HOW CHRISTIANS VIEW OTHERS?

Truth without pride, love without compromise

Few topics generate more misunderstanding than this one. Some assume that historic Christianity teaches disdain toward those of other faiths. Others imagine that respect requires agreement. Neither assumption is accurate.

The Christian view of Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists grows out of two deep convictions that must remain together: every human being bears the image of God and deserves dignity, and truth about God ultimately matters for life, salvation, and eternity.

Christian faith does not rest on tribal loyalty or cultural pride. It rests on claims about reality. If those claims are true, then they shape how Christians see everyone else. If they are false, they should be rejected. What follows is not an emotional reaction, but an attempt to explain clearly how historic Christianity understands these three traditions, where it finds common ground, and where it must disagree.

The Christian View of the Jewish People

Christianity is inseparable from Judaism. Jesus of Nazareth was born into a Jewish family, lived under the Law of Moses, worshiped in the synagogue, and fulfilled the Hebrew Scriptures. The apostles were Jewish. The early church emerged from within Israel. The New Testament consistently affirms that the promises of God began with Abraham and that the covenant story of Israel is real history.

For this reason, Christians do not see Jews as religious outsiders in the same way they might see adherents of other worldviews. They see Judaism as the root from which Christianity grows. The disagreement is focused and specific: Christians believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah foretold in passages such as Isaiah 53 and Daniel 7, while Rabbinic Judaism does not accept Him as such.

The Apostle Paul speaks of this tension in Romans 9–11 with grief rather than hostility. He affirms Israel’s election and the faithfulness of God to His promises, while insisting that the fulfillment of those promises is found in Christ. The difference, therefore, is not about worth or heritage. It concerns whether Jesus is indeed the long-awaited Messiah and Son of God.

Historic Christian teaching rejects antisemitism as a profound betrayal of the gospel. Hatred toward Jewish people contradicts the very faith that arose from them. The theological disagreement remains real, yet it is accompanied by recognition of shared Scripture, shared moral vision, and shared belief in the one Creator.

The Christian View of Muslims

Christianity and Islam share significant convictions. Both affirm one sovereign Creator. Both reject polytheism, speak of divine judgment and moral accountability. Both revere Abraham and acknowledge Jesus as a historical figure. Yet beneath these similarities stand decisive differences about who God is and how He saves.

Islam insists that God is utterly singular and cannot be triune. The Qur’an explicitly denies the incarnation and crucifixion as understood in the New Testament. Christianity confesses that the one God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that the Son became flesh in Jesus Christ. At the center of Christian faith stands the cross as the decisive act of redemption.

These claims cannot both be true in the same sense. Either Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, as the earliest Christian witnesses proclaim, or He was not. Either God has revealed Himself as Father through the Son, or such language misrepresents Him. The disagreement is not minor. It concerns the very nature of God and the means of salvation.

Still, Christians are commanded to love their neighbors, including Muslim neighbors. Respect for persons does not require surrender of conviction. Christian theology affirms that every Muslim bears the image of God and deserves justice, kindness, and truthful engagement. The call is never to contempt, but to clarity and compassion.

The Christian View of Buddhists

Buddhism presents a very different framework. In many of its classical forms, it does not center on a Creator God at all. The focus lies on suffering, impermanence, and the path to liberation through insight and disciplined practice. Ultimate reality is often described in impersonal terms, and the self is seen as lacking permanent essence.

Christianity begins elsewhere. It proclaims a personal Creator who speaks, creates from nothing, and calls human beings into relationship. The problem at the heart of humanity is not simply ignorance or attachment, but sin, a moral rupture that distorts our relationship with God and one another. Salvation is not self-attained awakening, but reconciliation accomplished by Christ and received by grace.

Here the difference is structural. Buddhism offers a path of disciplined transformation aimed at extinguishing craving and transcending illusion. Christianity offers redemption grounded in historical events, centered on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The goals and the diagnoses of the human condition diverge profoundly.

Yet Christians can recognize moral seriousness in Buddhist ethics, especially its concern with compassion and the alleviation of suffering. They can engage thoughtfully with its insights into human desire and restlessness. At the same time, they must hold that the deepest human need is restored fellowship with the living God, something Christianity claims is uniquely revealed in Christ.

Truth Without Superiority

The question often beneath the surface is this: does claiming exclusive truth imply moral superiority? Christianity answers no. If salvation is by grace, then no one stands above another. The gospel levels every ground. The morally disciplined and the visibly broken stand equally dependent on mercy.

Christian conviction about Jesus is not a declaration of personal achievement. It is a confession of need and of trust in what God has done. To believe that Christ is the unique Savior is to admit that one cannot save oneself. That posture undercuts arrogance at its root.

At the same time, love requires honesty. If Christians are persuaded that Jesus is who He claimed to be, then they cannot treat competing claims as equally true without abandoning their own faith. Respecting others does not mean dissolving distinctions. It means engaging those distinctions with humility, careful listening, and courage.

Seeing People Clearly

How, then, do Christians view Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists? As neighbors made in the image of God. As people with coherent worldviews that deserve to be understood accurately rather than caricatured. As individuals worthy of friendship and justice. And also as fellow human beings in need of the redemption Christians believe is found in Christ.

The Christian position is not about cultural dominance. It is about whether God has acted decisively in history in the person of Jesus. That claim shapes how Christians interpret every other faith. Where there is shared truth, they can affirm it. Where there is disagreement, they must articulate it clearly. In all of it, the call remains the same: to speak truthfully, to live humbly, and to love sincerely.