Why Christianity Can't Compete

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A friend of mine wrote this a few years ago and I've always found it quite interesting as it reveals the truthfulness of Jesus Christ a very engaging manner. I became a Christian when I became convinced it was something God wanted me to do, and He graciously have me the means to genuinely repent and come to Him on His terms. I'm SO glad He did, because without Jesus, I'd still be lost and blind in my sins. Praise God, I am saved!

Why Christianity Can't Compete

Saul of Tarsus was a Jew from Cilicia, a student of the highly respected Gamaliel (a ranking member of the Jewish High Court). Saul had been hand-picked to lead the effort to eradicate a sect of Jews commonly called Christians. These Jews had been convinced that Jesus of Nazareth, recently killed, was their long-promised Messiah. Saul with zeal hunted these Christians, having authority from Jerusalem to punish them to the full extent of the law.
Then one day, this same Saul (later called Paul) was seen on the streets of Damascus, Syria, where he had gone on a mission to hunt Christians. What was he doing? He was preaching that Jesus was in fact the Messiah and had risen from the dead! Obviously, something had happened.

We don?t have to guess what it was. He tells us in his own words: ?You have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But... it pleased God... to reveal His Son to me, that I might preach Him among the nations? (Galatians 1: 13,. 16, NKJV).

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Yeah... No.

I think I'll be fine without this Mr. Jesus. I'm happy and fufilled as it is.

Maybe Yahweh needs your help fighting the sea dragon. Good luck.

I have no issues with Jesus per se, even though I'm not a folower, it's the people that try to bring about 'God's Kindom On Earth' that I have problems with.

Why is it that so many of Christians use not the words of Jesus that they say they follow, but instead use those of S/Paul to justify their actions?

I was thinking this was going to be about the topics of sacrifice and self-denial.

Many other faiths are more desirable because they allow you to satisfy primal urges so long as you do certain physical acts. Christianity is about denying self to attain a higher purpose, and most people just don't like that.

No competetion? Then why are there all these empty churches around here? They are turning them into bars because people prefer beer to religion. The people who used to go there must have found some other religion, or none at all.
And Christianity is not that unique at all. Even Odin has some of the same attributes as Jesus, such as dying for humanity and coming back to life. Jesus just copied him.

What other faiths would that be? Denying self to attain a higher purpose is a much more central tenet in the Indian religions than in Christianity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma

And when comparing the devotion to deny one self to attain a higher self, I doubt the Pope himself could compare to the tenets of Jain monasticism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jain_monasticism

Reason 1: Is this a joke. Evidence for it? Not a good point. The evidence isn't there.

Reason 2: You can be honest with God about your spiritual condition? Um, this is most religions. Its not very unique to Christianity. Plus, If God is all-knowing, then she doesn't need you to tell her about your condition. She already knows. So another useless point.

Reason 3: I don't need a savior. I am more moral then the Christians I know. For living in the bible belt, there is certainly a lot of meth, adultery and crime around this area. Did you know that the majority of incarcerated people identify as Christian and they aren't jail house conversions? Religious belief and how one lives (morals) don't go hand in hand. Useless point. I don't need a savoir. Plus, if you look around you will find other religions that have savior figures. Its a pretty common religious archetype.

Reason 4. Change in status. I don't see it in Christians life's. Please provide some evidence for this change in status. I don't see it. My wife's friend is Christian and she is whining on facebook at least twice a week about how she wants to kill herself. How's that for a change?

Reason 5. Guaranteed place in Heaven. This can't be a Christian selling point. Not all Christians believe 'once saved- always saved'. In fact, the largest Christian denomination doesn't. So this isn't a Christian selling point. This is just your particular belief. Even if it was a consistent Christian teaching, it is not unique. Many other religions offer guaranteed salvation. That's what the universalist in universalist Unitarian means. Universal salvation to all. So not only do they guarantee it, they guarantee it to everyone. So they got a better guarantee then christianity. New thought followers also believe in guaranteed salvation. heck, even some versions of Islam believe in universal salvation (after an allotted time of punishment) So even some versions of Islam have a better guarantee then Christianity. So not only is Christianity not unique here, its not even the best.

Not one point you make shows why other religions "can't compete". Everything you stated exists within other religions.

