Transcript: Christianity 101: Understanding the Christian Faith | Mike Mazzalongo | UltimateTube

Christianity for Beginners. This is lesson number two in the series. And the title of this lesson is The Christian Religion. The Christian Religion. As I said, this is the second lesson in a series of seven classes, especially designed for those who are just learning about Christianity or have recently become disciples of Jesus Christ. And we also use this class as a refresher course for those more experienced Christians. So in this lesson we're going to look at the Christian religion from a wide view as we compare it to other major religions in the world. In doing this it will help us in a variety of ways. For example, it will give us some historical context. We're going to be able to see where Christianity as a religion fits into the general history of mankind and also the history of other religions. because Christianity doesn't just exist in a vacuum. I mean, there are other religions that were being formed at the same time that Christianity was being formed. So we're going to kind of put it historically where it fits in. Also give us an understanding by examining Christianity alongside other religions and their main ideas. We'll be better able to understand the claims and the teachings and the benefits of the Christian religion. And I emphasize the benefits of the Christian religion. You really see the advantage of Christianity when you compare it to other religions. And then, as I mentioned, appreciation. We often fail to appreciate the value of what we have until we compare it to some other similar thing. The value of the Christian religion becomes more evident when it is compared to the teachings and the claims of other world religions. At the end of this study I hope that the class will not only more fully understand Christianity but also will appreciate its incalculable value in your life, my life, the life of anyone who follows Jesus. All right. When we are studying or speaking of the religions of the world, a lot of people think that there are literally hundreds of different religions, even thousands of groups and beliefs in the world, when in fact there are really only about a dozen. There are only about a dozen organized religions, if you include also what's called primitive religions. The dictionary defines religion as man's expression of his acknowledgement of the divine. Man's expression of his acknowledgement of the divine. The Bible writers use the word religion in describing the ceremonies that the Jews did in expressing their faith. Acts 26 verse 5. When we talk about the religions of the world we're referring to the different ways that mankind has developed to express his consciousness that there is something other than himself, usually something higher than himself here in this world. Now we here in this room, in this class, we believe that Christianity is not a man made religion, but rather a religion given to us by God. But for the purpose of this class, I'm going to put our faith, our religion, alongside other religions in order to see where it fits in historically and theologically. So don't be upset if I just call Christianity, refer to it and describe it in the same way I'm describing Hinduism or Buddhism or whatever. It's the way that you study organized religion. OK. Now there are many philosophies and movements that come and go throughout history, which have impact on society, but are not necessarily religions. Several decades ago, New Age movement swept the United States. New Age movement, you know, a combination of ideas from existing religions and philosophies. A communism is a political system and ideological movement, but it's not a religion. Naturalism, which is the outgrowth of atheism. Naturalism tries to explain the world without God. It's not a religion. It's a philosophy. And of course, relativism, which is the today's philosophy, popular philosophy. Relativism says that life and reality are what you say or believe it to be. It's all relative. So these and others have had influence on the world but are not considered organized religions. We're not going to study these philosophies. We're studying religions. Now in order for something to be a religion it has to have certain features. For example, it has to have a history or an origin story. All religions can trace their origins to a place or to a person. It has to also have a concept of deity. I mean, the main feature of religion is that it acknowledges the existence of a higher being or a higher power or God. But all religions have that feature. organized religions also have a concept of mankind. In other words a key question that most religions try to answer is the following. Where did man come from? Where did man come from? And each religion has an explanation of some kind to answer that question. Where did man come from? Organized religion have a concept of salvation. No matter what religion, each of them has its own answer to the problem of the human condition. And some of them offer a better existence. We call it salvation within Christianity. But all religions offer some sort of better way to be. Their concept of salvation. Organized religions have a concept of worship. Most religions provide their own ceremonies that express their faith and that the people do individually or collectively. But all religions have this