The Uniqueness Of The Christian Faith
John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
THE BIBLE IS UNIQUE
The Bible was written over a 1600-year span, during 60 generations, over a time-span of 1400 years. The writers themselves were a diverse group of people, not only separated from each other by hundreds of years and hundreds of miles, but belonging to the most different walks of life. In their ranks are kings, herdsmen, soldiers, legislators, fishermen, statesmen, courtiers, priests, prophets, a tentmaker, a physician, and many others.
The Bible was written in a variety of places and customs, during times of war and peace, on three continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek).
Yet, when the Bible is analyzed as a whole, it speaks with amazing unity and harmony about hundreds of controversial subjects about which there are hundreds of opposing opinions.
The writings themselves belong to a great variety of literary types. They include history, law (civil, criminal, ethical, ritual, sanitary), religious poetry, didactic treatises, lyric poetry, parable and allegory, biography, personal correspondence, personal memoirs and diaries, in addition to the distinctively Biblical types of prophecy and apocalyptic.
Being written on materials that perish easily, having to be copied and recopied for hundreds of years before the invention of the printing press, did not diminish its style, correctness, nor existence.
Jews preserved it as no other manuscript ever has been preserved. They kept tabs on every letter, syllable, word, and paragraph. They had special classes of men such as scribes and lawyers within their culture, whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with practically perfect fidelity.
In regard to the New Testament, there are about thirteen thousand manuscripts, in Greek and other languages that have survived from antiquity. No other work from classical antiquity has such attestation.
In substance, the text of the Bible is certain especially in the case with the New Testament. The number of manuscripts of the New Testament is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some form or another of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book in the world.
The Bible has withstood vicious attacks by its enemies as no other book. Many have tried to burn it, ban it, and outlaw it.
GOD THREE IN ONE
The uniqueness of Christianity centers around its view of an absolute unity of the essence of God – that there is only one God and its insistence that within this essence exists three distinct personalities known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Human beings are totally lost and corrupted by sin and no amount of moral living or law keeping, ritual, etc., could possibly earn one's salvation.
The doctrine of the Trinity is utterly unique to Christianity. While other religions have had triads of various sorts, none have held to the idea a strict monotheism with three persons involved. It also implies that God is absolutely independent of His creation.
The God of Christianity experiences unity, love, and relationship within His own Being and thus stands in need of nothing. His act of creating the world was done simply because it pleased Him to do so, not out of any sense of need.
Many religions believe in a God who is incomplete in Himself and who must therefore create a universe with people in order to experience love and relationship. God did not need to create the world. He was not lonely, as is often said. He already lived in relationships of absolute and perfect love in eternity past, before the universe was ever created.
CHRISTIANITY IS UNIQUE, JESUS IS UNIQUE
"The idea that Christianity, or even the Biblical faiths, have a monopoly on religious truth is an outrageous and absurd religious chauvinism." - Rosemary Radford Ruether.
"There are millions of ways to be a human being and many paths to what you call 'God'; ... there couldn't possibly be just one way." - Oprah Winfrey
John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Act 4:12 - “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Christianity stands absolutely unique among the various faiths of the world and it presents each person with the necessity of making a radical choice. One may reject it as false, but the Bible does not leave it as an option that one could include Christianity among the other religions as simply a variety of the same thing.
In this sense the Bible presents Christianity as an absolute antithesis to all other religions. All religions are not the same, and neither are they all striving after the same ends.
The uniqueness of Christianity ultimately depends on the uniqueness of its central figure—the Lord Jesus Christ. The person, work, and life of Jesus Christ stands as irrefutable evidence against the secular world view and all the religions of the world regardless of their makeup. Some try to place Christ among the great religious leaders of history, as one among many.
No one else is qualified or capable to meet the needs of fallen humanity or restore that which was lost by Adam in the fall of man.
Another unique feature of Christianity is that its founder claimed to be God. Of the great religious leaders of the world (Buddha, Moses, Zoroaster, Lao Tzu, Mohammed) only Jesus claimed to be God in human flesh.
