Other religions

inquiry

Good morning.  For the past few weeks I've been reading & studying 
various religions.  I've always been interested in other beliefs.  I 
myself am a Christian and my belief is in the Lord Jesus Christ as 
my personl Savior and only way to eternal life.  I'm troubled by 
these "other" beliefs and am trying to not be judgemental but rather 
understand how they could possibly believe what they do.  I came 
across your summary of Islamic Beliefs and Eschatology and found it 
rather interesting.  I have too many questions to ask you but did 
find an answer to one question I've been seeking for years.  I've 
always wondered why I'm "right" and their "wrong". I say that 
carefully because they too feel their right in the beliefs, but 
according to the Bible their not.   Why do they read the Torah and 
not the Holy Bible.  Why do they stop with the first five books and 
don't live by the New Testament and believe Jesus is the Son of God. 
This Allah dude, he's a strange character.  You mentioned in your 
article (summary) that Ilah is not the same God as the God of 
Abraham (that being Yahweh).  Am I to assume you are referring to 
Allah and that the god of Islam is not the same God I know and 
believe in?.  You mentioned Abraham was called by Yahweh to renounce 
the pagan gods of his family.  Is this where it all branched off. 
If everyone would have renounced their pagan belief and turned back 
to Yahweh, would the world only know one faith, Christianity?  I 
need to know why I'm "right" and their "wrong".  I know what 
scripture says, I know what I believe, I know Jesus Christ is the 
only way, however, they know and believe Muhammad was God's prize 
prophet and the is no God by Allah.  

I  hope this makes since, and I appreciate your time.  I'm happy you 
found meaning & many of your questions were answered when you found 
Christ.  Thank you for your articles.  I've got a lot of reading to 
do.  Can you help me?

first response

The whole key issue is knowing Jesus Christ as Lord. He said,

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father 
but by me."

This is the great dividing line between those who are God's people 
and those who are not.

The state of mankind is well-described in Romans Chapters 1-3. Men 
are enemies of God, not seeking Him, self-centered, autocratic, 
ignorant of God and not the least interested in know Him. If God did 
not seek some of us out, not one would ever turn to God on his own.

I am a member of a great email team who usually have better answers 
than I can give. I am passing this along to them as it's likely one 
or more of them will have good comments for you.

Sincerely,

second response

I have asked your
question to myself many times.  "Lord, how come I responded to the gospel
and not some of my friends who are brighter and very good people.  Could I
simply be trapped in a cultural, psycho-logical, social, "Christian" kind of
box?  Two ideas come to mind.  In vis-iting other cultures, talking to those
people I do not detect anything per-sonal about their faith.  It is in a
system, a doctrine, a religious movem-ment, a "church". (I also meet
"christ-ians" who respond this way.) Something happened to me when I asked
Jesus to be Lord of my life.  I did become a different person (not that day)
and have always felt a "presence" that was not there before.  It is indeed
linked to this mysterious word "faith", some-thing we hope for and certain
of what we do not see (Heb. 1:1)  Certainly other religious books have
similar kinds of information that we read in the bible.  What they don't
present is that God has expressed Himself to us in the form of Jesus Christ,
not as a prophet but as God Himself.  They also lack prophetic information
revealing history and current events in the light of scripture.

I'm also startled by the biblical theme that God has found us, chosen us,
not us finding or choosing him. The parable of the sower, e.g., in Matt
24:13
God evidently knows the good seed from the weeds according to that passage.
He knows who we are, what we will choose, our beginning and end before we
even begin to consider who He is.  This indeed is a mystery to me and am
daily thankful or His grace.  The daily news informs me that God is in
control and on scedule.