God is a living eternal spirit revealed in character, attitudes, actions and wisdom. He is not a father up in the sky. He is a father revealed in the Universe, especially to man in the Earth. Heaven is not up in the sky, it is a spiritual place where the eternal character of God is present in all and over all.

Monotheism is a useful concept that helps to direct many of us towards God, but is God one? two? few? many? none? No words can describe God anyway - words and numbers can only inspire us to love and try to experience God directly, beyond all words.

So the monotheistic religions count God as 1 and Buddhism as 0, some Zoroastrians count 2 and some Christians and Hindus count 3, yet those who understand their respective theologies a little deeper use 1 regardless.

Whatever number you attribute to God, is merely for your inspiration and helping to set you on the path, for God is not actually an object thus cannot be counted. If you must use a number, then choose that number which will personally lead you the most to seek goodness and avoid evil.

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As for the claim that only Jesus can forgive sins, this is true in a sense, but we must understand that both Jesus and Buddha (as well as other saints and sages) recognised their true identity with God and as such they were also aware that there is no difference between them, despite that for most of the rest of humankind they seemed like two different sages.

Buddhism from a quick search of it has it's foundations explained in this site. https://www.pbs.org/edens/thailand/buddhism.htm

Then for more information, the site leads to a resources page that has this site.
http://www.buddhanet.net

From the first site, the foundation of Buddhism is explained as a path to escape suffering. The beginning of that path is knowing something this site calls "the four truths." The first truth is that there is suffering. Both physical and mental. The second truth is that there is a cause to suffering, which it identifies as seeking happiness and pleasure which is a never ending hunger; and also from ignorance and not seeing the world as it really is, which leads to greed, envy, hatred, and anger. The third truth is that there is a path to end suffering (for you personally, not for the world) and they call this end of the path Nirvana. But the path itself is composed of something called the eightfold path, which holds three underlying themes. Good moral conduct, meditations and mental development, and finally wisdom and insight.

The last part of Buddhism goes in the direction of finding Naravana lasting more then one lifetime leading into the idea of reincarnation, as well as karma which is basically baggage from both good deeds and bad deeds.

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If this is a true representation of Buddhism's foundation then there is one problem with it. In the second truth regarding the cause of suffering, one part of it is suffering exists due to ignorance and not seeing the world as it really is (which holds merit, that's not the issue). The issue is that throughout all of this nowhere is there mention of God. The one problem monotheism is that there are different religions that say they are the truth to God and the others aren't. But the issue with Buddhism is that it doesn't even acknowledge that God exists (at lest until, it gets to karma and reincarnation and possibly coming back as one of many gods). Without that part there is a blindness that holds many people in not knowing, not recognizing, or just not accepting that God is real and part of the world we live in.

Outside of that problem, the tenets of Buddhism seem to go in a simular direction as the tenets of Christianity. Except instead of trying to be good as a path to Nirvana, the tenets of Christianity is to be good as a part of following God. The premiss of the two falls on the concepts of either dying once and then facing God's judgment and blessings, or dying and living multiple lives until reaching nirvana. If God exists, and there is only one lifetime to make it right, then the path to heaven and nirvana are impossible to reach because no one is that good. But if Christianity is right in it's premiss then God gave us a way. He sent Jesus so that we are rescued. Therefore being good not just about getting to heaven, because that burden is helped with. Instead being good is for two reasons, to love and follow God, as well as to love and support our fellow men and women.

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On the other hand if the premiss of multiple lives exist, then that is a hard reality to exist. Then we live in this world by our own making and come back to it over and over again throughout all the different hardships and great abuses that happen continually in it. With this in mind, multiple lives is something we can't prove or disprove. But if a person searches for God and Finds Him then the answer of reincarnation or an eternal afterlife is better answered. Seek God therefore, because the same path to be good can be made by following Jesus's teachings as it is presented by following Buddhism, but it is also better because God's presence is real and worth searching for.

At the epicentre of Buddhism is ones own mind. Is finding ways to control the mind in a positive way a bad thing? Buddhism gives a pathway of learning which enables a person, any person not necessarily a Buddhist, practical ways to take control of the mind so that negative destructive thoughts and attitudes, which bring on equally destructive emotions, are replaced them with positives thoughts and emotions. Who does not want such destructive emotions as hate and anger, replaced with love and kindness.

I do not believe Buddhism is in competition with the Monotheistic Religions for the control of minds, but offers a better alternative for personal development of ones thoughts and emotions. I do not consider Buddhism a religion as such, I see it as a philosophy, which puts it in a different category to Christianity and Islam. Others differ on that point, but I say for those who want, they can have a foot in both camps, but its not absolutely necessary to do so. An atheists can be a Buddhist, but can't be a religious with a non belief in a supreme deity(s).