What Makes Christianity Unique?

science and religion but there are different religions now this is an immensely important question because leaving Christianity outside altogether religions do not agree with each other it's idle to pretend that they do science is an international discipline and of course we are all aware of the sad Fighting's even within Christendom in my own country of Northern Ireland so I've got a lot to answer for in a way and how do I approach this question well in exactly the same way as everything I find let's take the three great monotheistic religion I have many Muslim friends and Jewish friends in many parts of the world and when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus there are three different views as you know the Jews believed by Jewish friends believed that Jesus died and did not rise my Muslim friends believed he didn't die and I believe that he both died and rose they cannot all be true how do you approach a question like that well first of all I step completely back from it and I realized that there are two levels of difference between religions and the first thing to recognize ladies and gentlemen as you go around the world study all religions or none people of any faith philosophy you care to name you'll find a striking fact and it's that there's a common element of morality that's shared by almost every living human being I've done a bit of research on this and you will find the Golden Rule do unto others as you would be done by in every single religion in every single philosophy even Roman pagan philosophy and in the front of statement of British humanism you will find it everywhere what does that tell me it tells me that we need to respect each other's ethical code sometimes as a Christian I can be put to shame by the moral integrity of someone of another religion and therefore we approach this with great sensitivity so that's the first thing but what I notice is this ladies and gentlemen that the real difference comes not at the level of ethics and morality so much is at the level of the basis on which a person can have a relationship with God and their religions and philosophies divided into two systems one of the systems is a bit like Harvard University there is an entrance examination I presume you have an entrance do you or do you just get in without an exam no so there's an entrance exam so we can imagine that as a door here and then there's the Harvard way and it goes up and down did you try and stay on it and they're all the professors to teach you and then there's a great gate of the air it's called final exams no the whole principle on which the system depends is that of Merit the professor's all of them are infinitely kind and but I hope they are anyway but they cannot guarantee that you're going to get through the door of the earth and it depends on merit your performance your achievement and many religions are like that and their adherence tell me they're like that there's some initiation right you get on the way you try to follow the way and you hope that then when the great assessment comes and your good deeds are measured against your bad deeds that somehow the good ones will weigh more than the bad ones and you will be accepted into whatever is beyond I know that's a psyche caricature but it's what many people believe it's what many Christians actually believe I I do not believe that at all because ladies and gentlemen the unique thing that seems to me about Christian faith is it's not based on merit because it does have a gate in a way but at the beginning there stands Jesus Christ who claims to have come into the world to die for my sin that's a very ugly word to raise in Harvard but you did ask me about religions so I'd have to give you the answer that I believe is the truth in other words let me put it this way suppose I did my first day at Cambridge I saw a beautiful girl I married her eventually I suppose I went to her and said Sally you know I'd like to marry you but here's a cookbook now it's got a whole lot of rules inside it now if you keep those rules fairly well for the next 30 or 40 years I will think about accepting you of course I couldn't possibly accept you now but if you perform well enough when the final assessment comes I will accept you well some of you are laughing others of you might be experiencing that I don't know that would be true it is Souter the secretive time ladies and gentlemen is this that we accepted each other at the beginning condition and because she doesn't have to keep the rules of the purpose of this week in order to gain my acceptance that's such a free to learn it's exactly the same with God we wouldn't dream of basing a relationship with a fellow human being on a measured performance and an acceptance at the end of a long history of performing laws and yet millions of people think that that's a way to base a relationship of God and it seems to me here and let me say it straight Christianity competes with no other religion here but as as far as I could see Christ is the only person that offers me the knowledge of forgiveness right here and now so in my life I try to live for him not in order to gain his acceptance but because ladies and gentlemen I already have it it's not based on my performance of my merit it's based on the merit of Jesus Christ who died and rose for me and there ladies and gentlemen I think we have to leave it thank you for your patience for more information about the veritas forum including additional recordings and a calendar of upcoming events please visit our website at the Veritas world [Applause]

Channel: The Veritas Forum

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Id: DMc38L44avA

Length: 7min 38sec (458 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 28 2012