does teaching of Christ matter more the Christ himself?

Question

I am Christian and my wife is Buddhist. She argues that following Christ means learning and practicing his teaching rather than believing in him and ignoring all his teaching. All you have to do is believe in Christ and you go to Heaven. Wow, that's an excellent deal. You don't know Christ but you are a person of good moral value, kindness and compassion and still you will go to bad place because you are not Christian ?That seems very unfair.

Does teaching of Christ matter more than Christ himself?

Answer 1

Apparently not, as I don't see a whole lot of people acting like the NT portrays Jesus. Instead, they think it more important that they are right in what they believe and everyone else is wrong.

Answer 2

I agree with your wife. I especially agree because, unlike some people responding to you, I have some familiarity with the history of the development of Christianity and related spiritual ideas and movements. In Christianity, regardless of the existence of an historical person corresponding with the Gospel stories, there is a moral idea (moral religion. And the moral precepts of Christianity and Buddhism are quite similar. The development of these moral ideas began as a trend, not with the epiphany of a person (ie, Jesus Christ) in time. Furthermore the moral aspect is a main feature that distinguishes these religions from the religions they emerged from Judaism [and western pagan religions] and Hinduism, respectively). There is also a mystical idea of a redemptive principle in Christianity, which is also found in gnosticism, hermeticism, and pagan mystery religions related to a "solar deity." (In Hinduism also, there is the somewhat equivalent concept of the avatar of Vishnu and also the idea of the Bodhisattva in certain forms of Buddhism.)The redemptive principle is the mediator between the transcendental godhead and creation.

Some of these ideas about Christianity were known during medieval times but they have been wholly forgotten in the post-modern era, and are vehemently denied particularly among certain persons following fundamentalist forms of Christianity. Is should be understood that a tenet of Protestantism is salvation through faith, whereas a tenet of Catholocism is salvation through works.

Answer 3

yes, in the original idea of the messiah. the jewish conception is that the messiah is to be a messenger. judaism does not emphasize the person, because you're not supposed to worship people.
christianity changed that by deifying jesus. they make the man himself the focus, rather than the teachings.

i can understand your wife saying that because the buddha was very clear about not worshiping him, but learning from his teachings. he said to run everything past your own experience and if it works for you great, and if it seems false, then discard it. it sounds like she's applying those standards to jesus, which is great to do for your own personal spiritual development, but not so great in the eyes of most christians.

Answer 4

An apple tree doesn't produce fruit by struggle. An apple tree produces fruit because the life of the fruit is in the tree. If you are Christ's, you will naturally do what He taught us to do.

Answer 5

knowing Christ =teaching about Christ
I don't understand your question.
Christ is pure, and our goal is to be Christ-like
and Christ WAS a teacher of the word.
None of us are pure, only Christ Jesus.

Answer 6

When a person comes to the knowledge that they have sinned and need to repent, all they first need is to believe in Christ himself that he died for our sins. Then they are made new in Christ. The holy spirit comes to reside in him and helps him to communicate with God.. He will want to fellowship and read the Bible more. It will be clear to him now. We need Christ in order to have God.

Answer 7

I don't think it's possible to accept Jesus Christ and not his word. They are one in the same.

Answer 8

This question reminds me of a line from "Jesus Christ Superstar". Judas says to Jesus, "YOU'VE begun to matter more than the things you say"

I once asked a born-again Christian friend of mine whether he thought it was more important to worship Jesus, or to actually LISTEN to what Jesus said and do what He told you to do. (Obey him.) He said that it was more important to worship him. I never could understand that.

Answer 9

There is only one truth.

To truly believe the truth is to live it.

Answer 10

There are a lot of nice people in hell. Of course you have to learn of God how can you believe in something that you don't know. Athesis don't know God so they don't believe in him.