I was walking my friend to the student union after working on a paper in class.  When we got there I saw two of my friends from high school... We didn't hang out in high school... but we always talk when we see eachother.  So anyway, we get to talking and I mention wanting to become a minister.  So the subject, as it would tend to, drifts towards religion.  Well Phillip says to me, that he didn't believe Jews or Muslims would go to Hell because we all believe in the same God.  By the look on my face... everyone knew he had opened the WRONG can of worms.  This kind of thinking is very UN-Christian.  However, in this day and age of our corrupt, liberal, and compromising society things like this tend to slip in.  People claiming to be Christians want to be friends with everyone and by doing so they lose what being a Christian is.  We are set apart from the world.  And the only way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ.  How do I know this you may ask?  Some will say faith... yes... that and more...

Consider this.  If you believe in God, a perfect, almighty, benevolent God, with a perfect sense of justice, you can actually look and even analyse the character of God.  Before you call me arrogant and foolish... let me say that I do not understand God, nor understand all of His purposes... but from the Bible and the world we can understand His character. 

My argument has to do with justice.  God is perfect.  All the major three monotheistic religions believe that.  However, only Christianity has a God with a perfect justice.  As I said before... God is perfect.  He is without sin, and cannot abide with sin, nor can He allow sin to go unpunished.  However, because He is a loving God, He sent His Son, AKA Himself, to face that punishment as our substitute.  No other sacrifice would have been pure or sufficient enough to cleanse sin.  Now some may ask, well what about the Old Testiment... what about the Jews before Christ?  All sin was dealt with at the crucifixion... the sin you may commit tomorrow is dealt with at the crucifixion.  The sin David commited with Bethsheba was dealt with at the crucifixion.  Yam Kippur or the Day of Atonement in the Old Testiment only held off God's wrath (so to speak).  A perfect God, cannot allow sin to go unpunished.  He cannot just forgive it and forget it.  It is against the very nature of a perfect God.  However, it has always been in God's plan that He be the sacrifice, and face the punishment for sin.  That is why Christians call Jesus' sacrifice the ultimate sacrifice.  There is no need of another for our sin... there is no improving upon that.  We cannot earn God's favor... We can only look to Jesus Christ to be our subtitution in punishment.  Yam Kippur is not good enough to atone for sin.  And belief that Allah is merciful if you say your prayers and go to Mecca is definately not good enough. 

I already known I'm going to catch a lot of flak for this post.  I encourage you to respond.  But here's the basic, crude differences between the Christian God and that of other religions... (My main argument is above)... Mormons deny the Holy Trinity, and that God was the beginning.  They believe that He was once a man, and had a father etc.  Obviously this has no Biblical base... and it denies everything we DO know about God.   Jehovah's Witnesses also deny the Holy Trinity.  They do not belive Jesus Christ is God... If He was not God, His sacrifice wasn't good enough.  Islam believes that Jesus wasn't God... so again His sacrifice wouldn't have atoned for sin if this is correct.  They say that He was a prophet... well here's a news flash everyone... prophets... THEY DO NOT LIE!!!  He said He was the Son of God, AND He said that He and the Father were One.  The Jews... This is the group that I have the hardest time with.  They believe that a messiah will come to save them... They pray for it... they yearn for it... But it's like they had their heads in the dirt!  He came, He taught, He conquered!  He's coming back too!  We believe in the same God the Father... however they too also deny the Holy Trinity.  It just blows me away though that they wait for a Messiah... and they don't believe. 

Now... there's a lot of things I haven't been able to say... or forgot to I'm sure.  If you decided to read all of this... please post a reply.  Give some thought to it.  Can God be perfect if He doesn't have perfect justice?  The answer is no.  But we know however, that God is perfect.  His justice is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.  He will lead us home.

-James Mungall