In my last post I looked at one of the reasons people have left the faith. Today’s topic is one that happens regularly if our young people are not properly prepared.

The person in the article I was reading went off to college and took a class on mythology. There’s nothing wrong with that on the surface. However, as this person started studying the different creation and flood myths, they decided that Christianity was simply one of the many religious myths.

I found that interesting, because I enjoyed studying these ancient myths. I also took a college course on world religions. (At that time I was going for my engineering degree, not ministry.)

As I studied these myths and legends, I also noticed the similarities. A god creating the world and mankind. There were also flood stories just like Noah’s ark. What does all this mean to the Christian?

I have to preface this by saying that I had a foundation of really good teaching from the church I grew up in. So these things didn’t shake my faith. Instead, they caused me to study deeper.

What I ended up with is two conclusions about mythology and world religions.

1. Most myths are based upon true events recorded in Scripture, but have been corrupted over time.

There is a God who created all things. There was a world-wide flood. There were fallen angels who caused problems on earth for a while.

The trouble is that these stories were passed down verbally. Generation to generation started to change them to suit their desires. Think about it like the “telephone game”, where the message changes even with only five people.

That’s not the case with the Bible. Moses received the truth from God Himself. Then, the ancient Jewish people preserved the writings meticulously. Not just word for word, but letter by letter.

Please forgive me for bragging a little…but as a matter of fact, in one of my courses I had to write a paper. In that paper I proved that the flood account in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh was a corruption of the experience of Noah’s flood in the Bible. That non-Christian, secular, professor gave me an A for my work.

2. Christianity is a world religion unlike any other…in the best possible way.

Another thing that I found in studying mythology and world religions is that Christianity is unique – in a class all by itself. All other religions are man-centric. They’re all about me trying to be good enough.

If I can just summon up enough will-power or self-control, I can qualify for paradise, enlightenment, Nirvana, or any of a multitude other goals. Christianity cuts through all of that and makes one thing abundantly clear…

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:10-12 NIV

I cannot do anything that would give me right standing before God. I am absolutely powerless to achieve entry into Heaven. That’s the bad news of the Bible. But there is some really Good News.

God took it upon Himself to do the work that we had no ability to accomplish. He reached down through Christ and opened up the way to eternal life.

…if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Romans 10:9b-11 NIV

The teaching of Christianity is that the way to eternal life is simply believing in the work that Christ has done and confessing Jesus as Lord. No struggling. No crawling. No endless reincarnations. By faith in Christ we’re saved and have the gift of eternal life.

If you haven’t yet done so, trust in Jesus Christ today as your Lord and Savior.

Question: If you have trusted in Christ, how has it changed your life?

© 2025 Nick Zaccardi