In the bigger picture, evil is at war with God, and evil is at war with Humanity. Over Human history it’s been the devil’s strategy to try to get in the way of God’s plans. In the ancient history described in the Old Testament, the devil and his fallen angels had gone into nations around Israel and set up ‘false gods’ and incorrect ways of living and incorrect ways of worship. They’ve sought to introduce errors or attack the truth. This would go on to continue even after the coming of Jesus Christ some 2,000 years ago, and even after pagan polytheism (Greek gods / Roman gods) and idol worship came to be seen not just as alternatives, but seen as primitive.
In their contention with God, evil fallen angels have set up false religions with elaborate mythologies and faulty doctrines to lead people away from goodness, into corruption and sinfulness. Data Point One points us solely to Christianity.
The recognition that evil is at war with Humanity, and the rationalization can take a bit to process. It can sound too abstract to deal with. However, it comes back to how God sent His son Jesus to reconcile the world with Him. At the time of His ministry the world was increasingly corrupt. The Jewish priests of the day had gotten various corruptions that God wanted to bring to light and iron out, if possible. This is described in the first four books of the New Testament, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We call these books the Gospel, which is a Hebrew word meaning “good news”.
Jesus in his ministry preached the good news. At reportedly age 30 (Luke 3:23), he went out exhorting people to repent of their sins because the Kingdom of God was very near. The good news was that God forgives and wishes for the human race to be corrected from its wayward inclinations. In His day, the Jewish custom for remission of sin was a sacrifice ritual performed for God. A person would have an animal killed, (commonly a bull, a sheep, or a goat, maybe a couple of pigeons) and burned on an altar to God – a “blood sacrifice”. This actually dates all the way back to the time of Adam and Eve. After they ate of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they realized they were naked. God killed an animal and gave them animal skins for clothes. (From Genesis chapter 3.) So in that era, a blood sacrifice was required if someone was to commit a sin, and this way a way to be rectified by God. (Exodus chapter 29.)
Jesus’s mother Mary came from a priest’s family, and so did her relative, probable cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was mother to John the Baptist, who in his ministry of preaching, taught that people could be baptized. This immersion in water represented becoming “born again“, or becoming a new person committed to be pious and stay sin-free. In like manner to his cousin, Jesus encouraged people to be baptized as a new person for God.
In His words and in His deeds, Jesus attacked evil and corruption. Numerous people had diseases or ailments, or were even stuck with an evil spirit they couldn’t shake. That can be a consequence of particular sins. That’s why today we have exorcists. Exorcists say that mental illness is a consequence of particular sins. And so Jesus in His compassion healed untold numbers of people in Israel.
Today we preach the Gospel of Jesus, which is that we’re all sinners, and Jesus died on the cross as a once and final blood sacrifice to God for the forgiveness of our sins. No religion other than Christianity reconciles sin. Jesus rose from the tomb on the third day in victory over death and hell, so that whoever believes in Him might choose the path of a repentant individual, love God’s laws and virtues of goodness, and seek to be and remain sin-free. The reward for this would be eternal life in the love of the Lord God, who is all love. The grasping that God is all love and that the devil is all negative, all lies, and all hate and betrayal, should make you say, “I want this extreme of all love, not that one!”