Moravian

Reading the assigned chapter I find it very interesting the many different types of Christianity, how they started and even more surprising is how many different Protestant denominations they are, all base on the life of one man, Jesus Christ. What I find confusing is that they all believe the same thing, just different ways of worship. Most of the movements I have either heard of or had some form of exposure to. The Moravians I have never heard of. I choose this religion because I wanted to learn about their faith, and that they were the first to send large scale of missionary to the Caribbean Islands. They were also the first protestant missionary that would associate, and assisted slaves while teaching their doctrine. They believe in baptism, the trinity that God is one being who exists, simultaneously, three persons in one.
The Moravian was started by one Jan Hus in the late fourteenth century. This started when he objected to some of the Roman Catholic teachings. His punishment was death by been burnt at the stake by the Roman’s authority. It was 50 years later that the organization regrouped, operating under ground through out northern Europe as the Bohemian Brethren or the Brethren of unity. Of course like all other movements they had major disagreements among themselves. They went through a dramatic transformation which they clamed was a visit from the Holy Spirit telling them to learn to love each other. The foundation of their faith is spirit of harmony, good will, congeniality, and forgiveness. Today it is reported that they have the largest amount of Protestants in Tanzania. It would be interesting to attend their temple to observe how they worship.

Jewish roots of the Christian story

Listening keenly as Joel Marcus was being interviewed on NPR radio it reinforced the course content that was taught in our last religious class. The relationship between Jews and Christians, the controversial surrounding Jesus’ life, his ministry leading up to his death and resurrection, including the many events that followed after his resurrection as it relates to his followers.
I have also heard many preachers preached that the Jews were responsible for his death. I believe that many of them know that his death was caused by both Jews and Gentiles, but it is most often said that it was the Jews who handed him over to the Romans, because he often disagreed with many of their teachings especially the Pharisees. The type of death by crucifixion was a Roman punishment. After the death of Jesus, Christianity which started as a sect within Judaism struggled to survive during the Roman Empire.
I was amazed to understand that during the first century of the church that the movement was entirely Jewish. It was after sixty to seventy years after the death of Jesus when the Jews started to rebel against the Romans, leading to the destruction of the temple in Jeruslem.Jews and Christians got together after been crushed by the Romans, they concluded that it was impossible to be a good Jew and a Christian at the same time. I believe this was the beginning of the conflict between Jews and Christians. I find Christianity to be very controversial. There are so many different believes as it relates to Jesus’ teachings, mainly baptism, forgiveness of one’s sin, where one would spend eternity after death, and the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit
The interview was interesting it made me more aware of the sensitivity of the Jews as it relates to the death of Jesus and who was responsible.

Judaism

Judaism is the religion of Jewish people. It is religion where they belief that God created a covenant between the Isrealites and that he revealed his laws to Moses on Mt.Sinai in the form of the Torah and the Jewish people are descendants of Isreal. The Torah is of great value to their religion as it outlines the rules which govern them. Judaism is very unique they take prayers and studying very serious and they have a lot of different holidays their holidays mainly focus on creation and redemption one of their major holiday is called the Hanukkah- This known to be the festival of lights which may fall between November and December it all depends . It is celebrated in homes with the kindling of candles one on each day of the festival.

Westen Religion

The following link provides insight on current topics covered in class.
www.cnn.com/godswarriors