What Makes Christianity Unique?

Did you know that there are approximately 4200 religions in the world? These can be categorized into several main religions. These include Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, although Roman Catholicism is often categorized under Christianity. There are many smaller yet still prevalent religions, such as the Baha’i faith. That’s a lot of religions to check out if you wanted to know which religion stands out from all the others as possibly being true. And if you wanted to compare one religion with another, what criteria or particular aspect could you use that would separate the “probable” from the “improbable”?

Let’s briefly take a look at the following …..

BIBLICAL PROPHECY

Biblical Prophecy is evidence Christians hold to validate the Bible’s claims of Divine inspiration. Prophecy is defined as a Divine declaration of events yet to pass. As natural man is unable to foresee future events, prophecy would be an acceptable evidence of Divine inspiration. The Bible, written by at least 40 authors over a period of at least 1,500 years, is comprised of 66 books. These 66 books claim to contain over 1,000 Divinely inspired prophecies.

One aspect differentiating the Bible from other religious, historical or inspirational works is this: throughout the Bible, future events are predicted with verifiable accuracy. If the Bible predicted the future (what biblical writers call prophecy) to the extent that it cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence, then the source of this book can only be an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God who chose to speak His word through individuals for his purposes and design.

And at the Bible’s epicenter is Jesus Christ, who fulfills more prophetic proclamations than any other person. During his lifetime, Jesus fulfilled close to 300 prophetic forecasts, many of which were written hundreds of years before his birth. Mathematically, this is a statistical impossibility.

Do other religious works include the same prophetic content? The answer is no. The writings from the Far East, the teachings of Confucius, Buddhism and Hinduism do not even make a claim to be God’s word. They present to their followers a path to a simpler, more satisfactory life. The Muslim Koran makes no claims to being words from Allah. Rather it is the writing of Mohammed, a religious leader, his record of history as well as his desire for the future. But has any prophecy in the Koran come to pass? Only the Christian Bible claims to be God’s very word to man and only the Bible contains the verifiable track record of prophetic fulfillment as evidence of its claims. Biblical prophecies are batting 1000. No other religious group or religious writings can make the same claim.

If you would like to take a detailed look at Christian Biblical Prophecy the following links provide additional information:

bible-101-prophecy-fulfillment-in-the-bible/
accordingtothescriptures.org/prophecy/353prophecies.html
are-there-over-300-messianic-prophecies-4/
jesus-fulfill-prophesy/
does-prophecy-fulfillment-support-the-reliability-of-the-bible/
prophecies-of-jesus-old-testament-prophets-and-the-messiah/

And here is another unique aspect to consider …..

THE UNIQUE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST

Unique and unlike all other religions, Christianity does not exhort man to reach up to God and grasp hold of Him through their own efforts. Christianity is the only religion where God reaches down to man. And while other religions are systems of do’s and don’ts to appease God; Christianity is about the reality of a relationship with God. Christianity also looks to the Bible as the singular source of Truth. And most importantly, Christianity is based upon truly the most amazing event in all of human history—the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. Undoubtedly, the most important distinguisher between Jesus and all other religious leaders is His literal resurrection. Both Buddha and Muhammad got sick and died. Every other religious leader in history has died—and remained dead. No one claims otherwise about those leaders, not even their followers. But when it comes to Jesus, however, the message is different. Not only did Jesus claim to be God, He accurately foretold His death and resurrection. The followers of Jesus throughout the centuries have claimed that after his crucifixion, Jesus conquered death and was made alive again.

If you would like to take a detailed look at the evidence for the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the following links provide additional information:

a-dozen-evidences-for-the-resurrection-of-jesus/
risenjesus.com/top-10-myths-about-jesus-resurrection
reasonsforjesus.com/risen-historical-evidence-jesus-rose-dead/
hbu.edu/news-and-events/2016/06/03/primary-sources-jesuss-resurrection/
reasonsforjesus.com/the-resurrection-of-jesus-38-scholar-quotes/
the-evidence-jesus-resurrection-part-1-why-this-matters/
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-2-how-to-do-history/
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-3-fact-1-jesus-died-by-crucifixion/
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-4-fact-2-the-empty-tomb/
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-5-fact-3-the-postmortem-appearances-to-the-disciples/
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-6-fact-4-and-fact-5-the postmortem-appearances-to-paul-and-james
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-7–reasoning-to-the-resurrection
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-8-some-unanswered-questions
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-9-probabilities-and-plagarism
the-evidence-for-jesus-resurrection-part-10-conclusion

And finally, although this sample of unique aspects of Christianity is far from complete, the following should also be considered…..

There is no other religion on the face of this planet that can match the mountains of evidence that exist for Christianity. From the voluminous number of ancient manuscripts, to the very early dating of the documents written during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses (some only 15 years after Christ’s death), to the multiplicity of the accounts (nine authors in 27 books of the New Testament), to the archaeological evidence—none of which has ever contradicted a single claim the New Testament makes—to the fact that the apostles went to their deaths claiming they had seen Jesus in action and that He had come back from the dead, Christianity sets the bar in terms of providing the proof to back up its claims. The New Testament’s historical authenticity—that it conveys a powerful and truthful account of the actual events as they occurred—is the only right conclusion to reach once all the evidence has been examined.

Worthy is the Lamb! Blessings!