Book summary “So, What's the Difference?”: summary

Introduction

You often encounter people who claim that all religions essentially teach the same thing. This confusion leaves you wondering how to evaluate conflicting spiritual claims and what makes biblical Christianity distinct.

Fritz Ridenour provides a clear guide to comparing major faiths and belief systems against historical Christianity. You will examine the core teachings of diverse religions to understand where they agree and where they fundamentally diverge.

A worldview is an individual set of foundational assumptions that shapes your outlook on life, and biblical Christianity serves as an objective plumb line to evaluate diverse faiths.

You will explore these central questions:

• What makes biblical Christianity unique among world religions?
• How do historical branches like Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy differ from Protestantism?
• What do major global faiths teach about salvation and the afterlife?
• How can you recognize the distorted doctrines of modern cults and alternative spiritual movements?

1. The Plumb Line of Biblical Christianity

Everyone holds a worldview that influences thoughts, feelings, and actions based on answers to core questions about God, human identity, morality, truth, and history. You navigate daily decisions and ultimate destiny through foundational assumptions.

The text categorizes non-biblical worldviews into four distinct types:

• naturalism;
• pantheistic monism;
• polytheism;
• relativism.

Biblical Christianity provides an objective standard for evaluating faith through the authority of scripture, the deity and resurrection of Christ, and human sinfulness.

The Plumb Line Criterion

Masons use a plumb line with a pointed weight to verify a straight wall. God's Word acts as the objective standard for evaluating different religious beliefs and maintaining doctrinal integrity against internal heresies. You can measure the claims of any faith by this unchanging standard.

Scripture relies on the core message of 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 as an objective plumb line to compare faiths. You find that the Bible's divine inspiration is supported by historical unity across 40 authors who wrote over a period of 1,600 years. Scholars like Nelson Glueck and William F. Albright provided extensive archaeological confirmation for the biblical text.

Detailed analysis reveals specific prophecies in the scriptures:

• 300 references to the Messiah in the Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus Christ;
• a 10 to the 17th power probability chance for a single person to fulfill just 8 specific messianic prophecies.

Foundational Doctrines

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, having existed eternally and claiming divine equality. Scriptural records demonstrate Jesus's divinity through His explicit claims, such as stating He and the Father are one and applying the divine I AM title to Himself. C.S. Lewis noted that alternatives leave you limited to Him being Lord, a liar, or a lunatic. The Old Testament uses the plural form elohim for God 2,346 times.

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the foundational and non-negotiable event of historical Christianity. The resurrection proves Christ's deity, guarantees eternal life for believers, and serves as the ultimate validation of Christian hope. This event distinguishes Christianity from other major world religions whose founders remain dead, supported by 500 people who witnessed Jesus at one time in post-resurrection appearances.

All humans inherit a sinful nature and spiritual deadness from Adam, rendering them incapable of saving themselves through good works. Adam served as the federal head of the human race, plunging humanity into sin through disobedience. This total depravity affects every part of your human nature, requiring divine grace and the substitutionary atonement of Christ for redemption.

2. Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Judaism

Historical branches of faith diverge over papal authority, tradition versus scripture, sacramental salvation, and the identity of the Messiah.

Catholicism and Authority

Historical disputes over papal authority and theology fractured the original Christian church into Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant branches. The major split creating the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church occurred in 1054. Centuries later, corruption and doctrinal additions by Rome sparked the Protestant Reformation initiated by Martin Luther.

Protestants rely solely on the Bible for spiritual authority, whereas Catholics and Orthodox Christians place sacred tradition and church authority on an equal or superior footing with Scripture. The Reformation principle of sola scriptura asserts that the Bible is complete and sufficient for redemption, and individual believers can interpret it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Conversely, the Roman Catholic Church maintains that scripture and sacred tradition are equal sources of authority managed by the magisterium, while Eastern Orthodoxy views scripture as part of a larger organic tradition preserved by the Church.

The Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy rests on interpreting Peter as the foundational rock, an interpretation contested by Protestants and early Church fathers. Catholics cite Matthew 16 to claim Jesus appointed Peter as the rock and first pope, establishing an unbroken line of apostolic succession and papal infallibility. Protestants argue that the Greek text distinguishes between Petros as a small stone and petra as a massive rock referring to Peter's confession of faith, and note that Peter never claimed papal authority. Vatican Council I adjourned in 1870, the year it proclaimed papal infallibility.

While Protestants teach justification by faith alone, Catholics and Orthodox Christians integrate good works and sacraments into the lifelong process of securing salvation. Protestants hold that believers are declared righteous immediately through faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice. Catholics teach that justification begins with baptism and is maintained through the seven sacraments and good works that merit grace, blending justification and sanctification into a single process.

Roman Catholicism teaches that unpunished sins are cleansed in purgatory after death, a process that can be shortened through living intercession and indulgences. Because acts of penance on earth are often insufficient to pay for temporal punishments of sin, souls enter purgatory for purification. Living believers can shorten this time through prayers, masses, and indulgences drawn from the spiritual treasury of the Church's accumulated merits. A partial indulgence reduces temporal punishment in purgatory by a specific unit of time, such as 100 days.

Eastern Orthodoxy and Judaism

Eastern Orthodoxy differs from Western Christianity by emphasizing deification rather than judicial justification as the core framework of salvation. Orthodox theology teaches that the Fall brought mortality and corruption rather than inherited guilt. Christ's victory over death enables believers to undergo theosis, a lifelong process of becoming partakers of the divine nature while retaining their human identity. There are 200 million Orthodox believers worldwide today.

Judaism shares the Old Testament foundation and moral framework with Christianity but rejects Jesus as the divine Messiah. Judaism emphasizes moral living, covenant obedience, and the observance of traditions and the Torah. While Jews anticipate a future messianic redemption, they reject Jesus due to His divine claims and failure to bring national deliverance, though a growing Messianic Jewish movement recognizes Jesus as Savior while maintaining Jewish cultural practices.

Historic tragedies and milestones mark the journey of the Jewish people:

• 6 million Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust;
• 1948 marked the year the state of Israel was born;
• 1967 marked the year Israelis captured all of Jerusalem;
• 350 estimated Messianic Jewish congregations exist worldwide today.

3. Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism

Major non-Christian world religions offer alternative paths of works, reincarnation, and self-effort that contradict biblical redemption.

Islam

Islam is built upon six core doctrines and five obligatory duties that place the burden of salvation on individual works and submission to Allah. Worldwide followers of Islam number approximately 1 billion people, with 120 million Muslims in Indonesia, the country with the most believers.

Muslims practice fasting during the ninth month of the Islamic lunar year, abstaining from food, drink, smoking, and sexual pleasures during daylight hours.

You must navigate specific religious duties to follow this path:

• Publicly repeat the Shahadah: There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is the prophet of Allah.
• Pray five times a day at daybreak, noon, midafternoon, after sunset, and early evening facing Mecca.
• Give alms amounting to one-fortieth or 2.5 percent of profit to help the needy.
• Fast during the entire month of Ramadan during daylight hours.
• Perform the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime if able.

Islam incorporates biblical figures and concepts but fundamentally contradicts core Christian teachings regarding the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and His crucifixion. The author contrasts Islamic theology with biblical truth, noting that the Qur'an rejects the Trinity as shirk, denies the Sonship and divinity of Jesus, and claims that someone else was crucified in Christ's place while Jesus was taken directly to heaven.

Muslims teach that either Judas or Simon of Cyrene was disguised to resemble Jesus on the cross, fooling even Mary and the disciples.

The Black Muslim movement is a distinct American adaptation of Islam that evolved through shifts in racial nationalism and orthodox integration. Timothy Drew established the precursor to the Black Muslim movement in 1913. Wallace Fard Mohammed formed the Nation of Islam in Detroit in 1930. Louis Farrakhan resurrected the Nation of Islam in 1978.

Malcolm X broke away from Elijah Mohammed after visiting Mecca and observing the multiracial character of orthodox Islam, leading to his assassination in 1965.

