User talk:WE 10041980
Why I intend to amend the section "the religion - Christianity"
- No mention of Grace
I believe the key difference between Christianity and the other monotheistic religions is grace. Unlike Judaism and Islam, you do not earn right standing with God through being good. Christians believe you are forgiven first and serve God out of thankfulness for the free unmerited gift of salvation [Ephesians 2:8-9].
- Jesus deity
This is an absolutely central Christian belief [John 8:58, John 10:30, John 5:16-18, Luke 10:22].
Why this phrasing? If the aim is to make it politically correct perhaps saying "Christians believe" would be a better way of going about it - otherwise we have to add words like "purportedly" all over the article to make sure nothing sounds like scientifically proven truth.
Contrary to Islam, Christians cannot accept the idea that Jesus was a prophet. He was not teaching salvation through adhering to a set of principles but through him personally [John 14:6]. So he was either a blasphemous lunatic or indeed God.
- Jesus - "the accidental Messiah"
The current phrasing doesn't seem right. Jesus claimed to be God and the Messiah. [Matthew 23:9, John 8:56]
Other additions
- Abraham's meaning to Christians
It is true that Romans sees his faith as crucial (the first to be justified by faith) but I miss a refence to Matthew 3:9
- Satan
I think this is a good point and it is worthwhile to add a reference to the existing entry (which actually already refers to Abrahamic religions).
- Ten commandments
I object to stating that Christianity follows the ten commandments. Please also cmp. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_commandments#Christianity "Modern Evangelicalism, under the influence of dispensationalism, commonly denies that the commandments have any abiding validity as a requirement binding upon Christians". Yes, the "Old Testament" (apologies if the term is derogatory to Jews I am not sure how else to call it) but they are neither a moral yardstick [Matthew 5:21-26] nor is adhering to them good enough to be saved [Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:8-9]
The New Testament teaches that the Law of Moses was given not to save but to make people's sin obvious to them [Romans 3:9-20]. The purpose of the ten commandments according to Christian teaching is to make humans realise we are not good enough by ourselves to make it to heaven. Christians believe humanity as a whole is fallen and can't redeem itself through trying to be good [Ephesians 2:1-3, Galatians 2:21, Romans 3:9-10, Romans 3:23]
For Christians, the ten commandments are designed to make people yearn for a Saviour. Since humans can't earn their way into heaven by trying to be good enough, God has to reach down and save us.
WE10041980, 23 July 2010