Isn’t Christianity at its core the same as other religions? If you were to put it in a pot and boil it down, wouldn’t it smell, look, and taste the same as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the rest? The answer is no. Here’s why.

Just as we refer to our minds as being thoughts and ideas beyond the electrical impulses of the brain, the major religions of the world propose that a human’s true essence is their soul instead of their physical body. Just like our physical bodies, the soul also has needs of its own. Each religion proposes to be a guide of that spiritual plain and helps lead our starving souls to nourishment.

So, the question: Aren’t these guides all fundamentally the same and only superficially different? Definitely not. In fact, I would argue that they are fundamentally different and at best they may be superficially similar. The major differences are in the authorship and the message.

The Authorship

The first thing to know is that unlike most other “spiritual guides” the bible was not written by a single author or close-knit group of people. I can’t possibly hope to cover every religion over the course of history, but here are authorship details on some of the largest religions in the world today.

  • Judaism – The Tanakh, sometimes known as the Mikra, contains 24 books divided into three parts: 5 books of the Torah, 8 books of the Nevi’im, and 11 books of Ketuvim. In a nutshell, it’s also the same text as the Christian Old Testament. The big difference is that Judaism rejects Jesus as the son of God – hence the bible having a New Testament.
  • Islam – Muslims believe that the Quran (the central religious text of Islam) was orally revealed by God to the final prophet, Muhammad, through the archangel Gabriel. Unlike the Bible, it is thought by Muslims to be not simply divinely inspired, but the literal word of God.
  • Buddhism – The Tripitaka was put together a little while after the death of Gautama Buddha through a council of monks. It was preserved in oral tradition for about 400 years before being committed to writing in the first century. The three elements of the Tripitaka are the Vinaya Pitaka (disciplinary rules by which monks are expected to live their lives), the Sutta Pitaka (the spoken words of the Lord Buddha and other leading scholars of Buddhist belief), and the Abhidharma Pitaka (a series of short philosophical writings on the nature of the universe).
  • Hinduism – The Vedas are a collection of hymns and other ancient religious texts. No one knows much about the authors. That’s kind of the point though. In Vedic tradition, the focus tends to be on the ideas rather than on the people with the ideas. This way you can look at the message without being influenced by the messenger. I’m personally not a fan of this because I like to understand the context and that’s not possible with the Vedas.
  • Christianity – The Bible is unlike any other religious text. It is comprised of 66 books from 40 authors writing from 3 continents over nearly 2,000 years. Shepherds, kings, scholars, fishermen, prophets, a military general, a cupbearer, and a priest all contributed portions of Scripture. They composed their works from palaces, prisons, the wilderness, and places of exile. For the most part, each author had a different immediate purpose for writing, whether recording history, giving spiritual and moral instruction, or pronouncing judgment. Yet, the Bible maintains a perfect consistency of message throughout.

The Message

The fundamental difference you see in Jesus Christ is the uniqueness and exclusivity of His claim, the embrace He gives to all humanity, the perfection and purity of His life, and His death and resurrection. The best way to explain the fundamental difference is through a parable from the bible.

The Story

The historical Jesus of Nazareth told a story about a father, two sons, and a family business. It was custom that the sons would split the business when their father died, but the younger son said he couldn’t wait for his father to die and wanted his money right then and there. Seeing his son’s true heart, the father gave it up to him. The son turned his back on his family and hit the road. He partied like an animal; eating, drinking, and hiring prostitutes until he eventually ran out of money. In desperation, he found a job feeding pigs, but the country’s economy crashed and he wasn’t able to earn enough to feed himself. Now completely broke and starving, he found himself craving the pigs’ slop. Then it suddenly hit him. There was probably plenty of food back home.

What do you think? Should the father let his son back into the house? As long as the son works hard to pay his father back then he should be able to get a place at the family table again, right? 

The son decided to return, admit his wrongdoing, and ask his father for a minimum wage job. Still a little way from the house, his father spotted him and ran out to him wrapping him in a bear hug. The son began his remorseful plea saying he was not even worthy to be called his father’s son anymore, but the father wrapped him in a fine robe and gave him a ring with the family crest. He told his workers to gather the best meat and to prepare a welcome home feast, “for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”

The Difference with Christianity

When Jesus told this as a story, He was presenting his view of the truth. In the story, the father represents God. So, is Jesus really teaching that God forgives selfish gluttons before they’ve repaid their wrongs against him and others? Judaism teaches that one can atone for their wrongs by changing their behavior, praying, and doing good deeds. Islam says we can move toward paradise by performing the 5 pillars. Hinduism claims that if we store up enough good karma, we will reunite with Brahman. Buddhism says we can enlighten and discipline ourselves into nirvana by practicing the Eightfold Path.

But in this story, the father embraced his son and fed him before he did any work. Why? Because in Jesus’s view, it’s impossible for a person to repay God for their bad deeds. God is a perfect judge who cannot be bought off by anything that we have to offer. Jesus said that when we die, we will face God with all of our deeds laid out. None of us are completely morally perfect and none of us will stand a chance of justifying ourselves. Jesus claimed to be God in human form who came to pay our moral debt with his truly innocent life so that anyone who believed and surrendered to Him would receive a full pardon from God.

Other religions teach that our own self-sacrifice can pay our debt, but Jesus taught that only God’s own self-sacrifice can pay our debt. All other religions claim to be guides leading our starving souls to bread. Jesus claimed to be the bread our souls starve for.