Christian and Jewish beliefs?

Question

what are some beliefs that both christianity and judism have in common? what are the judeo-christian views on what a person should do in life. its hard to explain but im wanting to know the main purposes behind these religions. like for example, to live to worship god and be faithful or something like that.

i want to know about these religions. if you love your religion, please answer. please try to keep it simple though, i'm not to informed when it comes down to religion.

10 points thanks=]

Answer 1

There are some common beliefs. for example, many laws relating to business and sexual ethics. however, beyond that there is little. Also, while christians may claim to worship the "jewish g-d", jews don't see christians as worshipping our G-d. I suppose we feel about christians the way they feel about mormons or muslims.

cheerio

Answer 2

God is the creator of all and we all come from God.

Sex outside of marriage or before marriage is not a Godly thing.

We don't believe in stealing

We don't want what our neighbor has

We honor our parents as best as we can

We honor our traditions

We keep the sabbath day holy

The religions are to honor God and to live our lives by a code established by God and to be the best we do and do the best we can and be as pure as we can be.

After that the generalities sort of end and even those generaties are executed differently by Christians and Jews.

I'd probably say there are other belief systems that are quite the same and with the same generalties.

Answer 3

They both worship God the Father, Jews are waiting for Messiah to come. Christians accept the fact of the prophesy was fulfilled in Jesus Christ God's Son, the Messiah and has already come once and was rejected by some the Jews The Torah is the Old Testament, The Old testament is found in the Christian Bible along with the New Testament Indeed Messiah will come again!

Answer 4

Both religions accept the Old Testament pretty much in it's entirety. They both claim to worship the same God. However, other than that, they don't have a lot in common. Jews believe that salvation will only come to them because they are God's chosen people, and that they must follow the law laid down in the Old Testament (which they call the Torah). Christians believe that salvation can only be found through a personal belief in Jesus Christ, the son of the god they both believe in.

Answer 5

Both Christianity and Judaism both believe in God, the Jews just haven't realized that Jesus is the Messiah and that Jesus is God also. They also have the same morals, with a few additional rules in either. Obviously things like spreading the Gospel isn't a Jewish law, just as sacrificing animals isn't a Christian law. Basically Judaism is Christianity that is still waiting on the Messiah to come even though He(Jesus) already has.

Answer 6

uh, actually there are extremely few beliefs christians and jews have in common. they both share part of the same bible, but of course christians consider that part "obsolete" so that gets rid of the similarity. most jewish beliefs are the complete opposite of christian beliefs.

"Jews believe that salvation will only come to them because they are God's chosen people"

wtf? no, we don't. judaism teaches that you do not have to be jewish to have a place in the world to come. we don't believe in eternal damnation for ANYBODY. its a perfect example of a way christian and jews have opposite beliefs.

examples of opposing jewish/christian beliefs:
- christians believe people are born with sinful, jews believe humans are born pure of sin
- christians believe jesus was the messiah and son of god, jews believe the messiah (mashiach) will be a simple human man who will usher in world peace among other things (all prophecies taken from the bible), and we know he hasn't come yet since none of the prophecies have been fulfilled and obviously jesus did not bring world peace and demolish all weapons of war
- christians believe that faith is the most important thing, jews believe ethics and good deeds are the things that matter
- christianity is based on getting you into the afterlife, judaism pays very little attention to the afterlife and is more concerned with the world we are in right now
- christianity is extremely dogmatic, judaism has almost no dogma

i could go on, but i'm sure you get the point.

Answer 7

this is a suprisingly difficult question to answer, and I'd figure there are likely quite a few books written on precisely this issue.

part of the complexifying aspsect (is complexifying a word? good enough for me...) is that christianity has so many denominations that are in many cases at odds in beleif, or may share beleif but come to that, with a different reasoning.

Most of judaism is more consistent, on the other hand, as there is at least 1 common, fundamental thing that is an absolute unquestionable truth throughout every segment of judaism. and if a group does not belive in that fundamental thing, they simply are by definition NOT jewish.
that thing being a singular, absolutely undivided god. this is why, if you boil it down to most essential issues, groups like "messianic jews" and "jews for jesus" are in fact not jewish at all, but christian denominations. (they may indeed claim jewish heritage and/or anscestory or not, on an individual basis, but they simply are not jewish, by matter of fact)

many people wrongly belive that judaism is little more than christianity without jesus... but the differences are alot deeper than that.

on the jewish side, I'm pretty sure its a "standard" jewish view that you can be a good jew, while hardly ever attending synogogue, or doing the formal things.

the "purpose"? hmm... honestly I guess I've never thought about it in that way, my religious and spiritual beleifs really just are, not in a "I just never questioned it" sort of way, (because I have questioned it, and deliberately put myself in places to have others question mine) but it has always just been a part of life, personally it'd take infinitely more, blinder faith to belive something entirely different (like that god didn't exist, or that theres no afterlife) than what I do, than to belive as I do, on the things I have opinions on.

