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Comparing Christianity with World Religions

Moody Publishers

Chapter One

Salvation and the Afterlife

One's eternal existence in the afterlife is determined by actions and attitudes. Although different from the Christian belief of saving grace, Judaism teaches that God always offers even the most evil person the possibility of repentance (teshuva). After such repentance one can atone for one's rebellion against God's ways by positive action.

Traditional Judaism does not highly emphasize the ideas of personal salvation and heavenly existence. Many Jews criticize Christianity for being a "selfish" religion, too concerned with personal eternal rewards.

Jews continue to anticipate the coming of the Messiah. This Messiah will hand out eternal judgment and reward to all. This hope is largely communal. All Jewish people and the entire creation are in view more than the individual.

In the end, the moral lives of people on earth are considered the most proper concerns of humanity. Final judgments are left for God.

Morals

Torah ("to point the way, give direction"), often translated "law," refers in Judaism to a complete pattern of behavior, applicable to all aspects of communal and individual life. It is to be found in the Old Testament as well as in a wide variety of oral traditions, rituals, ceremonies, stories, and commentaries on Scripture.

Jews have often tried to develop rules of behavior to cover each situation encountered in their various cultures. Thus a gigantic literature covering codes of conduct has arisen. From time to time movements have emerged that have tried to cut through those rules and get back to the original meaning of Torah, though legalism has been a perennial emphasis of Judaism.

Most Jewish morality is related primarily to the good of the community. The Jewish prophets were early strong proponents of social justice in the ancient world. Concern for economic justice continues to remain an integral part of Judaism.

Physical possessions are not considered bad in themselves. Even the prophets did not denounce wealth itself but wanted a greater equality among members of the community.

Marriage and children are held in high regard in Judaism. Singleness is generally viewed negatively even for religious leaders (though exceptions exist among Jewish prophets), and much time is spent teaching children the precepts of the faith. Education continues to be a strong value within most Jewish communities.

Worship

Ritual and ceremony remain important within Judaism. Life is sacred and to be shared with God. Jewish writings say that to eat or drink without praying is like robbing God of His property,

The Jewish calendar includes a full range of daily, weekly, and yearly celebrations, based both on the Torah and additional Jewish writings.

A major part of scheduled celebrations is the remembrance of spiritual history. Both biblical and extrabiblical stories relating God's deliverance of Israel are retold countless times.

Devout Jews observe a regular weekly Sabbath day of rest in reverence to God's law to rest on the seventh day as described in the Torah.

Islam

Salvation and the Afterlife

The Koran rejects the belief of redemption. Salvation depends on a man's actions and attitudes. However, tauba ("repentance") can quickly turn an evil man toward the virtue that will save him. Islam does not hold out the possibility of salvation through the work of God but invites man to accept God's guidance.

The final judgment day is described in remarkable terms. On that last day every person will account for what they have done. Eternal existence will be determined on the basis of those actions: "Every man's actions have we hung around his neck, and on the last day shall be laid before him a wide-open book" (Koran, 17.13).

Muslims recognize that different individuals have been given different abilities and various degrees of insight into the truth. Each person will be judged accordingly Every person who lives according to the truth to the best of his or her abilities will reach heaven. Infidels who are presented with the truth of Islam and reject it will receive no mercy.

The Koran provides vivid descriptions of both heaven and hell. It depicts heaven as containing earthly treasures. Hell, in contrast, describes details of pain and torture. Muslims disagree as to whether those descriptions are to be taken literally or not.

Morals

Islam presents a "straight path" of clearly defined duties and commands. Islamic morals are a combination of genuine acts of love and legalistic performances.

Muhammad is pictured in the Koran as a loving person, helping the poor and slow to take revenge. Nevertheless, the firm belief that Muslims possess the one truth and are to spread that truth through "struggle" has led to much violence on behalf of Allah through the ages. While today Muslims in general try to live lives of peace, there has been a resurgence of a more violent form of Islamic fundamentalism among both the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam.

Although the Koran actually elevated the degraded position of women in Middle Eastern culture at the time of its writing, women are often regarded more as possible temptations to sin for men than as human beings with their own responsibilities.

While some Muslim communities continue the tradition of polygamy, many modern Muslims take the Koran's approval of multiple wives as applicable only to ancient times.

Worship

Allah is worshiped, not Muhammad. Due to strict rules against depictions of human forms in art, there is a strong bias against idolatry or saint-worshiping in Islam.

Allah is revered in hymns that depict his power and majesty. However, even Allah cannot be ultimately trusted for salvation, because salvation is the individual's responsibility. As a result, his guidance in the form of words rather than as a person is emphasized.

Based on this belief, Muslims revere the Koran as a sacred book. Highly studied among devout Muslims, it is arguably the most memorized book in the world.

Acts of worship in Islam are embodied in the Five Pillars: 1) A Muslim must recite the basic creed, "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet"; 2) recite prayers of praise to Allah five times daily while facing Mecca; 3) give money to the poor; 4) fast for one month a year (daytime only); and 5) make a pilgrimage at least once to Mecca, the city where Allah revealed the Koran to Muhammad.

Hinduism

Salvation and the Afterlife

The ultimate goal of salvation in Hinduism is escape from the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. That can mean an eternal resting place for the individual personality in the arms of a loving, personal God, but it usually means the dissolving of all personality into the unimaginable abyss of Brahman.

Four yogas, or ways of reaching such salvation, are described: (1) Jnana yoga, the way of...