The big things.
Protestant Christians differentiate themselves from the world at large by their belief in Jesus Christ. Not only their believe in Jesus Christ, but their belief in his resurrection, his diety, and his membership in the Trinity.
The Trinity is a point that is oft misunderstood by non-Christians. In layman's terms, the Trinity is basically the concept of God being three parts in one.
The Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit are three individual persons in one divine Being. The best explanation I ever heard of it was comparing it to a marriage - two becoming one - a husband and wife are individual people but together combine to create a divine Being. A relationship, yes, but also more than that - an entity in and of itself. The difference being, I guess, that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can't (or don't) splinter off from each other (ie, divorce).
**Interestingly, there is a similar concept in Hinduism called "Trimurti" which is a concept in which "the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahmā the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver, and Śhiva the destroyer or transformer." But I'll save that for the Hindu section.**
Christianity as a whole was formed as a splinter sect of Judaism, and encompasses much of the Jewish holy book, the Torah, into its teachings as "The Old Testament" which comprises well over half of the Christian Bible.
Other foundational beliefs of Protestant Christianity include baptism by water, and most Protestant Christians believe that the person being baptised must be of an age to make a conscious decision to be baptised (as opposed to the Catholic Christian belief in infant baptism). Baptism is a requirement for heaven and eternal life and is, in most Protestant Christian communities, the process of dunking a person's entire body in water to metaphorically wash their old life off and cleanse them. This is done because of the example of Jesus, who himself was baptised by his cousin, John the Baptist, which can be found in Matthew chapter 3.
Evangelical Protestant Christianity is what you see on TV and in mega-churches throughout the US. These are "mainstream" Christians, and evangelicals emphasize "witnessing" which is the active sharing and expressing of "the gospel" (ie, telling the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus).
Speaking of death and resurrection, this is obviously a foundational and important belief in Christianity, and not only was Jesus dead, then resurrected (and also half God-half man), but Christians believe that all Christians will be dead at some point, then resurrected at the end of days when Jesus comes back to earth for the second time to take all Christians to heaven (unless of course you aren't dead yet when Jesus comes back, in which case you'll never die a physical death).
It is a big selling point for Christians that no one except Christians will go with Jesus at either the rapture or end of days to Heaven to spend eternity with God. There is no in-between place for Protestant Christians, as there is for Catholics and Muslims; there is no purgatory - it's either heaven or hell, and if you are a Christian its heaven, otherwise, its hell (I put a few more thoughts on the specifics of heaven and how you get there at the end of the post, #1...)
**There is a caveat to this because, clearly, Jewish people do not accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah/Savior/Son of God. However, the Bible says twice in the book of Revelation that 144,000 (12,000 from each tribe of Israel) will go to Heaven, assumedly regardless of the fact that they did not accept Jesus Christ as savior. (Revelation 7 & 14).**
I could blog on for days about the ins and outs of Christian theology, but I'm moving on. To read more on this topic, check Endnote 1.
Women's Issues in Christianity
Miscarriage - although the Bible doesn't specifically address miscarriage in so many words, the widely-held belief is that when a child dies before birth, (s)he also dies before sin. Since sin is what separates us from God, the fetus is transported right back to Heaven, where (s)he waits to be reuinited with her mother when her mother passes on to heaven.
Abortion - Some Christians (quietly) believe in "the woman's right to choose" and have even had abortions. However, the vast majority are strongly and vocally against abortion under most (or any) circumstances. They cite the sanctity of life, and the specific references that God is the giver and taker of life, therefore it is not our right to take a life. While this reasoning makes sense to me, what doesn't make sense is that Christians are also generally very supportive of a strong military and the death penalty. There are classes of killing, in Christianity, and abortion is in the unacceptable class.
Marriage - Again, with over 2.1 billion Christians, there are some differences of opinion on marriage, remarriage and divorce. The overwhelming majority believe that marriage describes the union of one man and one woman before God and the state in the covenant of marriage. Gay marriage is, then, by and large, unlawful in Christianity and frowned upon, as is premarital sex, and divorce. However, the tide is turning with Christianity becoming more inclusive of other persuasions. There are now large groups of Protestant Christian homosexuals who promote same-sex marriage. The bonds of marriage are becoming more elastic, as it has become more culturally acceptable to live together, have a homosexual lifestyle, and divorce their spouses. Interestingly, the divorce rate within the church is no less than the divorce rate in the country at large.
