Christ vs. religious leaders of the world

In past posts, we have been talking about the purity of God. The information I offer in today's post provides further proof of the authenticity and diety of Christ. Consider the following facts:

Religious Leaders:

Confucius: Born in 1551 B.C. And at one time his teachings influenced 300 million people.

Buddha: Originally his name was Sidhartha Quattamma and he was the leader who was called “the enlightened one.” He was born within a few years of Confucius. Many people follow him today mainly in Northern India, China, Indonesia, Japan and Korea and some in the United States. Today there is an estimated 350 million people who call themselves Buddhists.

Mohammed: Born in 570 A.D. he is the person in whom Islam was created, and currently an estimated 1.5 Billion people are followers of Islam.

Christ:

Jesus Christ: Born at zero for our calendar (our calendar was established at His birth). His influence is worldwide; approximately 2 billion people call themselves followers of Christ.

Five areas of their lives

Their teachings

Religious Leaders:

Confucius: Called by his followers, “the wisest of the wise.” He was a collector of wisdom from other people and put them together. Not much was originated of himself, so he was more a gatherer of wisdom. He recognized and exalted that which was wise. He was a pillar of wisdom for all those who followed him.
His teachings did not attempt to connect people with God

Buddha: Most of Buddha’s teachings were taken from Hinduism, such as reincarnation, karma, and the heavy emphases on meditation for the means of maturing the soul. His famous teaching would be the four noble truths 1) Life is suffering. 2) All suffering comes from desire. 3) Suffering is overcome by eliminating desire. 4) Eliminating desire is achieved by following an eightfold path. At the heart of Buddhism is the elimination of human desire. At the end of the eightfold path all human desire is eliminated and this state of mind is referred to as nirvana. Buddha has influence and touched more people in the world than Confucius.

Mohammed: His teachings can be summarized in five statements.
1) Allah is the one true God. 2) Allah has many prophets including Moses and Jesus, but Mohammed is the last and greatest of all. 3) The Koran is the supreme religious book in the world. 4) There are many intermediate beings between God and us, some good and some are evil. 5) Every person’s deeds will be weighed someday to determine who did enough good to warrant going to paradise. If you didn’t do good enough then you will be placed in a place separated from Allah in a place of torment forever.

Christ:

Jesus Christ: Widely recognized as the greatest teacher who ever lived. No matter what walk of life, people recognize his teachings as sound and wise. Countless civilizations have built their judicial systems on the teachings of the Bible. Unparalleled circulations of the Bible, 60 to 70 million copies of the Bible are published every year. The widely translated book in history, estimated that at least 90 percent of the world’s population has access to at least part of the Bible in their own language. The teachings and impact of Christ clearly exceed all others.

Their moral life

Religious Leaders:

Confucius: Strongly proclaimed moral living and he deplored the moral laxity of his day, he never proclaimed that he was perfect. There is no record of him being really good or really bad.

Buddha: A strong proponent of moral living, the virtues of kindness and truthfulness and humility were a big part of his teaching. Some of his followers called him the perfect one for he truly tried to live out the eightfold path and eliminate desire in his life.

Mohammed: A noted killer and exceeded the allowable number of wives, stated in the Koran. Although one night he received special revelation that gave him special privileges to have as many wives as he wanted. He acknowledged his own sinfulness and asked Allah for forgiveness. His many followers wrote many things about his dark side.

Christ:

Jesus Christ: Exemplified moral perfection. Friends, family, and witnesses gave testimony to His moral perfection. His enemies also declared that he was without fault. There was no evidence of any moral lapse in His life. He set the standard when it came to love.

Miracles

Religious Leaders:

Confucius: No miracles. Never claimed to be able to do miracles.

Buddha: No miracles. Never claimed to be able to do miracles.

Mohammed: The Koran says that Mohammed preformed no miracles. He never claimed to be able to do miracles.

Christ:

Jesus Christ: During His three year ministry Jesus healed multitudes of physical afflictions, controlled the weather, cast out demons, opened blind eyes, and raised the dead. Thousands and thousands of onlookers saw his miracles. They were recorded by the writers of the Gospels, and widely recorded by secular historians as well.

Prophetic Power (the ability to see insight into peoples’ lives, and into the future)

Religious Leaders:

Confucius: None

Buddha: None

Mohammed: None

Christ:

Jesus Christ: He could read the thoughts and hearts of people, recorded on numerous occasions. He predicted His death, the kind of death, the kind of burial, His resurrection, and the list goes on and on.

The ability to overcome death

Through time, there have been thousands upon thousands of people who have called themselves messiahs. But one event always calls a messiahs bluff and that is death. And despite of all of their bold declarations about what would happen after they die, what always happened was that they stayed dead.

Religious Leaders:

Confucius, Buddha, and Mohammed all stayed dead, and you can visit their tombs today.

Christ:

Jesus Christ died and on the third day He rose from the grave. His resurrection was very well documented. Multiple exhaustive studies have been done to present and prove the evidences of Christ’s resurrection.


This information is not to make any one less than what they actually were. The point that is made is that no one has distinguished themselves the way that Jesus has; Jesus is in a class all His own. He is the Son of God who came to the world to do exactly what He did; to willingly lay down His life for us and pay a debt that we couldn’t pay, so that our relationship to the Father could be restored.