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Why Is Christianity the Best Religion? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, Christianity is the best religion in the world period.
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  Speaker 1: We make that claim implicitly every single day. Why why
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  Speaker 1: are we so sure of this fact that Christianity is
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  Speaker 1: the best religion in the world. That's the question today
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  Speaker 1: from Will in Chicago. Hello, Pastor John. I am fifteen
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  Speaker 1: years old and right now in school, I am forced
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  Speaker 1: to study world religions. Maybe not forced, I actually am
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  Speaker 1: kind of curious about them. But there are so many Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism,
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  Speaker 1: the native religions here in America and in South America.
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  Speaker 1: Plus I'm reading about the ancient temples that have been
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  Speaker 1: excavated in Rome and even those being discovered deep in
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  Speaker 1: the Amazon Rainforest. I'm trying to make sense of it all,
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  Speaker 1: and I want to understand Christianity better. So what makes
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  Speaker 1: Christianity different or even better than all the other religions
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  Speaker 1: in the world that have been around so long, many
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  Speaker 1: of them from before the birth of Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: Well, thank you Will for sending us the question. It's
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  Speaker 2: really good for me to step back from time to
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  Speaker 2: time and try to answer some huge and basic questions,
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  Speaker 2: and this is one of them. Why is Christianity better
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  Speaker 2: than all other religions, and I don't hesitate to say
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  Speaker 2: it is because I think it's just nonsense to try
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  Speaker 2: to pretend that all religions are equally valuable. Christianity is
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  Speaker 2: not of that sort. So yes, I want to make
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  Speaker 2: four claims for you to consider. Number one, Christianity is
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  Speaker 2: better than all other religions because it gives a credible
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  Speaker 2: account of why other religions exist. Now, I don't mean
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  Speaker 2: this proves Christianity. I mean that other religions do not
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  Speaker 2: take Christianity off God. Christianity is not surprised that there are,
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  Speaker 2: like you say, so many other religions. They are not
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  Speaker 2: a surprise to Christianity. Other religions fit in to the
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  Speaker 2: world view of the Bible. They are what you would
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  Speaker 2: expect if Christianity is true. They're not a threat to Christianity.
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  Speaker 2: Christianity is not obscured by other religions. On the contrary,
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  Speaker 2: Christianity sheds light on other religions and why they exist
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  Speaker 2: and why they are the way they are. C. S.
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  Speaker 2: Lewis said back in nineteen forty four, I believe in
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  Speaker 2: Christianity as I believe in the rising Sun, not only
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  Speaker 2: because I see it, but because by it I see
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  Speaker 2: everything else. By Christianity, the existence and the inferiority of
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  Speaker 2: other religions makes sense. It doesn't work the other way around.
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  Speaker 2: Christianity does not make sense to other religions. The claims
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  Speaker 2: of Christianity don't fit into their worldview. Paul said in
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  Speaker 2: Romans one twenty, God's invisible attributes, namely his eternal power
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  Speaker 2: and divine nature, have been clearly perceived meaning by everybody
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  Speaker 2: in the things that have been made creation. Although they
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  Speaker 2: knew God, that's an astonishing statement. Everybody knows God. Although
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  Speaker 2: they knew God, they did not honor him as God
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  Speaker 2: or give thanks to him. But they became feutile in
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  Speaker 2: their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to
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  Speaker 2: be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of
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  Speaker 2: the immortal God for images religions resembling mortal man, birds, animals,
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  Speaker 2: creeping things religion. He said in chapter two, verse fifteen
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  Speaker 2: of Romans that the law of God is written on
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  Speaker 2: everyone's heart. He said in Romans one thirty two that
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  Speaker 2: all humans know the basics of behavior that are right
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  Speaker 2: and wrong, and what deserves death. Those three texts one
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  Speaker 2: twenty two fifteen one thirty two. Those three texts are
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  Speaker 2: the makings of all other religions. I do not live
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  Speaker 2: up to what is right. I deserve death. And religion
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  Speaker 2: is man's effort to devise a way for humans to
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  Speaker 2: get into favor with that deity. Christianity reveals that. But
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  Speaker 2: that is not what Christianity is. As we'll see in
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  Speaker 2: just a moment second, Jesus Christ is the absolutely unique
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  Speaker 2: gold standard of why Christianity is better than all other religions.
