Short story: Judaism, and Christianity
@innertalks (21919)
Australia
July 9, 2024 10:40pm CST
Rabbi Ernev Brunstein, was seated outside, one Saturday afternoon, talking to his student, about Satan.
He told him that the Jewish idea of who Satan was is different to the idea held by most Christians.
The Devil is not an adversary of God’s, but an agent of God, whose role is to test all souls, and to try to get them to go astray, but in the end, God wants each soul to learn from their divergence, and to gain greater understanding of their own role, in it all.
God does not want the Devil so much to succeed, in his clever ploys, and cunning tricks, but for us to grow stronger in our defences of withstanding his attacks against us.
Our spiritual level is continually tested to see if we are really operating at that level now, or not.
Judaism believes that we are all born sinless, but can sin after that, by our disobeying of any of God’s commandments.
Christianity contends that we are born already carrying remnants of the original sin within us. We inherit this burden of sin, in other words.
Jews believe that we enter this world sin-free.
Our soul is pure, and innocent, and unmarked.
Our task here is to mature our soul in the truths of God, through increasing our understanding of these truths, from our life experiences here.
Both Jew, and Christian, believe in us having free-will.
They both see sin as a freewill choice of ours, but one that is going against the will of God, for our life. We follow our ego, greed, and desires, instead of our obeying God’s way for our life.
Once, we have sinned though, both religions see the benefit of our confessing that sin to God, and asking him for his forgiveness for it.
“Think carefully over all that I have said here,”
the Rabbi then said, to the lad, and so, he ended his discussion with his student, for that day.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
Picture is of Rabbi Ernev, and his student.
4 people like this
3 responses
@just4him (317089)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
10 Jul
@innertalks That's understandable.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21919)
• Australia
10 Jul
Yes, I like to read up on their various ideas, of Judaism, and Christianity, as it helps in my understanding, especially of the Old Testament of the Bible.
3 people like this
@innertalks (21919)
• Australia
10 Jul
Some Jewish sects also believe in reincarnation; Hasidic Judaism is one sect that believes in reincarnation.
Even with this idea of karma, before we are reborn again, I think we would have been given a chance to go over our past life, and so old karma might be resolved in the inner worlds first, before we are then born with a clean slate, once more again, to have another go at it, but now with more hindsight, and experience, behind, and in us, too.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21919)
• Australia
11 Jul
@Shiva49 Somewhere along the line though, is the rule maker, the umpire, and the level field maker.
Karma might be a law, but God sits above all laws, and so he can level the field if he wants to do so, as he did often with the Jews in the Old Testament of the Bible, often giving them a hands up, or a leg up, in their troubles.
@Shiva49 (26686)
• Singapore
11 Jul
@innertalks Hindus are comforted with the take that what we go through here also depends on what we did in our earlier lives.
Some are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, while others are in slums and dire deprivation. Many take comfort in that approach to life.
That could explain my view the rich fight tooth and nail to stay put here while the deprived look for an exit without a fight!
2 people like this
@__iVl___ (118)
•
10 Jul
@innertalks Interesting story.
I was born Christian, but based on your story I find Judaism's version more "righteous" in a way (sorry I cannot find the more appropriate term). Because as per the teaching, man is created in God's image. So it must follow that Man is god-like in itself, right?
And why we'd be hating on the devil if all the devil does is punish the wicked, right?
2 people like this
@innertalks (21919)
• Australia
10 Jul
The Christians believe that after Adam and Eve sinned, and were kicked out from the garden of Eden, they then carried the stain of sin in their makeup as a potential in them, and this was then passed on to all others born after them too.
Unless, we accept Jesus Christ, to help us remove this thorn in our flesh, we struggle with sin for our whole life.
Jews more think that we are given a clean slate, when we are born, and are indeed created God-like in our nature, but after being born, we are tempted by God's agent, the devil, to test our resolve, our mettle, and so to forge/transform an innocent beginning into a more knowing understanding. We are born knowing as God knows, but we have to bring God out of us by living a God-inspired life then too.
We have to grow into our being of our real self, even as a seed grows into a tree.
@__iVl___ (118)
•
16 Jul
@innertalks I have to admit I like Jewish version more.
More compassionate, more kind, more God-like, same as what Jesus has been preaching but the church has been avoiding.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21919)
• Australia
16 Jul
@__iVl___ I like the Jewish idea that Satan is really an agent of Gods, and his role is to test us all, and to tempt us, but really he is not evil, as how can any evil exist within God's kingdom at all?
"Evil" exists so that we have the chance to be able to gain wisdom and discernment to be able to then choose good, over evil. Evil is just a degradation, or a lesser seeing of good, due to inexperienced love living in us, and not enough wisdom. Evil, or Satan works for us, to help us learn truth, according to Judaism.
God does not do any evil thing, and yet when it is committed by his creation from their bad use of the free will given to them, he turns it around to become a learning good experience for them then too, if they are willing to see "bad" things in his light.