Hinduism and Buddhism

Hinduism views Ultimate Reality as an impersonal force and traps the eternal soul in an endless cycle of reincarnation governed by karma until liberation is achieved. The Hindu pantheon contains 330 million gods, goddesses, or demigods. Swami Vivekananda made a significant impression at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893.

The Beatles traveled to India in the 1960s to learn transcendental meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

You engage with Hinduism through designated spiritual paths:

• Follow the path of works by fulfilling caste social and religious obligations.
• Follow the path of knowledge through self-renunciation, scripture study, and yoga meditation.
• Follow the path of passionate devotion by worshiping chosen deities or avatars from the Hindu pantheon.

Buddhism originated with Siddhartha Gautama and teaches that suffering caused by selfish desire can be eliminated through self-effort along the Noble Eightfold Path. Siddhartha Gautama was born around 560 B.C., and teachings of Buddha are followed by 350 million people today across the Orient.

Siddhartha Gautama left his palace at age 29, spent years seeking answers, and sat under a tree for 40 days and nights before experiencing nirvana.

You pursue liberation by applying specific mental and behavioral rules:

• Practice right viewpoint, right aspiration, right speech, right behavior, right occupation, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

4. Cults and Counterfeit Faiths

Religious cults are unorthodox groups centered on human misinterpretations of the Bible that reject core Christian doctrines and offer counterfeit salvation through works. Walter Martin spent 30 years researching cults.

Religious cults such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism distort scripture and deny core Christian doctrines while demanding strict organizational obedience.

Notable cults founded on human leaders include Jehovah's Witnesses with Charles Taze Russell, Mormons with Joseph Smith, and Christian Scientists with Mary Baker Eddy.

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses originated under Charles Taze Russell and Joseph F. Rutherford, who established a pattern of setting failed specific dates for Armageddon while exerting tight central control. Charles Taze Russell lived from 1852-1916. He rejected traditional doctrines as a teenager and launched a magazine that became The Watchtower, predicting Armageddon for 1914. His successor, Joseph F. Rutherford, subsequently set 1925 as the date for Armageddon. When predictions failed, leaders blamed the faithful for misunderstanding chronology rather than admitting false prophecy.

Joseph F. Rutherford announced 1925 as the absolute correct date for Armageddon, advertising it nationwide, but when the year passed without incident, the Watchtower claimed believers had erroneously anticipated the end.

Jehovah's Witnesses systematically deny fundamental Christian doctrines, including the Trinity, the full deity and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and salvation by grace. The Watchtower teaches that Jesus was created as the archangel Michael before coming to Earth, that the Holy Spirit is merely an active force like electricity, and that Jesus did not rise physically from the dead but was re-created as a spirit. Furthermore, they teach that salvation requires strict obedience and works according to Watchtower directives. There are 144000 limited Jehovah's Witnesses believed to go to heaven. Every Kingdom Hall requires 5 weekly meetings.

When answering door-to-door questions regarding Jesus' death, JWs argue that because Jesus died and was annihilated for 3 days, God the Father could not have been Jesus, or the universe would have lacked a ruler.

Mormonism

Mormonism was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. after receiving visions and translating golden plates with seer stones, establishing a distinct canon outside the Bible. Joseph Smith experienced his first vision at age 14. The Book of Mormon was published and the church was founded in 1830. Worldwide membership of the Mormon Church reached 10600000 in 1999.

Joseph Smith sat behind a curtain and dictated the Book of Mormon lines as they appeared on seer stones while gazing into a hat.

Mormon theology rejects orthodox monotheism in favor of eternal progression, teaching that God was once a mortal man and humans can attain ultimate godhood. Brigham Young married 20 wives and fathered 57 children.

