Same God As Christians And Jews example essay topic

Some form of religion has always been in the world. The Egyptians were polytheistic, believing in Isis, Amen-Re, and other various gods and goddesses. The Greeks put their faith into Aphrodite and Apollo, with Zeus being the head god, ruler of all. The first form of monotheism sprang up about 5,800 years ago. Abraham was the founder. The Israelites believed that Jehovah, or God, talked to Abraham and made a covenant with him promising to make his descendents more numerous than the stars.

The Israelites believed in communal living and sacrificed animals in God's honor. The communities were linked by faith in the one true God. These communities shared everything. The first king chosen to rule over and unify the smaller, Jewish communities was King Saul. He made god the central being. David was Israel's second king.

He wrote poetry and psalms (songs) to and about God. These songs and poems helped spread the religion. King Solomon, David's son, built a magnificent temple for God. Everything was lavish and gold sparkled everywhere!

Judaism survived as a minority faith in a much larger society of believers because it had a strong determination to. The Hebrews believed that God backed them up in everything they did, including holy wars. God would talk to the prophets and tell them what he wanted. The prophets would preach God's word. They taught that wrong-doing led to destruction. Unfortunately, Jerusalem was pillaged and burned by the Babylonians, which was foretold by the prophets.

They dispersed the Jewish people and exiled them. During this exile "Judaism" was born. "Israelite" was dropped and "Jew" replaced it. Even though the Jewish people were dispersed throughout the land and ruled by many different kinds of people and cultures, they managed to preserve their identity. God was now worshipped individually instead of going to the Temple mount where priests performed sacrifices for them.

During the exile, the Jews defined their culture. Certain clothes could be worn and only certain foods could be eaten (no pork because they were seen as "unclean") for they were seen as "pure". It is still known as "Kosher" today. The Persians allowed the Jews to worship freely and even return to their homeland.

Nehemiah took control and restored order and rebuilt Jerusalem. However, many Jews decided not to return home. This also helped to spread the religion. The Jewish people follow first five books of the Bible called the "Torah" Moses is believed to have written them. These books unified, restored, and preserved the peoples' religion. Christianity developed after Judaism.

Their story begins after the death of Jesus of Nazareth. This group of people believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and is the Son of God. Jesus had twelve disciples who followed him during his lifetime. Simon and Peter were two of the twelve and some of the disciples claimed to have seen the resurrected lord. At the Pentecostal gathering, "the holy spirit descended upon the disciples" and miraculously they could speak in different languages. The Christians believed in communal living just like the Hebrews did.

They also believed that the rich should sell all of their possessions and give the money to the poor. Even though man was doomed to die due to Adam and Eve and their disobedience in the Garden of Eden, Christians believed that even though your earthly body dies, your spirit can still be with the Heavenly Father if one repented one's sins and was forgiven. Simon, Peter, and James (Jesus' half brother) dedicated their lives to spreading the gospel. At first Christians still followed the Jewish faith, with the one exception of the belief that Jesus was the Messiah. The Jews believed that the Messiah had yet to come. Eventually, the Christians began to break away from the Jewish habits and form their own.

Christianity was tolerated at first but not for long. The Hebrews saw it as a threat to their religion. The first martyr for the Christian cause was Saint Stephen. He was tried for blasphemy because he challenged the key symbols to Judaism. Stephen was stoned to death for his belief. The disciples were now known as apostles.

A man named Saul at first persecuted the Christians but on the way to Damascus he was blinded by a bright light and God said to him "Saul, why do you persecute me?" Saul converted to the same religion he had once persecuted. He changed his name to Paul and became very dedicated to the cause. Paul took the religion out of Israel all the way to Rome. He wrote letters to the different peoples and scriptures to help spread the word. His scriptures and letters were later used as books in the Christian Bible.

At first Christian leaders were faced with who could enter the new religion. Did a person have to first convert to Judaism to eventually become a Christian? It was soon decided that no, a person didn't have to convert to Judaism first but could directly become a Christian. Christianity wasn't a highly tolerated religion. Everywhere Christians were being targeted and accused of being atheists and haters of the human race. When Nero came into power in Rome, a great fire devastated the grand city.

The Romans at first blamed Nero but he used the Christians as scapegoats. The Christians were tortured, beheaded, mauled by wild animals (lions and tigers), and forced to fight gladiators in the colosseum. The Romans picked leaders like Paul (beheaded) and Peter (crucified) and had them executed. The persecution went on for one hundred years. The Christians were forced to worship in secret in the catacombs. When Christianity became more Romanized it was tolerated more.

The first Christian churches were run by women in their homes. However when the church was centralized by bishop women lost that power they had had. In 81 AD the Golden Age of Theology began. Christianity began to enter the upper classes and Christianity was the "it" religion. Unfortunately in 303 AD, Nioclesian announced that Apollo was angry at the Christians and the Great Persecution began. When Constantine became Emperor, he tolerated the religion, even converting into a Christian himself.