feature. Organized religions have scriptures. Religions keep records of their founders, the teaching of their founders, their history, their worship. They have some sort of holy book. And organized religions also have a basic geography. In other words, most religions have certain countries where they began and where they flourished and where they exercised their influence. Not every single organized religion exhibits each one of these features. And you're going to see that as we go through them. But most organized religions have a majority of these features in common. Now the nature of our study will be to compare the different religions of the world according to these categories. So imagine at the top we've got the different religions, the 11 or 12 different religions, and we're going to examine for each religion, we're going to examine very briefly the history of its origin, their concept of deity, their concept of mankind, their concept of salvation, of worship of scriptures, where they are geographically. So it's like a graph. All the religions are on the, excuse me, the religions here on the top and then on the side are all the categories. The beauty of this type of study is that you can look at all the major religions and see side by side what they believe about salvation. You can compare them, what their scriptures are like, what their concept of man is like. So this is what we're doing here in this class. One lesson we're devoting to it is a brief study of comparative religion, really condensed down to one session. Now, before we discuss the major world religions, I think it would be helpful to talk just for a moment about what are called primitive religions, primitive religions. These do not fit into the pattern of major organized world religions. However, they are ideas, religious ideas, practiced by many people in the ancient world and even in today's society, but in very different and disorganized ways in different places. For example, certain features of primitive religions include, these are the features of organized religions that I've just shown you, history of origin, deity, all that stuff. So primitive religions also have certain features. First feature is a strong belief in magic. Now we could take a whole session to talk about magic. The basic concept of magic is a person is doing something in the physical world. which is affecting something that is taking place in the spiritual world and usually for their benefit. That's the whole idea of magic. Somebody in the physical world is manipulating something taking place in the spiritual world for their advantage or against someone else. But that's what magic is. We're not talking about magic and show business. That's show business. We're talking about true the occult. This kind of magic. So primitive religions have a strong a strong body of magic. In primitive religion, usually there's no individual god or gods or powers. They're spirits. They're forces. And then a third thing about primitive religions is that it's practiced in various forms. And different religions use different ideas. For example, some primitive religions use animism. In other words, they believe that certain objects are inhabited by spirits. So somebody says, my lucky charm. Well, if they're talking about their lucky charm, that's animism. They think that there's some spiritual power that indwells a physical object. Some primitive religions have a form of dynamism Dynamism is impersonal forces that are at work in nature For example the sacred burial grounds of certain Native Americans or the sacred hunting places. In other words, they think that their spiritual activity taking place in certain areas. Dynamism. And then fetishism is the reverse. Fetishism is an object into which power is introduced. Voodoo, for example, you know, the voodoo doll, you know, you make incantations, you say certain prayers, you know, and it gives a certain power to this voodoo doll. And this voodoo doll now controls your enemy or is inside your enemy spirit. And if you put pins in the voodoo doll, it'll affect your enemy. So an object into which power is introduced. So those are the different types of practices of primitive religion. Also totemism, mostly associated with animal and human characters that are merged. Men taking on the characteristic of various animals. Again, most notably in North American, North American Indians practice totemism. So these types of primitive religions, they have kept few written records. They have little organized theological thought or worship, mostly focused on nature and man's relationship with his environment. Now we can trace primitive religions historically, beginning with early tribal groups, 4000 B.C. to Egyptian nature and mystery cults, you know, 3000 years before Christ, believing that the Nile River and the sun represented gods, were gods. The Babylonians introduced magic and astrology to the mix. They would read internal organs. They would kill an animal and reach in and take out its liver and they would somehow read like you read tea leaves. They would read the liver of an animal for signs of what could be happening in the future. They studied the stars again to to know what may take place in the future. We can thank the Babylonians for that. The Greek culture began with primitive nature religion. And it evolved through a mythological stage where they had