Is Christianity
One Among Many? 

A Role Play Skit

Challenging Friend: So why do you think that Christianity is true but not some other religion like Buddhism or Islam?

 Christian Youth: Well first, because the foundation of Christianity is Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus first claimed that all of God's promises were fulfilled in him (Luke 4:17-21). Now, if Jesus was a prophet of God, as the Qur'an teaches, or if he was a good teacher, as most religions acknowledge, we really must consider the implications of his claims. In the end Jesus proved that he was the Son of God by fulfilling hundreds of prophecies, by his sinless life, by his miracles, and ultimately by his resurrection from the dead. Buddha and Muhammad both admitted their sinfulness, performed no miracles, and both of their bodies lay in their tombs today. The tomb of Jesus is empty. Therefore when Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me,” (John 14:6) he speaks from the authority he demonstrated over life and death and every other spiritual matter.

 Challenging Friend: Well, I think Jesus may have been a great religious leader, but don’t all religions basically teach the same thing?

Christian Youth: Well no, Christianity is not actually a religion at all like the others. Although it has many external features in common with some religions, the point at which it differs with all religions is the idea that we can establish or maintain a right relationship with God by our good works.

The key thing to understand is that a relationship with God is very different from a "do-your-best grading scale." Everything changes when we speak of a personal relationship rather than an impersonal relative standard. Imagine a husband coming home from a business trip and saying, "Honey, out of the ten times that I could have been unfaithful to you, nine of ten I was faithful." It just takes one choice to break a relationship, which can never to be the same again. The separation that follows is the natural consequence of sin. In the same way, when we sin against God we are separated from Him and there is no sense in trying to make up for our willful wrongdoing with "good works" like the husband who tries to buy off his wife's pain and hurt with some act of bribery.

Challenging Friend: So it sounds like you are saying there is nothing we can do to restore a broken relationship with God.

Christian Youth: It has been said that while all the world’s religions can be defined by the word "do", Christianity is described by the word “done.”  Jesus accomplished everything that ever needed to be done to restore us to God by dying on the cross for our sins.  What remains is to humbly receive God’s gift by faith.  The Apostle Paul summarized Christianity in this way, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).