Many different religions exist, and so do many different varieties of those religions, for example, the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam. I am sure people of different faiths and different beliefs are just as dedicated and devoted to their beliefs as we are. So what’s the difference then, between them and us? How do we know who is right?
Thanks,
Zoe Aionia (and yes, my pseudonym is a play on the Greek phrase for eternal life! 
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Jesus Christ “proved His credentials”, so to speak, by rising from the dead. No other teacher or leader has done the same. These latter simply bring arguments. Christ’s resurrection has been amply proven as a historical fact (for example, by N. T. Wright in The Resurrection of the Son of God). I am therefore a Christian.
The Orthodox Church’s historical pedigree goes way back, farther back than does that of any other Christian organization. This helps lead me to the conclusion that the Orthodox Church proclaims the truth about Christ. I am therefore a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
A deity which does not save all of his creation (for whatever reason) is…lacking. As such, such a deity cannot exist (save perhaps as the bungling Demiurge of the Gnostics). This leads me to conclude that God will save all creation. I am therefore a universalist.
Pretty straight argument Geoffrey
Would you mind telling me, did you come to Orthodoxy after becoming a Christian or was there an Orthodox background somewhere?
A fellow I went to school with whose father was a minister in a Protestant organisation later became an Easern Orthodox Priest which was pretty divergent from his background.
Cheers S
Eastern Orthodoxy wasn’t even on my radar until I was in college, which was about 25 years ago.
I was raised as a casual, non-denominational Protestant. It didn’t go much beyond this: “Believe in God and Jesus, and be a good person. Optionally, you might want to read a little of the Bible and/or go to church once in a while.”
One way I approach the question is this: are the ‘stories’ of the god(s)-in-question the ‘same’ stories?
In general, the story of the God worshiped by Christians is like this:
Creation→Fall→Israel→Jesus Christ→The Church. I think those are the necessary ‘plot points’ that all Christians could agree on. Any other story would not be ‘the same’.
It is not a very sophisticated approach, but I like it for its usefulness: everyone knows what a story is, after all, and comparing stories, comparing plot points, brings into sharp relief whether we are talking about the ‘same’ Author.
A quick follow-up to my post re: ‘stories’ above.
If I was discussing the question of the ‘same’ God with a Muslim (as in fact I have), I could give the short story as follows, avoiding metaphysics to a great extent:
“The God I’m talking about created the universe and all that is in it including mankind; and pronounced it all ‘very good’.
The representative Man, Adam, chose to sin and therefore gave up his high calling, and as a result of this Fall, sin infected the human race like a disease, which explains both the glory and the misery of humans. This Fall also affected the creation itself, according to St. Paul.
The call of Abraham was the beginning of God’s healing the creation/mankind. Thus eventually Israel came to be, and was given the privilege of bringing God’s love to the world. Apparently, they failed. It’s right there in the scriptures.
God sent His Son Jesus in the fulness of time, the last Adam, Who accomplished in Himself what Adam and Israel did not. Those who are joined to Jesus in truth and in spirit become the Church, whose high calling and responsibility is to live and love their neighbors, and spread a new but good ‘disease’ - the love and spirit of God.
The Church has the first four acts of a five-act play -(I got this from Tom Wright): Creation, Fall, Israel, Christ - and is called upon to divine the Author’s intent and methods, and act out the final act.(To be followed by a much greater Story, so we’re led to believe).”
That is scandalously abbreviated of course - but I could ask my Muslim friend - is that the story of Allah? Is The Father of Jesus Christ, as understood by Christians, the SAME as Allah?
That’s why I think the story approach can be useful.
So I’m thinking that the question is not the degree of devotion a disciple has, or the fervency with which he/she for the tenets of the faith, or their sincerity - when we are asking ‘Who is Right’, we are inquiring into the cogency of, the comprehensiveness of, the degree of correlation between, particular stories and Reality. As for ‘knowing’ we are right - that’s a biggie. I go along with GMAC’s father who told him “All a man can do is to choose to believe”; and belief has many roots, intellectual among them.
I find John Weasley’s Quadrilateral to be helpful in understanding the foundation of the faith of anyone. The four points are:
A big part of my faith is founded in experience, though the other 3 are equally important to me.
Interesting. The Orthodox version of that list would be as follows (starting with the most important):
The difference would be in the divergence of “nature/nurture” i.e., how we are each hard-wired along with the consequentual effects our given environments imposed on us as we grew up.
Fortunately “the grace of God” isn’t dependant on us “being right”. Who hasn’t gone through life ardently and doggedly “believing” in a given religious “truth” (read, dogma) all the while praising God assuming He was fully on board, ONLY then to discover further down the road some other “great revelation” that somewhat nullified that which we once held as sacrosanct.
I guarantee… no matter where we are on life’s spectrum God’s GRACE remains the same. The reality is of course “beliefs” can and do either HELP or HINDER, but that is all about OUR own growth and not the attaining of HIS approval, or the loss thereof.
To answer the question “How do we know we are right?” I ask myself this: What if everyone followed everything that God said and did while He was here on earth? The words and the works testify for themselves.
John 5:36 "But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish- the very works that I do - bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.
Essentially we know we are the ones that are right because we have Jesus Christ. No other religious leader rose from the dead conquering death.
Pick up a copy of The Apologetic of Jesus by Geisler and Zukeran. It goes over things in fine detail from a logical perspective showing what Jesus did and why.
Also look at Hugh Ross’s testimony. He scientifically examined the major religions. It is on the Reasons to Believe website.
Another good book showing the deity of Jesus Christ is The Case for Christ.
You can also Google The Testimony of the Evangelists by Simon Greenleaf. He was a famous Harvard legal expert on evidence and he shows how Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were all reliable witnesses.
Beyond Opinion by Ravi Zacharias. anything by Ravi is great. His “Jesus Among Other Gods” is a good one too.
Time to put on my Socrates hat and ask some questions:
Why limit our reflections to just folks of different religions? Can’t folks of different ism’s (i.e. communism, socialism, erc.), be just as passionate? Or folks following the school of thoughts of various philosophers?
Don’t we have the same situation in Christianity, with various Protestant denominations, the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy?
And what if it is not beliefs that really matter, but how we implement Christ’s commandments to love God and love our neighbor? This way, at least faiths that are monotheistic have an equal shot (i.e. Judaism, Islam, many indigenous beliefs, Sikhism and Bahaism)?
Many different religions exist, and so do many different varieties of those religions, for example, the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam. I am sure people of different faiths and different beliefs are just as dedicated and devoted to their beliefs as we are. So what’s the difference then, between them and us? How do we know who is right?
Also Christ is an historical figure who was prophecied many times in the OT before he arrived and was validated many times by the biblical writers as well as in some secular accounts and even to some extent in other religious texts. His life and teachings can be tested against other religions and against reason to see if it makes sense.
Some more questions here:
Doesn’t Islam regard Christ as a prophet?
Don’t they believe the Old Testament and New Testament are true - just corrupted a bit in translation through the centuries?
Wouldn’t they agree with the second quoted statement?