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Christianity For Dummies From Christianity For Dummies by Richard Wagner, Kurt Warner (Foreword by) Understanding Christianity starts with looking at the basics that connect Christians. Then you can compare the beliefs across the Christian church, the keys to worship, and read the Nicean creed, which is commonly used in Christian liturgy. A Brief Look at Christianity Christianity encompasses a great number of beliefs about a great number of different subjects and the ideas that spring from those beliefs, resulting in endless specific convictions. Basically, though, Christians agree on these ideas of salvation: * God loves and wants a relationship with each person. * Everyone is born with a tendency to sin. And this sin, whether it’s large or small, separates people from God. * God came to earth in human form (as Jesus Christ) and paid the costly penalty for sin by dying on the cross for all people. He rose from the dead three days later, triumphing over death. * God offers forgiveness to everyone. * Anyone who accepts this gift of forgiveness and believes in Jesus Christ receives salvation. Islam For Dummies From Islam For Dummies by Malcolm Clark Understanding Islam begins with looking at the basic beliefs (Five Pillars of Faith) and required rituals (Five Pillars of Worship) of Muslims as well as the different Islamic sects that Muslims may belong to. Islam's Five Pillars of Worship and Five Pillars of Faith provide the supports of a Muslim's daily spiritual life. Although all true Muslims share these beliefs and rituals, Islam is divided into a number of different sects that? The Five Pillars of Worship in Islam In the Islamic faith, Muslims are expected to fulfill five fundamental acts of worship. The Five Pillars of Worship (arkan al-`ibada) are the basic acts involved in being a believing and practicing Muslim, but each Pillar is also a gateway to deeper understanding and greater spirituality as one grows in the Islamic faith.? * Shahada: A person becomes a Muslim by making the basic statement of testimony or witness. “I testify that there is no God but God, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” Variations of the shahada are used in many different situations. * Salat: Salat is a formal, ritualized prayer performed at five specified times each day facing Mecca. Salat consists of a sequence of recitations and bodily positions, including prostration with one’s forehead touching the ground. * Zakat: Zakat is an obligatory charitable contribution, theoretically due annually from every Muslim at the rate of 2.5 percent of liquid assets and income-producing property. Zakat supports charitable works and the promotion of Islam. * Saum: Fast from dawn to dusk each day during the ninth month (Ramadan), Muslims are not supposed to eat, drink, or engage in sexual intercourse. This is a time of spiritual renewal. * Hajj: At least once in his or her life, if physically and financially able, each Muslim makes the pilgrimage to Mecca during the twelfth Muslim month. During the five main days of the hajj, those on the pilgrimage duplicate the ritual first performed by Abraham, including circling the sacred shrine (Ka`ba), standing on the plain of `Arafat, and offering a sacrifice. Islam's Five Pillars of Faith In Islam, the Five Pillars of Faith (not to be confused with the Five Pillars of Worship) provide a brief and convenient summary of basic Muslim beliefs: * Belief in God (Allah) as the only god.? * Belief in the angels of God, such as Gabriel. * Belief in the book of God and in the messengers and prophets who revealed this book. (These are sometimes listed as two separate Pillars, creating Six Pillars of Faith.) The book is an eternal heavenly book that was partly revealed in the Jewish and Christian Bibles and is fully revealed in the Qur’an. God sent his prophets and messengers to reveal his word and to warn people what would happen if they didn’t return to the path of God. Muhammad is the final prophet in a series that began with Adam and includes Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus, among others. * Belief in the Day of Judgment and Resurrection at the end of time, when all will be raised from the dead, judged according to their faith and deeds, and sent to the gardens of paradise or to the fires of hell. * Belief that God is responsible for everything that happens, both good and evil, because everything happens according to the will of God. The individual, however, is still responsible for his or her own moral and immoral actions. Retracing Christianity as a Historical Faith By Richard Wagner from Christianity For Dummies The Christian faith isn't an obscure belief system with Jesus as a mythological figure. Rather, Christianity is based entirely on real space-time history; in the words of Francis Schaeffer, its central figure is an actual man who "hung on a cross in the sense that, if you were there that day, you could have rubbed your finger on the cross and got a splinter on it" (The God Who Is There, InterVarsity Press, 1968). Therefore, when you consider the Christian faith, you also have to examine its historical