World Religions Report
Introduction
Christianity started with Jesus of Nazareth, who was Jewish and born in Bethlehem. There is little information recorded regarding Jesus' life early but at age 30 he was baptized by John the Baptist. After being baptized, Jesus had a revelation where he knew in his heart that he was given the blessings of God. After this receiving this revelation, Jesus was able to start his own ministry where he was a teacher, a healer, and a miracle worker. He always spoke about God's kingdom and despised anyone who spoke inadequately regarding religion while trying to understand the Mosaic Law. Jesus preached too many people, but chose only 12 followers that he wanted to teach in private, these 12 became known as the 12 apostles. The apostles followed Jesus with eagerness since they came to believe that he was the one who would be called the Messiah, the son of God; who would spread the word about the kingdom of heaven.Over a small amount of time, Jesus was looked upon as an adversary, the people opposed him and he was eventually murdered by the Romans. Many of Jesus' followers that stayed loyal fled because they were saddened by Jesus' death. According to ReligionFacts.com "three days after Jesus was crucified, the women who went to anoint the body found that the burial place for Jesus was empty and was told by an angel that he had been raised from the dead. At first the apostles were non believers. The apostles came to believe that Jesus "was in fact raised from the dead as they told of how Jesus visited them several times and that he was lead into the kingdom of heaven right before them.For the remainder of the first century AD, the followers of Jesus, known as Christians, grew very rapidly. Paul was a Jewish man who is credited with the spread of Christianity; initially, however; he persecuted Christians, but after seeing Jesus ascend to heaven after rising from the grave he converted to Christianity. Paul took advantage of the expansive road system that the Romans had built and also the time without fighting to go on many missionary journeys all over the Roman Empire in an effort to convert individuals to Christianity based on his firsthand experience. He opened churches all over the Roman Empire and then corresponded through letters in order to offer encouragement and further counsel. A great number of these letters are now a part of the New Testament of the bible as part of the Christian scriptures .Christianity has three central assemblies; Protestant is one of them. Protestant signifies a broad range of opinions, denominations, people, and related groups. There are no precise traditions or beliefs that define the Protestant part of Christianity. However; there is a common description of them and that is "any Christian denomination who are not Roman Catholic, or Orthodox Christian," those denominations are thought to be within the area of Protestantism. These denominations all have solid heredity in the Protestant Reformation (ReligionFacts.com, 2004). Today Protestantism is the prevailing religion of many countries around the world like the United States and England. Another fast growing branch of Christianity is Evangelicalism; it has had major growth in various countries such as; India, Europe, China, and even Africa.The words orthodox or orthoprax are used to describe religions. Orthoprax religions emphasize the correct conduct, particularly with regards to religious activity. They focus more on traditional beliefs and practices; this is believed to be the key to a follower's religious identity. Two religions that come to mind as being orthoprax are Judaism and Islam. In contrast to those orthoprax religions there are orthodox religions that focus on having the correct beliefs; Christianity is one of the best examples of an orthodox religion.
Interview Summary
Evangelist Cathy Jones is a member of the White Rock Baptist Church in Linden, NJ. Cathy states that religion did not have a significant role in her life growing up. At the urging of a friend she decided to start going to church. Once she began to learn of the teachings introduced to her by Rev. Dr. Robert C. Morris of White Rock Baptist Church, she says that her life began to make sense and she realized that perhaps she had been Christian all along. "Often times", she continued, "people do not feel as though God is a part of their life until they are in a crisis and something takes place, something miraculous, which gives them a distinct feeling that Jesus is, in fact, watching them and with them on their daily journey"Church was not a large part of her life growing up and, thus, she did not feel as though she was missing anything or forced to attend. After experiencing some hard times in her life, she states that she began to seek out some alternative or a change in the way she was living. After learning the word of God; Cathy says the feelings that she has derived from experiencing religion on a regular basis is unexplainable, she say "this is why I am an evangelist; I want people to feel what I feel. When times are bad and even when they are good, I want them to know about how special Jesus was. I want to bring them into a relationship with Jesus" Lastly, she says, she has been able to help others and give back what she was unable to receive in the past. She is now the adult Sunday school teacher at White Rock Baptist Church. She also heads the annual Christmas clothing drive and is also in charge of their weekly Praise and Worship services. The Praise and Worship services are a way for the members and the community to interact during the week not just on Sunday.It seems that Cathy is emotionally and mentally satisfied now that she has found the Christian faith as a place for her to belong. Perhaps it is this that she has been missing all along and that which has now been fulfilled through her work with the church. She ends by saying "those who have not experienced religion and feel emptiness or longing should try Jesus. There is no telling what is inside a person or what they can do until they allow themselves to open up and permit a higher power to take over"
