What Makes Christianity Unique?

Comparison to Polytheism, Hinduism, Materialism, Judaism, and Islam

hat, exactly, is religion, anyway?  The word religion comes from a Latin word that means to “bind back.”  The meaning behind the word is how humanity binds itself together with its god or gods.  Using this idea of binding is a quick and easy way to explain how Christianity appears to be very different from other religions.  In the Christianity of the Bible, God initiates the binding back or reconciling of humanity.  Paul the Apostle, one of the early leaders of the church, described how Christianity worked:

. . . God was through Jesus Christ continually reconciling the world to Himself, not at all keeping a record of their refusals to do the right things . . . 2 Corinthians 5:19

God is continually overlooking humanity’s wrongs so that He can give us all an opportunity to enter into a friendship with Him through what His Son Jesus has done.

In religion, it is either man doing the initiating, or God and humanity working on it together.  Religion is preoccupied with what humanity does for God, while with Christianity, the central point is what God has done and is doing for humanity.  In religion, people are always trying to make friends with God on their own terms, while with Christianity, God has already created a friendship with us.

Christianity in many ways is the sum total of the message that is found in the Old and New Testament of the Bible.  In both the Old and the New Testament, illustrations abound on the difference between world religions and Christianity.  For example, the Old Testament described the history of the Israelite people in their land.  While there, they had adopted the religious practices of the Canaanites, the people living around them.  One of those practices was sacrificing babies to the god Molech.  God said through one of His spokesmen, a prophet, that such a thing never entered His heart.  That kind of religion was positively abhorrent to the God of the Bible:

And they built elevated altars of Baal . . .to burn their sons and daughters to death as sacrifices to Molech, which I had not commanded, nor had it entered my heart that they should do this horrible thing . . .   Jeremiah 32:35

False religious practice contains an important reality.  People go to extraordinary lengths to buy off or bride their god or gods, and do things that have no support or endorsement from how the Bible presents God.  The Bible presents God as already loving humankind;  He does not have to be bribed.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only unique Son, that the believing person will never perish but have eternal life.   Gospel of John 3:16

Christianity in its simplest form proclaims that God created everything, and that, when the creation went into wrongdoing, He intervened by sending His Son to take away all the guilt of humanity, and rescue His creation.  That left just one issue remaining:  does an individual wants any part of a God who has already suffered and died on humanity’s behalf?  The incredible truth claim of Christianity is that God died for us without asking our permission, and all He is asking is simple acknowledgement of that reality by faith or trust.

Christianity is totally different from other religions because in Christianity God is profoundly on our side.

Christianity and Polytheism

Before the rise of the great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), polytheism, or the belief in many gods, was practically universal throughout the world.  These gods of the ancient world were like one large dysfunctional and incestuous family.  As one ancient writer said, any decent person would find the character of the ancient gods disgusting.  When Christianity arose, the polytheism of the Greeks and Romans appeared insipid and contradictory in comparison.  How could this unified and spectacular universe have been the product of a crowd of gods who were always at cross purposes and fighting each other?

From 100 A.D. to 1200 A.D. Christianity pushed aside religion after religion that believed in many gods.  These religions went all the way from the many gods of Egypt to the many gods of the Norsemen.  These religions largely disappeared because their gods were always at cross-purposes.  The unity of Christianity with a God who has died on humanity’s behalf was far more appealing.

Christianity and Judaism

Polytheism, or the belief in many gods, was the common belief system of the entire planet before the rise of the great monotheistic religions, starting with the Israelite religion.  Nearly four thousand years ago, the Bible teaches that a single deity appeared to a man named Abraham, with the sole intent of being good to him and using him as a means of being good to others.  All of history assumes that the idea of a single beneficial God started with Abraham.  This God was universal:  anywhere Abraham went this God would be always working for Abraham’s good and the benefit of humanity.