claims of truth.? Examining artifacts Archaeologists, historians, and other researchers have closely scrutinized the historical events of Jesus' life and the Bible as a whole and continue to do so. Although some skeptical archaeologists have been quick to discount historical accounts of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, actual findings have proven that they're credible. In fact, a century of archaeological discoveries underscores the fact that the more evidence that researchers unearth in the Holy Land, the more the biblical record becomes authenticated. The Dead Sea Scrolls are arguably the most significant discovery in many centuries. This collection of 500 scrolls and scroll fragments was accidentally discovered in 1947 by a shepherd in a series of caves along the Dead Sea. These scrolls were written in a period between 250 B.C. and A.D. 68 and provide amazing insights into the practices and beliefs of the Qumram Community, a particular group of Jews that lived during this timeframe. The scrolls include a variety of documents, including: a complete manuscript of the Book of Isaiah and parts of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; commentaries on several Old Testament books (such as Habakkuk, Job, Isaiah, and Micah); non-canonical books; and a Qumram manual of conduct and other community-related documents. Although the scrolls are Jewish and not Christian, they nonetheless serve to underscore the reliability of the Old Testament scriptures and have helped scholars reconstruct the history of Israel and the Holy Land area between 300 B.C. and A.D. 135. Perhaps the most sensationalized discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls is a first-century limestone box designed to hold a deceased person's bones. This bones box (or ossuary) has an Aramaic inscription carved on the side that says, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." (See Matthew 13:55, 1 Corinthians 15:7, and Acts 15 for references to James in the Bible.) The possibility exists that this bones box actually contains the bones of James, the brother of Jesus Christ. Skeptics don't even argue strongly against this, because it would've been unusual to add "brother of [so-and-so]" unless that brother was well known. So, chances are that this wasn't just any random Jesus, but was indeed Jesus Christ. Experts continue to examine the artifact to determine its authenticity, but if it were proven to be authentic, this box would be the oldest nonbiblical, nonliterary reference to Jesus that has ever been recovered.? Documenting history in the Bible The Christian faith is based on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But because it's been some 2,000 years since Jesus walked on this earth, Christians face a problem: First-century Palestine didn't have CNN or the New York Times to refer to in order to gather archival details on the life and teachings of Jesus. As a result, Christians today are more than a little dependent on the events, eyewitness testimonies, and teachings recorded in the New Testament. It follows that an essential factor in determining whether Christianity is true is examining the reliability of the New Testament. Although the whole Bible is important to examine, the New Testament is particularly critical to Christianity because it provides the historical accounts of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection as well as the complete written teaching of the early Church. Is the New Testament accurate history, something that would make a good journalist proud?? In order to determine the New Testament's reliability, one must explore two questions: * Are the ancient manuscripts reliable? * Are the New Testament authors' testimonies legit? Christians believe that the apostles and early Church leaders, after several years of sharing with others around them the Good News of Jesus Christ, realized that they had to do more than communicate verbally. They needed to document a full written account of Jesus' life and his teachings to reach people they couldn't get to because of geographical limitations and to reach those who would live in the future. Two of Jesus' disciples (Matthew and John) and two others (who had direct access to the disciples and other eyewitnesses) wrote individual accounts of Jesus' life (called Gospels). During this same era, the apostles also put Christian teachings into writing and distributed them as letters to different churches across the Mediterranean region. These letters, written by Paul, Peter, and other apostles fill in the cracks on Christian teachings that the Gospels and Acts, a book that records the history of the early Church, don't discuss. All together, 27 books form the New Testament. Obviously, the writers couldn't just print the books out on their inkjet printers and then run to the nearest copy shop to buy 1,000 collated copies of their work in shiny plastic spiral binders. The New Testament writers had to write the accounts on papyrus, a paper-like material that's even more prone to deteriorate than the inexpensive recycled stuff you can find at the local office supply store. And in order to preserve