In his Sunday sermon yesterday, my church's associate pastor, Alex Kurz, told of an India native who upset his peers when they learned he had converted to Christianity.

"Why would you do such a thing?" they wanted to know. His answer, in effect: "There are 330 million gods in Hinduism and yet Jesus Christ is the only one who ever claimed, 'I will shed my blood for you.' All the others want you to shed your blood for them."

As an example, Kurz pointed to the major Hindu goddess Kali (Calcutta receives its name from her), who's actually depicted in blood.

"Her idol is black, besmeared with blood," confirms "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable." "She has red eyes, four arms, matted hair, huge fang-like teeth, and a protruding tongue that drips with blood. She wears a necklace of skulls, ear-rings of corpses, and is girdled with serpents."

According to a website on world religions sponsored by St. Martin's College in the United Kingdom, Kali "feeds on death and must be offered blood sacrifices. . . Her blackness represents the supreme night which swallows all that exists. . . Kali's terrifying appearance is the symbol of her endless power of destruction and her laughter an expression of absolute dominion over all that exists, mocking those who would escape. Her arms are the four directions of space identified with the complete cycle of time. Four arms symbolize absolute domination. Her sword is the power of destruction, the severed head she holds is the fate of all the living, and the garland of skulls shows the inseparableness of life and death. Kali as the power of time destroys all and embodies all fear. As she alone is beyond fear she can protect from fear those who invoke her."

Of course, none of this could be more opposite from Jesus Christ, who is said to have purchased us "with His own blood" (Acts 20:28), dying on the Cross as a willing sacrifice for sin in order to give eternal life as a free gift to anyone who simply places their faith in Him and what He accomplished by giving His blood.

As this purchased possession—a prized, precious possession of God's beyond anything we can comprehend—He is interested in taking care of us and watching over us. The Apostle Paul actually says that when we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we're married to Him.

We become "flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone," (Eph. 5:30) and nothing can ever separate us from His love or remove our status of full joint-heirship with Him. The issue of security is forever settled and we're actually one with Christ. There are no works involved. It's not in any way a performance-based system.

By contrast, the Koran's Allah, whose name is derived from the ancient pagan moon-god Al-ilah, is said to be unexplorable and incomprehensible. Out of "99 beautiful names" the Muslims memorize for Allah, with each one said to describe one of his characteristics, not one is "love."

The Koran makes clear Allah only loves those who he deems good and who do good, and doing good by Muslim standards requires daily adherence to the Five Pillars of Faith (public recitation of the creed, "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammed is his messenger," praying to Allah five times a day while facing Mecca, giving alms equal to 2.5 percent of a person's income, fasting during Ramadan and making a pilgrimage to Mecca).

Allah does not love the person whose bad deeds outweigh his good deeds and he will be consigned to hell at the end of history.

"In the Koran, Allah reveals his will, but he never reveals Himself; neither is he ever portrayed as a God of love, nor as a Father to His people, as He is in the Bible," writes world religions scholar Rick Rood on the website Probe.org, sponsored by Probe Ministries. ". . . Though some Muslims have modified this doctrine somewhat, the Koran seems to support the idea that all things (both good and evil) are the direct result of God's will. Those who conclude that Islam is a fatalistic religion have good reason for doing so."

For Buddhism, there is no concept of a personal God and Buddha taught that people don't have individual souls. By reincarnation they return to earthly life after death in a higher or lower form of life depending on their good and bad deeds.

Nirvana, or the final breaking from suffering in this endless process of birth and rebirth, is achieved partially through an "eight-fold path" of personal discipline, but it is not a place like heaven. Buddha never articulated what exactly it is.

"(Buddha) claimed to be the one to point the way to Nirvana, but it was up to each individual to find his own way there," writes Pat Zukeran on Probe's website. ". . . Buddha himself was not certain what lay beyond death. He left no clear teaching on Nirvana or eternity. What he did leave are philosophical speculations. Today the body of Buddha lies in a grave in Kusinara, at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains. The facts of life after death still remain an unsolved mystery in Buddhism. . . All the Buddhist has is hope in a teaching Buddha was not sure of."