Education and Women's Rights - As far as world religions go, Christianity is more advanced than most in the area of Women's Rights, in deed more so than word. The Bible clearly states that the woman is to submit to her husband, that a woman cannot be pastor or elder over men, that women should be under a man's authority, and on and on. But we are today lightyears ahead of where Christianity was in its beginning stages. Remember the story of the woman caught in adultry in John 8? No? I'll tell you:
Basically, Jesus is chilling with his disciples, having lunch or something and talking about important God stuff, and the religious leaders of the community he was in bring this woman and throw her at his feet. She has been CAUGHT in the ACT of adultry, they cry. The Jewish law specifically states that a woman caught in the act of adultry should be stoned immediately.
>> Here is where we have the inequity. It seems obvious to me that if you catch someone in the act of adultry, you also catch their PARTNER in the act of adultry. Where is the guilty man who was sleeping with someone else's wife? Never is he mentioned in the story.
So the woman is lying on the ground in the dirt surrounded by a bunch of self-righteous men with a mob mentality and rocks in their hands just aching to be thrown, and I'm sure she's thinking about her children and her friends and wondering if its going to hurt really bad, or if a giant rock will just knock her out and she will wake up in hell.... and Jesus does something quite amazing.
He looks at her with compassion. He looks at the angry mob. Then he leans over and starts drawing in the dirt on the ground. It says that he was writing in the dirt. But again, they leave out the crucial details of WHAT he was writing exactly. The religious leaders at this point are getting antsy and start hammering him with questions: "So the law of Moses says she must be stoned! But you preach forgiveness and mercy! Do you want to break the law? Do you want to not show mercy? Lets have a verdict!"
And Jesus straightens up and looks at them. I imagine that he is fighting hard to keep the disgust off his face when he looks at each one of them and with carefully measured words says:
"Let anyone among you who is without sin cast the first stone."
Then he bends over and starts writing in the dirt again.
In this one phrase, Jesus equalized all sin as separating us from God. Pastors and Evangelists and Theologians have hypothesized for centuries about what it was Jesus wrote on the dirt that day. Maybe it was a list of people that woman had been with, and maybe that list included some of them. Maybe it was a list of sins that THEY were guilty of. Maybe it was just stick figures shooting guns at each other. Who knows?
But what happened was, the rocks started dropping. Men started leaving, starting with the elders, and eventually it was just Jesus, his friends, and the quavering woman.
It says that Jesus reached out and lifted up her head bowed in shame and asked her to look around. And then he asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" Has no one said that they themselves are without sin? Has no one admitted through their defeat that you are not the only person who has made a mistake?
"No one, sir." She replies, her voice still shakey, tears leaving trails through the dust and dirt on her cheeks.
"Neither do I condemn you." He tells her. "Just go, and sin no more." Try not to make the same mistakes again.
Radical Compassion. That is the heart of Christianity. That is what Jesus showed over and over and over was in his heart. RADICAL COMPASSION. Not judgement, not fear, not SHAME, not condemnation.
More to come on Christianity and women's rights....
Endnote and PS from paragraph 8
1. The theology breaks down there across denominational (or Christian sect) lines. While all Christians (and by all, I mean most) believe in heaven and hell, and in the diety of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity, parties are divided over the specifics of how Christians will go to Heaven. Some believe that in the end of days, Jesus will "rapture" everyone who is saved (who has professed belief in him, confessed their sins and recognized him as their savior, as well as been baptized). They believe that when the world ends, all the Christians will simply disappear from earth and the Tribulation will start. Others believe that Christians will not be raptured before the Tribulation, but instead will endure the Tribulation until it is over, then go on to be with the Lord in Heaven. Still others believe that we are IN the Tribulation now, and that when the world comes to an end, Jesus will come and take us all back with him. There will also be a final judgment day, much like Muslims believe, where God will judge the righteous from the unrighteous, and the righteous (those without sin) will go to Heaven, the sinners to hell. This is a trick question though, because "there is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), so the only way to obtain righteousness is to accept Jesus as savior (become a Christian) and his righteousness covers you.
Theologians have written volumes (quite literally) on the end of days and what will happen. The Tribulation (referred to throughout the Bible by different terms, but specifically in the book of Daniel (Old Testament) and more so in the book of Revelation (written by one of Jesus' 12 disciples after his death)) is the chaos and unrest that results before, during and after Armegeddon. The book of Revelation is arguably the most interesting and imagery-filled book of the Bible. I recommend it to anyone - its a fascinating read.
Protestant Christians differentiate themselves from the world at large by their belief in Jesus Christ. Not only their believe in Jesus Christ, but their belief in his resurrection, his diety, and his membership in the Trinity.
The Trinity is a point that is oft misunderstood by non-Christians. In layman's terms, the Trinity is basically the concept of God being three parts in one.
The Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit are three individual persons in one divine Being. The best explanation I ever heard of it was comparing it to a marriage - two becoming one - a husband and wife are individual people but together combine to create a divine Being. A relationship, yes, but also more than that - an entity in and of itself. The difference being, I guess, that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can't (or don't) splinter off from each other (ie, divorce).
