With so many Religions, why Christianity?

The story is told of a social worker in Nigeria who once visited a youth in one of the back streets of Lagos. On his bedside table he found the following books: the Book of Common Prayer (of the Anglican Church), the Muslim Koran, three copies of Watchtower (the magazine of the Jehovah's Witnesses), a biography of Karl Marx, a book of yoga exercises, and - maybe what he needed most - a popular paperback entitled How to Stop Worrying!

When faced with the multitude of religions in the world today, all claiming to believe the truth, it is no wonder that many people are confused. The number of followers of each of the four major religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) run into hundreds of millions. Only about sixteen percent of the world's population is classed as "non-religious". So if we want to know the truth about God, where do we start?

There are various ways of approaching this problem. One way is to retreat into indifference: "How can we possibly know anyway? Maybe they have all got it wrong! Let's wait until death to find out who was right - that is, if there is indeed anything on the other side." Another approach is to assume that all religions are equally valid. It doesn't really matter which we believe as long as we believe in something (or Someone). A cynical historian once said that, to the populace all religions were equally true; to the philosopher all were equally false; to the politician all were equally useful!

The problem with both these approaches is simply that they are assumptions. They are not based on any factual evidence, and assumptions have a nasty habit of proving to be wrong. Maybe all religions do not all lead to God, or heaven, any more than all roads lead to Rome. After all some roads lead to London, or New York, or Timbuktu. Even a superficial study of the world's religions will reveal that they not only teach very different things about God (or gods) but also about how you get on side with him (or her, or whatever) - or whether it is even necessary to get on side with him! Sincerity in our search is essential, but it is possible to be sincerely wrong.

The purpose of this booklet is to assist those who wish to take a third approach, which I suggest is a better one. That is, to start with another assumption, that if God does exist then he would want us to know the truth and has given us ways of finding it out. It is a fundamental doctrine of Christianity that God is longing to reveal himself to us and wants to enter into a loving relationship with us. He also gave us minds to be used. If you start with these assumptions and do some sincere inquiring and still don't find this God, than at least you are no worse off. However, I am hopeful that you will be pleasantly surprised.