Different Religions
There are thousands of different religions around the world, and the purpose of this page is to outline how the major religions differ to Christianity. It must be said on the outset that it is not our intention to offend or critisise other religions; our goal is merely to point out how they are different, and what makes Christianity unique. No matter which religion you believe in, it is helpful to be aware of the other religions that are around, so that when we cross paths with people of other faiths, we can reason with each other, instead of pre-judging and accusing one another.
A Brief Overview of the Major Religions
Judaism
Judaism is one of the oldest religions around. The defining moment of Judaism was when Moses led the Isralites out of slavery in Egypt, into their 'Promised Land', which is modern day Israel. God led the Isralites to victory in numerous battles against a variety of foes. The writings of God's prophets, teachers, historians, and poets were compiled into what the Jews call the Torah - and which is also considered to divinely inspired by both Christians and Muslims.
Jews believe in one, all-powerful God ('Yaweh' or 'Jehovah'), who created the whole universe, and who sees everything. They believe that all other 'gods' are actually fakes. The Jewish religion revolves around holiness - being 'clean' or sinnless in God's sight. Jewish priests had to perform animal sacrifices to make the people clean - and the sacrifices were not permanent, they had to be done over and over again, every time a person sinned against God. They also have many religious festivals, the most significant being 'Passover', the time when God passed over the Isralite homes but entered the Egyptian homes to kill their firstborn children.
There were many Jewish prophets, and they usually prophesied doom and gloom for Israel (because the nation kept turning away from God). All of their prophecies came true, every time! Some prophets, Isaiah in particular, spoke about the coming of a 'Messiah', or saviour - who would be God in human form, and would save the Isralites from ther enemies. Christians believe that Jesus was this Messiah (and Jesus fulfilled the endless list of prophecies about the Messiah), but the Jews do not recognise Jesus as the Messiah - instead they crucified him (although please note that this took place two thousand years ago - so there is no reason to condemn modern day Jews for this action). To this very day they are still awaiting the coming of the Messiah.
Christianity
Christians, on the other hand, believe that Jesus was actually the Son of God, the Messiah, or 'Christ', who was prophesied hundreds of years before. A Roman ruler, Herod, made an attempt on Jesus' life when he was born, but failed. Jesus grew up like a normal child, but even when young, he had an uncanny appetite for spiritual matters. When he was thirty years old, Jesus was baptised, and began to travel around Israel, teaching the people about God and performing numerous miracles. However, despite being popular with the people, Jesus was despised by the religious leaders, the 'Pharisees'. The Pharisees conspired to have him crucified (executed) by the Romans, without a trial. Three days later Jesus rose from the dead, and appeared to his followers, and later ascended to heaven. Read more about the life of Jesus.
However, the death of Jesus was not just a terrible tragedy - Jesus himself said that the reason he died was for us - to pay for our sins and make us right with God! Christians are people who have made a descision to accept Jesus' payment for their sins, and to follow Jesus. Christians believe in the same God as the Jews, but the method of reaching God is different. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, they have direct access to God - they no longer need a priest to act as a mediator. Also, becoming a Christian involves being adopted into God's family, so that he treats us like his children! Christians believe that salvation is a gift from God, and their gratitude to God motivates them to live holy and loving lives.
Unfortunately there is a common misconception among Christians that salvation must be earnt (as for the other religions) - and often these Christians offend or frighten people away because of their rules and rituals. Some Christians have also been guilty in the past of another wrong - spreading violence and war in the name of Christianity (especially during the Crusading period), when Christ taught us to 'love our neighbour'. But a distinction must be made between the people who believe in a religion, and the ideal of that religion, which is often perverted through people's misunderstandings or selfish motives.
Islam
Islam begun in Arabia in 622 B.C.E.. A prophet named Mohammad had a series of revelations from God, delivered by the angel Gabriel, and wrote this knowledge into the Koran (Qur'an). Muslims, like Christians, claim to continue the Jewish tradition, so they believe that much of the Old Testament, or the Torah, was divinely inspired. They believe in one, omnipotent God ('Allah'), and 'Islam' means literally 'sumbission' to Allah. They pray many times a day, and perform lots of religious ceremonies, in a effort to appease Allah - who they believe is angered by unholiness and rebellion. They do not believe that Jesus came to bring us the gift of salvation, but that he was 'just a prophet'. Find out more about what Muslims believe.
Mohammad was originally a peaceful caravan-trader, but underwent a change of attitude after his revelations, and used force to overthrow his Arabic opponents and elevate himself into leadership. The newly founded Islamic faith served to unite the peviously divided Arab factions, and Arab armies then quickly conquered and converted large parts of Asia by the sword, as well as parts of Africa, the Middle-East, and Europe. They captured Jerusalem, which they believe is where Muhummad ascended to heaven, and therefore is considered holy by them.
