There are hundreds of religions and faiths available to pick from. If you feel like you want to get in touch with the spiritual world, you're spoiled for choice.
If presented with one option, most critical minds will then ask, "But why is THIS one more true/relevant/important than the others?" (Which is worth asking because religions do tend to require their members to put all their eggs in one basket.)
So applying this question to Christianity is something every follower should probably consider at some point if they want to follow God with their minds as well as their hearts.
There are several common factors that Christianity shares with the other major players in the religious world. So consider then- what's different? If it claims to be uniquely true, what sets Christianity apart from the others?
My own answer to this lies in 'cause and effect'. We are all familiar with cause and effect logic; one event or change results in another event or change.
The world sees all major religions as having two fairly standard features:
- Members of the religion perform positive or good actions
- Members of the religion believe they are going to be better-off after death, e.g. heaven, paradise.
Now I'll show how Christianity is 'backwards' compared with all other religions:
Normal/other religions work in this order: you do good things, and therefore you get to heaven. Cause- do good things, effect- get to heaven.
This model makes sense, and we are comfortable with it. The simple model of rewarding good behaviour is one we act out every day of our lives, so we can relate to it. If a teacher began a school year by giving pupils their final grades, they might not find the motivation to work as hard as that grade supposes all year!
Christianity switches the cause and effect around: If you believe it, or specifically, believe in Jesus, you have been given access to heaven, therefore you want to do good things. Cause- heaven, effect- do good things.
This is a simple approach, but I think there is a lot of truth in this. As defined by the book of James in the new testament, faith without action isn't really faith at all. This could be read to mean the 'logical' cause and effect that all other religions share, but a wider understanding of what God reveals shows us that someone who doesn't live as if they're grateful to God, isn't. Thus why the two still go hand-in-hand.
Most churches, when they display the ten commandments somewhere on their walls or displays, usually miss off an important verse immediately before them: “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from... slavery”
If you believed that someone had saved your life, and was also your long-lost love, who wanted to be with you for the rest of their life, wouldn't you want to do something in response? At least, for example, attempt to show your gratitude?
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Image source- http://www.flickr.com/photos/gairi/galleries/72157622404872800