He changed the day of worship to Sunday and also decided on one Bible and one church. At the Constantine Conference in Nice a bishops and the emperor discussed whether Jesus and the Holy Spirit were the same substance as God or LIKE the same substance of god. After much discussion it was decided that they were the same substance and that they were the holy trinity. It was here that the Nicene Creed was written here and is repeated in churches to this day.

Also the New Testament was created made up of seventeen documents beginning with Matthew and ending with Paul's Revelation. The monk was a Christian follower. He gave up family life and was isolated from the rest of society. They were scribes and lived simple lives, dedicated to God. Anthony of Egypt was the founder and leader, beginning in the 4th century.

The monks prayed, meditated, and fasted for God. They lived in monasteries and led celibate lives. They believed that sexuality conflicted with spirituality and said that a person had to choose. In 440 AD the church was torn in two due to the fact that Leo I decided that one bishop would be in charge of all the others in order to provide unity to it. When Leo I died in 461 AD the papacy was established and the "Dark Ages" began. When Muhammad began his religion, Islam, in 662 AD, Judaism and Christianity had already been spreading their message for hundreds of years.

Muhammad was the founder of this wide spread religion. Muslims believe in the same God as Christians and Jews. It got its start in Mecca in the Middle East. The Muslims' Holy Book is the Koran, "the Law".

At first the Koran was passed down verbally but had to be written down because there were those who believed that it could be corrupted. The Koran contains ethical and social laws for the Muslims to follow in order to live a good life for God. It was written only in Arabic and still is today. The Muslims do not believe in a physical image of God so any pictures or sculptures were and still aren't made of him.

They believe that there isn't an easy way to describe God. Also, no images of Muhammad were made for religious purposes. The only pictures made of him are for historical purposes only and when they were made his face was covered with white. Muhammad taught that there was life after death. However, this appalled the people. They found it hard to believe that after their bodies were gone that their soul would live on.

Muhammad made Mecca the main city. Unfortunately, many people didn't like the new religion being taught by him and he collected many enemies. Muhammad was eventually exiled from Mecca and traveled to Yet hre which would later be called Medina. The Meccans wanted to destroy the Muslims. A three year war followed. Brother fought brother and sometimes father vs. son.

The Muslims only had 350 men to start with but by the end of the three years they had 10,000! They believed God was behind them during this holy war. When Muhammad's Muslim army took back control of Mecca the Meccans were scared that Muhammad would kill them but he didn't. Instead he destroyed all the pagan idols which broke tribal tradition and started a new beginning. Islam was appealing to many people because it didn't challenge the beliefs of other religions, wanted to bring people together in harmony, the people were tired of the regimes, and was clergy-free.

It created solidarity. It also allowed conquered people to remain the way they were and was tolerant of non-Islamic religions. Beloved was the first to call Muslims to prayer at Muhammad's house. Praying together gave them a sense of belonging and unified body, mind, and soul.

It was a powerful sense of unity. They pray towards Mecca because Muhammad had a vision from God to do so. The Muslims built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem which is a holy city to them, the Jews, and the Christians. After only one hundred years the Islamic Empire was larger than Rome had ever been.

Muhammad died in 632 and had no marker on his grave because he didn't want to be worshipped. Now that Muhammad was gone would God leave, too? The Awakening soon followed. People traveled to Mecca once in their lifetime which was later called "the Hajj". Baghdad was a magnet for Islamic scholars. It was "the Jewel of the World".

Here trade flourished. It was the center for learning for Muslims. They embraced Aristotle and other philosophers though Christians called him blasphemous. Cordoba was a Muslim city in Spain that was wealthy. Later on, the Egyptian king ordered that the Holy Church of the Christians be destroyed. This caused stress between the Muslims and Christians.

Anti-Muslim groups rose up. The first Crusade started in 1097 by the Pope. Unfortunately, the Arab world was in chaos and the crusaders surprised the Arabs. In 1099 the crusaders entered Jerusalem and massacred the entire city.

Even Christians were killed. Even though the crusade was a low blow to the Muslims Islam still flourished. In 1187 the Arabs drove out the Crusaders from Jerusalem and gain control once again. A Golden Age followed after the Crusades but unfortunately, didn't last long due to the invasion of the Mongols.

However, most mongrels became Islam converts and transformed Islam. Anyone could hold power in the Islamic faith, not just those who created it. These three videos were very informative. However the video on Judaism didn't have as good of quality as the other two. It had a lot of good information but had some outdated information. The videos on Christianity and Islam were much more fun to watch because they had better graphics and more information.

Plus they held my attention a lot longer..