many, many gods to a philosophical stage where reason and logic took over. And they ended up as a mix with Roman style mythology. In other words, the Romans took the Greek gods and they gave them Roman names. So Zeus, the Greek god Zeus, became the Roman god Jupiter. OK. So the Romans, they mixed Greek mythology with their own primitive nature religions. Eventually the Roman religion was eclipsed by Christianity in the third and fourth century. However, you still see traces of ancient Roman primitive religion in the Catholic form of Christianity with its saints and images, candles, mystical practices. All of this are vestiges of Roman primitive religion. None of it is in the Bible. None of it stems from Bible teaching. Now, I mentioned primitive religions because they are still practiced in many countries today. As I say, voodoo practiced in Haiti and Native Americans continue to practice, many of them, their primitive religions here in America. And a lot of ideas from primitive religions are recirculating today in other forms. As I mentioned several decades ago, the New Age movement. Today, the emphasis on the preeminence of the environment. To the point where the environment is almost sacred. That's not a new idea. That's a very old idea. We've added science to that idea. But the veneration of nature is a very old primitive religious idea. The Falun Gong groups in China who are trying to harness spiritual power through physical means. Another modern take on primitive religious ideas. But primitive religions are not part of the group of the major world religions that are practiced by the majority of the populations on earth in the last several thousand years. We're going to now focus on major world organized religions. But I wanted to talk a little bit about primitive religions. Just in case somebody asks you a question about these things, you'll know at least what category that they fit into. All right. Major religions. As I mentioned previously, not counting primitive religions, there are only about 11 organized religions in the world. And these are usually listed in geographical terms based on where they began. So if you go to college and you take a course in comparative religion, for example, and you wonder, how are we going to study these? They're usually categorized geographically. OK. So if we're going to begin a comparative study of religion in our class tonight, we begin with what are called the Far Eastern religions. The Far Eastern religions. The first of which is Taoism. You pronounce the T like a D. Taoism that comes from China. From China. was founded by Lao Tse and he lived 604 to 517 B.C. The major ideas in Taoism, man is the highest level. There's nothing higher than man. To experience God, one had to look within man and nature and find balance in life. The yin and the yang, balancing the yin and the yang. Taoists reject all human institutions as counterproductive. Government, for example, and big corporations and all stuff like that. Taoists reject all of that because it upsets the balance. Next one is Confucianism. Confucianism, another religion, not exactly a religion as we understand it, more of a philosophy, but a philosophy applied to society like a religion. Comes from China, founded by Kung Fu Tse. He lived 551 to 478 B.C. The major ideas in Confucianism, there's no heaven or hell for people. The focus was on the proper relationship between people in a society by cultivating basic personal virtues. And so the practice of this quote religion was the cultivation of these virtues, things like wisdom and good morals and respect for elders and so on and so forth. All of these based on the teachings of Confucius. So it is a non-spiritual religion. Next one. Shinto. Shinto coming from Japan. There's no founder in Shinto. It evolved from a basic nature religion and added concepts from Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. You're going to find that a lot of religions are simply a mix of you know they take ideas from different religions and they package them in a different way. Well, Shinto is one of these. The main idea in Shinto, it is a mystic nature religion that evolved into a veneration of the island of Japan itself as the center of creation with its leaders as the descendants of the gods. And this explains the military fanaticism in World War II. suicide bombers and so on and so forth. They thought it was impossible for them to lose. Impossible. The emperor was a god. You couldn't defeat a god. And the island itself was a thing made by God and dropped onto the earth. The purpose of the Shinto religion back in the 20s and 30s was to promote Japanese supremacy. And of course that stopped after World War II. One of the conditions of surrender one of the conditions of surrender is that they had to they had to remove that idea from their religious teaching. and they had to change their flag. Their flag was a sun with rays going out. The whole idea is the sun was Japan and the rays were its influence throughout the entire world. After World War II they had to change their sun. If you know what the Japanese flag looks like today it's just the sun. There are no rays anymore. Today the shrines and temples for Shinto are mostly devoted to ancestor worship. They go there to honor their ancestors. Another one again we're talking about far eastern religion Buddhism. Began in India and China