What does your religion teach?

Question

I am a member of Church of Christ. My church teaches that you have to repent and be baptized to be saved and have a home in heaven. If you mess up after you are baptized, then you must ask for forgiveness. You can do so privately unless what you did wrong was in the public eye, then you must confess before the Church. I agree with this and most of what else is taught. With the exception of people who are not Church of Christ not going to heaven. Some of the best people I know are Baptist or Methodist, if they believe in God, and he can forgive murderes, then why wouldn't he save someone that has lived the right way?

What does your church teach? Do you agree with it?

This is not a debate on whose religion is best, just a discussion I think will be interesting.

Answer 1

I'm Muslim.
1)To worship only ALLAH(Subhanna wa ta'ala) alone and recognize that he has no sons or partners.
2)To believe in the Last Day, the Angels, the Jinn, the four books(Torah, Gospel, Psalms, and Qur'an), to believe in all the prophets(PBUT*) from Adam to Muhammad(PBUT*) and those not mentioned by name(PBUT*).
3)That every child is born Muslim.
4)To take care of your parents when they reach old age.
5)To give Zakat to the poor(either 2.5% of our wealth or food) on Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha.
6)To dress modestly for both men and women.
7)To follow the Qur'an and Hadiths(Sayings of Muhammad peace be upon him).
8)To do Hajj(Pilgrimage to Mecca) at least once in our adult life for male and female.
9)To fast for one month during Ramadan from sunrise to sunset by not eating, drinking, or having sex with your married spouse.
10)To pray 5 times a day toward Mecca.
11)To raise your children in Islam and to be good Muslims.
12)To strive hard for Jinnah(heaven).
13)Memorize the Qur'an.
14)Get an education for both men and women.
15)Get married especially for women and start a family is half of our deen(way of life).
16)For men to pray at the Mosque every Friday for Jummah.
17)For both men and women to be virgins on their wedding night.
18)To show people Islam and guide them to the straight path.
19)To not eat pig, drink alcohol or other intoxicants, and not eat anything that is haraam(forbidden).
20)To respect our spouses.
21)To teach our kids how to pray.
And a lot more.
Yes I agree with everything I have listed.

Answer 2

I believe that anyone who has been baptized and accepted God and has led a good life according to the commandments, precepts, morally, seriously apologized and made right anything we've done bad here on earth, etc. will be judged by God, and it's His decision as to who goes to heaven to spend eternity with him. We're taught that there is a purgatory, and it's not known how much time a person who has not done all their repenting on earth will spend in purgatory paying for what they didn't pay for (not talking about money) here on earth. I think that the sensitivity comes wherein different churches have different beliefs along the road that reaches God, and churches were started by different people or broke off from other religions. So that a person won't lose the specific religion they started out with, or the religion of their forefathers and relatives and start to question their church's teachings, the people of different churches don't mix (in some cases) or try to compare their religions..

Answer 3

I must respectfully point out there is a flaw in what you have said.

You say that you believe that some members of denominations will be saved because they are "some of the best people I know".

This is in essence saying that we are saved by our own goodness. (See Ephesians 2:8-10) We are not saved because we are good enough that we have earned salvation. We are saved by God and our obedience to HIS plan of salvation. (Hebrews 5:9)

It is not how religious we are, it is how we have submitted to what God has instructed. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

If we are "teaching as doctrine the commandments of men" then our worship is "vain", or useless in God's eyes. (Matthew 15:9) "We ought to obey God rather than men"! (Acts 5:29)

I have no doubt that many in various religions are sincere, but they may be sincerely wrong.

Take for example baptism that you mentioned.

Jesus said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16).

To follow the authority of Jesus, one will believe and be baptized to be saved.

Some, however, teach that a person believes, is saved, and then he shall be baptized.

This is not the same thing Jesus said. It is not in the same order. To follow this plan, a person is following the authority of a man's doctrine instead of following Christ's authority.

Jesus said He has "all authority" and the apostles should teach the things He had commanded! (Matthew 28:18-20)

What would Jesus have said if he had meant, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved"?

I believe He said what he meant, and meant what He said! I believe Jesus! "He that believes not shall be condemned" (Mark 16:16)!

To be saved, you must follow the authority (instructions) of Christ! You must follow the plan He established! The Gospel of Christ is "the power of God unto salvation"! (Romans 1:16)

Teaching as doctrine the commandments of men cannot save.

Answer 4

My religion, Hinduism, teaches that I should consider this country, India, as my motherland and fatherland. I should be loyal to it and do or die for it as Mahatama Gandhi did. Every stone, every river, every tree, every mountain of this country is holy to me as a place of pilgrimage. Therefore all Hindu pilgrimage centres are located around some natural phenomenon. It is not a man-made religion. It is the collective wisdom of Indians of thousands of years.
My religion teaches me that I should be fully prepared to meet any emergency. Therefore all Hindu gods and goddesses are heavily armed. But their arms are for self-defence and not for offence. War is the last resort and should be avoided at all costs. But if it becomes inevitable then we should not shirk from it and make all sacrifices to defeat the Evil.
My religion, Hinduism, teaches us that we should not be afraid of evil and fight against it actively. Great philosophers have always said that the only thing necessary for the Evil to succeed is for the Good to do nothing. If the good people do not do anything then they leave the field open to the Evil forces and they contribute to Evil - in fact they become part of the Evil. So Evil should be fought at all costs.
There are many more things which my religion teaches. This place is too small to answer such a huge question.
Regards,
A.L.Rawal

Answer 5

All Christian Churches teach forgiveness, repentance, baptism, prayer, Christ as our saviour, god as our Father and heaven.

Though LDS don't confess their sins in public but unto God Himself, if the sin is sexual and/or includes a second or third person then it has to be talked to bishop.

We live a clean life free of perjudicial things like drugs , alcohol and cigarretes among other things, also things that are allowed as meat has to be consumed moderately.

Answer 6

I attend the church of me. I believe in God and Jesus Christ, I also believe that there are other forces in the universe that effect our lives. I believe that everyone has a right to choose what they believe. My most favorite quote from the bible is, Thou Shall Not Judge Lest Thee Be Judged.

Answer 7

So why is your church so special that only you guys can get into heaven? Does that mean that our Baptist pastor has been lying to us all these years?

When I was a kid, attending services at the Salvation Army, someone asked our Captain which church was the right one? He said "You travel along your church's road, I will travel mine. I will meet you up there."..... And I think that is right.

Answer 8

I'm Agnostic. Mine teaches that there is no proof of either the existance of God nor is there proof of the opposite.

I would submit that it goes on to say that current methods used to determine the question one way or the other are not reliable methods (prayer vs science) and therefore any answers concluded by these methods are invalid. Therefore the pursuit of truth a waste of time since it will never be attained - until we die.

Answer 9

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
every one one must repent there sins,

Answer 10

I'm LDS. I'm sure there are probably things I'm uncomfortable with but nothing comes to mind right now. The thing I love about my church is that we are admonished to get our own personal revelations for the truth. We are told not to blindly accept things from the pulpit, but rather to pray and see what answer we personally get.