and distribute an original manuscript like this, the early Church had to make copies of these originals the old-fashioned way: one copy at a time. The people who did this work were known as scribes, and based on accounts of them, they were a special breed of people. Think of them as accountants on steroids: mind-bogglingly exact in transcribing an original to a duplicate. They made sure that every letter, word, and syllable was kept intact from the original to the copy.? The scribes' attention to detail is crucially important to Christians today, because the original manuscripts of the New Testament books no longer exist — at least none that people know about. On first take, that news seems unsettling, because it means that the Christian faith isn't just reliant on the original testimony of the apostles, but on copies of that testimony. To historians, however, this is standard fare when looking at documents from the ancient world, whether they're parts of the Old Testament or New Testament or are the writings of Plato and Homer. Muslims Adhere to Different Islamic Sects Although Sunnis make up the majority of Muslims, not every Muslim belongs to the same Islamic sect. A Muslim's Islamic beliefs may take one of these forms: * Sunni Muslims include 84%–90% of all Muslims. Sunni means “tradition,” and Sunnis regard themselves as those who emphasize following the traditions of Muhammad and of the first two generations of the community of Muslims that followed Muhammad. A number of movements to reform Islam have originated mainly in the 20th century. Some are limited to one country and others have a broader influence. Most are Sunni movements, such as the Wahhabis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Jama`at-i-Islami. * Shi`ite Muslims comprise 10%–16% of all Muslims. Shi`ites are the “party of `Ali,” who believe that Muhammad’s son-in-law `Ali was his designated successor (imam) and that the Muslim community should be headed by a designated descendent of Muhammad. Three main subgroups of Shi`ites are Twelvers (Ithna-`Asharis), Seveners (Isma`ilis), and Fivers (Zaydis). * Sufis are Islamic mystics. Sufis go beyond external requirements of the religion to seek a personal experience of God through forms of meditation and spiritual growth. A number of Sufi orders, comparable to Christian monastic orders, exist. Most Sufis are also Sunni Muslims, although some are Shi`ite Muslims. Many conservative Sunni Muslims regard Sufism as a corruption of Islam, although most still regard Sufis as Muslims. * Baha’is and Ahmadiyyas are 19th-century offshoots of Shi`ite and Sunni Islam, respectively. Bahai’s consider themselves the newest of the major world’s religions but recognize that historically they originated from Shi`ite Islam in the same way that Christianity originated from Judaism. Ahmadiyyas do regard themselves as Muslims. Most other Muslims, however, deny that either group is a legitimate form of Islam and regard members of both groups as heretics — people who have corrupted and abandoned Islamic belief and practice. * Druze, Alevis, and `Alawis are small, sectarian groups with unorthodox beliefs and practices that split off from Islam. Druze and Alevis do not regard themselves as Muslims and are not considered Muslims by other Muslims. `Alawis have various non-Islamic practices, but debate continues as to whether they should still be considered Muslims * Mending Misconceptions about the Koran * By Sohaib Sultan from The Koran For Dummies * Oftentimes, misconceptions separate people with differing worldviews, presenting minds and souls with seemingly valid excuses to not engage people of other faiths. Consider these widespread notions about Koranic scripture, theology, and practice — and some enlightenment that may alter those commonly held perspectives. * Muhammad wrote the Koran * As with all previous divine revelations, the Koran too was scrutinized by the community of Arabs who were the first recipients of the Book. * Those who rejected Muhammad's call to Islam argued that Muhammad was simply preaching "tales of the ancients" (16:24, for example). The Scripture responds to this demand for proof of divine authenticity by producing an eloquent form of Arabic that to this day remains unsurpassed by even the most articulate poets and writers of the Arabic language. * The Koran is so confident of its divinely inspired language that it challenges those who question the Koran's authenticity to bring all the masters of literature together to produce even one chapter that achieves the same level of linguistic eloquence as the Koran (10:37–38; 17:88). * Also, the Koran argues that if the Scripture was man-made, contradictions and omissions would crop up in the Book, rather than coherence, consistency, and completeness (4:82; 39:23). * Muslims accept the Koran's majestic literary form as a sure sign of divine revelation, especially because Muhammad never participated in the influential poetry culture of the Arabs before the revelation of the Koran. * Muhammad is even known as the "unlettered Prophet" in the Koran to indicate that he had no knowledge of reading or writing (7:157–158). * The Koran