How many times have you heard people say that Christianity is a religion? How many times have you heard debaters of “other beliefs” say that since “Christianity is a religion” that is a mixture of many religious tenets and worldly philosophies, Christians, thus, need to make room for other beliefs? Indeed, these debaters of “other beliefs” maintain that Christianity isn’t Christianity if it doesn’t make room for other beliefs.

First off, this “Christianity is a religion” faulty premise is what causes debaters  of “other beliefs” to misread, misinterpret, or overlook the solid evidence that proves that the Good News Gospel of Christ is not a mixture of many religious beliefs and secular philosophies. In fact, the Good News Gospel is not about any religion at all; it is about God’s salvation plan! That is why being born again and then saved are not religious experiences, for, if they were, then the religiosity of traditionalists from numerous ancient religions, including Judaism, would have been sufficient enough that there would not have been any need for Jesus the Christ’s atoning sacrifice.

Secondly, true Christianity is ALL about God’s supernatural regeneration of spiritually dead, human spirits that, when these dead, human spirits become spiritually alive, born-again individuals then can be influenced (convicted) by God’s Holy Spirit about the need for them to confess their sins, repent their sins, and accept Jesus the Christ as their Lord and Savior. Jesus the Christ, in turn, justifies His new believers (presents them before God just as if they had never sinned) so that they can begin their eternal-life status in right standing with God. As such, these born again, saved by God’s Grace believers now can enjoy their renewed spiritual relationship with God the Father and with Jesus the Christ the Son. These believers’ right standing in God also makes it possible for them to fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ. Christianity (or rather, being a Christian), then, is  about God’s saving Grace and ONLY about God’s saving Grace. For sure,  no man-made (or woman-made) religion has been able to affect an everlasting change in the spiritually dead condition of the human spirit like God’s saving Grace.

For these reasons, the fundamental tenets of Christianity are irrefutable. These incontestable fundamental tenets are: the Triune God (God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is the Eternally Self-Existent, “I AM”; the Holy Bible is the inspired, infallible Word of God, inerrant in the original authorships; Jesus the Christ is God’s only begotten Son; Jesus the Christ is the incarnate Word of God who is the first of all creatures and the creator of all things; Jesus the Christ is both man and God; Jesus the Christ died for the sins of the world; Jesus the Christ rose from the dead, as the first fruit of the dead, and He is now seated at the right hand of God; Jesus the Christ is believers’ Advocate; Jesus the Christ is Lord of Lords and King of Kings; Jesus the Christ is the way, the truth and the life; Jesus the Christ is the only “path” that leads to God; and Jesus the Christ is coming back to Earth again. Therefore, the people who hold fast to different tenets  need to know that their beliefs cannot negate, replace, pollute, or stand along side of God’s divine truth, which is documented in His Holy Bible.

As early as the first century A.D., and continuing until today, there have been proponents of “other beliefs” who, while debating the validity of their religion or their new spirituality’s tenets, were simultaneously trying to prove that the preached, taught, and documented Gospel of Christ’s fundamental tenets were foolish, specious, unfounded, illogical, and unreasonable, simply because the Gospel of Christ makes no room for other beliefs. Indeed, modern-day true Christians constantly declare that twenty-first century’s debaters of “other beliefs” neither are presenting any new evidence that is better than the evidence first century debaters of “other beliefs” used, nor are these modern-day  debaters  of “other beliefs” convincing true believers that they need to make room for beliefs that are contrary to those found in God’s Holy Bible.

Moreover, it is funny how 21st-century people believe and trust in the words thought to be penned by Homer, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Confucius, Buddha, or other ancient wise poets and thinkers; today’s intellectuals readily accept the copies of these aforementioned authors’ works as their original thoughts. The truth is that just like the works penned by the writers of the Holy Bible, these famous poets and philosophers’ works that people read and study today and use as the foundation of their own religious tenets are  just copies of copies of copies of copies, and so forth! Yet, modern-day masses hardly ever try to refute, for example, the validity of  Homer or Plato’s secular documents with the same fervor they use when they are dealing with the Holy Spirit inspired writings found in the Holy Bible.

While there are many debates about whether  the works penned by the earlier mentioned well-known poets and philosophers are more worthy to be believed and followed than the biblical works  inspired by Creator God, the fact still remains that there are  thousands of  Old and New Testament  manuscripts. Indeed,  of all of the discovered manuscript copies attributed to Homer, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Confucius, Buddha, and other ancient wise poets and thinkers, there are far more authenticated manuscript copies of the works that are in the Holy Bible. For this reason, what the Apostle Paul writes about that relates to how God feels about making room for “other beliefs” is indeed an undeniably excellent piece of evidence that proves that the irrefutable Good News Gospel is about the supernatural act of salvation, and not religion. The Apostle Paul writes:

As the Scriptures say, ‘I will destroy human wisdom and discard their brilliant  ideas.’ So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save all who believe. God’s way seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven to prove it is true. And it is foolish to the Greeks because they believe only what agrees with their own wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended, and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God. This ‘foolish’ plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength. Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes, or powerful, or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important…. (1 Corinthians 1:19-28, NLT)

Finally, people also should not get it twisted. Without a doubt, most  21st-century people who call themselves Christians will not agree that the central truth of their faith (their trust in God) is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The central truth of Christians’ faith is: Jesus the Christ is the ONE and ONLY Savior of this world. Based on this central truth, Christians know and believe that performing good works and obeying God’s commandments cannot and will not earn any person a place in Heaven.  Moreover, these believers know that Christian living is not about performance-based acceptance.  In other words, Christians’ holy and righteous living is not about trying to prove themselves perfect by the works they do for Jesus the Christ.

Therefore, true believers are Christians because they are saved by Grace, which is solely of God, and God’s saving Grace is why genuine Christians cannot and do not boast about any good works they do, and why they do not boast about any commandments they keep. In fact, true Christians obey God’s commandments and show compassion, respect and concern for others not because these beliefs originated in Judaism, or because variations of these beliefs can be found in many world religions, but true Christians endeavor to keep God’s commandments and do good works because they love God more than they love anyone or anything else. Since all of God’s commandments are summed up in Jesus’ new commandment, which is for true believers to love God with their entire spirits, souls and bodies, and to love others like they love themselves, genuine Christians do not need to make room for others’ beliefs because all that true Christians need to believe in is found in Jesus the Christ.

For these reasons, genuine Christians know that they cannot let any person lead them “…astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ” (Colossians 2:8, NLT). Furthermore, true Christians also know that they are made complete through their “…union with Christ…,” who is Lord and ruler of every person (cf. Colossians 2:10, NLT).

Once again, the Apostle Paul’s spiritual wisdom says best what true Christians know as God’s divine truth pertaining to other beliefs. Paul writes:

Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’ t see – kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together. (Colossians 1:16-17, NLT).

Because Christ “holds all creation together,” He is the major reason why Christians’ beliefs are irrefutable, why their Christianity is not a religion, and why their God and His Good News Gospel have no need to make room for other beliefs.  Amen, and Amen again!