Why Chrisianity

[Foreshadow]

To Christians:
Why do you choose the christian God over the Thousands of thousands of Gods from thousands of religions all of whom say that they are the right religion?

 

[shinbits]

the leading of the Holy Spirit of God is why, for me. just a knowledge that you don't know why you know it. call it conscience or whatever, but that's why for me. and this is from someone who HATED going to church growing up, mainly do to a very overbearing father; yet I couldn't deny what I knew within me to be true, and became one.

 

[Foreshadow]

But how did you know that it was true?

 

[ebia]

To Christians:
Why do you choose the christian God over the Thousands of thousands of Gods from thousands of religions all of whom say that they are the right religion?

Why do I personally do so - because I'm convinced by my experience that he is real and they are not.

But there are differences between Christianity and most if not all other religions. Most specifically Christianity is the only major religion that claims to be grounded in a specific real event that happened to specific real person in a specific real place on a specific real day in real history witnessed by specific real people who were still around testifying about it when their stories were written down - i.e. the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Other faiths generally have either vague unexaminable claimes of visions etc, or are grounded in events that happened "a long long time ago in a land far, far, away". The resurrection, by contrast, is (at least in principle) examinable by the tools of historical investigation.

 

[Foreshadow]

Um I hate to burst you your bubble but two thousand years is a long long time ago and The Roman Empire is far far away from here. Can you verifie the specific real place on the specific eally day and the specific real people who(they were Christians and jews) only testifiy in the two thousand year old bible? Do you know about every single religion out there?

 

[GreenMunchkin]

To Christians:
Why do you choose the christian God over the Thousands of thousands of Gods from thousands of religions all of whom say that they are the right religion?

I have no reason, be it historical, intellectual, experiential, emotional or spiritual to believe that Christ is anything other than the truth. And, if He's the truth, nothing else can be.

 

[Foreshadow]

But what is the reason to believe that Christ is the truth?

 

[DrBubbaLove]

For me it is the evidence we have of the story. Either He or His disciples or both were crazy, or maybe they all lied and pulled off the greatest hoax in the history of manking, or it is all true. I do not think there are other possibilities. Stepping through each of those possibilities I find the last one to be the most credible. Once going there, the choice of religion is pretty much academic.

 

[Foreshadow]

But how can you trust the same people who betrayed Jesus and caused his death?

 

[DrBubbaLove]

do you mean the disciples?

 

[Foreshadow]

yes

 

[Azureknight 773]

To Christians:
Why do you choose the christian God over the Thousands of thousands of Gods from thousands of religions all of whom say that they are the right religion?

Even though I may be a Catholic, but Catholic is another sect of Christianity so I say this: I chose God "YAHWEH" as my God because He is a Living God and a God of all wisdom and love and justice. No god can ever be selfless as He is because they are all dead gods. He smited them all in one blow and by name only, Almighty, which is part of His Holy Name, so I chose the Almighty God.
and
Why having lots and lots of gods with each of his/her own powers, when there is one OMNIPOTENT, OMNISCIENT and OMNIPRESENT GOD?

 

[DrBubbaLove]

This falls under they all lied theory.

And I guess we have to first say there appears to be ample evidence a man named Jesus lived, taught as a teacher and died about the time and in the same manner as the Bible says He did. The question is then about the other claims of Christianity and probably the most important His Resurrection.

For me the fact we have no historical evidence any of them ever recanted the lie. We have no historical evidence of anyone countering their story with the "truth", He really died and is buried over here for example. We do have any thing like that, not even a record of a failed attempt or investigation of what happened to the body. The Jews have a story (and the Bible records it) that the disciples stole the body. But then where did they put it? Did no one see them? Did no one seeing them ever reveal it? Was there not any one willing to recant? Recall these people would later be hunted and tortured for their beliefs. If there was a hidden body, why no record of any of them cracking under pressure?

Not to mention motive. If I am not going to trust these men who either betrayed directly (Judas) or all deserted him, then I have to believe they lied. But if they lied why?
People lie for selfish reasons. Either to cover something up or for personal gain derived from being decietful. The story we have is primarily from them. I think if they were covering up, say they were ashamed of their betrayal and were willing to lie about the Resurrection, then they would have been at least more inclinded to protray themselves in a better light than they did.
The evidence we have tells us they had more to lose and no indication any of them benefitted from keeping a "lie". While we do not have records for all of them, we know some of them died because they stuck to the story and it is generally believed most of them died that way. No story of any retraction. So I am at a loss in understanding why they would stick to the story. Embarassment might explain initially making it up, but not sticking to it to death. And if embaraased about one's behavior why paint yourself in the story in such a poor light?