quotes rejecters of the Koran as calling Muhammad a "poet" (21:5; 37:36), but firmly denies this title by saying, "It is not the word of a poet" (36:37). * The Scripture also forcefully argues that Muhammad has no authority to change the words of God, and speaks only that which was directly revealed to him through Angel Gabriel (53:1–10). * Defenders of the Islamic tradition also argue that had the Koran been the eloquent articulation of Muhammad, he would surely have displayed the same level of eloquence in his collected sayings, known as the Hadith. While the Hadith are often beautifully worded and full of wisdom, they come nowhere close to the high literary standard of the Koran, which revolutionized the Arabic language with its eloquence.? * The Koran says that God belongs to one people * The second verse of the Koran gives God a universal attribute: "Praise be to God, the Sustainer of all the worlds" (1:2). Furthermore, the Book says several times that God is the Lord of the East and the West (73:9, for example). * The Scripture teaches that all prophets throughout history form a single community of brotherhood under the Lordship of God alone (23:51). The Koran teaches His universality as the Sustainer of not only every human being, but of all the universe, including animal life, plant life, all the constellations in the solar system, and so on. * God is wrathful and unloving in the Koran * Some critics say that the Koran mentions the concept of love only twice. In fact, the Book mentions the concept of love about a hundred times, if such statistics are really the essence of the message. * After declaring God's universality, the Koran describes God as "most Merciful, most Compassionate" (1:3). In fact, every single Surah except one begins with this declaration about the divine nature. * God is also known in the Scripture as "Full of Loving-Kindness" (11:90; 85:14). It is with the attribute of divine Love that the Koran most often seeks to directly create a relationship with humanity by encouraging those actions that bring God's love and discouraging those actions that extinguish God's love. * Without doubt, the Koran also mentions God's wrath for those who reject faith after clear signs have come to them, and upon those who are bent on spreading evil and corruption on earth. But, as Prophet Muhammad said while quoting God himself, "My Mercy prevails over My wrath." * Jihad means "Holy War" * Jihad is almost always wrongly translated as "Holy War." The Arabic word Jihad actually means "to struggle" or "to exert one's utmost." * In the context of the Koran, Jihad means the struggle for good against all evil. This struggle also includes the suppression of the lower self in order to reach a state of higher God-consciousness that leads to a pure soul. * Jihad can take place in many forms, including speaking out against injustice or spending your wealth in the cause of public good, such as alleviating poverty. Jihad does also include armed struggle, which at times becomes necessary in order to protect the weak and to establish freedom of religion. (Jihad in the context of armed struggle is known as Qital.) * Critics of the Koran love to quote passages such as 9:5 of the Koran, which calls for taking up arms against those who ascribe partners with God. Most often, these critics fail to recognize the context of such passages. Cutting and pasting verses out of their context to lend credence to an argument clouds the more important overall picture. * All verses in the Koran that deal with armed struggle advocate the use of force only for self-defense in the widest sense possible, such as freeing the oppressed and establishing the freedom of worship. * The Scripture clearly says that fighting in the path of God does not include converting people by the sword. The Koran emphatically declares, "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:256). * All legitimate scholars recognize this essential ethic as one that Muslims must abide by, even during times of war. * The scripture values men more than women * Some people view verses about women in the Koran outside of their context, giving rise to misunderstandings about the status of women. Another problem is that the Arabic words used in the case of sensitive marital issues are very sophisticated terms that are more often than not mistranslated in the English language. * The Koran, in fact, argues that women are completely equal to men in the sight of God, and that both men and women will be rewarded solely according to their deeds, and not due to any sort of preference for one gender over the other. * The Koran says, "Verily, for all men and women who have surrendered themselves unto God, and all believing men and believing women, and all truly devout men and truly devout women, and all men and women who are patient in adversity, and all men and women who humble themselves, and all men and women who give in charity, and all men and women who keep fast, and all men and women who remember God constantly: For all of them has God prepared forgiveness of sins and a mighty reward" (33:35). ................
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