Christianity opposed to Judaism
Christianity and Judaism have has always been in close relation to one another; except Christianity has been lacking in the traditional sense. Over the last 2000 years, there have been many reports regarding Christians engaging in and supporting relentless, horrifying anti-Semitism that has caused intolerable suffering and inexcusable deaths for many Jewish people in Europe as well as other places. "Christian anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism can be traced back to the earliest days of Christianity, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust of the 20th century"The two religions; Christianity and Judaism were developed with the primary focus of obeying Gods laws and commandments and adhering to such as part of their faithfulness. This faithfulness to the will of God is one of the major responsibilities of a Christian or Jewish person, therefore; "both religions fall into the rule-deontological category" (Maksimova, 2005). It is long believed that the Jewish people are the chosen people, thus, they feel that the relationship that they share with God is contractual and they must live by his laws in return for their status as such. Jews believe they will be rewarded punished depending on whether or not they obey God's will. Some sections of the Old Testament show that forgiveness and mercy was shown by God to those followers who stayed loyal, for example, the 10 commandments, which are not only followed out of loyalty but also morality (Maksimova, 2005). Many Christian followers view their relationship as a love and adoration for God so they follow his laws because of their appreciation for him rather than obedience. They feel that God is merciful and always forgiving no matter what you do, you will be able to repent your sins prior to meeting him in Heaven even that one second before death. Furthermore, Christians are to extend this love to other creations of God and all of humanity forgiving their enemies (Maksimova, 2005).
Jesus Teachings
Jesus speaks of selfless love on agape in his Sermon on the Mount. This is in direct contrast to jealous or domineering love, which is shown by devotion to another person's good, sometimes for the sake of our own good and happiness. In the world we live in today we should be practicing peace and non-violence, return good for evil as well as love for suffering. All these things that were taught by Jesus would lead to a concept call justice. This is justice, which is based on giving a person what he or she needs rather than deserves "divine justice", a perfect instance would be to forgive someone that has perpetrated a crime against you, instead of trying to get revenge on that person (Maksimova, 2005). Although selfless love is certainly a righteous principle, it is based on an unbalanced stability and an easy victim of the "prisoner's dilemma, in which the best alternative for a group of people is not the best alternative for each person in the group. In other words, strict adherence to agapeistic ideal only works if everyone follows it but fails if there are selfish people who take advantage of the selfless people"As previously mentioned, Christianity has a close relationship with Judaism, both historically and theologically. Jesus, the twelve disciples, the author of most of the New Testament, and the members of the earliest Christian churches were all Jews. Jesus' family followed Jewish customs and Jesus frequently quoted the Hebrew Bible. Jesus' followers believed him to be the messiah, a Jewish figure predicted in the Jewish Bible. Despite its Jewish origins, it was not long before Christianity regarded itself as something other than a new Jewish sect. The first Christian council, convened by the apostles, concluded that pagan converts to Christianity did not have to follow Jewish ritual laws. Soon, converts to Christianity were almost exclusively pagans and Christianity moved further away from JudaismIn the two-thousand years of history since Jesus, the relationship between Christianity and the ancient faith in which it is rooted has often been strained. Christians have criticized Jews for rejecting Jesus as their messiah, and Jews have criticized Christians for corrupting the concept of one God and following a false messiah. The New Testament reports that Jews were the first to persecute Christians, and after Christians became the more powerful group, they frequently persecuted Jews. "Today, theological disagreements between Christians and Jews remain, but efforts are being made towards greater understanding and respect between the two great faiths"
Conclusion
Even orthoprax religious believers hold beliefs that matter deeply to them. "For a Muslim, the declaration that "there is no God but Allah and Muhammad was his prophet" is not just an empty phrase",But amongst students today, a noticeable portion follow a religious path in which belief doesn't function in quite the way that it does for most religious supporters ("Christianity", 2007). Much of society seems to have an overwhelming want and need for money which may be one cause for this change among generations. Whether you consider yourself to be orthoprax or orthodox is up to you. They both are worshiping one God. The difference is, with orthodox right belief is most important and with orthoprax they are more concerned with the acts; the rites, the rituals, and commandments. There is no one right religion. There are more practiced religions, but that does not necessarily prove that it is right. Everyone needs to find the religion that suits them and their beliefs and lifestyle best. The right religion is the one you choose to follow. With times like we are in now, we all need something to believe in.
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