Fantastic post by Michael Patton, author of Now That I’m a Christian: What It Means to Follow Jesus
The central claims of the Bible demand historic inquiry, as they are based on public events that can be historically verified. In contrast, the central claims of all other religions cannot be historically tested and, therefore, are beyond falsifiability or inquiry. They just have to be believed with blind faith.
Think about it:
- The believer in the Islamic faith has to trust in a private encounter Muhammad had, and this encounter is unable to be tested historically.
- We have no way to truly investigate the claims of Joseph Smith (and when we do, they are found wanting).
- Buddhism and Hinduism are not historic faiths, meaning they don’t have central claims of events in time and space which believers are called upon to investigate. You either adopt their philosophy or you don’t. There is no objective way to test them.
Run through every religion that you know of and you will find this to be the case: Either it does not give historic details to the central event, the event does not carry any worldview-changing significance, or there are no historic events which form the foundation of the faith.
Read the whole thing. And marvel at the historical reality of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, without which our faith is futile (I Cor. 15:14)!
HT: Justin Taylor