and now of course is all over the world. The founder of Siddhartha Gautama. He lived 563 to 480 B.C. So there are a lot of religious founders that lived in the same era. He was called the enlightened one. The Buddha The main idea of Buddhism First of all there is no one personal supreme being Life is a mixture of spirits, gods, beings that are all in a continuous process of becoming part of the whole. The state of nirvana is reached when a person ceases to desire a conscious independent life and is fully absorbed into the whole. One Buddhist saying is that you are like a drop of water that is absorbed into the ocean. It ceases to be itself and it becomes part of the whole. They use meditation, yoga, self-denial study. In order to reach that state of nirvana, that state of no longer desiring to be self or independent. The next group of religion. So these are the far eastern religion, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto and Buddhism. The next ones are the Eastern religions. The first of which is Hinduism. Which began in India. It is the oldest organized religion still practicing today. It began roughly 2000. B.C. There is no founder. it evolved another religion that evolved from nature religion. This is why I talked about primitive religion, because a lot of the organized religions evolved from primitive religions and Hinduism is an example of that. Evolved from nature religion and it evolved into a social system that produced four stratas or castes in Indian society with the priestly or the religious leaders at the top. and then going down the Brahma class at the top and then the poor at the bottom. And you couldn't come out of one case into another. Hinduism, similar to Buddhism, in that the goal of life is complete oblivion. They call it moksha. And merging with Brahma, who is the ultimate life power, who is an impersonal spirit force. Good deeds, self-denial, the practice of yoga, avoiding bad karma, all of this helps the soul to finally reach moksha. And it may take several lifetimes in several forms before you reach moksha. You may come back as another person. You may come back as an animal, as many times as it takes. The reason that the cow is so revered in Hinduism is because of the belief that the cow is the final state before you, whoever has come back as a cow is in the final state before reaching moksha. And so to destroy the animal would be to destroy that person's chance to finally reach his or her destiny. I know you're shaking your heads, but this is what these religions are. Now, in all fairness, you're listening and you probably know some about this and people watching online, so on and so forth. We're going at lightning speed through these. And it's not, I'm not meaning to disrespect any of these religions. We're just trying a little thumbnail sketch of each one to give you an idea where they fit in. Another Eastern religion, Jainism. Jainism began in India. The founder of Naraputta Vardhamana. Did I get it? Vardhamana. That's it. Vardhamana. 599 to 527 B.C. The main ideas in Jainism? Well, Jainism is similar to both Hinduism and Buddhism in that the goal is moksha or nirvana. The difference, however, is twofold. One, the only way to reach it was self-discipline and self-denial, not knowledge. In Hinduism or Buddhism, knowledge could get you there. Knowledge could get you there. But in Jainism, only self-denial to get you to moksha. And also another difference, once you reached it, however, the individual becomes part of the whole but is not completely oblivious. The individual still has consciousness. So you see the difference? I told you some of these religious founders took ideas, good ideas from the religions around them and added their own idea. The founder, it is said, starved himself to death after claiming to have reached moksha in his lifetime. Sikhism, another eastern religion, Sikhism, began in Pakistan. The founder, Nanak. This one is a more modern one. He lived 1469, 1558 A.D. Main ideas in Sikhism. Well Nanak lived in an area that bordered Hindus and Muslims. And so his religion is a combination of Hindu and Muslim ideas. he kept the idea of moksha in Hinduism and the reincarnation. But he borrowed the monotheism from Islam. And so in Sikhism one reaches moksha through the love of God and doing good. Moksha is a conscious experience. borrowed that from Jainism and Judaism and Christianity. But anyways, borrowing ideas. He rejected the Hindu caste system. He believed and taught in an equal society. He believed in the brotherhood of all men. Sikhism was ruled by a succession of gurus, the last of which Gwind Sinj required all devotees to add the term Sinj, which means lion, to their names and carry the five K's, the five K's, the Kesh, which is the long hair or the turban, the Kanja, the comb, the kach, the shorts, the kara, the steel, the bracelet and the Kirpan, which is the dagger or the sword. and carrying these five items were a sign that they belonged to this particular religion. A very colorful religion also. A very interesting history. They became excellent military warriors. They were hired by the English as bodyguards. So those are the Eastern religions. Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. Now we go to Near Eastern religions, the first of which is Zoroastrianism. So as we begin the Eastern religions, we're going to be looking at groups we know a little bit more about. Not so much the first one, Zoroastrianism, founder Zoroaster. The main ideas behind Zoroastrianism, these were based on the visions of Zoroaster. He was a monotheist. He taught that doing good and avoiding evil brought one to God in heaven. They used fire in their worship system. They believe that God sent a special envoy every thousand years called a sad shant. Some think that the wise men who visited Jesus were Zoroastrians. There are only a few thousand of them left today. They live mostly in Mumbai, which is the former Bombay area of India. Another Eastern, Near Eastern religion, Islam, founder Muhammad, lived 570 to 632 A.D. The main ideas based on the visions of Muhammad and writing of these in the Koran as the final word of God. Man goes to paradise through complete submission to God. That's the main idea of Islam. As a matter of fact, the word Islam means surrender. Submission to God is exercised through the practice of five pillars. The five pillars of Islam. Number one, confession. Repeating the phrase, there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet over and over again. Number two alms giving 2% the zakat. Three prayer five times a day facing Mecca. Fasting during the holy month of Ramadan and pilgrimage. Once in a lifetime every Muslim is obliged to go to Mecca as a pilgrimage. If he cannot physically go there, he can pay for someone else to go in his or her stead. Originally, this religion was spread through military means. Different groups within Islam often are in conflict with each other. Well, I mean, the news is we've had nothing but that in the last decade, haven't we? But there are many groups within Islam, the Sunnis, the Shiites, the Sufis. They're like the Pentecostals, the Sufis, the Baha'i, the black Muslim, the Islam nation. Much of the fighting today is between Sunnis and Shiites over the true inheritor of Muhammad's authority. That's what the fight is of ever. But if you ever wonder why are the Sunnis and the Shiites, why are they fighting among themselves? Well, they have a different opinion as to who inherited the authority of Muhammad it The next near eastern religion Judaism the founder Abraham lived approximately 2000 years before Christ the main ideas of Judaism It is the earliest of the truly monotheistic religions. In Judaism God has chosen the Jewish race to be his special representative and will bless the world through them. Keeping God's laws contained in Jewish scriptures given to Moses and the prophets keeps you as God's people and blessed here on earth. The Jew different Jewish groups don't have a consistent view of the reality of the afterlife. They have different points of view as far as that is concerned. Main temple used for worship was in Jerusalem. It was destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman army. Synagogues are now used for assembly, prayer, singing and readings. Modern Judaism has three main groups. One, the Reform Judaism. They're the liberal branch. They try to reconcile the beliefs in the Jewish scriptures. They try to reconcile these to modern science and modern society. They're the ones who promote the modern state of Israel. That's where the money comes from, from the reformed Jews. Then you have conservative Judaism. They still hold to the concept of a Messiah or a personal savior to come. And then you have orthodox Judaism. These hold to the historical practice and beliefs of ancient Judaism except for animal sacrifices. They're extremely conservative in the way they dress and religious law. They also claim biblical geographic border of Israel. And that's where the fighting takes place among the Jews today. The Orthodox Jews believe that Israel is the Israel that's in the Bible, not the Israel where the Palestinians have carved out a piece here and a piece there and Jordan has moved. They want the whole thing as it is in the Bible. And so, you know, when you hear about the settlers, the settlers have made a settlement, you know, and they refuse to move. And the Israeli army is going in there and getting them out of there. Well, they're settling disputed land. Claiming that that land is part of the, you know, is part of the historical homeland of the Jews. So very interesting. And then, of course, Christianity, the founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ lived for BC to approximately 29 AD. Main ideas of Christianity. Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah or savior of the Jewish religion. He is the embodiment of God in human form and thus his teachings and commands have divine authority. He performed public miracles. He was executed by the Roman government but rose from the dead after three days, appeared to his disciples for 40 days and then ascended to heaven. Christianity believes that the death of Christ pays mankind's moral debt before God and people are saved from judgment by faith in Jesus and will live a conscious eternal life with God. All right. So in brief form, those are the summaries that describe the world's 11 major religions. Now, most of this session has dealt with the description of the major religions that exist today. I'd like to finish this lesson and I ask that you be patient with me a little bit here by listing three reasons why Christianity is the superior religion among all of the religions, including the primitive religions described