A Pathways Forward resource

How Christianity Compares

What other faiths believe, where they came from, and how they compare with the Christian faith.

Christians are called to love their neighbors, and to be ready to give a reason for their hope, with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). That starts with understanding what our neighbors actually believe. Each page below describes a faith the way its own followers would recognize it, shows on a map where it began and how it spread, and then compares it honestly with historic Christianity.

Where each faith began

The Christian faith in brief

God: One God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: the eternal, holy, loving Creator.
Jesus: God the Son, who became fully human, died for our sins, rose bodily from the dead, and is Lord and the only Savior.
The problem: Sin, our rebellion against a holy God, separates us from him and corrupts everything.
The answer: Grace: forgiveness and new life as a free gift, received by faith in Jesus's death and resurrection, not earned.
Scripture: The Old and New Testaments (66 books), the inspired Word of God.
After death: Judgment, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life with God for all who are in Christ, in a new heaven and new earth.

The faiths

Judaism

The faith of Abraham, Moses, and the prophets: the root from which Christianity grew.

Judaism worships the one God who made a covenant with Abraham and gave the Law to Moses. Its Scriptures are the same books Christians call the Old Testament. Most Jews do not believe Jesus is the Messiah, and that is the great dividing line between the two faiths.

Began: With Abraham, about 2000 BC, and the covenant at Mount Sinai under Moses. Rabbinic Judaism took shape after Rome destroyed the Temple in AD 70.
Followers: About 15 million (Pew, 2020), mostly in Israel and the United States

Islam

Submission to God (Allah), as taught by the prophet Muhammad in seventh-century Arabia.

Islam teaches that there is one God and that Muhammad is his final prophet. Muslims honor Jesus as a great prophet born of a virgin, but they deny that he is God's Son and most believe he was not crucified. Salvation depends on faith and deeds weighed at the Day of Judgment.

Began: AD 610 in Mecca, Arabia, when Muhammad (about 570–632) reported his first revelations
Followers: About 1.9 billion (Pew, 2020), the world's second-largest religion

Hinduism

An ancient family of traditions from India, seeking release from the cycle of rebirth.

Hinduism has no single founder or creed. Most Hindus believe in one ultimate reality, Brahman, worshiped through many gods, and in a soul that is reborn again and again according to its karma until it finds liberation. Jesus is often honored as one holy teacher among many.

Began: No single founder
Followers: About 1.2 billion (Pew, 2020)

Buddhism

The path taught by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, to end suffering.

Buddhism follows the teaching of the Buddha, who said that suffering comes from craving and can be ended by following the Eightfold Path to nirvana. It does not center on a Creator God. Christians and Buddhists share a serious concern with suffering but give very different answers to it.

Began: About 500 BC in northern India and Nepal, with Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha ('the awakened one')
Followers: About 324 million (Pew, 2020), mostly in East and Southeast Asia

Sikhism

Devotion to one God, taught by Guru Nanak and the nine Gurus who followed him.

Sikhism, born in the Punjab about 1500, teaches devotion to one formless God, honest work, sharing with others, and the equality of all people. Sikhs believe God's grace brings liberation from rebirth, but they reject the idea that God ever takes human form.

Began: About AD 1500 in the Punjab (today in India and Pakistan), with Guru Nanak (1469–1539)
Followers: About 25–30 million, mostly in Punjab, with large communities in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States

Latter-day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, restored, its members believe, through the prophet Joseph Smith.

Latter-day Saints love Jesus as their Savior and use the Bible, but they add the Book of Mormon and other scriptures and believe in living prophets. They understand God, Jesus, and salvation very differently from historic Christianity, often using the same words with different meanings.

Began: 1830 in New York, founded by Joseph Smith (1805–1844)
Followers: About 17.9 million members (church report, end of 2025)

Jehovah's Witnesses

A Bible-study movement begun by Charles Taze Russell, known for door-to-door witnessing.

Jehovah's Witnesses study the Bible earnestly and share their faith door to door. They believe Jehovah alone is God and that Jesus is God's first creation, not God himself. They teach that most of the faithful will live forever on a paradise earth, while 144,000 will rule with Christ in heaven.

Began: 1870s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Charles Taze Russell's Bible Student movement
Followers: About 9.2 million active members ('publishers') in 2025, with 20.6 million attending their yearly Memorial

Atheism and Secular Humanism

Living without God, trusting reason and science, and seeking a good life here and now.

Atheists believe there is no God; agnostics say we cannot know; secular humanists seek a good, ethical life without religion. About one in four people worldwide claims no religion. Christians share their love of truth and human dignity, but ask where dignity, morality, and hope come from if nature is all there is.

Began: Roots in ancient Greek thinkers
Followers: About 1.9 billion people are religiously unaffiliated (Pew, 2020), including atheists, agnostics, and many who are 'nothing in particular'

	God	Jesus	After death
Christianity	One God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: the eternal, holy, loving Creator.	God the Son, who became fully human, died for our sins, rose bodily from the dead, and is Lord and the only Savior.	Judgment, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life with God for all who are in Christ, in a new heaven and new earth.
Judaism	One God; the Trinity is rejected as compromising God's oneness.	A Jewish teacher; not the Messiah, and not divine.	The world to come, with resurrection in traditional teaching; the emphasis falls on this life.
Islam	One God (Allah), absolutely single; the Trinity is rejected.	A great prophet, virgin-born, the Messiah; not God's Son, and (most believe) not crucified.	Judgment by deeds; paradise or hell.
Hinduism	Ultimate reality (Brahman) worshiped through many gods; views range from one personal God to all-is-one.	Often honored as a great teacher or one avatar among many; not the only way.	Rebirth according to karma, until liberation.
Buddhism	No Creator God at the center; the ultimate is the Buddha's teaching (Dharma) and nirvana.	A wise or enlightened teacher, sometimes compared to a bodhisattva.	Rebirth according to karma, until nirvana.
Sikhism	One formless God (Ik Onkar); God does not take human form.	Respected as a holy man; not God in the flesh.	Rebirth according to karma, until union with God.
Latter-day Saints	Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three distinct beings; the Father has a glorified physical body.	The Son of God and Savior; in premortal life, the spirit brother of all people.	The spirit world, resurrection, and judgment into three degrees of glory; exaltation for the faithful.
Jehovah's Witnesses	Jehovah alone is God; the Trinity is rejected, and the Holy Spirit is God's active force, not a person.	God's first creation, once the archangel Michael; 'a god,' but not Almighty God; raised as a spirit.	No immortal soul; 144,000 in heaven, others raised to a paradise earth, and the wicked cease to exist.
Atheism and Secular Humanism	No God, or no way to know (agnosticism).	A moral teacher or a legend; not God, not risen.	Nothing; we live on through our influence and memory.

Numbers are approximate. World figures are from the Pew Research Center (2020 data, published 2025); figures for the Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses are from their own 2025 reports.