Lesson Numero Cinco

1. How do Islamic perceptions of Heaven and Hell differ from those of Christianity and Judaism?

Like any other religions and beliefs, they are different in beliefs. Within Christianity and Judaism, there are differences in their beliefs, what Heaven really is and how one can make themselves in God’s good graces and how they stay that way in order to get to Heaven. Unlike the latter two, Islam does not believe in salvation. Christianity believes that Jesus knows as humans we do bad, think impure thoughts and sometimes act them…but even the most dirty soul can repent and Jesus will look favorably on that. With this, one can believe and you can earn your way into Heaven. In Islam, even if you did the best, most humble things through out your life, that is still no guarantee you would make it into Heaven.

2. Although Jesus was a Jew, the religious institutions created in his name proved difficult for Jews to embrace but attractive to Greeks. What elements in the Nativity and the Passion narratives seems particularly and culturally familiar to a pagan audience?

So, paganism is defined as any person belonging to a religion that is not   Christian. Or a religion that has more than one god, like Ancient Greece or Rome. The only thing that could have been familiar to the pagan audience was the fact that the birth of Jesus was to a good, ordained girl. She was a virgin and so this would be of a supernatural happening. Kind of like how Achilles was part god. Pagans liked to hear about people being born in high, rich environments not like Jesus’s lowly birth in a barn.

3. Jesus claims the redeemed sinner is more precious to God than the righteous person who never sinned. This implies a conception of God unlike that found in the Old Testament or in The Iliad. How does this emphasis on human repentance and divine mercy change human relations to God? What different aspects of the divine/human relationships were emphasized in Gilgamesh, or The Iliad?

I’m going to get a little bit more personal here, as I lay out some daily thoughts of m continuing journey of my faith. I feel like Jesus accepts us as sinners and I know the Bible says that we were created in Him. But He is not sinner. A lot of people are not born and realize, “This is exactly what I should be doing to get to Heaven”. So I feel like the relationship that Jesus says a sinner who has obtained forgiveness and has repented is more precious. The sinner realizes he or she was wrong through the teachings of Jesus and comes into a different life and light.

In the Iliad, for example the gods weren’t just looking for humans to seek forgiveness, they wanted revenge on the person that did wrong against them. The gods also has favorites in the Iliad and came to directly to the people.

3 thoughts on “Lesson Numero Cinco

  1. smaldonadodiaz

    Good insight. I agree with you in that a redeemed person is more precious because after seeing the teachings of Jesus, it can have an understanding of how to proceed in different circumstances. Is a perfect example to follow. In the other religions, there is no example to follow.

    1. swtrinchet

      I’m not sure what you mean by other religions noting having an example to follow. I can think of several redeemed religious figures in other cultures that are examples of how to live well in different situations. And I would imagine that many of the pagan examples have been lost over time.

  2. hdbomar92

    In regards to you 3rd segment. I liked your personal reflection. In my post I stated that the word precious was not a good choice word. However you made is work here. I believe it is saying when your son goes astray it precious when he returns to you. Not so much the son is more precious than your other children, its just the action of your son coming back to you is precious.

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