Q&A Beyond Live: Part One

Hey ACC,

As most of you know, we held our first ever Live Q&A Event this past Sunday at ACC and if you missed it, you need to go and check out the podcast because it was a whole lot of fun.

We received so many questions that we were simply unable to answer them all and as a result, Mike and I thought we would take a few of them and answer them on our blogs.

So without further ado, I'll get to the question I'm going to tackle today. It was actually two different questions that I believe have very similar answers. Here they are:

1. How is the Christian religion different from other world religions?
2. Why Christianity versus other world religions? This is for apologetic reasons

First off, everyone needs something to believe in. People need something bigger than themselves to be a part of, (even if it's a belief in nothing). Our whole life is a search for identity: we're trying to figure out who we are and why we're here. As a result, we have come up with different opinions, but only one of them can be true. For example: Everyone could think that the sky is a different color, (red, purple, aqua), but only those who think it is blue would be true because that's what color the sky is.

In our world that we live in, Christianity is the only true religion. It's the only one that makes sense.

Why, You ask?

It's the only one where God actually saves His creation. In all other religions, man saves himself and if man can save himself, why does he need God?

This guy a long time ago named Pascal thought up something known as Pascal's wager. It goes something like this: He said that if God exists, then people should believe in Him. If they didn't believe, they would be in danger of Hell. If God doesn't exist, then it doesn't hurt to believe in Him while we're alive, so we might as well believe. Get it?

The problem comes along when people try to prove God exists. Most people think that you can point to evolution, or cause and effect, or absolute morality, but it's a lot deeper and more complex than that. Try these on for size:

1. DESIGN - If you were walking around in the forest and stumbled on a Rolex watch, would you think to yourself, "Wow! It's amazing how this watch formed itself from nothing out here in the middle of nature!" No. You would say, "Awesome. Some rich guy lost his watch and now it's mine." But really, you would assume it was purchased at a store that got it from a warehouse where some guy works on an assembly line making them all day long. THE POINT - Things with an intricate design point to a Creator. The universe is intricately designed, who made it? God.
2. COSMOLOGICS - This one is kinda deep. Everything that happens must have a cause, right? Your car moves because you started the engine. The engine started because you had the key turned. The key turned because...on and on. The world and our existence have to have a cause. THE POINT - There has to be a final cause - one thing that started everything - for it all to make sense. In order for it to be final, it has to be perfect, and God is perfect. The Big Bang etc, don't hold up here. If a printing press exploded, do you really think Webster's Dictionary would just form from all of the letters they've got sitting around in there?
3. ENTROPY - Again, deep. :) You learn in High School the second law of thermodynamics (or at least you were supposed to). The amount of energy in something is decreasing - we're moving from a state of order into a state of chaos. That means that at the very beginning there must have been a state of order. So way back when, there must have been perfect order. THE POINT - Chaos now, perfect order at the beginning. Once again, the only answer is God.

Other world religions will cite one of these three main reasons as the very tenets they were founded upon and that's why Christianity must be the only true religion. It is the only religion that even remotely holds up scientifically (take that Darwinists).

Here are some other examples of why Christianity is the one true religion:

1. ISLAM - Allah (god) is a harsh god, a god of judgement. His devotees cannot personally know him. Where then lies the incentive for following him? Our God invites those who believe in Him to be loved by Him and to know Him personally.
2. HINDUISM - If we can work our way to god on our own - through works, knowledge, and devotion - then why would we need god in the first place? And, if you believe in reincarnation, how do you explain the significant growth in population? If new babies being born are the souls of people who die, is no one making it to nirvana (heaven)? Are more souls just being created?
3. MORMONISM - God has plainly said that His book (the Bible) is closed. Revelation 22:18-19. Since most of what Mormons believe is based heavily on their extra biblical book that's full of all kinds of skeptical stuff, their beliefs aren't really founded on anything substantial. Plus, the Book of Mormon has no evidence supporting it, archaeological or otherwise.
4. UNIVERSALISM - Ultimately you would become confused because if truth really is continuing to change like they say, how is it tuth? Truth is absolute. The very definition of it is constancy. Oh and then there's John 14:6.
5. WICCAN - The Wiccan belief system is a reflection of what is a the heart of all sin - the desire to be as great or greater than God. By glorifying the creation rather than the Creator, Wiccans have put themselves in a position where they make all of their own rules. God though by definition is the ONE supreme being. Everyone can't be god. It doesn't work that way. God is the best, the #1 being, so 20,000 people can't be that.

I hope that this helps answer these two questions. For more information, check out these books on apologetics:

• The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel
• Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
• Why So Many Gods? by Nelson Publishing