However, Muslims did not always convert conquered nations by force, a common misconception today. Religious communities were often (but with notable exceptions) allowed to live under Muslim rule, with restricted rights, and under the condition that they pay a yearly poll-tax. They could practice their own religion, but were never allowed to convert other Muslims. Christian pilgrims were even allowed to travel from Europe to Jerusalem for centuries, and missionaries sometimes came to try (unsucessfully) to convert the Muslims. Saladin was revered as a great tactician, but he was also a great diplomat. The primary mission of the Muslim is to subject the entire world to the rule of Allah - to make the government or leadership Muslim. Converting each person is only a secondary mission.
Islam is split into two main streams; the 'Shi'ite' and the 'Sunnite' sects. The radical Shi'ites saw no problem with using violence and terrorism to promote their beliefs - and they still do today. There are some countries where Muslims still persecute and kill Christians for their faith, even today. They were hostile not only towards Christians, but primarly towards orthodox (Sunnite) Muslims. Sunnite Muslims considered the Shi'ite to be heretics, and a more dangerous threat then the crusaders. Fortunately the Shi'ites only make up a small minority of Muslims, but they are still out there, and they use the very same scriptures as other Muslims to promote their beliefs. Muslims cannot deny that there are Qur'anic passages which encourage violence and conquest, with the ultimate goal being the subjection of all humanity to Islam. There have always been and will always be violent Muslim sects, even if they are the minority group. See the article The Different Faces of Islam. But yet again, we must not pre-judge the whole religion just because a minority give it a bad name.
Hinduism
Hinduism origionated from an ancient Indian tribal religion. There are now many variations of Hinduism, but most of them have several things in common. They believe in hundreds of gods, each controlling different facets of life, and these are worshipped in the hope of gaining their favour. Hindus believe in the accumulation of divine merit, or 'karma' - they gain karma by going good deeds and lose karma by doing evil. They believe that humanity is locked into an unending cycle of death and reincarnation, where souls are born as a 'higher' or 'lower' creature (eg: a ghost, an animal, a human, or a 'god') depending on the karma they have accumulated.
Some Hindus believe that all the different gods, people, animals, and everything else which can be experiances in the world, are really all experiances of one and the same universal being, the 'Supreme Being', 'Brahman', or 'God'. In other words, when we observe that objects in the universe appear to be seperated, we are observing an illusion, because according to Hindus, they are all distortions of a unified reality - like the many colours of light, which can all be obtained by splitting a ray of pure white light. This belief leads to the conclusion that everyone is 'God' in themself! The ultimate goal of existence, for a Hindu, is to be adsorbed back into the Supreme Being (an experiance known as 'nivarna').
This type of religious belief is called pantheism (everything is God), and directly opposes the monotheistic (there is one personal God) religions that we have looked at so far. However, the Hindu traditions are often full of rituals, ceremonies, and prayers to all the 'gods' - with few Hindus discovering the pantheistic philosophy that lies beneath.
Find out more about what Hindus believe, what the Bible says about reincarnation, and read a comparison between Christianity and Hinduism.
Buddhism
Buddhism is closely related to Hinduism, and shares the Hindu beliefs in karma and reincarnation (called 'rebirth' by Buddhists). Buddhists believe that there is an endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth. They believe that each person accumulates karma as they do good and bad deeds, and that when the time comes for them to be 'reborn', their karma will determine whether they become a human, an animal, a god, a ghost, or a hell-being. This cycle of death and suffering goes on for eternity, and the only way to escape it is to reach enlightenment, called 'nibbana'.
Buddhism began in about 400 B.C.E., when a monk named Siddhartha Gautama (later given the title 'The Buddha' meaning 'The Enlightened One'), claimed to have found the way to escape the cruel cycle of rebirth. He recognised that the human race is afflicted with suffering, and believed that human desire (wanting things) is the primary cause of this suffering. The Buddha taught that to stop suffering, one must eluminate all one's desires - eventually desiring nothing at all, not even enlightenment! Then you are not bothered by anything 'bad' that happens - because to Buddhists, suffering is a mental reaction to events, that can be prevented. Buddhists link 'desire' to 'karma', so if you have no desires then you produce no karma, and so you are no longer reborn upon death, but instead you are merged with the universal 'force', called 'Nibbana' (basically you cease to exist as a unique person).
To achieve Nibbana, Buddhists go through a strict pattern of learning, perfecting their conduct, and intense meditation. This means their lives become more 'moral', as westerners might say, but the goal of a Buddhist's 'moral' life is not just for the sake of doing good - but rather so that they can have better luck in the short term, and in the long term so that they can reach enlightenment. An enlightened Buddhist (before he dies) ends up having no good or bad desires for anything or anyone!
As with Hinduism, there are several main streams of Buddhism - some Buddhists practice a very ritualistic religion, worshipping hundreds of 'gods' and performing lots of symbolic ceremonies. Other Buddhists believe that these gods are not real 'gods' in the sense of the word - they are just very powerful, but imperfect, beings, who were once humans like you and me! None of them believe in a single, supreme God. Some forms of Buddhism focus on just the philisophical and theoretical ideas - without any meditation, rituals, or prayers. Although Buddhism origionated in India, most Buddhists are now found in China, Japan, and Tibet.
