...Changing My Religion Converting from Christianity to Islam Crystal K. Baldwin Religion and Philosophy: Humanities 400 Professor Phillip Van Vleck Abstract I Love The Lord…He Heard My Cry I’ve always had a strong faith in our Heavenly Father. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. My views and beliefs have developed over a long period of time and have changed as I have grown in my faith and knowledge. In the past few years my family and I have gone through many trials and tribulations. Test on my faith has caused my spiritual confidence to falter, so I turned to reading, researching and asking questions. I’ve always had an interest in Islam. My eldest son recently converted from Christianity to Islam. I asked him why he converted and his answer was “because he always questioned the Jesus thing”. He said he never understood how Jesus died for our sins and we continue to sin. I found his statement very profound; it caused my own doubts and me to think about my many years of being a Christian. Muslims believe that Christians are committing shirk by referring to Jesus as the Son of God and believing in the Trinity (which, according to the Qu’ran, consists of God, Mary and Jesus – 5:116). The word “Muslim” means one who surrenders to the will of God; no matter what their race, nationality or ethnic background. If a person truly wants to become a Muslim their first step is to speak the “Shahada”, the testimony of faith. In Islam the Shahada...
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...Christianity developed from the Jewish faith in the person and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The Christian religion, as with the ancient Greek religion, was first generated through the oral tradition. Jesus was believed to be the only Son of God by the early Christians, and this belief has endured in the modern Christian world. The Holy Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testament, is the basic scripture for Christians, and although Christianity and Greek Mythology are very distinct, they are similar in many interesting ways. Statement of Purpose I am a Christian, and in writing this piece I am in no way saying that Christianity is a myth. It is my intention to point out how Greek mythology and Christianity are similar, and nothing more. It is interesting to learn how ancient people lived and worshiped, and psychology finds mythology useful in classifying modern modes of action. Three Major Ways Greek Mythology and Christianity are Similar Although the gods and heroes of Ancient Greece are not worshiped today, this ancient religion is still comparable to modern Christianity. Greek mythology and Christianity are similar in that they: (1) teach a moral way of life; (2) teach that a woman (Pandora or Eve) caused the downfall of mankind; (3) and both have a savior figure. Although Greek mythology and Christianity are similar, they differ in their concept of sacrifice, punishment, and doctrine, and I will discuss this in a separate piece. A Moral Way of Life To begin, Greek...
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...Lizzie J. Smith Module 1: Assignments Healing Hospital: A Daring Paradigm HLT- 302 Spirituality and Christian Values in Healing Care and Wellness Sunshine Weeks Eric Chapman, founding president and chief executive officer of the Baptist Healing Trust in Nashville, Tennessee, envisioned a healing hospital that would cover not only the physical aspects of healing but the emotional and spiritual components (ericchapman.com, n.d.). My work will describe the healing hospital paradigm and how spirituality influences this paradigm. In addition, barriers to the Healing Hospital paradigm will be discussed along with Biblical scripture that supports compassion in the health care system. The healing hospital paradigm it focuses on the removal of stress and other health risks in the hospital environment for both patients and visitors. . The healing hospital paradigm it involves in healing the whole client (Young & Koopsen, 2006, p. 4) instead of just curing the disease. This emerges from the paradigm’s focuses on healing beyond the body physical: it aims to enhance the overall well being by addressing the patient’s and their families’ cognitive, emotional and spiritual concerns (Milstein, 2005). A healing hospital goes beyond windows, walls, and mortar. Its strong culture of love and caring is what sets it apart from traditional hospitals (Chapman, 2010, p.15)... The concept is to supporting a strong culture of caring for their patients and caregivers. Healing...
