The Uniqueness of Christianity

THE UNIQUENESS OF CHRISTIANITY

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

         Every religion has some truth to communicate and it is indeed a valid path to the divine. Just as different streams and tributaries flow towards the sea and so many branches are held together by the roots, so too we could say the same for so many religions. Thus in all this, what is the place of Christianity? Is it just like one among the many religions that we have? What is its unique contribution?

            Before we could try to answer this question, let us first try to understand whether there is a God? Reverend Randy Alcorn, founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries in Oregon sometimes presents his people with two creation stories and asks them whether it matters which one is true. These are basically classified into the secular and Christian account. In the secular account, the creation story goes thus, “You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach three and a half billion years ago. You are the blind and arbitrary product of time. You are a mere grab – bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist as a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe.  You are a purely biological entity different only in degree but not in kind from a microbe, virus or amoeba. You have no essence beyond your body and at death you will cease to exist entirely. In short, you came from nothing and you are going nowhere.” On the other hand, the Christian account of creation is as follows, “You are the special creation of a good and all powerful God. You are created in His image, with capacities to think, feel and worship that set you above all other life forms. You differ from the animals not simply in degree but in kind. Not only is your kind unique, but you are unique among your kind. You Creator loves you so much and so intensely desires your companionship and affection that He has a perfect plan for your life. In addition, God sent His only Son that you might spend eternity with Him. If you are willing to accept the gift of salvation, you can become a child of God.”

            One may want to think that this is no different from other creation stories. But perhaps, it is not so. What makes the Christian account of creation so unique is that God created everything out of love. Yes, it is love that is the driving force behind everything that exists and this is what brings me to the point of the uniqueness of Christianity.     

            In his comparative study of major religions, Hudson Smith lists some critical differences among them. Buddhism does not have a concept of the afterlife or God. There is only one other religion that Christianity entirely embraces as divine revelation: Judaism. Christianity views itself as superseding Judaism while Islam views itself as superseding both Judaism and Christianity. Islam considers Moses and Jesus as prophets and Muslims even endorse the concept of Christ’s virgin birth but they do not regard Christ as the messiah and they do not believe that He was crucified or resurrected into heaven.

            For most religions, it is the human person who must take the active role, that is to say, it is the human person that must take the plunge and make all kinds of sacrifices in order to attain eternal bliss or reach God. But such is not the case with Christianity. In Christianity, it is God who comes down to the human person which is very evident from the life of Jesus as mentioned in the Gospels. Thus, what is derived by effort is supplied to us by grace. When we learn to confront our pride, we realize that we don’t have to do anything to earn our heavenly reward. In fact, there is nothing we can do to earn it. All we can do is acknowledge ourselves before God as we are. It is like a farmer ploughing and keeping the fields ready for the rains in order to reap a good harvest. So when we see around us the decay of our life, where every earthly hope of redemption has failed us, when those whom we love cannot help us, when we have tried everything and there is nothing else to try, when we have tossed our last log on the fire and all the embers have flickered out, it is at this point that God’s hand reaches to us, steady and sure. All we have to do is take it. This is the uniqueness of the Christian message.

            Despite this point to substantiate the claim for the uniqueness of Christianity, we could still ask ourselves, “Why a person who is not a Christian should be concerned about Christianity or about putting an end to Christianity by talking or trying to disprove its claims and teachings?” There are three reasons for it,

1.     Christ is the most influential figure in history. Any list of world – transforming individuals would no doubt include Moses, Buddha and Muhammad. But Moses, Buddha and Muhammad occupy totally different places in Judaism, Buddhism and Islam than Christ occupies in Christianity. Moses, Buddha and Muhammad never professed to perform miracles, indeed, they never denied to be anything more than men. They viewed themselves simply as God’s messengers. Christ is the only Person in history who has defined a whole religion around His person.