I like to watch the local prosperity churches here all filing bankruptcy. It makes me laugh. Can you get a better witness to what a bunch of junk the prosperity gospel is? The real reason Christianity can't compete these days is because people don't want to believe in theses fairy tales anymore.

From a Christian perspective this is more in line with the Gospel according to Timothy, which of course was rejected along with many others.

I'm wondering if the "change in status" would have been applicable during Roman days, but irrelevant now?

Christianity is Jesus Christ. No more, no less. Those claiming to be followers are easily proved based on what they do. They either are or are not following him. "By their fruits ye shall know them."

Jesus says nothing about denying self to attain a higher purpose. Jesus says, "Ye MUST be Born Again." John 3:7. His Apostles said, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you." (Acts 3:19-20 )

So, repent unto God, and receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will receive the times of refreshing that come from the Lord.

Or, harden your heat, and refuse Him. Those are the only two options given, and you'll be accountable for what choice you make. Choose wisely.

Well, in case you did not know, the standard is not "other Christians," the standard is JESUS CHRIST. Are you willing to go up against Him with your righteousness?

I hope so, because God has given us fair warning that we are to expect a very searching judgment from just this Man:

Acts 17:30-31
(30 ) Though God has overlooked those times of ignorance, he now commands everyone everywhere to repent,
(31 ) for he has set a day when he is going to judge the world with justice through a man he has appointed, and he has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

Acts 10:42-43
(42 ) He also ordered us to preach to the people and to testify solemnly that this is the one ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.
(43 ) To him all the prophets testify that everyone who believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins through his name."

John 5:17-30
(17 ) But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I, too, am working."
(18 ) So the Jews were trying all the harder to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal to God.
(19 ) Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For what he does, the Son does likewise.
(20 ) For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. And he will show him even greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.
(21 ) Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he chooses.
(22 ) For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
(23 ) so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
(24 ) "Truly, truly I tell you, the one who hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.
(25 ) Truly, truly I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live.
(26 ) For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
(27 ) And he has given him authority to pass judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
(28 ) Don't be amazed at this, because the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice
(29 ) and will come out-those who have done what is good to the resurrection of life, and those who have practiced what is evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
(30 ) I can do nothing on my own accord. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me."

So, the standard is Jesus. Hope when you meet Him everything goes well.

So who wrote Acts and when, same goes for John. And why were they chosen as canonical. Have you bothered to look into other writings on Jesus which quite possibly predate these gospels, such as Thomas and the other texts found in the Nag Hammadi library. Why do you accept the Canonical Gospels which are known to contain many pseudepigraphal writings and were chosen by Irenaeus as he decided around 185 ce that there should only be 4 gospels as there are four winds and four corners of the earth, and not these discovered works many of which it would appear predate the canonical ones.

You are so tied up in your delusion that you simply cannot open your eyes to the evidence before you.

If there was a real Jesus, it's possible that the stories about his studying Buddhism in Kashmir and Japan may have some truth, if the Gospel of Thomas has any validity, and some scholars believe that Thomas was written prior to the conversion of Paul around 50 CE. In one of the Canonical Gospels, there is a "Thomas the Doubter" who refuses to believe that Jesus has risen until he sees Him firsthand. Some Biblical scholars think that "Thomas the Doubter" refers to the Gospel of Thomas, which by the 4th century CE was considered heresy. Consider the differences between Jesus's teachings and the kill-em-all screeds of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Consider that Jews and Muslims are STILL slaughtering each other, 15 centuries after Muhammad. Jesus's turn the other cheek stuff can't have come from nowhere, much less a part of the world that has been full of violence and war and hate for as long as history has been recorded. It sounds more like Buddhism, and 2000 years ago Buddhism extended well into Afghanistan and Persia. Misquoting Jesus and Jesus Wars are two excellent books on the iffy origins of modern Christianity.

If you understand the Bible on the whole, the very act of being "born again" is to sacrifice the carnal for the spiritual. You can't fulfill the spirit by living after the flesh. You can't become more like Christ if you won't die to yourself.

Hence, I find it easier to explain that ultimately God wants Man to attain something grander than what he is born into when they enter this world. God's plan for the "elect" comes from them choosing to sacrifice their flesh nature for the spirit nature God gives them once they believe.

/\ Very well said and that's pretty much what I subscribe to.