Uniqueness of Christianity4

That's the next strategic thing about Christianity. Now listen carefully, and you may not believe me at first, but it's true. Christianity is the only belief system in the world that offers a savior.

Now I'm not saying that Christianity is the only belief system in the world that offers a real savior. The true, the right savior. I'm not saying that.

That is true. But that's not what I'm saying. I'm telling you that of all the religions of the world, there is only one savior.

Islam doesn't offer a savior. Islam says save yourself. You count your beads.

They have their beads too. 99 beads in the long chain. Every one of them the name of Allah.

And not one of them the name of love. You make your pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and Jerusalem and Hebron. You pay alms to the poor.

You say prayers five times a day. You acknowledge that there is but one God and his name is Allah. And Muhammad is his prophet.

And if you do that and do it faithfully enough, you may get to heaven. You do it yourself. It's a do-it-yourself religion.

And all the religions of the world fall under the same category. You do it. And if you do it well enough, you'll get to heaven.

I was some years ago in the state of New Jersey. And there were two black Muslims who said they wanted to talk to me. One had converted the other.

And everything I said, the missionary who had converted his friend, he would distort what I said. And the other one would straighten it out for me. Thank you very much.

I'd say something else and he'd twist it and he'd correct it. Thank you very much. Well, after about 30 minutes of this, the first fellow said, you know, I don't think we're getting anywhere.

I think we ought to just shut it down. He was realizing he wasn't not only converting me. He was doing a pretty good job of unconverting his friend.

The other fellow said, well, actually, it's been quite helpful, the conversation. I think we could say that there are a lot of things in common between Christianity and Islam. We both recognize Abraham, the patriarchs.

We both recognize Jesus at a certain level. You know, we believe he's a prophet and we both accept the Bible at a certain level. But I suppose the one big difference, he said, between Christianity and Islam is that you have a savior and we don't.

I said, Mr. I couldn't say it any better than that. You're right. That's exactly the point.

And as long as you think you can save yourself, any religion will do. But when you find out you need a savior, the list is very short. There's only one and his name is Jesus.

That's true. Now, save yourself is an absolutely ludicrous statement. If you're in a burning building and you're screaming out the window, help, save me, save me.

And I'm walking by and I say, save yourself. Listen, if you can save yourself, you don't need to be saved. You can't save yourself.

The Lord Jesus came to be the savior. And the amazing thing is that around the world today in millions of towns and villages, there are people whose lives were in ruins. Their marriage is collapsing.

They had no hope. They had no reason for living. And they came to Jesus as is.

And he took them. And he saved them. And transformed their lives.

There are former cannibals in Irian Jaya, in Papua New Guinea. They used to eat people like you for dinner. And they don't do that anymore.

Their lives are changed. And if you ask them, they would tell you it's because of Jesus, the savior. There is only one savior.

And he saves from sin.