Mormonism divides salvation into general and individual categories, requiring strict adherence to church laws, ordinances, and temple work to earn personal exaltation. There are 3 levels of heaven in Mormon eschatology, known as telestial, terrestrial, and celestial. To merit forgiveness and attain godhood, you must meet 8 requirements:

• Exercise faith in Christ
• Undergo baptism
• Become a member of the LDS church
• Keep the commandments
• Perform temple work
• Accept Joseph Smith and his successors as God's mouthpiece

5. The New Age Movement and Alternative Movements

Modern alternative movements merge pantheism, occultism, syncretism, and secular humanism into worldviews that reject absolute truth and divine law.

The New Age Movement

The New Age Movement is a decentralized worldview rather than an organized sect. You can observe it blending ideas from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Gnosticism, and modern occultism. Alice Bailey popularized the New Age label over half a century ago. Later, the 1960s counterculture disillusioned youth and popularized transcendental meditation.

The Beatles introduced transcendental meditation to America after traveling to India to study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Broadway musical Hair featured the song "The Age of Aquarius" in 1968.

Polls cited by the author show that 66 percent of American adults claim to have had a psychic experience. Thirty million Americans believe in reincarnation, and 10 million Americans are involved in Eastern mysticism. Forty-two percent of American adults believe they have been in contact with someone who has died. Fourteen percent of Americans endorse the work of spirit mediums or channelers, and 67 percent of American adults read astrology columns.

New Agers redefine God as an impersonal force or "it" identical to the creation. Shirley MacLaine wrote in Dancing in the Light that since she exists and is part of the god-source, "I AM that I AM."

Modern channeling involves mediums going into trances to relay messages from spirit guides. J.Z. Knight channels a 35,000-year-old warrior named Ramtha on television programs. Helen Schucman transcribed the three-volume A Course in Miracles through an inner voice over seven years, which sold half a million copies.

Secular Humanism and Postmodernism

Secular humanism is a naturalistic worldview originating from the Enlightenment that denies God's existence. Humanist Manifesto I appeared in 1933, followed by Humanist Manifesto II in 1973. Postmodernism rejects absolute truth altogether and treats all beliefs as arbitrary social constructs.

Josh McDowell estimated that 57 percent of churched youth do not believe in an objective standard of truth. George Barna reported that 53 percent of Bible-believing conservative Christian adults do not believe in absolute truth. A 1997 Christianity Today report noted that 84 percent of first-year Christian college students find it difficult to defend their beliefs.

Baha'i is a syncretistic movement started in 1844 by Mirza Ali Mohammed. Members practice strict rules of devotion:

• Wash faces and hands three times a day
• Turn toward Baha'u'llah's tomb and recite the Obligatory Prayer
• Repeat daily the words Allah-u-Abha
• Fast from sunup to sundown for 19 days every March

10 Key Ideas

1. A worldview is an individual set of foundational assumptions that shapes your outlook on life, and biblical Christianity serves as an objective plumb line to evaluate diverse faiths.
2. Biblical Christianity provides an objective standard for evaluating faith through the authority of scripture, the deity and resurrection of Christ, and human sinfulness.
3. Historical branches of faith diverge over papal authority, tradition versus scripture, sacramental salvation, and the identity of the Messiah.
4. Major non-Christian world religions offer alternative paths of works, reincarnation, and self-effort that contradict biblical redemption.
5. Islam is built upon six core doctrines and five obligatory duties that place the burden of salvation on individual works and submission to Allah.
6. Hinduism views Ultimate Reality as an impersonal force and traps the eternal soul in an endless cycle of reincarnation governed by karma until liberation is achieved, while Buddhism teaches that suffering can be eliminated through self-effort along the Noble Eightfold Path.
7. Religious cults such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism distort scripture and deny core Christian doctrines while demanding strict organizational obedience.
8. Jehovah's Witnesses systematically deny fundamental Christian doctrines, including the Trinity, the full deity and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and salvation by grace, while Mormonism rejects orthodox monotheism in favor of eternal progression.
9. Modern alternative movements merge pantheism, occultism, syncretism, and secular humanism into worldviews that reject absolute truth and divine law.
10. Secular humanism is a naturalistic worldview originating from the Enlightenment that denies God's existence, and postmodernism rejects absolute truth altogether by treating all beliefs as arbitrary social constructs.