**Interestingly, there is a similar concept in Hinduism called "Trimurti" which is a concept in which "the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahmā the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver, and Śhiva the destroyer or transformer." But I'll save that for the Hindu section.**
Christianity as a whole was formed as a splinter sect of Judaism, and encompasses much of the Jewish holy book, the Torah, into its teachings as "The Old Testament" which comprises well over half of the Christian Bible.
Other foundational beliefs of Protestant Christianity include baptism by water, and most Protestant Christians believe that the person being baptised must be of an age to make a conscious decision to be baptised (as opposed to the Catholic Christian belief in infant baptism). Baptism is a requirement for heaven and eternal life and is, in most Protestant Christian communities, the process of dunking a person's entire body in water to metaphorically wash their old life off and cleanse them. This is done because of the example of Jesus, who himself was baptised by his cousin, John the Baptist, which can be found in Matthew chapter 3.
Evangelical Protestant Christianity is what you see on TV and in mega-churches throughout the US. These are "mainstream" Christians, and evangelicals emphasize "witnessing" which is the active sharing and expressing of "the gospel" (ie, telling the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus).
Speaking of death and resurrection, this is obviously a foundational and important belief in Christianity, and not only was Jesus dead, then resurrected (and also half God-half man), but Christians believe that all Christians will be dead at some point, then resurrected at the end of days when Jesus comes back to earth for the second time to take all Christians to heaven (unless of course you aren't dead yet when Jesus comes back, in which case you'll never die a physical death).
It is a big selling point for Christians that no one except Christians will go with Jesus at either the rapture or end of days to Heaven to spend eternity with God. There is no in-between place for Protestant Christians, as there is for Catholics and Muslims; there is no purgatory - it's either heaven or hell, and if you are a Christian its heaven, otherwise, its hell (I put a few more thoughts on the specifics of heaven and how you get there at the end of the post, #1...)
**There is a caveat to this because, clearly, Jewish people do not accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah/Savior/Son of God. However, the Bible says twice in the book of Revelation that 144,000 (12,000 from each tribe of Israel) will go to Heaven, assumedly regardless of the fact that they did not accept Jesus Christ as savior. (Revelation 7 & 14).**
I could blog on for days about the ins and outs of Christian theology, but I'm moving on. To read more on this topic, check Endnote 1.
Women's Issues in Christianity
Miscarriage - although the Bible doesn't specifically address miscarriage in so many words, the widely-held belief is that when a child dies before birth, (s)he also dies before sin. Since sin is what separates us from God, the fetus is transported right back to Heaven, where (s)he waits to be reuinited with her mother when her mother passes on to heaven.
Abortion - Some Christians (quietly) believe in "the woman's right to choose" and have even had abortions. However, the vast majority are strongly and vocally against abortion under most (or any) circumstances. They cite the sanctity of life, and the specific references that God is the giver and taker of life, therefore it is not our right to take a life. While this reasoning makes sense to me, what doesn't make sense is that Christians are also generally very supportive of a strong military and the death penalty. There are classes of killing, in Christianity, and abortion is in the unacceptable class.
Marriage - Again, with over 2.1 billion Christians, there are some differences of opinion on marriage, remarriage and divorce. The overwhelming majority believe that marriage describes the union of one man and one woman before God and the state in the covenant of marriage. Gay marriage is, then, by and large, unlawful in Christianity and frowned upon, as is premarital sex, and divorce. However, the tide is turning with Christianity becoming more inclusive of other persuasions. There are now large groups of Protestant Christian homosexuals who promote same-sex marriage. The bonds of marriage are becoming more elastic, as it has become more culturally acceptable to live together, have a homosexual lifestyle, and divorce their spouses. Interestingly, the divorce rate within the church is no less than the divorce rate in the country at large.
Education and Women's Rights - As far as world religions go, Christianity is more advanced than most in the area of Women's Rights, in deed more so than word. The Bible clearly states that the woman is to submit to her husband, that a woman cannot be pastor or elder over men, that women should be under a man's authority, and on and on. But we are today lightyears ahead of where Christianity was in its beginning stages. Remember the story of the woman caught in adultry in John 8? No? I'll tell you:
Basically, Jesus is chilling with his disciples, having lunch or something and talking about important God stuff, and the religious leaders of the community he was in bring this woman and throw her at his feet. She has been CAUGHT in the ACT of adultry, they cry. The Jewish law specifically states that a woman caught in the act of adultry should be stoned immediately.
>> Here is where we have the inequity. It seems obvious to me that if you catch someone in the act of adultry, you also catch their PARTNER in the act of adultry. Where is the guilty man who was sleeping with someone else's wife? Never is he mentioned in the story.
