I was working in my office when the phone rang. The caller was from Japan. Would I be willing to travel to Izumi, near Osaka, to teach some young people about the Bible? Here’s the back story.
Some curious high school students asked one of their teachers, “You’re not a Buddhist, are you?” He told them he wasn’t.
“But your parents were?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Then why are you not a Buddhist?”
The teacher explained, “When I asked my parents why they were Buddhists, they said it was what their parents believed. That wasn’t good enough for me, so I looked at all the religions of the world and picked the best one.”
“And that is—?” they asked.“Oh, I’m not telling,” he said with a smile. “You’ll have to do your own research.”
So they did. A dozen students spent months examining the major beliefs, and all came to the same conclusion. “It’s Christianity, isn’t it!” they told their teacher. And they were hungry to learn more. I never had a more eager audience.
Now, in order to be a Christian, you don’t have to believe everything is wrong about other religions. Obviously they must have their good points or people wouldn’t follow them. But Christians do believe that, where Christianity fundamentally differs with other beliefs, Christianity is correct. Otherwise, why be a Christian?
But I had a question for my Japanese friends. Since I grew up in a Christian home, and sometimes in my youth wondered if I just believed because my parents did, I wanted to know what they discovered that made Christianity so different.
Now they didn’t mean complicated rituals or mere lip-service often called Christianity today. They meant trusting the simple message of Jesus found in the Bible. They said they found four unique facts about it.
First, they noticed Christianity provided evidence in history to authenticate its truthfulness. Many prophecies given over hundreds of years were fulfilled by Jesus in His life and death. That couldn’t be found anywhere else. Paul explained it was “the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ” (Rom 1:1-3).
Second, only Christianity allows us to be honest with God about our sins. In other religions (and many brands of Christianity), you have to pretend you’re good (even though your heart tells you otherwise) because they teach heaven is gained by being good. No, said Jesus, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mt 9:13).
Third, and most shocking, only Christianity offers a Savior. Not merely the best Savior—any savior at all! All other religions are do-it-yourself propositions. Contrary to the popular misunderstanding, Christianity doesn’t offer to help those who help themselves. It offers salvation to the helpless. “When we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6).
Fourth, only Christianity offers an immediate change of status. No need to wait till you die to find out if you picked the right one—a bad arrangement! “We knew it was true,” my Japanese friends told me, “as soon as we believed!” Just like the Bible promises: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Christianity can’t compete because there’s no competition.
Religion Page article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch on Sunday, Jun 20, 2021.