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...Here I am on Earth trying to determine if the people here are religious or not?? Here I am on Earth trying to determine if the people here are religious or not. Three things I am looking for are prayer to a higher entity, sacrifice, and public acknowledgment of their god in ways other than prayer. The clues I am now assessing include people attending their houses of worship, people wearing crosses around their necks as jewelry, and people with their heads bowed in prayer. These people with their heads bowed in prayer have so many variations in their actions. Some people are at their dinner table praying, some people kneel on the ground in a line with other people five times per day to pray, and some bow their heads and put their hands together, and use a string of beads to pray with. The earthlings seem to practice sacrifice openly and variably. They are not, perhaps, killing a goat, burning it, and attempting to give it to the deity, but instead, people are sacrificing personal actions. The man who used to steal does not steal anymore, hoping this sacrifice will please his god. So it is with the woman who used foul words heavily in speech. She now, however, is trying to give up (sacrifice) her obscene language because she feels like she cannot reap the benefits of being a servant of her god if her language is not pure. She does not want to grieve her higher being, so she sacrificed her abhorrent language. Sacrifice occurs in Buddhism when practicing Sutra and one...
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...religions. • Identify examples of roles and observances held sacred by indigenous peoples. Week Three: Hinduism • Describe the Hindu philosophical systems and forms of worship. • Explain the origins of Hinduism. Week Four: Buddhism • Explain the origins of Buddhism. • Describe Buddhism’s theological foundations and spiritual practices. Week Five: Daoism, Confucianism, and Judaism • Compare and contrast the theological foundations and spiritual practices of Daoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. • Explain the origins of Judaism. • Describe Judaism’s theological foundations and spiritual practices. Week Six: Christianity and Islam • Explain the origins of Christianity. • Explain the origins of Islam. Week Seven: Monotheistic Religions • Compare and contrast the theological foundations and spiritual practices of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Week Eight: New Religious Movements & Religion in the 21st Century • Compare and contrast new religious movements with well established religions. • Estimate the impact of religious pluralism and the interfaith movement on the future of organized religion. Week Nine: Making Connections • Communicate with people of different religions about their beliefs and practices. Course Materials Fisher, M. P. (2005). Living religions (6th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. McInerney, W. (2003). Instructor’s manual with tests: Living religions (5th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. All electronic materials...
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...Jehovah Witnesses Jehovah witnesses are very similar but yet different to the modern day religion. As Jehovah’s do believe that Christ is God as Christians do, they seem to believe in his word a little more strongly then the average Christian. According to The Crystal reference encyclopedia, this religious movement was founded in 1872 by Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and known as International Bible Students until 1931. Their name comes from the Bible, the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 43, Verses 10 and 11. The meaning behind the name is rather clear. It indicates that they bear witness to Jehovah — Jehovah being the personal name of God. It is of vital importance to them that their beliefs be based on the Bible and not on mere human speculations or religious creeds. They feel as did the apostle Paul when he expressed himself under inspiration. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that all religious teachings should be subjected to this test of agreement with the inspired Scriptures, whether the teaching is offered by them or by someone else. They invite you—urge you—to do this in your discussions with them. The modern Christians today to not urge you on discussions. Some Christians are very leery about that subject because some people are so touchy when it comes to religion. They do not evangelize as much as I’m sure God would have them too. Witnesses consider the 66 books of the bible to be inspired and historically accurate as do Christians. What is commonly...
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...Religion in Academics To say the United States is a religious nation would be an understatement. About 90 percent of Americans claim to believe in God, and almost 80 percent say that religion in an important part of their lives. Seventy percent of Americans pray and 40 percent attend religious services and read the Bible each week (Nord 1). Religion is a significant factor in our everyday lives. Instead of trying to ignore the impact religion has made in the past and continues to make, we must strive to learn more about different religions and embrace the religions of our world. From the time this country was established on religious freedom, there has been a struggle with religion in academics. During colonial times, the schools were largely operated by churches. Prayer and religion were part of daily school life. This continued for many years. Once the immigrant population of the United States increased and made the country more diverse friction developed over prayers and readings from the King James Bible. In 1910, the Illinois Supreme Court banned in-class readings of the Bible in Chicago public schools. A little over 50 years later, two cases were heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. Parents claimed organized school prayer was violating their First Amendment protection against established religion. The courts ruled against organized prayer nationwide in public schools (Jurinski 6). Many people believe that any shape or form of religion is no longer allowed...
