Christianity vs. World Religions

Christianity vs. World Religions

Some preliminary thoughts:

• Determining the truth or falseness of Christianity or world religions has nothing to do with educational level.

• Determining the truth or falseness of Christianity or world religions has nothing to do with where one was born, or what system of religion our parents brought us up in.

• All religions are not the same.

“Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions but also a caricatured view of even the best-known ones. Every religion at its core is exclusive.”

Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods, p. 7


Has God revealed Himself in non-Christian religions?

• There are many good non-Christian people whose convictions and morality exhibit principles common to all religions which they learned from the faiths they believe in and practice.

• How can this be that non-Christian religions often reflect the wisdom and morality that is also characteristic of the Christian faith?



• Three different ways in which we can identify God’s influence:

General revelation.

Human conscience and moral awareness.

Some of the “truth” of world religions reflect a preservation of some of what God has revealed in the past.



• The answer to this question must be “No!” but this doesn’t mean that God’s influence has not been felt.

• But God cannot be known in the sense of knowing who He is, knowing His character, knowing His mind, and knowing His will for human beings through world religions.

• World religions are a result of this continual need to seek after the divine, but being guilty of diverging from and grossly distorting the knowledge of the true God.


What makes Christianity unique and exclusive?

• Its uniqueness is found in Jesus.

Jesus is truly an historical character who made some extraordinary claims.

He proved these claims by being resurrected from the dead (Jn. 2:18-22; Rom. 1:3-4).

He not only preached a message He required people to follow, He was identical with the message (Jn. 14:6).



• Its exclusivity is found in Jesus.

In spite of all efforts to try to harmonize all religions into equally legitimate routes to the divine, following Jesus does not allow this.

Jesus made it clear that the only way to God was through Him (Jn. 14:6).

The apostles showed they understood the exclusive nature of their message (Acts. 4:12)



• Its exclusivity is found in Jesus.

In spite of all efforts to try to harmonize all religions into equally legitimate routes to the divine, following Jesus does not allow this.

This salvation provided by Jesus is for all mankind (Jn. 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:3-4; Acts 17:30).

All people are obligated to Jesus to come to Him since all are going to be judged by Him (Jn. 3:36; Acts 17:31).



Jesus!

Christianity vs. World Religions

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