How many religions are there in the world? Many. Can we provide an exact number? No. We can, however, divide the religions into three classes. These are the monotheistic, the polytheistic, and the pantheistic. The characteristic of monotheistic religions is belief in one God; and some examples of this kind of religion are Judaism and Islam. Polytheistic religions are marked by the belief in many gods; and such are worship of the stars, animal worship, plant worship, and others. Pantheistic religions are Brahmanism, Buddhism, and others, and their characteristic is the belief that the universe is God and that within the universe the divine remains passive and does not have a personality of its own.

Christianity is distinct from all of the above religions. It is a monotheistic religion. Christians believe in one, personal God. Sometimes certain people confuse things. Non-Christians, especially, accuse Christians of believing in three gods: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The truth is that we believe in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, but these three persons are one God.  A Trinitarian God.  We shall explain this later, when we deal with the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. At present, we should bear in mind that our God is One, but in three Persons.

Christianity has a divine origin. It was revealed to man by God. Revealed and taught to man by Christ, Who was Perfect God, but became perfect man.

The Role of Judaism
Christianity was not given to man from the beginning, for mankind in his fallen state was not ready to understand the fullness of Truth, nor to understand God’s ultimate plan of salvation by sending His Son, Jesus Christ (Messiah) to save all mankind.  God desired to first gradually prepare fallen mankind for this event, so He took a portion of mankind aside, the descendents of Abraham—the Jews, to reveal Himself to, to train them so that they would in turn eventually teach and train and prepare the rest of mankind to accept and embrace the Messiah when He came.  

To train them, God made a formal agreement or covenant with them which we call the Old Testament.  He then provided basic laws to guide them: The Ten Commandments are an example of these laws.  God also sent them prophets and teachers who slowly prepared the Jews with their teachings, exhortations and prophecies about the coming Messiah Savior.  We read about these in the Old Testament.  

To be a true Jew meant “one who knows God”: these were faithful students and were trained and recognized the Messiah when He came and embraced Him and taught others to do the same.  Among these true Jews were the righteous David, Daniel and numerous others, and eventually the Holy Disciples and Apostles of our Lord.  Other Jews were unfaithful students and failed their training and eventually rejected the Messiah when He came, and indeed, even had Him crucified.  Among these false Jews were the chief priests, the Pharisees and Sadducees.

So God provided mankind Judaism as a preparatory stage or pedagogically lesson to prepare man for Christ and Christianity. Once Christ came, He fulfilled all that law required and all that the prophets foretold.  Christ then made a new covenant with man which we call the New Testament or Gospel, making the old covenant and Judaism obsolete.  So, Judaism was the old covenant God made with mankind to prepare them for Jesus Christ.  Christianity is the New Testament Covenant Jesus Christ made with mankind once He appeared.

Oral and Written Revelation
Christianity teaches the truth. But from where does that truth come from?  It comes from Divine Revelation, both oral and written.  Oral revelation is Holy Tradition, and written revelation is Holy Scripture; and both Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture are equal. Holy Tradition is chronologically older than Holy Scripture. For example, the Prophets spoke first and afterwards wrote down their inspired words. Christ Himself never wrote anything down. He just spoke. His words were written by the Evangelists many years later, some years indeed after His sacrifice upon the Cross and His Resurrection. And the Apostles spoke and taught Christianity, although in only a few instances did they write epistles.

It is only Holy Tradition that can transmit the divine truths that are not written down in the Bible. Only Holy Tradition can correctly interpret Holy Scripture. When Holy Tradition is rejected and only Holy Scripture is accepted as the basis of our faith, as something to be interpreted by individuals, the unity of the faith is shattered. Then we have the phenomenon of the Protestant churches, which began in the sixteenth century as a single movement and have now ended up including tens of thousands of churches, all Protestant, but each separate from the other, each claiming to have the fullness of truth, and yet most having clear differences in teaching. Holy Tradition keeps us united--that is, the authentic Holy Tradition. The ark of Holy Tradition is the Church herself. For this reason St. Paul commands, "Maintain and keep the traditions."

We have said that Christianity draws the truth from Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture. We call Holy Scripture simply the Bible. When we say Holy Scripture or Bible we mean both The Old Testament and The New Testament.

The Old Testament is comprised of forty-nine books, which were written by various writers inspired by God.  All of these books were written in Aramaic. They were eventually translated into Greek centuries before Jesus Christ and this translation is known to us as the Septuagint (Translation of the Seventy [scholars]). This version/text has remarkable differences from the approximate thousand year old Masoretic version used by modern Judaism, and even many Protestants.  The Old Testament is the covenant between God and the Hebrews, the covenant that contains all of the conditions under which the people could be guided to Christ and to salvation.

The New Testament is comprised of twenty-seven books, all of them written in the Greek or Aramaic language, and it is the new covenant between God and mankind that was made with the incarnation of Christ and was signed and sealed with His Sacrifice upon the Cross and with His Resurrection.

In essence Christianity draws the truth from Christ, Who is Himself the truth and life. Whoever wishes to be alive as a Christian must remain united with Christ, for He is the Vine and the Christian is the branch. When he is united with Christ, the Christian draws sap and abundant life from the Vine.

Prayer:
Our Christ, Who are the Truth, the Way, and the Life, we thank You for having revealed Yourself to us and for having given us Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture. Grant us a clear mind and sincere faith with which to study Your Word and to grow spiritually. Abide with us and keep us united with You, so that we may enjoy abundant life. Life eternal.