Question: Why do you criticize other religions? Aren’t you as Christians supposed to encourage faith, not break it down; also to do good to all men ? I would suggest you to ponder on that matter.

Answered by: Chris Plumberg, who has been a volunteer with us since October 2009.

Answer: Thanks for your question. I actually find your question rather confusing. First, I`m not sure what you mean when you say `criticize other religions.` For example, if by this you mean `calling the adherents of other religions names` or `pretending believers in other gods are stupid` or something like that, I really don`t know what statement on the GotQuestions website you could be referring to. GotQuestions affirms and tries to share the astonishing love of God with everyone, so we have no reason to criticize others in this sense, and I`m not aware that we have. Perhaps you can give me some specific examples of what you`re referring to.

However, what I think you reallyI mean by `criticize other religions` is that we say that other religions are wrong. And of course, this isn`t really criticism in a bad way at all. In fact, if this is what you mean by `criticize other religions,` then there is some irony in your question, since it implicitly appears to criticize the GotQuestions ministry for being critical of other religions. And if your question effectively criticizes the GotQuestions ministry, then your question seems to imply that youI are not doing good to us by asking such a question! In short, I`m not sure that I understand your question, in either sense of the phrase `criticize other religions.`

So much for whether we `criticize other religions.` Let me briefly address the other pieces of your question. First, you ask whether Christians are `supposed to encourage faith, not break it down.` The answer to this question is simply `no.` Christians have no obligation to encourage faith in anything and everything. Otherwise, Christians would also be obligated to promote `faith` in statements like `2+2=5.` Even more important than faith is truth; after all, Jesus Himself said that `I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me` (John 14:6, NASB, emphasis added). In other words, as the name itself suggests, Christians promote, preach and worship Jesus Christ, not just faith in anything and everything. Jesus Himself made it unmistakably clear that He was the only way to God; other religions simply are not consistent with this statement. In short, if Christianity is really true (as it claims to be), then other religions are false. Sometimes faith in Jesus is necessary to accept the truth we find in the Bible, but this only underscores the real point: it`s faith in Jesus which is necessary, and the faith of other religions cannot accomplish this.

Think about it this way: every human being (Christians and non-Christians alike) has sinned (Romans 3:23), meaning that every human being deserves to die and be separated from God`s presence in hell, eternally (Romans 6:23). This is bad news, for everyone. The good news of Christianity (or, at least, part of it) is that Jesus Christ has made a way for us to escape an eternity in hell, and instead to spend eternity with God, rejoicing in His glory and His great love for us. Christians love everyone so much that they long for everyone to be with them in heaven someday, worshipping the Lord together. Other religions cannot bring salvation from sin and cannot buy their adherents access to heaven. So allowing people to continue pursuing other religions when God has revealed the truth to Christians is one of the most unloving things you can do.

Here`s a story, as an analogy: imagine that you and I are trapped in a burning building. Suppose that I am too afraid to move, and so I lock myself in a closet and hope that I will somehow survive. Now imagine that you know of a fire escape just a few yards away that could take us both to safety. What would you do, if you wanted to do something good for me? You would certainly encourage me to stop hiding in the closet, and instead to follow you to safety. If you refused to do something like this — if you just left me to die in the closet, when you knew that you had the power to lead me to safety — this would be one of the most unloving things you could possibly do to me. You would not be doing good to me; you would be doing evil to me.

By asking Christians to encourage the `faith` of other religions or to `do good` to them by allowing them to pursue their false paths to God`s presence, you are asking us to be unloving toward those who are headed towards an eternity separated from God. And this is something that we simply cannot do, because we love people too much, just as Jesus loved us too much to allow us to go to hell. We Christians encourage, promote and seek to build up faith in Jesus, but we will discourage any kind of `faith` which would lead others away from God. Again, we do not do this from arrogance: we do this from love. We seek to do good toward everyone, because we know that only Jesus can offer us a path into God`s love. To do anything less would be unloving, and this is something we simply cannot do.

Question: Am I right to say I am not a sinner because of the grace of Jesus Christ, when I am still committing sin?

Answered by: Matt Long, who has been a volunteer with us since November 2007.

Answer: The answer to this question is difficult to give. There are a number of opinions on this subject. I think the best way to think about this is, that once we are justified, we will still sin, but we are considered by God to be holy.

Ephesians 1:4 states “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,”. Likewise, Ephesians 5:27 states, “that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

At the moment of our salvation God declares us righteous, or holy, because of the sacrifice of Christ. We are from that moment on clean and holy in God’s sight. However, that does not absolve us from being sinners. We still sin throughout our life and need to seek out forgiveness for those sins. The forgiveness we seek for individual sins is not a saving forgiveness, we have already received that, but a sanctifying forgiveness. Sanctification means “set apart”. Being set apart is a lifelong process we go through as Christians. It is the process by which we become more Christ-like and less sinful.

So I would say that we are all still sinners, but we are considered holy at the moment of salvation, and our life from then on should be marked by a process of being set apart from the world.