Yesterday we looked at what Christianity is, and answered part one of the question, how is Christianity different from other faiths? (make sure you read that article first). Today we will explore the second point and ask whether or not Christianity is true.
How is Christianity different from other faiths?
Christianity is the only faith that offers a Saviour who has already come into this world.
Many people of other faiths, or no faith, are good people who continue to do wonderful works in this world. Most of them believe that their good works will help them secure a good life.
If they believe in an afterlife, they usually believe that it is their good deeds that will secure a good future after death and make God look at them with favour.
If they don't believe in an afterlife, they do good works to make their lives in this world worthwhile. In a lot of faiths and beliefs, the saviour of the world will come in the future or at the end. Until that day, the person’s saviour from death or a meaningless afterlife is uncertain and absent, leaving the person wholly reliant upon their own efforts for salvation.
In Christianity, God says your good deeds will never be good enough to earn your way to heaven. You need Jesus – a Saviour who is present and entirely independent of what we do and who we are.
While other religions state that you need to do certain things and live a certain way to earn your way to salvation, Christianity says, what needs to happen for you to know God and be saved from death has already been done for you by Jesus Christ. Christianity says that Jesus has done everything necessary for people to have a relationship with God.
Why is it necessary to have a relationship with God? Because this is what God originally designed us for. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon cries out that God has placed eternity in the hearts of man (Ecc 3:11).
Blaise Pascal, a famous philosopher and mathematician, wrote that in the hearts of man is an infinite abyss: an abyss that is filled up with things man thinks will give happiness, things that give way and ultimately do not help. According to Pascal, the infinite abyss in the hearts of man can be filled only with “an infinite and immutable object” and to Pascal this infinite and immutable object is “God himself.” [1]
C.S. Lewis captures the desire that we have for something bigger than this world. He wrote: “Creatures are not born with desire unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well there is such a thing as water…. If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” [2]
God’s original design is for mankind to be together with God. If there is a hole in you that cries there must be something more to this life than this world, then you’re feeling what most of humanity feels. There is something more to life than this.
Is Christianity true?
The only way to find out if Christianity is true is to look into it yourself; and the easiest place to start is to look into who Jesus is.
Remember that Jesus is the only man recorded in history who openly said that he is God and proved it by rising from the dead. Search and test Jesus’ claims. Read not only the Gospel, but books outside of the Bible that can support or refute what you discover. Find out if Jesus is liar, lunatic, or lord, and in this search find out if Christianity is true.
Jesus says: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).
The following articles may help as you begin your search:
- Is there historical evidence for Jesus?
- Does God exist?
- Can I get a witness? The evidence for the resurrection
- Can I trust the Bible?
References:
[1] Blaise Pascal, Pensees #425
[2] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1942)