at the start of our class. Three reasons, very briefly, why I believe Christianity is superior. Number one, Christianity has a superior revelation of God. Most religions have a very limited view of God as either an impersonal force or a kind of a superhuman being. Christianity reveals that God is pure spirit with consciousness, will, power, knowledge, moral force and communicative power. Christianity explains what kind of being God is as well as what he wants from us and for us in the clearest of terms. There's no mystery. We get more information about God from the Christian religion than we do from any other of the world religions. And that's not a statement from someone who favorizes Christianity. That's just objectively true. I mean, if you're just a list all the things you know about God from Christianity, the list is very long. Number two, supremacy of the Christian religion. We have a superior leader. All other religions have men or women as leaders, prophets, gurus, priests, etc. Christianity has God himself as the leader in the form of a human being, Jesus Christ. In the Christian religion the leader is always alive and present to direct and encourage his followers in every generation. I mean Mohammed is dead. The Buddha is dead. And all those religions acknowledge that their leaders are dead. Christianity is the only religion who said no our leader is still alive. He lives. Number three, Christianity offers a superior solution to the problems of humanity. Other religions offer to solve humanity's problem by imposing religious rules or practices or a final solution after death occurs. Christianity, on the other hand, identifies the underlying problem that causes the human suffering that we see. And that is separation from God because of disobedience to God's laws, which is sin. Which leads to guilt and shame, rebellion, death, judgment and condemnation. And so in Christianity, the problem is identified. In Christianity, a solution is offered. God himself takes the responsibility for paying off mankind's moral debt through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. in Christianity God does for humans what humans cannot do for themselves. And that is eliminate guilt by eliminating the moral debt caused by sin. No other religion even deals with the issue. I mean Buddhism denies that sin exists. Hinduism. The main teaching is simply to accept your position and life after life after life to try to work yourself into perfection. Christianity actually changes things. In Christianity, people don't find salvation based on their ability to practice their religion or observe moral codes, as in the case of every other organized religion. I'll tell you something. Every organized religion other than Christianity is based on law. On the principle of law. You have to do something. In Christianity, God himself, through Jesus Christ, saves people based on their faith in him. The practice of their religion and the keeping of moral codes are ongoing expressions of that faith initially demonstrated through repentance and baptism. But this is not the dynamic that ultimately saves them. In other religions, man pulls himself up to God through the five pillars or the five K's or a pilgrimage, pulls himself up to God. In Christianity, God reaches down and takes man and he brings man up to himself. That's the difference between Christianity and the other ten world religions. And then Christianity offers a better hope. Far Eastern and Eastern religions best offer is that the individual cease to be at death or even sooner. Islam and Judaism offer a paradise that is much like here on earth, only better. In many respects, this is what primitive religions also offer. Safety here and an ideal situation after death. Why do they call it the happy hunting ground? Because paradise is like there'll be plenty of hunting, plenty of fishing. Christianity, however, offers its followers the hope that while they are alive here on earth, they can expect freedom from guilt, peace of mind, loving relationships with other believers, greater insight into the mind of God and a spiritual renewal and on and on the gifts from God. In addition to these things, Christians can look forward to an afterlife where they are conscious spirits with the personal identity. Where they are free from physical limits, including sin and death, and where they are joined to God in an intimate personal relationship for eternity. I mean there are many more reasons we can argue why Christianity is superior. The greatest number of followers. The most historical written records. Eyewitness accounts of Jesus's life. A positive impact of Christianity in the world. I mean we could just keep going on and on. But I've only given a few in this lesson to highlight the superior nature of Christianity and its claims. And I hope that this will be enough to build your faith and to give you security in the Christian religion. All right. So in our remaining five lessons of the series, we're going to examine more closely the Christian faith and the lifestyle of those who practice it. So our next lesson will deal with the Bible. Why do Christians believe that the Bible comes from God? All right. That's our lesson for this time. Thank you for staying with me a little bit longer than usual. But we covered 12 religions. That's a lot for 35 minutes. All right. We'll see you next time.