So if I ask myself can I trust that they did not lie, even though they all deserted him, I must conclude they believed the story they told. Which leaves they were tricked or crazy/delusional. And we are really just focusing on whether Jesus rose from the dead. The crucial issue in the whole story.

 

[ebia]

Um I hate to burst you your bubble but two thousand years is a long long time ago and The Roman Empire is far far away from here. Can you verifie the specific real place on the specific eally day and the specific real people who(they were Christians and jews) only testifiy in the two thousand year old bible?

Never the less it's a specific claim about a specific event that is (in principle) subject to investigation by history.

Other religions generally do not put their head on the block in that way.

Do you know about every single religion out there?

Of course not, but none of the mainstream religions make an equivalent claim an historic event like the resurrection, nor am I aware of any minority ones that do.

 

[arunma]

To Christians:
Why do you choose the christian God over the Thousands of thousands of Gods from thousands of religions all of whom say that they are the right religion?

I'm not sure your premise is even valid. Let's consider the other four major world religions.

Judaism doesn't claim to be the one true path. In fact, almost all Jews who take their religion seriously are utterly insistent that Gentiles need not become Jews in order to inherit a share in Olam HaBa. They believe that Gentiles only need to obey the seven Noachide laws in order to be right with God. As such, they believe that it is disadvantageous for a Gentile to become a Jew and thus commit himself to all 613 laws of the Torah, and they therefore discourage conversion. Of course their religion contradicts itself, since they say that Christianity is idolatry (violation of the first law), yet that it is still a valid path to God for Gentiles, but whatever.

Hinduism also doesn't make any claims to exclusivity. Hindus believe that anyone who is born Hindu is bound by his Dharma to do righteous deeds so as to increase his karma, so as to ultimately achieve moksha. Non-Hindus may therefore work in the contexts of their religions, in accordance with their own Dharma, in order to increase their karma. Again, Hindus do not actively proselytize, because they do not believe that their religion is the only means of communion with God (however differently they define it).

Buddhism is somewhat similar to Hinduism in its karmic view of achieving the chief end for which humans exist. They seem to differ largely in practice. Again, they regard other religions as valid spiritual refuge.

With Islam it's rather hard to tell. There are many Muslims who believe that one must acknowledge Allah as the only God and Mohammad as his terminal prophet. Others believe that monotheism is the minimum requirement for salvation, and this would encompass Judaism, Christianity, and arguably Hinduism. Based on which way you read the Quran and the Hadith, this may be the only religion which condemns non-believers to eternal torment in hell, besides Biblical Christianity of course.

My point here is that "thousands of religions" is quite an exaggeration. Maybe you should only be requiring us to defend the Gospel against Islam.

 

[Chaplain David]

To Christians:
Why do you choose the christian God over the Thousands of thousands of Gods from thousands of religions all of whom say that they are the right religion?

Let's begin by checking the facts of the OP.

Where do you base your information on when quoting that there are thousands and thousands of Gods?

Where do you base your information on when quoting that there are thousands and thousands of religions?

Since I have a hunch you're pulling those figures out of your head, name a hundred of these so-called Gods and a hundred of these so called religions and prove me wrong.

Generalizations make a very weak OP.

 

[shinbits]

But how did you know that it was true?

there was and is no way of offering proof that it's true. it's just one of those things I knew within me.

but religous callings/experiences or whatever, are not the only things humans experience, where they have knowledge that they know is true, without proof. for example, woman's intuition. that's been a phenomenon experienced by women, which they have no explanation why they would know.

somethings are just beyond the reach of science. it's just a matter of keeping an open mind.

 

[shinbits]

Let's begin by checking the facts of the OP.

Where do you base your information on when quoting that there are thousands and thousands of Gods?

Where do you base your information on when quoting that there are thousands and thousands of religions?

he's actually right. India alone has hundreds of gods. rats and cows are considered to be types of gods. I don't know about "thousands of religions" though. I do know there've been many throughout human history.