Read A Five Minute Introduction to Buddhism , and frequently asked questions about Buddhism.
New Age
The new age movement is sweeping through the western world. It originates from eastern religions such as Buddhism. Read a brief overview of New Age Spirituality.
How is Christianity Different from all the Other Religions?
Do all religions believe in God and Jesus?
It varies. Mostly, other religions do not worship the God of the Bible. True Buddhism has a life-force ('nibbana'), not a god. Hinduism has thousands of 'gods', which all origionate from the universal god. However, this supreme 'god' is not a personal God like the God of the Bible, but is more like a 'force' which includes and sustains everything. Islam has 'Allah' as their God, but he is not the compassionate, loving, and forgiving God of the Bible. Allah demands of Muslims that they live a strict religious life in order to please him - in contrast to the forgiving God of the Bible. Often, Muslims follow Allah because of fear rather than love. The God of the Bible is the only 'god' who offers to enter into a personal relationship with us - he promises to adopt us as sons so we can call him Father, if we simply believe in him. This makes him unique.
However, many of the worlds religions have a lot in common. Most religions believe that some kind of God created the universe. Many have a flood story. Why? Because it actually happened. Hinduism and Islam both believe that Jesus lived and was a messenger from God, but they refuse to accept that he is the way to salvation.
People often accuse Christians of being arrogant in their claims to know the 'truth'. Christians do not claim to be any better then other people, but simply know where to find truth amongst a world of confusion. If we do indeed know the truth about God, and if that truth will affect the eternal destiny of every human being, then it is our responsibility to tell others so they can know it too! Our attitude is "all I am is a beggar, showing other beggars where to find food." We know that all we need to do to get to hell is nothing. It is to get to heaven that we have to do something, ie. we need to trust in Jesus.
How is Christianity different from all the other religions, regarding sin?
Sin means disobeying God, or doing wrong, and sin happens. We often expect others, especially Christians, to be perfect, and it is hard to accept that they are not. Sin is enjoyable. But sin destroys. It always has a cost and we pay for it in the long run - sin separates us from God, and ultimately leads to hell. God is gracious and extends love and mercy to us, but for how long? Most people leave it too late to face up to sin. There are two ways of dealing with sin:
- Accepting what Jesus has done to free you from sin. Only Christianity teaches this.
- Work your way to heaven by earning merit. This is the way of all other religions.
Jesus taught that the second way is actually impossible, because we will never live up to Gods perfect standard of holiness. No matter how good we are, we can't erase our past sins. Jesus' message to us is that the very reason he came to earth was to pay the penalty for our sins. Only through Jesus can we be right with God. (see John 2, Romans 3) All other religions teach that a person must earn their salvation through good works. Also, please understand that Christians in no way say that we should not try to live rightouesly, but simply that we do so in response to God's grace. Read more about what it takes to get into heaven?
Why do Christian missionaries go to other countries when those people have religions already? God has been everywhere so hasn’t He already been to those countries?
The short answer is, they don’t need religion, they need Jesus. They don’t need religious rules, they need a relationship with God through Jesus.
The Bible tells us to go and tell all the nations about Jesus. Those peoples have their own religions, but they have not heard about Jesus. Many religions teach people about God, but they don't help people to get to know God personally - and Christians believe that this is the only way to heaven. Jesus (God in human form) is unique. Only He is the way, the truth, the life, and none come to God except by him. There is only one mediator between God and man, and that man is Jesus Christ. Therefore Christians want to let everyone know about this incredible man, Jesus, and what he has done for us.
Only Jesus claims to be Saviour. Buddha, Mohammad, and other religious figures never claimed to be the Son of God, nor did they claim to die for our sins. Only the Bible teaches that we are saved by God’s graciousness to us, rather than by us doing good works. Only the Bible teaches salvation through faith alone. Other religions don’t provide this - they try to balance bad actions (sin) with good actions, but never does God himself deal with the issue of sin - except in Christianity.
Are you forced to believe in a religion?
No. It is wrong for leaders to force you to "believe what I say". Some religions use wrong methods to teach people or impose terrible penalties for stepping out of line.
Compare that with the truth in the Bible. "Test Me, says the Lord." We are authorised to test the scriptures to see whether something is true. The Holy Spirit, not people, will teach us what we need to know. It would be pointless to follow a religion if it is based upon lies, so you are invited to look at the evidence, determine what is true, and believe for yourself. The truth will set you free.
What is our attitude to questions?
We are encouraged to examine faith, question it, and be sure of it. This is important, and different to other belief systems where persons are discouraged from questioning, and even expelled for doing so.
So how can people in other religions reach God?
The Bible says that anyone truly seeking God will find Him. There is the story of the African native who thought about God, and this led him to discarded the village spirits in favour of a Creator God that he thought must be there. Expelled from the village, he lived on a nearby hill. Moslem missionaries came and spoke with him, but after their discussions he said, no, your god is not like my God. Later Christian missionaries came, and this time he listened and said yes, that’s my God.