20).

It’s easy to judge obvious examples of ‘mixed’ religions, like the wedding I went to.

But in reality, all of us easily blend God’s truth with the way people around us live and think. We need the Holy Spirit’s guidance to test our beliefs against the truth of the Bible. And then to stand for that truth confidently and with love. Our Father welcomes anyone who gives up all other gods, religions and ways to follow Him alone (SEE JOHN 4:23-24).

TG

Thinking it over . . .

When you are in trouble, where do you turn? Problems often show us where we put our trust. Do you bring your problems to God first? Or is there something or someone else you’ve ‘mixed’ into your dependence on God?

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. MARK 12:30

2 Timothy 3:10-17 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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PICK ‘N’ MIX From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 TIMOTHY 3:15).

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ashing up different religions and spiritual ideas can be very popular. You might even have friends or family who like to Pick ‘n’ Mix what they believe in. I’ve listened to some celebrities, for example, who do meditations on their ‘inner-goodness’, follow some of the things Jesus said and then also hope to come back to life as another person when they die. In the end, they say, it doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as you feel good and become a ‘good’ person.

One researcher who looked into this trend described it as “tailor-made religion”.

This is dangerous ground. Real Christians know that Jesus is the only way to God (ACTS 4:12), and that the Bible is the only place to find out about who He is and what it means to follow Him (2 TIMOTHY 3:15-16). All beliefs must be based on the Bible’s truth—not on how nice they sound. Sure, sometimes the truth in the Bible is hard to hear—but that doesn’t make it any less true. If we only listen to teaching and ideas that make us feel good, we could end up following a lot of dangerous lies.

Don’t trust Pick ‘n’ Mix beliefs. Make your focus and your confidence all about Jesus, and test everything against what the Bible says. Then you can’t go wrong.

DB

Thinking it over . . .

How easy or difficult do you find it to think about how the Bible relates to your dayto-day life? How often do you read it and test what you hear against its teaching?

THERE IS ONE GOD AND ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MANKIND, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. 1 TIMOTHY 2:5

FOCUS ARTICLE

AREN ’T ALL RELIGIONS JUST THE SAME THING REALLY?

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group of us were set a really hard algebra equation to solve at school.

After ten minutes, we’d all come up with different answers. We couldn’t all be correct—or could we? Truth is what you make it, right?

We could have decided, “Let’s agree to disagree on this. We’ve all got the answer that works for us.” But we’d all have failed our exam, because not one of us had worked out how to solve that equation properly. There was a correct answer; real, solid, actual truth.

Maybe it’s no big deal to fail a maths exam. It’s a different thing entirely when it’s something your life depends on. That’s when you need the right answer! That’s how it works with the world’s religions. They each say there is one right answer (or truth) behind our world. And our lives do depend on what that truth is.

Why religions are not all the same

Buddhism says we need to escape this world and join Nirvana—a perfect ‘emptiness’ free from suffering. The way to do this lies within our ability to ‘blow out’ our desires. But Christianity says that none of us are good; we are selfish and anti-God. One says, “We are the answer” while the other says, “We are the problem.” Can both be true? They are complete opposites!

Islam says Jesus is one of many prophets. Yet Christians say He is actually God Himself. Jesus can’t be God and not-God at the same time!

Buddhism says there is no god out there, just Nirvana. Christianity and Islam both believe in a God who made all of us. And Christians believe God made us to look and be like Him. He knows our names and wants us to be part of His family.

It is hard to see an abstract force and a personal, involved God as pretty much the same thing.

All the religions out there are like the different maths answers my group came up with at school. Only one can be right. But how do we know which one?

Finding the truth

All religions, including Christianity, have their sacred texts and teachings. But what makes Christianity stand out is its claim that God actually came to earth to make the truth clear. This God-man was called Jesus, and He was unlike any other religious leader who has ever lived. So what makes Jesus different?

Jesus said He was God: The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus said He was God and also “one” with God the Father. His Jewish listeners were so offended by this that they tried to kill Him, shouting, “You, a mere man, claim to be God” (JOHN 10:33).

Jesus said He was the only way to heaven: Jesus told His friends: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father [to God and therefore heaven, his home] except through me” (JOHN 14:6). Some people think all religions get you to heaven in the end. But Jesus says very clearly that He is the only way.

Jesus said He would die and come back to life: Jesus told His followers that He was going to be executed, but that three days later He would come back to life. Jesus said He was going to die to pay for our rejection of God, and all the pain we cause along the way. His promise to come back to life was to be the start of a new life with God for everyone who trusts Him.

What’s the evidence?

Jesus’ death: Tacitus (c.56-117AD), a Roman politician wrote that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Jesus was beaten and whipped until He could barely stand. Then He was nailed to a wooden cross through His hands and feet.

Once He suffocated under His own weight, the guard stabbed Him to make sure the job was done (because if a prisoner lived, the guard would be killed instead!).

The empty tomb: Jesus’ body was put in a guarded tomb with a huge boulder rolled over the entrance. Yet after a couple of nights, the tomb was empty. The authorities claimed Jesus’ friends sneaked past the sleeping guards, rolled the massive boulder away and stole the body. Apparently the guards saw Jesus’ followers (despite also being asleep!). Jesus’ friends said He had come back to life (MATTHEW 28:11-14). The point is that everyone at the time agreed the tomb was empty.

The eyewitnesses: “[Jesus] was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive” (1 CORINTHIANS 15:6 NLT). The people who had met Jesus after His death were around for questioning when the news of the resurrection was spreading. Yet the Roman Empire and the Jewish authorities never proved the resurrection of Jesus to be fake. Not a single witness cracked under threats and torture to say “We made it up.” And these were not trained SAS soldiers. They were fishermen, tax collectors and everyday people like us.

Jesus’ followers: When Jesus was on trial, His scared friend Peter denied knowing Him to save his own skin (MATTHEW 26:69-75). But after Jesus’ tomb was empty, Peter stood up in front of the crowds of people who had screamed for Jesus’ death, saying: “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it . . . God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and [our Saviour]” (ACTS 2:32,36).

What had changed to make Peter so brave? He knew that Jesus was alive.

The number of Christians only grew, even though they were hunted, beaten and killed. They were so convinced by the resurrection that they were ready to die for their belief.

Are all religions the same thing?

Each religion has entered a different ‘postcode’ into life’s GPS. No matter how confidently you follow one, or none at all, what happens if you find out the destination isn’t what you thought it would be? We need to know the truth now.

The evidence is there in the Bible and other historical texts that Jesus really is God. He lived up to His claims and even came back from the dead. If there is anyone we can trust to “prepare a place for [us]” in heaven (JOHN 14:1-3), it’s Jesus. He warned that anything other than trusting Him is “the highway to hell” (MATTHEW 7:13 NLT).

Because doing anything else is to ignore God after He has made Himself known! It would be like me ignoring my teacher and following my own ‘truth’ about how to solve the equation. No matter how confident I would have felt in the exam, I’d still have failed it. In Jesus, God has made Himself known!

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