In the nation that came from Abraham, a future teacher and leader was predicted who would suffer on behalf of the sins of the world, and bring humanity back to God.  This person was called the Messiah, the Jewish name, or the Christ, the Greek translation of the same.  This Messiah turned out to be Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee, in northern Israel.  He taught a God of love, fairness, and compassion.  He was immensely popular, and a wonder worker.  Those miracles were His divine credentials.

In a startling turnabout, the religious rulers of the time arranged His execution.  The authorities of the time felt that was due to jealousy.  In a far more staggering turnabout and surprise, as Jesus died, God the Father counted that suffering to be for all of humanity.  God counted His Son’s suffering as satisfying His requirements for dealing with man's sin.  To verify His approval, God the Father brought Him back from the dead.  The practical result was that God took away the well-deserved guilt of humanity through His Son's sacrifice on the cross.

The three great religions that maintain the oneness of deity are Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Judaism in the Old Testament formed the backdrop for Christianity.  They did not recognize the very Messiah their Old Testament predicted:

But He was pierced through for our transgression, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our peace fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.  Isaiah 53:5

The book of Isaiah was written five hundred years before Jesus' birth.  It richly predicts Christ’s life and ministry.  The chapter of Isaiah 52-53 is such a clear description of what Jesus did on the Cross that it is embarrassing to the Jews who refuse to believe it in its rich predictive detail.  What Judaism chose to do was to avoid the Person that its own Old Testament predicted, and the finest among its people anticipated with joy.

Christianity and Islam

Islam is a monotheistic religion that is a poverty-stricken descendant of Christianity and Judaism.  It arose in the fifth through sixth century after Christianity started, through a self-proclaimed prophet named Mohammed.  In order to satisfy their own purposes, the Moslems changed the history of the Old Testament to take the centrality of God’s program from Israel to the Arab nations.  Further, they reduced the glorious grace of Christianity to a system utterly dependent upon human effort.

They rejected the Old Testament because they were not the people of God in the Old Testament, and they rejected the New Testament because it offered a salvation that was not based upon self-effort.

The Koran, the sacred book of Islam, is a product of one man and one time period.  In sharp contrast, the Bible is the product of many authors over two thousands years, with a consistent message that God has pursued humanity through the ages, and God has fully spoken in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Christianity and Materialism (Communism)

Modern cultures stepped away from the great unifying person of God the Father to a great unifying principle such as materialism and humanism.  That is the belief that only matter exists.

The God of the Bible is monotheistic: only One exists.  That is opposed to materialism, wherein nothing is divine:  no god or gods exists.  Usually such a belief ends up saying that what exists either has always been here or nature itself is divine.  It is also different than polytheism, that assumes that many gods and spirits exist.

Communism and all other materialism-based systems have to arbitrarily create ethics or a way of life.  For many, it has become a substitute religion, and a dangerous one at that.  The history of materialism, whether the national socialism of the Nazis, or the Communism of Russia, all seem to lead to dictatorship and death.  Materialism has never produced an adequate ethic or an adequate reason for humility and noble sacrifice.

The Real Issue

The key idea is that Christianity has a deeply anti-religious spirit about it.  Religion is based on self-effort and ones own ideas.  Christianity is the story of God’s pursuit of humanity.  Here are the big ideas of Christianity:

If you want to become a Christian and be right with God forever, trust that close to two thousand years ago, God, through His Son Jesus, suffered for everything you have done wrong.  Trust that you are more important to God for who you are than abhorrent to God for what you have done wrong.

After three days of death, God the Father brought Jesus from the dead so that we can have confidence that God was pleased with what Christ had done. Further, hundreds of witness saw this, and several wrote the four Gospels attesting to this resurrection and Christ’s miracles.

Trust in the Gospel, and if you would like, pray this prayer:


Dear Father,

I thank you that you gave your Son Jesus to save me from my wrongdoing.  I thank you that you simply ask for trust in my heart.  I trust Him that he suffered and died on my behalf.  I also trust Him that He will protect me forever through His grace.

I thank you that you are more concerned about me than my wrongdoing.

It is through the work and character of your Son, Jesus Christ, that I pray.


If you have prayed this prayer, please contact us so that we can further help you.

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