Christianity is unique among religions in the way in which God has revealed Himself in the world. Central to Christian belief is the view that God the Son took a genuine human nature and became a man. Unlike all other religions, historic Christianity affirms that God came to the earth in human flesh.
The Bible makes the claim that Jesus Christ is both God and Man. As God, He created all things. As Man, He was sinless and came as the sinless substitute to die for mankind’s sin. But the declaration of Scripture and the evidence of His life affirm that He was not half man and half God, but totally Man and totally God united in one Person.
Jesus Christ was unique in that He alone, of all who ever lived, was both God and Man. The New Testament teaches the fully unified deity and humanity of Christ.
Jesus is God as much as He is Man. He is not just an agent of God, not just a persona through which God exercises and communicates His will at the fleshly level. He is fully God and fully Man at the same time in all respects except sin.
No other religious leader has ever seriously made such a claim for no other could support it by their life. His life is unparalleled in beauty, scope, character, and effect. No one ever spoke like Jesus Christ, did the things He did, or made the claims He made.
SALVATION
In regards to salvation, the New Testament is clear that humans are sinners and that God's justice demands retribution and punishment for sin. While the normal human reaction is to rebel against such a notion, justice demands the punishment of sin.
Non-Christian religions have a system of salvation that depends ultimately on the achievements of the person who practices the religion. Whether it is through keeping rules or meditation or other actions, the good deeds and works of the individual are given as the cause of salvation.
This is seen most clearly in the popular notion that if one lives a good life and treats people well then they will be admitted into heaven or be accepted by God.
This is exactly the opposite of what the Bible teaches. Christianity asserts that a person can do nothing to merit, earn, gain, or secure salvation for themselves.
No amount of religious activity or good deeds is sufficient. It demands that in order to be saved from the coming wrath of God one must bow before God as one's Creator and as an utterly helpless sinner seeking forgiveness. That is, one's autonomy and independence from God must be renounced. One must believe that Jesus is God and trust Him alone for salvation.
Salvation, then is a free gift, given via faith to those who cease to trust in their own efforts at salvation and bow before Jesus as Lord, God, and Savior, trusting in His finished work on the cross. Even this faith is itself a gift of God. Christianity is unique in its concept of God and of salvation and offers this gift to all who will respond.
Christians maintain that the Christian faith is true and that the sacrificial death of Jesus is the basis of genuine salvation. Thus, other religions cannot deliver genuine salvation.
God's standard for meriting salvation would be a life of absolute perfection. That is impossible for anyone to achieve.
The Bible itself claims to provide a comprehensive framework for the interpretation of all reality. It insists that all other faiths are attempts to suppress God's truth and to avoid acknowledging the real God. To this the Biblical writers conclude that all must repent and be born again, giving up their idols to follow Jesus Christ.
Men reject Jesus Christ, His birth, miracles, and resurrection not because of a lack of evidence, but because they have either never really researched the evidence with an open mind, or they do not want to submit to His authority and claims.
They approach history with a preconceived notion and then adjust the evidence accordingly. In other words, before they even begin their historical examination they have determined the content of their results.
Many historians approach history with certain presuppositions and these are not historical biases but rather philosophical prejudices.
Of all the religious figures throughout history, and throughout the world, Jesus is unique.
The truth is Christianity happens to be unique among the world’s religions for several important reasons. Jesus Himself is a figure of history. Christianity therefore is a historical faith, and its truth claims can be evaluated by examining the facts and testimony of history. None of the other religions of the world can claim this kind of historical support. Other religions like Buddhism and Islam claim miracles in support of their faith, but unlike Christianity, these miracles lack historical verification.
The Christian faith is virtually unique among the world religions in that it is rooted in history and thus makes crucial claims which are historically verifiable such as Jesus' death and resurrection.
NATURAL LAWS
The Christian faith is unique in that it can account for the vast array of phenomena like the laws of science, the universal laws of logic, ethical norms, love, meaning in life, and, of course, the problem of evil. So to state it philosophically, the Christian faith corresponds to the present state of affairs.
FAITH
Galatians 3:7 - Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
It is unique among religions in that its followers are defined by faith rather than by adherence to a prescribed code. Christianity begins with faith, and any moral or ethical decision follows from that.
THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS
The manner in which Jesus taught was unique.
The vivid parables Jesus used when teaching, are masterpieces of communication. Parables stand at the heart of His teaching style. By drawing on the lifestyles of people to illustrate the truths He wished to convey, Jesus communicated truth and refuted error.
While the use of allegories and parables themselves was not unique, the manner in which Jesus employed parables was decidedly unique.
Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers. He also confounded those who attempted to trick Him. His responses silenced His critics.
The authority of the teachings of Christ, place Him alone in the category of absolute truth. The truthfulness of Jesus and His teachings stand on the validity of historical records which are subject to investigation and examination.
All other beliefs are based on the teachings and ideas of those who were nothing more than mere men. No matter how brilliant, charismatic, or powerful they may be, there is no guarantee of their objectivity, accuracy, or ultimate ability to deliver what they have promised.
His Birth
Only the virgin birth can give an adequate answer to the phenomena of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. He was not only supernaturally anticipated but He was also miraculously conceived.
His birth was, of course, the most unique birth in all of human history. Though ancient mythology was filled with tales of demi-gods who were supposed to be the progeny of lustful unions between women and gods (demons), there was nothing even close to the narrative of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Christ’s birth stands alone in history. By the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, God Himself took up residency in a virgin’s womb in embryonic form so that after a natural nine-month pregnancy, Mary gave birth to a Son who was also God’s Son. He was both true and genuine humanity and undiminished deity united in one Person forever. No other birth was like this in fact or fiction.
As a result of this unique birth, Christ was able to bypass the curse of sin so that He was uniquely qualified as the sinless One to both go to the cross to die as the Lamb of God and to reign on the throne of His father David as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
His death
The death of Jesus is also unique, not because He was crucified, but because it was foretold long before His death by crucifixion.
It is unique because of the manner in which He died, displaying his sinless and holy character.
His death is also unique because of the miracles surrounding His death—the darkness, the earthquake, and the opening of the graves. After seeing Christ on the cross and the events of that day, the Roman centurion who had seen hundreds die on a cross was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God.
In His death on the cross, Christ accomplished God’s purpose for the salvation and reconciliation of all mankind. He bore the sin of everyone in His sinless body on the tree.
His resurrection
The resurrection of Jesus proved His authority over sin and death. Other religious and philosophical leaders have come and gone, risen and fallen, but none have come back from the dead to carry on their work as did Jesus Christ.
This too is unique, not only because Jesus Christ stands alone in this respect, but also because of the Old Testament predictions and the incontrovertible evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection - the empty tomb and His post-resurrection appearances to hundreds of people who witnessed these appearances.
By His resurrection, God proved the value of His Son’s death and the sinlessness of His Person.
His ascension
The Bible teaches that after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus ascended to heaven in bodily form. Just like his entrance into this world, Jesus’ departure was also miraculous.
Jesus ascended bodily into heaven from which He will return in the same literal body to reign in this world.
His claims
Jesus made some outrageous claims no ordinary person would dare to make.
He claimed to be God. His statements of equality with God meant He believed that He possessed the authority, attributes, and adoration belonging to God. He proclaimed authority over creation, forgiveness of sins, and life and death. He declared to possess the attributes of God. He emphatically stated that He was the source of truth and the only way to eternal life. Only Jesus among the significant leaders of history made such claims.
Jesus accepted and encouraged others to worship Him. Throughout the Gospels the disciples worshiped Jesus.
Because of His claims to be the Son of God, many may accuse Jesus of being insane.
However, when one studies the life of Jesus, He clearly does not display the characteristics of insanity. The abnormalities and imbalances evident in a deranged person are not there.
Jesus was continually challenged by the Pharisees, lawyers and highly educated men whose modern day equivalent would be a present-day university professor. They were fluent in several languages and were known for their scholarship of the Old Testament and Jewish law.
They challenged Jesus with some of the most profound questions of their day and Jesus' quick answers amazed and silenced them. In the face of tremendous pressure, He exemplified the greatest composure.