Since I have a hunch you're pulling those figures out of your head, name a hundred of these so-called Gods and a hundred of these so called religions and prove me wrong.

Generalizations make a very weak OP.

he's not generalizing though.

 

[Stephen Kendall]

To Christians:
Why do you choose the christian God over the Thousands of thousands of Gods from thousands of religions all of whom say that they are the right religion?

I guess because of the words of Jesus Christ. Miracles occur and can even occur in different religions, but the central character of a religion (whom had been predicted to come for thousands of years by many of its scared scriptural writers) to have compounded a mystery of eternal love & justice by shedding his own innocent blood for us and for us to partake in the same path at risk of all that we are is remarkable! We find this mystery a distress for our logic & human passion. It is like someone of another realm telling you to join them by following them to the other side of a horrific death. How is eternal love & justice found by stepping into harms way, as the leader of Christianity did? At this point most logical people leave Jesus. Clearing house and culling down to just those who seek a new logic that comes with the questions that only God can answer, which creates an unusual group of true followers (those who actually believe him by obeying him). This new logic is called just the faith of the believers in Jesus.

This whole thing sounds skimpy at best, if you don't ask those "only God can answer" questions: the questions of the heart. To satisfy the stomach is simple, but reckless at times, but it is temporarily satisfied. To satisfy the mind is a little bit complicated, yet from our unique maturing environments, we have what appears as our desires (inherited, suggested & believed so, born in, peer pressure induced, our tongue walked us down the path to and just our curiosity of (like wondering about religions)). To satisfy the redeeming qualities of a meditative heart is the hardest to deal with. The more sincere and to the point its direction is, the more our inadequacies can appear. The more loving and kind it is, the more the world appears to be equitably less inhabited. This kind of heart seems to need a better habitation than this world. Since it takes the chance to love others in a self-inclined world, it would naturally believe in someone of the same nature beckoning it to follow them to his world. Sounds understandable? Taking a chance in a world that you love and want to prosper in, isn't going to make any sense, but taking a chance because you already do so on a daily basis (you already are that type of mountain climber at heart), you will! You will follow this man called Jesus, because in your heart you want those questions to be answered the way that Jesus has answered them: with patience towards the evil ones, with love towards those who hate you, with compassion towards the unfortunate, with true justice for the untimely ones, with justice given those who deny it... A measure of love appears that only can be equated by a God. This is a controlling factor that no self-inclined person would want; measure for measure, eternally given, flawlessly presented, by whom, but the God of hearts of those who seek him and are like him. Jesus' God is a frightening concept, mainly because, if he did exist, our consciences would support him, despite our minds and their cleverness.

Sorry again to be so complicated, but the life of Christ is very complicated much like the human heart that dares to ask the questions that aren't answered so well by our simple mechanical minds. Heaven is the home of those who belong there, lost or found, but all desiring to go home.

I need to sleep. I wanted to help you to see Christianity. I hope that I helped you some. Instead of taking up encampments of defense, try living a day in the moccasins of your neighbor before you judge him. Just have a little room for the question of the existence of God and ask him if he exist. Try to be sincere, so that if he does exist (at least a God called Father, Daddy), he will answer you. I know of a nonbeliever that saw a popular Christian programming on TV, who decided to get the Holy Spirit in himself. He wanted it because of what the Christians on the program that he was watching had said about it. After he finished watching the program and cut the TV off, he loudly prayed for the Holy Spirit to come, over and over again. After a very long time of hard, sincere & earnest prayer, he gave up. It then came with gentleness, peace and a bright light! He instantly knew of God & Christ. He immediately became a loving and powerful witness for Christ. Yes, the miracles did come, almost continually. He had been a rude and harsh man before, but now he was the opposite yet with the urgency & insight of a coming judgment day.

Good night. I must sleep and work for this whole week. I will try to come back afterward. I have a solid work week for my business and won't have much time till later. It takes a lot of time for me to post, but I will try to help you to understand Christianity as I see it, if you are interested. A Christian is one to share his time & money, even if it hurts to do so, this is just because he cares. I am not interested in debating, just helping you to see as I. Much love.

 

[DrBubbaLove]

This young man appears sincere in his questions. Would like to ask everyone treat him with all the respect he is due.