I'm not saying that Christianity is perfect and undisputed in those aspects, I am simply saying that Christianity can contend for uniqueness and superiority in those aspects better than any other religion or philosophy. I've talked about those things with many people from very diverse religious backgrounds, and there are basically two lines of reasoning that they pursue trying to disprove my arguments. They try to argue that (1) I don't understand Christianity correctly or that (2) Christianity is made up. Let's deal with those objections up-front.

 

First, I have been a Christian for a long time and I have read my Bible daily for almost all of that time. I have some formal training in theology and church history. I have a decent grasp of what of Christians believe and teach now and in the past, as I studied and visited all the surviving historic branches of the Church. If you are going to argue that I am wrong about my own faith, please take the time to build a case against me from the authorities that govern my faith: the synthesis of the Bible on the subject first, councils and creeds next.

 

Second, don't argue that Christianity is made up. This discussion is simply a short journey into comparative study of religions. I'm not trying to disprove any religion or to prove Christianity. I am simply saying that Christianity is different in (at least) the following three aspects that make it unique and superior. I will assume that other religions are true for the sake of argument and compare them on their own terms. I ask you to assume that Christianity is true for the sake of argument, so that our discussion can be profitable.

 

The challenge is simple: if Christianity is not unique in the following aspects, please show me by citing another world religion that widely holds to that particular belief or teaching or demonstrates that feature. I do have one caveat: Judaism is off limits. From my perspective, Judaism and Christianity are in the same stream of tradition.

Control group is a group of people who have anything to do with determining what the religion is. In Islam, the control group is Mohammad's followers who memorized the Koran. In eastern religions, it is usually some enlightened individuals from a priestly cast. Religious writings are critical, because they outlive the founders and luminaries of their respective faiths. Anybody who touches, changes, contributes to, or interprets the religious writings is also part of the control group.

 

A small control group automatically makes any religion or cult suspect. Why should everybody believe ideas about God or gods taught by only a small group? How can we know that those ideas are not contaminated with political ideology that serves the interests and ambitions of that group of people? Sometimes a control group can be large but also homogenized. That is, the members of the control group are basically the same kind of people. They have similar background, culture, language, social and economic status. This is equally problematic. We would expect that if there is a universal spiritual reality, those who sense it could be found in many different locations and in many different cultures and in many different social groups.

 

Christianity has the largest and the most diversified control group. If I could attach a mathematical value to it, I would say Christianity outdoes any other religion or philosophy in this regard by at least a factor of 10. The period of composition and canonization of the Bible spans 2,000 years. The Old Testament is written in classical Hebrew, New Testament in peasant Greek. There are large sections in Aramaic and hundreds of loan words from other languages. The writers of the books of the Bible come from every possible social strata and upbringing. There are kings, priests, scribes, peasants, warriors, merchants, politicians, and businessmen. They lived in diverse political and cultural settings, writing through the imperial rule of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. There is more – I'm just summarizing.

 

The Bible passed through many hands before it even got into the hands of the Church. And even then, it continued to develop in diverse settings. As a result, by the fourth century the Church and its leadership were the most racially, culturally, and socially diverse religious group the world had ever seen (as it still remains). In light of this, it is even more amazing that the ideas about God in the Bible line up, that people who are so different could hold to the same confession. No other faith or philosophy comes even close in comparison. But that's what you would expect! If God is real and He speaks to people, we would expect a similar confession from very different people from all over the world.

One way or another, religion is built around a promise or a set of promises. “If you adhere to our faith, you will get x.” This may be a very simplistic way of looking at it, but please bear with me. If a religion would not promise anything, why would anybody ever want to do it? Religions make a lot of promises. It is usually along the lines of happiness, enlightenment, peace, satisfaction, prosperity, fulfillment, intimacy or unity with God or gods, awakening of higher consciousness. All religions are similar in this regard, and that is probably the main reason why people say that religions teach the same thing. But Christianity is also unique here. It is unique in (1) what it promises and (2) how it promises.

 

(1) The central promise of Christian faith is resurrection. Let me emphasize this, because most don't read the Bible and miss this most critical aspect. The central promise of Christian faith is resurrection. Heaven is secondary – it is simply a place, a location. The central promise of Christian faith is physical resurrection. Jesus conquered and destroyed death by rising from the grave. All Christians will be resurrected in the same way that Jesus was resurrected, into a new and improved immortal physical body (as opposed to perishing body like in reincarnation).