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...“He would have caught a grenade for you. He would have threw his hand on a blade for you . He would have jump in front of a train for you. But, instead, He died on the cross for you.” I’m so glad to see this post on my Tumblr account and made this as my wall post on Facebook. These phrases are excerpt from the song “Grenade” by Bruno Mars. The first time I saw it’s music video, Bruno Mars was portraying a man carrying his piano while some people was making fun of him and he will do anything even risking his own life for the woman of his dreams even though she won’t do the same for him. I was actually getting the idea of just what like Jesus Christ did for the mankind. He carried the cross while the soldiers knelt down and pretended to worship Him. They made fun of Him and shouted “Hey, you king of the Jews!” Then they spit on Him. They took the stick from Him and beat Him on the head with it (Mat.27:29-30). He accepted all of these because God loves us and wants us to offer a wonderful plan for our lives and no one can ever do the same just like what He did for all of us. Not one of us could ever earn or deserve God’s love and forgiveness. He gives it free to anyone who will stop trusting in his own good works and will place all his faith in Jesus Christ to save him. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). You are special to God that He sent His son, Jesus...
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...the way you expected. The “Edict of Milan” (3)which was a direct order from the emperor in 313 stating that Christianity and other religion will be tolerate also that Sunday would be treated like other pagan feast and those who were martyrs would be honor.(2) The fall of the Western Empire on the Church was highly published and it sent ripples though out the world it shifted the world into the Dark Age politically, economically, and socially.(5) Even though it was predicted and the hand writing was on the wall many were dishearten by it. Before we go further with the impact of the fall we must explore some of the causes the first being the decline of the family area like divorce of marriage as well the divorce of family value and the failure to see the enemy lurking in the shadows. The sexual perversion which is in our nation politics the effect or the impact that the fall had on the Church the Roman culture continue until 1453 and was finally taken over by the Turks and the Mohammed religion. (3) “The bishop of Rome became a primmest person” giving the know church more political muscle. This left the church to educate and Christianize those Barbarian tribes (10) and once more we see the spreading of the Gospel. Another thing that accrues was an increase in Monasticism; during which time man dedicate them to the service of the Lord. The role of heretical Christianity on the advent of Islam is unclear. Heresy can be define as any departure from Christian Orthodoxy which is teaching...
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...and sin, mankind is at variance with God (Ephesians 2:13-16) and there may be a tendency to reject a message concerning God without ever hearing the message. However, starting with such a positive introduction may cause an individual to “lower his guards” so he can hear the Gospel. Another advantage of this approach is that it can be easily communicated in print form and makes for a useful tract, especially considering the positive opening law. One disadvantage of this method is an increased likelihood that individuals who come to Christ as a result of the Four Spiritual Laws may be disillusioned should they find life’s struggles to exceed their perception of “God’s love and wonderful plan.” Tragedies, job loss, being persecuted for Christianity are challenging life experiences to which Christians can fall victim (John 16:33; 2 Timothy 3:12). For...
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...Introduction Throughout the Introduction to Theology class we have covered a wide variety of topics. Today, we live in such a fast paced society that things often get overlooked. I will be discussing a few topics which I feel are important topics today. One of my topics is something that most of the people I know fear, death. Another important topic that will be discussed is the power of God. Death One of the greatest fears that most people have in their lives is death. I wonder why this is so? Do people mostly fear the way that they will die? Do they feel as if they haven’t accomplished everything they have wanted to in their life? I feel these things attribute to the fear that people have with death. There are several examples of death throughout the Bible. Thousands died from diseases, crimes, and committing sins which they were instructed not to do. One example of this is one of the Ten Commandments, thou shall not kill. So why is there so much murder that takes place throughout the Bible and in our world today? Do people not understand the magnitude of this commandment? I cannot attest to witnessing a murder myself but have seen several news reports on them. In fact the news is normally scattered with terrible news of death and murderers. Life is such a precious gift given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ they think it is something to which they show little value. One day, hopefully, more individuals will value life and the murdering that happens throughout...
