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You're saying that Jesus is the only way to God. But don't all religions teach basically the same things?
Only Christianity, of course, teaches that Jesus is the only way to God-and that is one very important difference between it and all other religions.
Others, you see, are basically philosophies of life. They consist of moral teachings and views of the world around us that their adherents believe are right and true. Christianity also gives us a philosophy of life, but it says something more: it says that man is sinful and separated from God, that so long as he remains that way he cannot enjoy God's friendship, and that the only way that friendship can be restored is for the sin to be erased and man to be made righteous. It also tells us that the only way sin can be erased is by believing in Jesus. No other religion recognizes these things about Jesus.
How do you know Christianity is true but all other religions are false?
One way to find that out would be to examine the teachings of all religions to see if they are logically consistent and describe reality accurately. But that endeavor would take years to complete. There's a much faster way.
Christianity offers evidences for its truth. If those evidences show Christianity to be true, and if you find the teachings of Christianity to be internally consistent with each other, then you can know that Christianity is true. Then it's quite simple: whatever contradicts what is true is false. That's a simple application of what Aristotle called the law of contradiction in logic: two statements cannot both be true if one contradicts the other.
That sounds awfully intolerant to me. Why can't you tolerate other religions?
It's not a question of toleration. We believe all are free to worship God, or not to worship Him. as they believe is right. Christianity does not claim that people should be forced to believe in Christianity.
But you insist that only Christianity is true! That's intolerant!
It's no more intolerant than insisting that whoever says two plus two equals anything but four is wrong. Toleration isn't a matter of what's true, it's a matter of what's permitted. Christians permit people to believe as they wish. They just say that some beliefs are false, others true.
Isn't Islam compatible with Christianity? I've heard that Muhammed, who founded Islam believed he was simply teaching pure Christianity.
Jesus taught that He was God, and His followers repeated that teaching; Muhammed denies that. The New Testament teaches the doctrine of the Trinity-that the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit are all the same God, though they are distinct Persons-Islam denies that. Christianity teaches that Jesus came to die for our sins, and that salvation comes through faith in Jesus, but Islam denies all these things. For Islam, “Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, was no more than an apostle of God” (sura 19:92. part of the Quran, the holy book of Islam).
Why shouldn't we believe Muhammed's words about Jesus instead of Christianity's?
What Christianity believes about Jesus comes from His own words about Himself and from the words of His closest followers. Muhammed's words about Jesus came some 600 years later. Which would you be more confident in?
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