Christianity is not a new religion. Christianity is a sect of Judaism. History and politics as well as the church's intermitten apostasy has separated them, and put emnity between them. But Christianity is not possible, nor can it stand on its own without Judaism. The Torah (Law), the Prophets, and the historical writings of the Jewish Bible is the same as what is in the first part of the Christian Bible known as the Old Testament. In these writings are prophecies and descriptions of a coming savior (Messiah from Hebrew = Meshiach) who would be God condescended and giving up His glory to take on Flesh and to live and die as a man. Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promises to the Jews. Jesus is clearly described in the Jewish scriptures. Judaism is based on laws given by God. Many of these laws included animal sacrifice. The purpose of animal sacrifice was life for life. The animal dies in your place so that you don't have to, but the seriousness of the act points you to the seriousness of your sins (sin is rebellion against God - when you break God's law you sin.) You see, God is perfect. And being perfect, He cannot be in the presence of sin. Actually the idea is that we, as sinful beings cannot be in His presence, or we would simply be devoured - destroyed not by God, but by His righteous glory. So in order to be in God's presence, we must be sinless - but no one is sinless. Anyone ever had to teach their kids to lie? Anyone ever needed lessons on how to hate? So in order for us to know God personally and to experience Him in our lives - to have the relationship with him for which He made us, we must be sinless. So the animal's blood covered the sin of the person and the debt of death was paid. But the next time that person sinned, they had to sacrifice again before they could be right with God. So...God gave Himself as the ultimate sacrifice. He died so we can go to Him immediately for fogiveness and so that we don't have to be separated from Him. We can gain access to God at all times through His sacrifice for us. Anyone who says it's not fair that people should go to Hell because they can't keep God's rules has no more argument. Jesus - the Messiah - God on earth, died in our place. God took the punishment Himself that he prescribed for us. All we have to do is accept that sacrifice, believe that Jesus is God and that He died for you and when you follow Him, His grace saves us from eternal death and we are promised eternal life with God in His perfect presence. His blood covers our sins. If you want to know more about this part, e-mail campagnj1@yahoo.com The second part is to answer the question about real "newer" religions like Islam - 600AD, Mormonism - early 1800's, Scientology - 1980's, etc., etc. Most don't have an explanation except to use Judaism and Christianity as a source and then twist the principles and doctrines. Almost all of them say, "Oh, well, the Bible was translated wrong and that's why we are the true religion"..."We have the right translation, plus a little more and this is what God really meant." There isn't much new under the sun. There's is nothing in these religions that does not stem from Judaism or Christianity or a mix of eastern religions and "positive thinking." I would also argue that all religions can be traced back to Judaism. There are several factors to this - too many to go into here, but just as a basic discussion: Every civilization has a global flood story, many very similar, this points to an actual historical event. Worship of nature is evidently a misplaced worship of the one who created it. Sacrifice - such an ugly and inhumane practice has been a world-wide ancient practice that spanned cultures and geography. Where did this come from? As I explained above, Judaism is the only religion where God gives a theological reason for sacrifice. The rest are primitive practices that try to placate angry gods for a favorable outcome in the here and now. Ancester worship is another world-wide practice in antiquity. The Bible forbids this, but sets the foundation for apostate practices - example: "Jehova is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." If in fact there was a global flood after which the descendents of Noah repopulated the earth and spread geographically, then they would have brought with them the pure Judaic religion that was then twisted, forgotten, reinvented and prostituted into the paganism of "earlier" religions in the context of your question. This is where Abraham comes on the scene, and God gives us His Bible - His inerrant word to us so that we can preserve His law and eventually realize that we need God to save us. To answer Lady Fuscia's criticism...I think this does account for very old religious beliefs like Hinduism. Hinduism is no older than Judaism. And since Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism it is rooted in theology as old or older than Hinduism. Let me restate my explanation of old religions in simpler terms: A rock band in the 60's releases a number one hit. Very soon after, several other performers take the song and change it. One records a slow version. Another does a dance version. In the 80's it's made into a rap song, then in the 90's it's a club remix. By 2000 the words have been either changed or left out altogether. Then in 2005, the original band re-records the song in digital HD surround sound on 25 tracks and releases a DVD of the live concert along with the pristine original version of the song produced in audiophile clarity. Make sense? Okay - Here we go... God creates Adam, the world begins to decay because of sin and Adam's descendents barely even know God or remember Adam. They start their own religions and change things around from what their fathers taught them. It gets so bad, God decides to restart and so comes the flood. Once again pure God-centered factual religion is re-established through Noah. Now Noah's descendents go off in all directions and forget God once again. They have to fill the God-given spiritual needs of their hearts and create their own beliefs using rituals they borrow from their forefathers and change them to their own twisted liking. All the while God preserves His relationship with man through His true revelation through Abraham, Isaac...the Jews who are then given their Messiah who will save the whole world (not just the Jews) and thus comes Christianity. Now tell me again how this doesn't explain any and every religion ever conceived by man?