So the woman is lying on the ground in the dirt surrounded by a bunch of self-righteous men with a mob mentality and rocks in their hands just aching to be thrown, and I'm sure she's thinking about her children and her friends and wondering if its going to hurt really bad, or if a giant rock will just knock her out and she will wake up in hell.... and Jesus does something quite amazing.
He looks at her with compassion. He looks at the angry mob. Then he leans over and starts drawing in the dirt on the ground. It says that he was writing in the dirt. But again, they leave out the crucial details of WHAT he was writing exactly. The religious leaders at this point are getting antsy and start hammering him with questions: "So the law of Moses says she must be stoned! But you preach forgiveness and mercy! Do you want to break the law? Do you want to not show mercy? Lets have a verdict!"
And Jesus straightens up and looks at them. I imagine that he is fighting hard to keep the disgust off his face when he looks at each one of them and with carefully measured words says:
"Let anyone among you who is without sin cast the first stone."
Then he bends over and starts writing in the dirt again.
In this one phrase, Jesus equalized all sin as separating us from God. Pastors and Evangelists and Theologians have hypothesized for centuries about what it was Jesus wrote on the dirt that day. Maybe it was a list of people that woman had been with, and maybe that list included some of them. Maybe it was a list of sins that THEY were guilty of. Maybe it was just stick figures shooting guns at each other. Who knows?
But what happened was, the rocks started dropping. Men started leaving, starting with the elders, and eventually it was just Jesus, his friends, and the quavering woman.
It says that Jesus reached out and lifted up her head bowed in shame and asked her to look around. And then he asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" Has no one said that they themselves are without sin? Has no one admitted through their defeat that you are not the only person who has made a mistake?
"No one, sir." She replies, her voice still shakey, tears leaving trails through the dust and dirt on her cheeks.
"Neither do I condemn you." He tells her. "Just go, and sin no more." Try not to make the same mistakes again.
Radical Compassion. That is the heart of Christianity. That is what Jesus showed over and over and over was in his heart. RADICAL COMPASSION. Not judgement, not fear, not SHAME, not condemnation.
COMPASSION.
More to come on Christianity and women's rights....
Endnote and PS from paragraph 8
1. The theology breaks down there across denominational (or Christian sect) lines. While all Christians (and by all, I mean most) believe in heaven and hell, and in the diety of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity, parties are divided over the specifics of how Christians will go to Heaven. Some believe that in the end of days, Jesus will "rapture" everyone who is saved (who has professed belief in him, confessed their sins and recognized him as their savior, as well as been baptized). They believe that when the world ends, all the Christians will simply disappear from earth and the Tribulation will start. Others believe that Christians will not be raptured before the Tribulation, but instead will endure the Tribulation until it is over, then go on to be with the Lord in Heaven. Still others believe that we are IN the Tribulation now, and that when the world comes to an end, Jesus will come and take us all back with him. There will also be a final judgment day, much like Muslims believe, where God will judge the righteous from the unrighteous, and the righteous (those without sin) will go to Heaven, the sinners to hell. This is a trick question though, because "there is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), so the only way to obtain righteousness is to accept Jesus as savior (become a Christian) and his righteousness covers you.
Theologians have written volumes (quite literally) on the end of days and what will happen. The Tribulation (referred to throughout the Bible by different terms, but specifically in the book of Daniel (Old Testament) and more so in the book of Revelation (written by one of Jesus' 12 disciples after his death)) is the chaos and unrest that results before, during and after Armegeddon. The book of Revelation is arguably the most interesting and imagery-filled book of the Bible. I recommend it to anyone - its a fascinating read.
Great post.
ReplyDeleteI do want to add a side note on Baptism though - I was raised Southern Baptist - we were taught that acceptance of Christ as our Savior was the only way to get to Heaven - baptism was not a requirement for Heaven - it was merely following the example of Jesus & John the Baptist as an expression of our reverence for Christ and His example.
Often Southern Baptist churches require people to be Baptized to obtain membership into the church - after they take a course on the church's doctrine and profess their belief in Christ as Savior.
Oh that's one of my favorite J. Man stories! Dang I love that Jesus! He's awesome.
ReplyDeleteWell, actually, I like all the stories about Jesus. He's a really groovy dude. Except the one where he gets murdered. I don't like that one. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteThat was a very good read. I followed everything you said. One ideal that I really try to bring across to people is that God has the highest degree of rationality possible. He understands our everyday troubles including womens issues. Mans actions interpretations may not always be on point but I like to think he understands. If one reads the bible with an open heart then in my opinion all the answers in life with be written with the heart.
ReplyDelete