 

(2) Christianity promises this resurrection to all of its adherents. Every Christian will be risen from the dead for eternal life, guaranteed. I'm aware of a large number of people in churches who are openly immoral. I'm just talking from the perspective of the Bible. It guarantees resurrection to everyone who has genuine saving faith in Jesus Christ. God can easily discern genuine faith, and He promised physical resurrection to every person who has genuine faith in Christ.

 

Those two parts make up a truly meaningful promise when we compare this to promises made by other religions. Other religions actually don't really promise you anything. They promise you an opportunity to have a shot at getting something without any guarantees and no good way of knowing when you achieved it or when you will get it. The only exception that I can think of is the 100% promise of heaven to those who die in Holy War or during religious pilgrimage in Islam, but even that is not accessible to all adherents. In Christianity you can get it now guaranteed and know that you got it. Imagine if I promised you $100 for every foot of road that you would pave, but I would only pay you when I decided that you did enough, but I wouldn't tell you when it would be, you just work and wait. Would you work for me? Of course not! Because it is a meaningless promise. Yet, this is essentially the promise of every religion except Christianity.

 

Imagine another scenario. Suppose I promised you 100 schnerkerdeckers for painting my house. What's a “schnerkerdecker”? It's something I made up, you'll just have to paint my house first and then see it. Would you work for me? Suppose I promised you 100 yogurts for painting my house. You wouldn't work for me, because you can buy yogurt cheaper in the store. In Christianity, God promises you resurrection you can't get anywhere else, fully guarantees that you will get it even if you are just a regular person, and on top of that He actually raises Jesus from the dead to show you what it is going to be like. There is nothing of this sort in other religions. What does this tell you about other gods?

Religion tells us about ourselves as much as it tells us about God. Christianity has a unique perspective on human psyche. Christian model understands human person as born cursed and separated from God, hostile towards God and inclined towards evil from birth. There are basically two other models out there that religions pick from to adopt and slightly variate. First is the Hinduism model that understands human person born as a spark of divinity trapped in a constraining physical shell, seeking liberation. Second is the Muslim model that understands human person born as a good Muslim believer that gets misled into falsehood by his non-believing parents, but that person was at first positively aligned towards the spiritual realm.

 

Christian perspective is not found in any other religion, some variation of the other two models is in every other religion. My main point here will be that Christian perspective is true, because it actually corresponds to reality. To be fair, the evolutionary perspective comes very close in its assumption that every human being is deeply and profoundly selfish, a disgrace. How else can you explain human behavior? Review our history: it is a bloody disgrace. Power doesn't corrupt, it simply gives a person an opportunity to express what they always wanted to do but couldn't, what they were always prone to do but wouldn't because others were watching and judging.

 

If people are born neutral or open toward the divine, why is there so much wickedness and bloodshed? Why do infants learn delinquent behavior without a tutor? Why is immorality and hostility common even among the religious people, sometimes even more common? Christianity is pessimistic about human psyche: everyone is inclined toward evil in their natural state. Inclination does not mean determination, but it does explain the situation that we have found ourselves in. Look around. The psychological realism of Christianity is supported by what we see on the news, in history, and the psychological experiments we conduct. The other two models are simply naïve unless we propose that the divine realm itself is wicked.

Religion is an enormous subject, and I confess I have oversimplified things in this article. My goal was to raise the awareness about those issues. I am a Christian, I love my God and my Church. I am not even going to try to pretend to be impartial. I myself know of many objections that could be raised to what I have just said. There are a lot of things I admire about other religions, and there are many adherents of other religions that are my heroes. Yet, I grieve for them and desire with all my heart that they would convert to Christianity, because I know it is real. I believe you, reader, can also know that it is real. You owe it to yourself to investigate those matters in search of your own conclusions. I'm simply trying to point you in a good direction where you can start. Christianity is demonstrably unique and different, fundamentally radical and opposed to the mainstream. Jesus is demonstrably unique and different, fundamentally radical and opposed to the mainstream. Be radical. Be bold.