theres a story, that a non-jew came to each of the great rabbi's and said something to the effect of "if you can explain the torah to me while standing on one foot, I'll convert and devote my life to studying the torah!" the first 2 of the 3 rabbis sent him away, the third thought for a moment, then lifted his foot and said "do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you. the rest is commentary, now go study!"

thats my entirely personal, direct response to the person asking the question,

to GW, umm, no. simply put, jesus did not qualify to be the jewish messiah, and in no way within judaism could anything relating jesus, could he have been the messiah. for starters in judaism the coming of the messiah (which indeed, we are still waiting for) happens, and begins the messianic age all in one swoop, the sequence of events described, is described as ONE chain of events... not with a few thousand years wedged halfway through. so, if jesus was the messiah, according to judaism, we'd be in the messianic age right now. ... and last I checked we aren't.

other slight trivia.. theres 613 laws in Judaism, most of which do not apply to most people, most of the time. (seasonal, specific to certain circumstances, certain people, or whatever)

oh, and the jewish messiah was never intended to be god incarnate or anything, but merely a regular person whos "special" in fact many jewish people are of the opinion that each generation a "potential" messiah "candidate" is born, and that if that generation happens to be the time, they will... blossom, into being THE messiah.
I'd even go as far personally, (as I do agree with that view) that jesus was indeed the candidate for that generation, and ALMOST "made it" but, obviously, imo, did not finish the job, as for whatever of various reasons, it was not just the right time. ... but was close.

Answer 8

I am a Christian. I believe in God, and his son Jesus, and the Holy Sprite. I believe that Jesus was born a man and died for me and you and anyone else who believes and is sorry for there sins. I believe in heaven and that I will go there. I could go on and on, but you said to keep it simple. If you want me to tell you more, just let me know.

Answer 9

I believe both faiths hold this in common:

To love the Lord God with all their being, and their neighbor as themselves.

Answer 10

Christianity is really just a kind of altered Judaism, although many of today's Christians are uncomfortable admitting this. What Chistians call the Old Testament was really derived from the sacred scriptures of the Jewish people. The Fundamental laws of both religions were the Ten Commandments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

"I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me..."
This commandment is to believe in the existence of God and His influence on events in the world, and that the goal of the redemption from Egypt was to become His servants (Rashi). It prohibits belief in or worship of any additional deities.
"Do not make a sculpted image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above..."
This prohibits the construction or fashioning of "idols" in the likeness of created things (beasts, fish, birds, people) and worshipping them.
"Thou shalt not swear falsely by the name of the LORD..."
This commandment is to never take the name of God in a vain, pointless or insincere oath (Rashi). This includes four types of prohibited oaths: an oath affirming as true a matter one knows to be false, an oath that affirms the patently obvious, an oath denying the truth of a matter one knows to be true, and an oath to perform an act that is beyond one's capabilities[citation needed].
"Remember [zachor] the Sabbath day and keep it holy" (the version in Deuteronomy reads shamor, "observe")
The seventh day of the week is termed Shabbat and is holy, just as God ceased creative activity during Creation. The aspect of zachor (remember) is performed by declaring the greatness of the day (kiddush), by having three festive meals and by engaging in Torah study and pleasurable activities. The aspect of shamor is performed by abstaining from productive activity (the 39 melachot, forbidden categories of work) on the Shabbat.
"Thou shalt honor your father and your mother..."
The obligation to honor one's parents is an obligation that one owes to God and fulfills this obligation through one's actions towards one's parents.
"Thou shalt not murder"
Killing an innocent human being is a capital sin (Sefer ha-Chinuch).
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
Adultery is defined as sexual intercourse between a man and a married woman who is not his wife (Rashi).
"Thou shalt not steal."
This is not understood as stealing in the conventional sense, since theft of property is forbidden elsewhere and is not a capital offense. In this context it is to be taken as "do not kidnap" (Rashi).
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor"
One must not bear false witness in a court of law or other proceeding.
"Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's house..."
One is forbidden to desire and plan how one may obtain that which God has given to another. Maimonides makes a distinction in codifying the laws between the instruction given here in Exodus (You shall not covet) and that given in Deuteronomy (You shall not desire), according to which one does not violate the Exodus commandment unless there is a physical action associated with the desire, even if this is legally purchasing an envied object.


To these, Jesus added two others:

1. Love God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole soul


and

2. Love one another as I have loved you.

The main idea behind both the Jewish and Christian religions is that people should try to live in a way that fulfills all of God's commands; although as JewishGirl reminds us, there have been many areas in which Christian and Jewish philosophies have diverged.