It is because of the older religions that new ones came about. They,the new religions, figured out a better way to capture peoples brains as well as their money. It all about control. NOT ABOUT EDUCATION. any lady can figure that out.

The first religions were handed down via a long game of Telephone. Things got mixed up, but you can still see the basics. Hercules looks a lot like Jesus. And the Trinity of Brahma, Shiva, and Krishna looks a LOT like the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

they deny them except for judism

They invent history, reverse the evolution of their religion, and ignore any historical knowledge that doesn't support their world-view. You can see this on several of the answers to this question. No text referring to Yahweh (Old Testament, New Testament, etc) has been found that dates older than 900 BCE. Judaism wasn't fully monotheistic until around 800-700 BCE. In fact, Yahweh originally had a wife. (Please see The New History of the World, J.M. Roberts, Oxford University Press, 2003) They insist that their book, especially Mosaic Law, was given to Moses directly from Yahweh, and ignore the fact that it derives from (and often times quotes word for word) the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi that predates it (approx 1700 BCE) and that the Ten Commandments are a subset of the Egyptian Negative Confession. The only additions not in the Negative Confession are sole worship of a deity and a prohibition against idols. Both are trademarks of Pharaoh Akhenaton's (Amenhotep IV) monotheistic cult of the Aten. The Aten replaced all deities in Egypt and was only represented by a solar disk. This attempt occurred in Egypt just prior to the Exodus (if it happened, the best historic date for this is about 1270 BCE). The cult was disbanded and the old religion restored when his successor, Tutankhamen, took the throne. It is all but certain that themes of this cult made its way into modern Judaism. Judaism itself admits that it came out of Egypt. Now, what Christians say is that the original religion was Yahweh worship, dating back to Eden. It became corrupted and was restored by Moses and the Law. Thus, rather than placing Judaism and Christianity in their proper place in the evolution and developments of religion, they claim it was, in fact, first, and that all other religions are corruptions of it. They are "revealed text" religions that believe their religions were revealed directly by a deity. Thus, their beliefs on the matter aren't dependent on the place their religion holds in the history of religious developments. Evidence contrary to their beliefs is rejected or re-interpreted from their paradigm to support their beliefs. This is why you get claims that the similarities between Krishna and Yeshua (Jesus) are evidence that Hinduism originally came from Yahweh worship, rather than the reverse (Krisha myths influenced Yeshua myths). It doesn't matter that Krisha and his myths predate Yeshua by a significant time period. This is but one example.

The devil was so good at predicting the future of the all powerful creator that he gave similar stories, using different names, of the real story before the creator revealed his true religion. The devil seems to work in more mysterious ways than God, huh? . Usually they end up making an argument that can't be proven wrong and shines their god in the light they wish him to be cast in. For instance, the Spanish Inquisition. The priests, cardinals, and whoever else at the time deemed it was God's plan to transform the planet into Christians which they then used torture to ensure this. We can't really prove them wrong since God apparently won't talk to just anyone, just those who hold authority within the religion. . It's all baloney.