Abrahamic religions

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

A comparison of Abrahamic religions

My investigation is on some of the similarities and differences of the three Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism). All three religions believe in one God. They may call God by different names for example Muslims call God, Allah but they all believe in the same God, the God of Abraham. So how do they differ?

The three religions all have there own books/scriptures of their belief. The oldest of them is the Torah which is written on Lambskin and in Hebrew. The Torah is the most important document in Judaism, revered as the inspired word of God, traditionally said to have been revealed to Moses. Christians look at the torah to be the Old Testament. Muslims believe the Torah like the Christian Bible in that it has been tampered with. The book written after this is the Christian Bible and is said to be the Law of Moses. Christians believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God that is complete and not to be added to or changed. They also think that Jesus’ disciples had written the New Testament and it is all about Jesus’ life on earth before he went to heaven.

Muslims accept the Bible insofar as it agrees with the Qur'an. The Jewish opinion on the Christian Bible is that the Torah was interpreted to suit Christian dogma. The Qur’an is the Islamic book of beliefs and Muslims think it is a later revelation that supersedes and corrects errors in the Bible and Torah. There are many biblical narratives from the old and the New Testaments in the Qur’an. Christians do not accept the Qur’an as divine revelation. The Jews could not let pass the teachings of Mohammed unchallenged as they believed that facts recorded in the Qur’an were incorrect for example making Abraham an Arab and the founder of the Ka’bah at Mecca.

All three religions have three different main prophets. Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God and was virgin-born by Mary of Nazareth. Jesus was sent down to teach mankind about the Kingdom of God and how they could get there. Christians believe that he died on the cross to save them from their sins. Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet and was virgin born but he was not the son of God. The Jewish view on Jesus was that he was not the Messiah and was certainly not the son of God.

Abraham is the prophet and ...

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Abraham is the prophet and the founder of Judaism. Abraham is one of the most central figures in Judaism and Jews regarded him as the first father of Jews. He also made a covenant with God and the covenant was a Circumcision for boys after eight days. God promised the decedents of Abraham the Promised Land. God also promised Abraham that through his offspring all of the nations of the world would come to be blessed. Abraham was the first to claim there is one God when before everyone believed in more than one. For Muslims, Abraham is a prophet of Islam and the ancestor of Muhammad through his son Ishmael. Abraham, known as Ibrahim in Arabic, is very important in Islam, both in his own right as a prophet as well as being the father of Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael, his firstborn son, is considered the Father of the Arabised Arabs, and Isaac is considered the Father of the Hebrews. Muslims honour the Abraham, and the Qur'an describes him as "a man of truth. In Christianity Abraham is always regarded in the Old Testament as founder of the covenant race, which is personified in the house of Israel. He is the”father of the faithful”. The traditional view in Christianity is that the chief promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12 is that through Abraham's seed, all the people of earth would be blessed. Notwithstanding this, John the Baptist specifically taught that merely being of Abraham's seed was no guarantee of salvation. To Christians the importance of the Jewish genealogy isn’t as important it is to the Jews. There have been attempts to link up Jesus’ Kinship with Abraham which they could not do but Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather was linked to Abraham. Christianity believes Abraham belongs to the old religion (covenant) before Jesus changed it into the new covenant. However, they think he is important because he is the person that realised that there is only one God. The main Islamic prophet is Muhammad and he is the last in the line of prophets and, therefore, the final authority in spiritual matters. Christians do not accept him as a prophet or legitimate theological source. Jews and Mohammed disagreed about his teaching of biblical events and people. The Jews said that when they disagreed with him he saw this as a challenge and a blot on his reputation.

The three religions have different views on salvation. The Muslims believe salvation is achieved by submitting to the will of Allah and there is no assurance of salvation – it is only granted at the mercy of Allah. Jewish people believe that the Jewish saviour will not die for others and will not take others sins upon himself but he will demand the blood of others. Christians’ salvation is a gift from God through the life, death, and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ. Since the Muslims do not believe that Jesus died on the cross, so they are not going to believe in the resurrection. Most Orthodox Jews reject the resurrection of Jesus because they do not believe of a messiah who will die and be resurrected. Christians believe that in the trinity the one God is eternally revealed in three coequal and coeternal persons: God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. In Islam, the Trinity is mistakenly thought to be God, Jesus and Mary but in Judaism the belief that Jesus is God, part of the trinity, the messiah, or a prophet of God are incompatible with traditional Jewish views.

Final Judgement is thought of differently by each religion. Muslims believe there will be bodily resurrection and final judgment with final destination. All Muslims go to heaven, though some must be purged of their sins first. All infidels are destined for hell. Christians believe there will be bodily resurrection in the last days. Final judgment and eternal destination (heaven or hell) will be decided based on acceptance of Jesus as Saviour and His removal of the sin, which separates each person from God. Jewish tradition teaches that the Messiah will have to come by the year 6,000 of the Jewish calendar, but it doesn't preclude him coming prior to that date. (Incidentally, the Jewish definition of the Messiah is a leader, descendent of the royal family of King David, who will bring all the Jewish people back to Israel, rebuild the Temple, and ultimately lead all humanity back to the ideal state.). He will rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and gather Jews from all over the world and bring them back to the land of Israel.

I conclude this by saying that the Abrahamic religions agree on the main thing, and that is there is only one God. However, they all have a lot of different view on each other as well, for example, Muslims do not believe Jesus died on the cross and Jews do not believe of a messiah who will die and be resurrected but Christians do.