I do realize that most all of you already know these next few things that I am going to write about, but some may not, it is for their benefit, I am not trying to insult anyone’s knowledge. I am using these three religions as my examples because as a devout Christian it is these three religions that I am the most studied in. This post today is not meant as an argument, it is meant as an observation. Life is a debate a person has with oneself to consider, observe and decide for oneself what they believe “The Truth” of each issue in life to be, this is one of those issues.
I have listed these three religions as they appeared on the face of the Earth, all three’s origins are derived from the same region of the globe. The Jewish religion started about 2,000 B.C. and continues unto this day. The Christian religion is derived from the Jewish religion and came into effect in 29 A.D.. The religion of Islam has root in the Jewish Bible (first five books, those written via Moses) but the Islamic religion came into effect in about the year 630 A.D. The debate question is, do these three religions pray to/worship the same Deity/God? Then, if so, why can they not “all just get along” as Mr R. King so eloquently spoke? Or is it possible that they aren’t worshiping any “God” at all? In case you are not aware of it, all three religions by what they fundamentally teach “as truth”, “their” version of what that truth is by its very definition eliminates the other two from possibly being correct, only they themselves will receive “salvation from God”. The others, well, sooner or later they tend to end up in Hell, or in the best situation, just cease to exist.
The Jewish people are still waiting on “the Messiah, the Messenger, the Promised One, The Christ”. You see the people who still believe in the Jewish faith do not believe that Jesus was “The Christ”. They are waiting for “The Christ” to come the first time and when He does they are expecting Him to set up an Earthly Kingdom and rule the world from Jerusalem with the Jewish Nation of Israel and her people being peculiar to the Lord, The Christ. Too the most fundamental of Jewish believers we Christians, Islamist, Hindu’s, Buddhists, and everyone else are “unclean” and we are not worthy to eat at the same table with them. We all must realize that in the fundamentals of Islamic Scripture they are God’s peculiar people not the Jews and it is all us others who are the unclean ones.
Christian Scripture covers both all of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament of what is usually referred to as “the Christian Bible”. The Christian Faith believes that “The Promised One, The Christ” was Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish folks believe that Jesus was at best a miss guided prophet. By the Christian Scriptures Jesus was “The Christ” and when He arose from the dead “neither of the other faiths believe that this happened” the “Old Law” to the Jewish People passed away and the Christian era began. The Jews believe that God does not hear the prayers of the Christian people (or any other people). The Christian Bible makes it very clear that “no one comes unto the Father but through Him (Jesus)”. As Christians we pray all things to “The Heavenly Father, the Father of Jesus, and all of us” “in the name of Jesus”. We believe that all prayer must go through the Son/Jesus and He gives our prayers to “The Heavenly Father” on our behalf. But Christianity is far different from both the Jewish and Islamic Faiths though when it does come down to who will be/can be saved. By Christian teaching any person on the face of the Earth since the resurrection of Christ has the ability to be saved through true faith in Jesus, anyone.
The Islamic Faith started in the circa 630 A.D.. By their teachings all Jews, Christians and everyone else are infidels, unbelievers, we are all unclean, and condemned. Islamic folks call god by the name of Allah and make it very plain that they do not believe that Allah hears the prayers of Jews, Christians, etc. The word Islam by definition means “submission” Only total submission to Allah is except-able. But before any of us get our shorts in a bind and start being unfair to Islamic believing folks, Christianity demands our faith to Jesus and the Father. The Jewish faith teaches that us gentiles (non-Jews) have no salvation for salvation is only for the Jews.
All three Faiths believe that to be saved and not condemned we must follow what they teach and not what the other two teach. There is no way for all three, or any two of them to be correct. Only one of these can be correct, or, none of them, but not three or two. As I said earlier in this note that this post is not to get anyone arguing with anyone else. The purpose is an attempt to get us all to be observant and not blind to what our own Faiths teach. Before we can live as brothers on one planet we must believe that no one is “unclean” and everyone is welcome at our table with us. Unfortunately for everyone on the planet there are many people who are filled with hate and fury, no love can be found in them, God can not be found in their violent blood. Everyone on Earth decides for themselves what is real and what is not when it comes to the “God question”, what or if we believe anything at all. I hope that this quick basic outline of these three belief systems was of some benefit to you. Shalom, God’s blessings to you and yours.