Why should I be a Christian instead of some other religion?

[opusAquinas]

As someone who has studied a lot about religion and history, I sometimes struggle with the question of why I should believe that my own faith as a Christian is the correct one. Growing up, I went to Sunday school and during the summers I sometimes went to Bible camps. Now as an adult, when I’m in church, certain rituals and hymns and certain stories about Jesus resonate with me and they sometimes even bring tears to my eyes.

But that I am now a Christian who feels an emotional connection to many of its rituals, creeds, hymns and stories is mostly due to the fact that I was raised a Christian in a Christian family and live in a part of world that has historically been Christian. That I am a Protestant Christian is mostly due to the fact that all of my ancestors for more than 400 years were Protestants who came from Scandinavia, England and parts of Germany that became Protestant during the Reformation. So, it is mostly an accident of history that I am now a Protestant Christian.

If I had been born some place in the Middle East or North Africa and belonged to a family from that part of the world, I would probably be a Muslim. If I had been born in India I might be a Hindu or if I had been born in Thailand, I might be a Buddhist instead. In each case, the Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist rituals, stories, and style of worship would probably resonate with me and feel most correct and most convincing to me because that would have been the faith I was raised in and the one my family belonged to.

I’m very interested in history, too, and can’t help reflecting that if I had been born in Scandinavia 1500 years ago, I would probably be worshipping Thor and Odin like my Viking ancestors and might not know anything about Christianity. If I had been born somewhere in what is now Mexico before 1517, I and none of my ancestors would ever have heard anything about Christianity and I would perhaps be practicing the religion of the Mayas or the Aztecs.

So how can I tell that my religion as a Christian is correct or mostly correct while those other religions are not correct?

You are asking if it is merely cultural. If God has a plan?

How about this- some people are smarter than others. Think about the bell curve.
Think about the average Christian on the bell curve of Christianity… how much faith do they have and how much knowledge of the faith etc?

God makes the bar to get into heaven very low or very high depending on where you are and who you are. If you go to heaven believing in Jesus Christ you are saved. If you were born in X time period in Y culture it could be easy or very difficult.

You are making a category mistake. You are questioning your faith by assuming it is all relative to time and place. God has a plan. He predestines.

 

[commenter]

Posters are forgetting the thread:
“Why should I be a Christian instead of some other religion?”, and I would emphasize the third word. Yes Christians have done bad things, and so has everyone else in history. Yes Christian groups have sometimes forced conversions, and yes other religions and especially today secular humanists have persecuted Christians and tried to force Christians to leave that faith. (Extremist Muslims are direct and explicit; secular humanists are indirect and subtle).

But what about you, the person reading this thread? The fact that Christians did bad things, and the fact that Christians have been and are persecuted, are not sufficient reasons for you to become a Christian, or to embrace another faith either.

Why should you become or not become a Christian? What other faith is better for you than Christianity?