Even people who are not Christian or even religious are influenced in big and small ways by Christ. They divide history into the time before and after His birth i.e. “B.C.” and “A.D.” Sunday is a worldwide holiday, not as many believe, because it is the day of the Sabbath (which is Saturday) but because it was traditionally held to be the day of Christ’s resurrection. The history of the West, indeed, of the world, is incomprehensible without Christ and would be unimaginably different had He not lived.

2.     It is interesting to note that our Lord never wrote a single word to make Himself known. We come to know Him through the reports of others. Besides the Gospels, there are many other sources that testify to the fact that Jesus really lived and is truly a historical figure. The historicity of Christ is attested not only by Christians but also by Greek, Roman and Jewish sources. We find references to Him in Suetonius, Pliny the Younger and Josephus. Tacitus in his ‘Annals’ deplores ‘the detestable superstition’ of ‘Christus,’ the founder of a new sect called Christianity. These sources testify that not only did Christ live but also that He had a big following, that He alienated the Jewish and Roman authorities and that He died by crucifixion.

The earliest Gospels were composed around thirty years after Christ’s death and the last was written before 100 A.D. Moreover, historians have innumerable early manuscripts of scripture, a vastly greater body of material than they possess of many ancient and classical texts and so they are in a good position to confirm that the biblical writings are authentic. 

3.     In recent decades, archaeologists have been compelled to reconsider people and events long regarded as legendary. They have located the tomb of Caiaphas, the high priest who interrogated Jesus and have unearthed an ancient plaque honoring Pilate, the Roman prefect who decreed Christ’s crucifixion. Skeletal remains exist showing that Roman crucifixions were performed in precisely the manner outlined in the Bible. Summarizing the evidence, writer Jeff Sheler notes that, “the picture that has emerged overall closely matches the historical backdrop of the Gospels.”

Despite all the evidence and arguments that have been stated so far, one convincing argument to prove that Christ was indeed, a true historical figure is found in the following question, “Why would any fool want to give up one’s life for the sake of another?” Over here, we are not referring to Christ’s death but to the martyrdom of the early Christians. If we study the lives of the early Christians, we will see that they underwent a lot of hardships for the sake of Christ. How true were the words of our Lord when He said, “No greater love a person has than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.” Not only did He live the words by His own death but it is more than evident as it is seen in the history of Christianity.

      Now one may contend by saying that martyrdom is not so much a Christian concept as this is something that is also seen in Islam which is true indeed for  the word ‘martyr’ is a term common to Christianity and Islam but largely alien to Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. It comes from a Greek word meaning ‘to witness.’ In Christianity, the martyr voluntarily gives up his life rather than his God. In Islam, a martyr takes up the cause of jihad and loses his life fighting for Allah. This is the sense in which people like Bin Laden have called on Muslims to be true Muslim ‘witnesses.’  Thus we see one term but with two different meanings.

      We see, therefore, that there is a subtle difference between the two. In Christianity, there is a voluntary loss of life for a reason while in Islam, it is more like a contingent phenomenon, which is to say that if a person dies fighting for one’s faith then he or she is a martyr. Thus, again, we see the uniqueness of Christianity.

      Another strong argument that follows from this is Christ’s resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:17, St. Paul writes, “If Christ had not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is our faith.” The resurrection of Christ has served as one of the strong points for many people, especially the early Christians, to commit themselves to Christ, even to the extent of dying and giving their lives for Him.

      On the whole Christianity makes sense of who we are in the world. All of us need a framework to understand reality and part of Christianity’s appeal is that it is a worldview that makes things fit together. Science and reason are seamlessly integrated in a Christian framework because modern science emerged from a Christian framework. Christianity has always endorsed both reason and faith. While reason helps us to discover things about experience, faith helps us discover things that transcend experience. For limited, fallible humans like us, Christianity provides us a comprehensive and believable account of who we are and why we are here. It also puts an end to an existential loneliness. This existential loneliness occurs when one lives life without a purpose and when one removes Christ from his or her life, life becomes hell!