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...Week 2 Reflection Case study 1.1 The Bible and Tradition A major issue in Christian Theology is in the way which the Bible was interpreted. There was controversy over two interpretations of Arianism and Pelegianism. Condemned as heretical, their opponents argued that they did not interpret in an orthodox manner. But who decides what is orthodox? An appeal to tradition was of importance in challenging unorthodox interpretations of the Scripture. Tradition refers to the way the gospels we handed down from teacher to teacher. Examples of this are known in the writings of Matthew, Mark, & Luke. It is known that Matthew used Mark as a source for his writings. Luke also used Mark and possible Matthew in his writings. This is known as the synoptic gospels. Gnosticism is another issue of tradition. Gnosticism was a major threat to the Christian church because some of their teachings were very similar to the Christians. However, their belief in Salvation was significantly different. Gnostic writers wrote of a secret teaching which ensured the believer would be saved. They taught the idea that the secret knowledge was required to pass into Heaven. The Gnostic writers argued that this secret oral teaching had been passed down from the apostles in a veiled form in the Bible. In response to Gnosticism, Christian theologians began to develop a traditional method of understanding Scripture, known as a single-source theory of tradition. Irenaeus of Lyons is noted...
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...Uncommon Faithfulness: The Black Catholic Experience Uncommon Faithfulness is a collection of essays of the experience of African American Catholics. The book was written by fourteen black Catholic theologians, ecclesial leaders and scholars at a conference held at the University of Notre Dame in 2004. Uncommon Faithfulness was edited by M. Shawn Copeland who serves as the Adjunct Professor of Theology at the Institute for black Catholic studies at Xavier University in New Orleans Louisiana. Catholics of African descent maintained their faith and inspiration to sustain resistance against oppression of slavery and to create life giving opportunities. This was nearly 450 years of Uncommon Faithfulness. The phrase “Uncommon Faithfulness” describes the black Catholic experience in the United States. There are a total of fourteen essays. The first five essays deals with the history of black Catholics in the United States; including essays about African American women in religious communities and black Catholics during the civil rights movement in the United States. The next five essays deals with theological and ethnical aspects of the black Christian experience. There are many challenges that reflect the black Catholic community that allowed African ancestors to endure the denial of their humanity. Despite oppression conditions they were able to exercise their full humanity and were able to create new institutions and cultural traditions by thinking past custom beliefs...
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...Theology-104 May 4, 2011 Reflection Paper Introduction Did Jesus claim to be God? If a person is a Christian, does it matter how they live their life? What can your local Church do to better communicate God’s love to your community? These are just three of many questions when it comes to being a Christian living in the world we live today. Section 1: Did Jesus Claim to be God? Jesus is never recorded in the Bible as saying the precise words, “I am God.” That does not mean, however, that He did not proclaim that He is God. Take for example Jesus’ words in (John 10:30), “I and the Father are one.” We need only to look at the Jews’ reaction to His statement to know He was claiming to be God. They tried to stone Him for this very reason. “… You, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33). The Jews understood exactly what Jesus was claiming—deity. Notice that Jesus does not deny His claim to be God. When Jesus declared, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), He was saying that He and the Father are of one nature and essence. John 8:58 is another example. Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!” The response of the Jews who heard this statement was to take up stones to kill Him for blasphemy, as the Mosaic Law commanded them to do (Leviticus 24:15).Jesus clearly claimed to be the Messiah and Son of God: Jesus told the Samaritan woman that he is the Messiah (John 4:25-26), Jesus affirmed Peter's statement that he is the Messiah and Son of God (Mt...
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...Religion and Philosophy Assignment I believe that society should tolerate all kinds of religious groups. Religious tolerance is a growing social movement in America. It seems that tolerance of various religious groups is a necessity if we are all going to get along. We need to be tolerant of those who have different religious beliefs. We should not hate and persecute someone because of his or her faith. Another example to me, is the concept of the "melting pot," in the United States which referred to the fact that many different nationalities and ethnic groups supposedly "melted together" to become Americans. I experience this concept almost every day. For me it occurs more frequently at work. My co-workers are Haitians, Semolians, Philippians, etc. Personally, I seem to adapt well with differences. I am three unique ethnicities, African American, German, and Japanese, so being able to understand other people’s lifestyles is very natural to me since I have the experience of my own. In my opinion, differences between religions are more important. The United States is very uniform when it is compared to other countries. We try to speak the same language, have similarity in the school system, and the government is the same for everyone in the United States. Why have the same religion? By having varying religious groups, it honors each group of religion as valuable and unique. It also shows appreciation by being distinct and valuable. I feel people of various...
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