Below is my answer to the 5th most popular question at my local High School, “Why should I be a Christian instead of any other religion?
In my last article I gave some of the evidence that I believe points towards the existence of a higher power. But as we saw, this didn’t exactly bring us any closer to figuring out who or what that higher power was. In fact I actually went as far as suggesting that unless this higher power decides to reveal itself to us, we have no way of knowing anything about it at all. All we can do is speculate and therefore your guess is as good as mine!
Roller Coaster Religions
So if this is true why should you be a Christian instead of following any other religion? In fact why should you follow any religion at all? Aren’t all religions ultimately just someone's best guess at who God is? Let’s take a quick roller coaster ride of the four biggest world religions and see:
Buddhism (4th): began around 600 BC when the Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama (now called the Buddha) had a moment of enlightenment while sitting under a Bodhi tree.
Hinduism (3rd): doesn’t really have a founder, but traces its origins back to the 1500s BC when nomadic tribes from Persia settled in India bringing with them their traditional beliefs.
Islam (2nd): was founded by Muhammad in the 600s AD when he claimed to have spoken with an angel who told him he was the final prophet of God.
Christianity (1st): began in 33 AD when Jesus Christ claimed to be God and rose from the dead to prove it.
Jesus Reveals God
Christianity is unique amongst the world’s religions because it is the only one that claims God stepped into human history in a tangible way and performed miracles to back it up. Every other major religion hinges on the words and experiences of men; Christianity hinges on the belief that God revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ.
When Jesus was asked by one of his disciples to show them God, this was his response:
“Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” (John 14)
Jesus claimed that anyone who had seen him had seen God and then suggested we look at his miracles as evidence that he was telling the truth. The ultimate miracle was his resurrection from the dead.
Comparisons
So how does this compare with other religions? Neither the Buddha, the Persian nomads nor Muhammad ever performed any miracles, yet each claimed to know the truth about the higher power.
Jesus not only claimed to actually be the higher power, he also demonstrated it through his miracles. In fact even Jesus’ enemies acknowledged he possessed supernatural powers. For example the Babylonian Talmud (a Jewish Law book) describes Jesus as a ‘sorcerer’, and Josephus (an ancient Jewish historian) called him a ‘doer of wonderful works’. The point is, Jesus claimed to be God and then did things that only God could do. Christianity is not a collection of morals & advice dreamed up by a first century Jewish peasant, it’s a robust allegiance to a man who rose from the dead and now reigns as Lord of the universe.
I believe you should be a Christian for two reasons:
1) Unlike every other religion, Christianity is not based on human guess-work. It centres on the worship of the God-man Jesus Christ as the one who not only reveals the higher power but also connects us back into relationship with him.
2) Jesus claimed that he was the only way to the Father (John 14:6), and that unless we repent of our sins and follow him we will perish (Luke 13:3).