Saturday, 11 August 2007

What defines Christianity?

A short post

Assuming you are talking to some pre-believer friends about God and they ask:

What defines Christianity? What sets it apart from other 'religions'? what makes Christianity the right way and others the wrong way?

If you were to look at other religions you would see something similar of sort, they all promise almost the same thing, do good, and get a good "afterlife" , based on a set of morals set by some  god. they all seem like they could be possible ways to attain salvation of sort....

You can run through the lists, Buddhism, you got this karma concept where you do good so you have good things happen to you, you die, you reincarnate, you continue doing good until you attain this so-called nirvana state

Islam, work out your salvation through your works etc...  want an instant passport to heaven? go and be a martyr, or suicide bomber... jihad... and, they also have this single all powerful God, the same God of Abraham , as the Jews and Christians have

What therefore sets us apart as Christians?
The answer?

The Resurrection of Jesus. No other religion ever had its religious founder die and rise again, all of them died eventually...
if the resurrection was a lie, we Christians would be the most pathetic people of the lot...

The resurrection showed that God had truly come down in the form of Man to die for us

We unlike other religions, have our salvation paid for , we are saved by Grace alone

and we cannot earn our salvation, the bible tells us that our good deeds etc, are deemed filthy rags in front of God, because He is holy , we are sinful...

we as such can have a living relationship with God, because Jesus has paid the price, our sins are washed as white as snow, because of what He has done on the cross

We have a God who is both just , and loving and merciful.

The resurrection of Jesus, that God came down in the flesh and died on a cross , laid in the tomb for 3 days before rising again , is what sets Christianity apart...

Taken from what I heard in church today, God bless

In His Love
Emil

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