Christianity is the best religion in the world. We believe this quietly every day. Why? Why are we so confident that Christianity is the best religion? That’s a question that eventually comes to every believer’s mind.
In multicultural America, many different religions claim to know the way to the true God. We have Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and native religions here in North America and South America, and even in the deep Amazon rainforest, they have their tribal gods. It seems that archaeologists are always discovering another ancient temple and another ancient god. So, what makes Christianity stand out from all of them, when the fact is that some of these religions are older than Christianity?
But here are four ideas to think about.
1. Relation to Other Religions
Christianity is better than all other religions because it provides a credible explanation for why other religions exist. I don’t mean this proves Christianity, but that other religions don’t catch Christianity off guard.
Christians are not surprised by the existence of many other religions. These religions are not a threat to Christianity; rather, they fit into the biblical worldview. They are what one would expect if Christianity is true, and they do not hide it. Instead, Christianity explains and clarifies other religions, showing why they exist and what they are. C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” Through Christianity, the existence and perceived inferiority of other religions make sense.
It doesn’t work the other way around; Christianity does not make sense to other religions. The claims of Christianity don’t fit into their worldview. Paul said in Romans 1: 20-23, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (ESV).
No other religion in the world has anyone who is comparable to Jesus Christ. He alone reconciles us to God
The apostle Paul said in Romans 2:15 that the law of God is written on everyone’s heart. He said in Romans 1:32 that all humans know the basics of right and wrong behavior and what deserves death. Those three truths are the makings of all other religions. (1) I do not live up to what is right; (2) I deserve death; (3) And religion is man’s effort to devise a way to gain favor with that deity.
2. None Like Jesus
Secondly, Christianity is superior to all other religions because Jesus Christ is the ultimate, unmatched standard for why Christianity surpasses them. No other religion has anyone comparable to Jesus. “He was in the beginning with God,” and he “was God” (John 1:1–2). He took on our human nature and entered real history.
Now, this is the incredible part; listen to how Luke describes the setting of his arrival.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas . . . (Luke 3:1–2)
In other words, these are names as real as Theodore Roosevelt’s or Winston Churchill’s. We know these people from historical sources outside the Bible. It’s the incredible mix of the supernatural truth in Jesus with the completely natural, historical context of his life that makes him so unique. He lived for three decades; he taught like no other man; he died at the hands of real Roman officials; he rose from the dead — not like a ghost, but with a new body that could eat fish and pass through doors. He reigns today at God’s right hand. He’ll return again in great glory.
There is no other religion with such a God-man who lived in this world as if it were just next door, just yesterday. There’s nothing mythological or make-believe about it — that’s unique.
3. Support from Eyewitness Testimonies
Christianity is better than other religions because those historical realities were recorded by eyewitnesses and others who knew them. There are thousands more manuscripts and fragments of these writings, as well as more locations and earlier centuries, than any other historical work of similar age. Currently, there are over five thousand, and new ones are still being discovered. We possess a vast amount of manuscript evidence that confirms the earliest eyewitness testimonies.
That is why we can be sure that anyone, anywhere in the world who trusts in Jesus, the God-man, as their savior from sin will be saved from the wrath of God.
One of Islam’s claims is that the New Testament’s depiction of Jesus and his way of salvation results from corruption and alterations over time. The issue with that claim is that they cannot point to any earlier manuscripts showing a different picture. They simply do not exist. While many minor differences exist among historical manuscripts, that’s true. However, there is no existing contemporary account of Jesus Christ claiming he was not divine, that he did not die for sinners, or that he did not rise again. These do not exist. Islam’s claim has no historical backing.
4. Hope of Eternal Happiness
Christianity stands out among all other religions because it uniquely offers a path of salvation that provides the only hope for eternal happiness for sinners who know they don’t deserve it. No other religion features God himself—manifested as a real, mortal human—coming into the world to die for his enemies and to bear the punishment he must impose to be just. This is not only breathtaking in its uniqueness but also incredibly good news for a guilty world. Anyone, anywhere in the world, who trusts in Jesus, the God-man, will be saved from their sins and God’s wrath.
Christianity is not a man-made religion created to help people make themselves acceptable to God — that effort is hopeless, which is why all other religions will not bring anyone eternal happiness. All other religions lead to dead ends. Christianity is the true story of what God has done that we could never accomplish ourselves: bearing our rightful condemnation through Jesus’s death and bringing us to everlasting happiness in His presence. That’s what He has done.
In non-Christian religions, worshippers bring sacrifices to their gods. Christians accept Christ’s sacrifice, which has already been accomplished, paid in full.
The difference is monumental
The greatest shout ever proclaimed was that which Jesus made before He died and was resurrected: “It is finished!” meaning the price for sin has been paid in full.
That is why Christianity is the best and greatest religion.
Dr. Robert Bryant