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  Speaker 2: No other religion has anyone comparable to Jesus. He was
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  Speaker 2: in the beginning with God, and he was God John
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  Speaker 2: one one. He took on a human nature and entered
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  Speaker 2: real history. Now this is the amazing part, listening to
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  Speaker 2: the way Luke describes the setting of his arrival. Luke
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  Speaker 2: three Wanna Zoo in the fifteenth year of the reign
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  Speaker 2: of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilot being governor of Judea and
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  Speaker 2: Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch
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  Speaker 2: of the region of Iteria and Trachonitis and Luscinius Tetrarch
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  Speaker 2: of Abilene during the high priest of Annas and Caiaphas.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, those are real names. I mean, like
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  Speaker 2: Theodore Roosevelt or Winston Churchill. We know these people from
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  Speaker 2: sources outside the Bible. It's the amazing combination of the
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  Speaker 2: supernatural reality in Jesus with the absolutely natural historical reality
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  Speaker 2: of his setting in his life that makes him so unique.
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  Speaker 2: He lived three decades, He taught like no other man.
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  Speaker 2: He died at the hands of real Roman officials. He
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  Speaker 2: rose from the dead, not like a ghost, but with
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  Speaker 2: a new body that could eat fish and pass through doors.
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  Speaker 2: He reiins today at God's right hand. He'll return again
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  Speaker 2: in great glory. There is no other religion with such
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  Speaker 2: a god man who lived in this world as if
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  Speaker 2: it were just yesterday next door. There's nothing mythological or
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  Speaker 2: make believe about it that's unique. Third, Christianity is better
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  Speaker 2: than other religions because those historical realities were written down
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  Speaker 2: by eyewitnesses and by those who knew them. And there
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  Speaker 2: are thousands more manuscripts of these writings and fragments of
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  Speaker 2: these manuscripts from more places and from the earliest centuries
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  Speaker 2: than any other historical work of similar antiquity, thousands of them,
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  Speaker 2: over five thousand right now, and they're being discovered. We
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  Speaker 2: have a wealth of manuscript evidence, I want to say,
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  Speaker 2: an embarrassing wealth of manuscript evidence that validates the earliest
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  Speaker 2: eyewitness testimonies. One of the claims of Islam is that
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  Speaker 2: the New Testament portrait of Jesus and his way of
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  Speaker 2: salvation is a result of corruption and change in the
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  Speaker 2: New Testament over time. The problem with that claim is
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  Speaker 2: that they cannot point to any none, any earlier manuscripts
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  Speaker 2: that present a different picture. They don't exist any minor
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  Speaker 2: differences among the historical manuscripts. That's true. There simply is
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  Speaker 2: no earlier portrait of Jesus Christ who was not divine,
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  Speaker 2: who did not die for sinners and rise again. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't exist. That claim from Islam is without any historical support. Fourth,
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  Speaker 2: and finally, Christianity is better than all other religions because
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  Speaker 2: the path of salvation it presents is absolutely unique in
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  Speaker 2: the world and offers the only hope of eternal happiness
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  Speaker 2: for sinners who know they don't deserve it. In no
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  Speaker 2: other religion does God himself, in the form of a
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  Speaker 2: real mortal human being, come into the world to die
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  Speaker 2: for his enemies, bear the punishment that he himself must
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  Speaker 2: inflict on them in order to be just. It is breathtaking,
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  Speaker 2: not only in its utter uniqueness, but in its utter
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  Speaker 2: ecstasy of good news for a guilty world. Anyone anywhere
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  Speaker 2: in the world who trusts in Jesus the God Man,
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  Speaker 2: will be saved from his sins and from the wrath
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  Speaker 2: of God. Christianity is not a man made religion designed
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  Speaker 2: to help man make himself acceptable to God. That's hopeless,
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  Speaker 2: which is why all other religions are not going to
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  Speaker 2: make anybody eternally happy. All other religions are hopeless. Christianity
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  Speaker 2: is the one true history of what God has done
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  Speaker 2: that we could never do for ourselves. Bear our just
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  Speaker 2: condemnation in Jesus's own death and bring us to lasting
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  Speaker 2: happiness in his presence. That's what He's done. So will
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  Speaker 2: keep studying and by all means, keep praying that God
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  Speaker 2: would give you insight. Because two people, you and some
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  Speaker 2: other student can look at the same true story, and
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  Speaker 2: one of you can see beauty glory, and the other
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  Speaker 2: will see myth and boredom. Pray that God would help
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  Speaker 2: you see glory in the truth.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Christianity is superior because it explains why other religions arise,
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  Speaker 1: why they exist, and it centers on the unique god Man,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, whose life and resurrection are historically attested and
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  Speaker 1: preserved in abundant eyewitness testimony accounts, and who the Savior
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  Speaker 1: alone offers us a historically grounded, gracious path of salvation
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  Speaker 1: for sinners like us. Thank you, Pastor John, Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for taking up this fundamental question today, and thanks for
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  Speaker 1: joining us today. Have a question to ask Pastor John.
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  Speaker 1: Find a link to email us and find our complete
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  Speaker 1: episode archive at the same place askpastor John dot com.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky Pastor John, and I will see you
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  Speaker 1: on Monday. Have a great weekend. We'll see you then.