Ever wonder what makes Christianity so different from the other major world religions? Christianity is so different many Christians deny it is a religion at all. Of course it is a religion: it consists of a set of doctrines and practices centered around a divine figure, the triune God. But, what makes it different from the other religions?
C. S. Lewis said what makes Christianity different is grace. The God of Christianity is reaching out to man. All other major religions are about man reaching out to God. I think there is a second major difference. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul argues for the resurrection of Jesus as an objective truth.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
I teach a class on apologetics and many of the posts on this blog are dedicated to Christian apologetics. Apologetics is simply putting up a good defense for the Christian faith. The reason we don’t see classes on Hindu apologetics or Buddhist apologetics, or even Muslim apologetics is that Christianity is based on a particular historical event, the the fact of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity also makes truth claims that can be tested logically and historically. Eastern religions wouldn’t think of making such claims or basing their beliefs on an event in history or even claim their faith is true. Christianity invites investigation (2 Thess. 5:21).
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical event. Paul says so in the passage above. In fact, the Jesus’ resurrection is the best documented event of ancient history. We have no fewer than six eyewitness testimonies of the risen Christ from Matthew, Mark, John, Paul, James, and Peter passed down to us to this day. These men saw Jesus tortured, John himself saw Jesus die (John 19:26) and they all saw Him raised from the dead. Nearly the complete New Testament is written by eyewitnesses to the fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection; all but Luke, Acts, perhaps Hebrews, and maybe Jude. All the other books were written by witnesses to the resurrected Jesus Christ.
There is an unbroken chain of Christians who shared this truth from Paul to the person who told us about Jesus, and Paul argues the resurrection is absolutely true – corresponds objectively with reality. How do we know the apostles believed it was true? According to church tradition, all but John died a violent death, many were tortured for days. Despite this, none denied the truth of Jesus’ deity or His resurrection.
Bartholomew was skinned alive all the time telling those torturing him of Jesus. Andrew was nailed to an “X” shaped cross and took three days to die. He preached Jesus and His resurrection to the assembled crowd who came to watch him die. Thomas was run throw with a sword while preaching about Jesus in India and finished his sermon. Peter was crucified upside down after first watching his wife be crucified. Paul was beheaded.
Why is this important?
The truthfulness of Christianity is the reason non-believers challenge it. You can’t challenge something which has no logical or historical foundation. Only Christianity is based on this sort of evidence. So, when someone asks you for reasons why you believe, asks you to defend a particular teaching of the Bible, take heart. They would and could never make such a challenge of any other world religions. Only Christianity has these types of critics because Christianity claims to be true can invites challengers to prove it wrong.
I’ve been asked what it would take for me to give up my faith in Jesus Christ. I always answer, “Prove to me Jesus did not rise from the dead as described in the Bible.” Sometimes they will say that’s not fair. Those were all biased writers: they were all Christians. My response to that objection is “If you saw a man who claimed to be God die a horrible death, pronounced dead by a centurion whose job it was to pronounce people dead, then see the dead man walking around three days later, wouldn’t you be a Christian too?
Believers Armed and Dangerous 