For these reasons, the lunatic argument is not consistent. In view of Christ’s mighty words and works, and the perfect and sinless person men found Him to be, the claims He made cannot be dismissed. In view of the historical evidence, one cannot dismiss Christ’s claims as those of a mad-man or reject Him as a fraud.
Modern skeptics try to attribute His miracles and claims to simply the character of His life. But they do this simply because of their prejudice against the truth and against the miraculous, not because there is a lack of bona fide historical evidence.
His miracles
Jesus made some profound statements about His divinity. His miracles demonstrated His power over creation, sickness, and death. He demonstrated His authority over nature in such miracles as walking on water, multiplying bread, and calming the storm.
From His very first miracle in Cana of Galilee, the ministry of Jesus was marked by its miracles.
These were not healings of delusional illnesses, nor were they explainable on natural grounds.
They were unique in that they were immediate, always successful, and had no known relapses. Jesus healed people of illnesses that were incurable by medicine.
He demonstrated authority over sickness with His instantaneous healings over terminal diseases. His healings did not take weeks or days but were instantaneous.
He healed blindness, paralysis, leprosy, and deafness.
Such miracles cannot be attributed to psychosomatic healing but to one who rules over creation.
During His ministry, Jesus exercised His authority over death by raising several people from the grave.
There are many religions and religious leaders who claim to know what lies beyond the grave. The problem is, no one has demonstrated authority over the grave or confirmed their belief of what happens after death. Only Jesus demonstrated authority over death. All men have died, but Jesus is alive.
The Word
Christ is the Word. The Bible tells us that God the Son, Who is the Word, became flesh and dwelt with men on earth.
He is expressly declared to be The Word of God. Other prophets received the messages of God, but Jesus, in a unique way, is Himself the message of God to the world.
Key to understanding the title is the emphasis of deity as its source. The Word is from God. He Himself is the communication and revelation of God to men. He does not merely bring the Word of God, He is the Word of God.
The title signifies two unique things about Jesus and distinguish Him from all other prophets of God:
• Every word of Jesus was the Word of God. All the prophets who went before Him spoke the Word of God when moved by the Holy Spirit, but in general conversation their speech was entirely their own.
• Jesus Himself is God's final message to mankind. Being the Word of God, Jesus Himself is the final and complete revelation of God to the human race.
Jesus Himself is the Word of God in human flesh. There is no independence, therefore, between God and His Word. In human form Jesus embodied the divine being. He was not a created messenger. He is, and for all eternity will be, the eternal Word of God.
His character
Christ’s character was unique in other ways. To a perfect degree He manifested the best of virtues. His willing submission to the suffering and death by crucifixion, while He maintained love and forgiveness toward those who crucified Him, is proof of this virtue.
He alone lived perfectly what He taught. He did not retaliate against His enemies. Instead, He forgave them.
Jesus was the perfect example of patience, kindness, and compassion. He had compassion on the multitudes to the point of weeping over Jerusalem.
He was a perfect example of humility, to the extent of washing his disciples’ feet.
Prophecy
Fulfilled prophecy is a unique feature of Christianity. The coming of Jesus Christ was prophesied in minute detail regarding His lineage, nature, place of birth, where He would be raised, His career, purpose, the specific manner and nature of His death, His resurrection, and many other fulfilled prophecies. All these prophecies were made hundreds of years before His birth.
The Old Testament contains a number of messianic prophecies made centuries before Christ appeared on the earth. The fact that He fulfilled each one is a powerful testimony that He was no ordinary Man.
Skeptics have objected to the testimony of prophecy, stating they were written after the times of Jesus and therefore fulfill themselves. However, the evidence overwhelmingly shows these prophecies were clearly written centuries before Christ. It is an established fact even by liberal scholars, that the Old Testament canon was completed by 450 BC.
These prophecies were confirmed to have been written centuries before Christ, and no religious leader has fulfilled anything close to the number of prophecies Jesus has fulfilled.
There are around a hundred prophecies in the Old Testament that have been fulfilled by Jesus.
Jesus Christ was unique in every way. From His complete deity to His perfect humanity, from His miraculous conception to His supernatural ascension, from His impeccable character to His incomparable teaching—Jesus stands above all other religious or moral teachers.
