The Incomparable Christ

In response to the idea that all religions are the same:

It is not logically possible for Jesus Christ both to be God incarnate (Christianity) and not to be God incarnate (Judaism, Islam). He either is God incarnate or is not; no other logical options are available.
-Ken Samples


For as soon as notion of sameness moves beyond vague generalities (ie every religion has some version of the Golden Rule), it founders on the fact that the religions differ in what they consider essential and nonnegotiable.
-Huston Smith, University of California.


How, then, are we to have salvation? For most religions, man must take the active role. Hinduism and Buddhism offer solutions that are remarkably similar: Through meditation we confront our selfish desires and recognize that the “self” is the core of the problem. So we strive, in various ways, to eliminate this self and achieve its extinction. In effect, we seek to become nothing. We can advance toward this goal not merely through meditation but also through disciplined self-renunciation: renunciation of possessions, renunciation of sensual pleasure, and so on. This is a supremely difficult project. Among Buddhists only the monks claim to even approach nirvana. I believe the awareness of the chasm separating holiness from human weakness has produced, in Hindu and Buddhist cultures, their distinctive fatalism. Many Hindus believe fate will decree whether they reappear as prince, a dog, or a flea in the next life.
-Dinesh D’Souza, author of What's So Great About Christianity?


There are some significant ethical contradictions between religions, however, based on their different theological beliefs. For instance, suppose you were an orthodox Hindu. You would believe that (a) this body is ultimately only an appearance; (b) we must all work out our karma, or moral fate; and (c) after death everyone except a fully enlightened mystic must go through many more reincarnations. For these reasons, you would not be a swift to rescue a dying derelict from the gutter. For (a) bodily death is not very important (b) you many be interfering with the person’s karma, or fated learning experience through this suffering and dying; and (c) death is not terribly tragic because it is not final – we go round again and may get other chances through reincarnation. If, on the other hand, you were a Christian… you would act like the good Samaritan because you believe that (a) the body is real and good and important (b) we are not fated but free (or both fated and free); and (c) we only live once, so life is incalculably precious.
-Peter Kreeft, Boston College


Christianity is not a religion; it is the proclamation of the end of religion. Religion is a human activity dedicated to the job of reconciling God to humanity and humanity to itself. The Gospel, however – the Good News of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – is the astonishing announcement that God has done the whole work of reconciliation without a scrap of human assistance. It is the bizarre proclamation that religion is over – period!
-Robert F. Capon


How should we respond to the spirit of pluralism? With great humility, I hope, and with no hint of personal superiority. But we must continue to affirm the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ. For he is unique in his incarnation, he is unique in his atonement and he is unique in his resurrection. And since no other person but in Jesus of Nazareth did God become human, then bear our sins and then triumph over death, he is uniquely competent to save sinners. Nobody else possesses his qualifications. So we may talk about Alexander the Great, Charles the Great or Napoleon the Great, but not Jesus the Great.

He is not great – he is the only.

-John Stott


I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -Jesus, recorded in John 14:6

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. -Jesus, recorded in Matt 11:27

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. -Hebrews 1:3

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. -Colossians 1:19-20