What if Jesus didn't die on the cross?

Question

How different would christanity be?

Answer 1

Funny you should mention. According to Islam, Jesus never died at all.



Hey, stop, don't thumbs down me, I'm just giving the point of view of Islam, don't judge me D:

Answer 2

Good question. I hope I can provide a bit of an answer.
Just before I start, I just want to point out that "The Christ" is the title of the person who will come to rule the world and to reconcile us with God. He appears in many prophecies in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament predicts the coming of "The Christ", which the Christian Church believes is Jesus of Nazareth, and, which interestingly enough, the Judaism religion doesn't. I say interestingly because if you look at that religion now you would have an idea of what the Christian Church would look like without Jesus.
So the first major point would be you could scrap the New Testament. While you could argue that this bit or that bit might have some relevance, it basically wouldn't because the Old Testament completed before Jesus was born.
The second major point is we still need to be reconciled with God, so, like the Jews, we would all have to wait for "The Real Christ" to come.
The third point, which you could argue over, is you could have a "Christian Church", but I don't think it would make much sense without a "Christ" who has died to reconcile us with God.
But we know Jesus is the Christ. In Matthew Chapter 11 there is the curious incident of John the Baptists disciples (yes, he had them too) come to Jesus asking if he was the Christ or not. To say "Yes" would have been very dangerous, so how did Jesus do this? Jesus told he disciples to tell John, "The blind can see, the lame can walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf can hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor". This was a fulfillment of a Christ prophecy in Isaiah 35 : 5 - 6 plus several other Old Testament prophecies. See the link below for more detail.

Answer 3

Christ's crucifixion is not the cornerstone of Christianity. Some may say whaaa??? True, Christ came not to die, but to call people back to God. He came to start a new religious dispensation, and he did.

For those who believed in Christ while he was alive, were they foolish not to wait for any kind of come-back-from-the-dead human trick? Were they foolish not to wait for such "proof?" Or did they see Christ and KNOW that he was the Messiah? My vote is for the latter, that they met him and KNEW.

Christ's beauty, his perfections, his teachings, his everything, had nothing to do with his crucifixion and alleged coming back to life. It's his LIFE that's important, not his death.

Yes, Christianity would still be alive, because that was God's will. It was man's will to crucify Christ, in the attempt to squash him and his memory altogether. God won.

I personally don't believe Christ was physically resurrected. I believe he was crucified, but not that he was physically resurrected. Whether he did or not isn't the point. He taught gentle forgiveness, compassion, love, and THAT is the point.

Answer 4

Christianity would be incorporated in Islam then. Muslims believe that it was really Judas in Christ's visage on the cross.

Answer 5

They would just have a jesus corpse instead of a cross.

Answer 6

If Jesus didn't die on the cross...there would be no christianity..

Answer 7

uhhh like if he didnt die as a sacrifice? I would say that Christianity would be non existant and Judasim would still be the dominant religion, but even that would be false because the propecies would be wrong.

Answer 8

They had a meeting about that and it was decided that crucifixion would be far more inspiring than crippled old Jesus, or cancer death Jesus.

Answer 9

If he was hung, christians would be wearing a noose around their neck.

Answer 10

The cross cannot represent christian. They must use other theory to standpoint their idea.