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compare christianity and judaism
compare christianity and judaism
compare christianity and judaism
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New Religions
Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity are religions that have been around for thousands of years. At some point in time all four of these religions were new, and I am sure viewed with some skepticism of this ideology being taught. Within all of these religions there have been people who have disagreed with the beliefs being practiced and this has caused many to leave to form their own religious groups. The road to finding one's faith is not always easy and that is why religions are constantly being recreated to fit one's perception of God.
The new religious movement for this paper will be defined as religions less then two hundred years old. They were formed due to separation from an established church or by an individual having a "vision" from God. There are two in particular that I will cover Branch Davidians and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I will not be focusing on the religion from where it came but rather on the history of the person, beliefs and the practices of these new religious movements.
The Branch Davidians were once known as The Shepherds Rod, a Seventh-Day Adventist Branch. Victor Houteff first heard the teachings of the Seventh- Day Adventist Church in 1918 at a revival meeting. Houteff eventually came to believe that the Seventh-day Adventist doctrines and teachings were inaccurate and he called for reform. The church isolated Houteff and his followers that resulted in a brake from SDA and the foundation of "The Shepherd's Rod." Houteff saw himself as a divine messenger sent by God to reveal the secret information in the scroll mentioned in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 5. Houteff compiled his beliefs in his book "The Shepherd's Rod." He began the proc...
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... performed in the Church's temples do not end at death; rather, both the marriage and family relationships are sealed for "time and all eternity." This idea - of an "eternal family" - governs their way of life; every effort is made to live a life worthy of returning to live with God the Father (and thus their family in the Celestial Kingdom).
The Branch Davidians, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints both have separate ideologies but they are the same in the aspect that their religious perspectives are less then two hundred years old.
There are websites, movies, and books about Koresh and each hold a slightly different perspective about The Branch Davidians. I feel is due to the fact that each author has slightly bias opinion according to his or her religious beliefs. This in turn makes Koresh to be either a martyr or a deranged maniac.
Robert Laurence Moore has written a delightful, enlightening, and provocative survey of American church history centered around the theme of "mixing" the "sacred" with the "secular" and vice versa. The major points of conversation covered include the polarization caused by the public display of religious symbols, the important contribution that women and Africans have made to the American religious mosaic, the harmony and friction that has existed between science and religion, the impact of immigration on religious pluralism, and the twin push toward the union and separation of religion and politics.
This mass enterprise is reviewed through five traditions in the early nineteenth century: the Christian movement, the Methodists, the Baptists, the black churches, and the Mormons. Hatch explains that these major American movements were led by young men who shared “an ethic of unrelenting toil, a passion for expansion, a hostility to orthodox belief and style, a zeal for religious reconstruction, and a systematic plan to realize their ideals” (4). These leaders changed the scope of American Christianity by orientating toward democratic or populist ideals. Their movements offered both individual potential and collective aspiration, which were ideas ready to be grasped by the young and booming population. These early leaders had a vision of a faith that disregarded social standing, and taught all to think, interpret, and organize their faith for themselves. It was a faith of “religious populism, reflecting the passions of ordinary people and the charisma of democratic movement-builders” (5).
Lippy, Charles H., and Peter W. Williams. Encyclopedia of the American religious experience: studies of traditions and movements. New York: Scribner, 1988. Print.
"Growth of the Church - LDS Newsroom." LDS News | Mormon News - Official Newsroom of the Church. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. .
White, Timothy, A People For His Name; The History of Jehovah's Witnesses and an Evaluation. New York: Vantage Press, 1967. Print
marriage is an eternal bond that lasts beyond the afterlife (The Book of Mormon D&C. 132.19).
During the postbellum and early 19th century, people started to challenge what religion meant to them. Lincoln questioned how warring factions could both pray to the same God, yet he concluded that God had “his own purpose” for this war. From these notions, such thought as “the Lost Cause”, was spurred. Another important aspect is people started to challenge their theology with the advent of new science and technology. The effect was to create a competitive marketplace in religion that allowed men and women to shop for religious institutions that they thought best meet their needs. The growing prestige of science compelled Americans reformulating theology; two popular theologies include New Theology, Theodore Munger, and Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy (Goff and Harvey 21-25). These religions are known as NRM, encompassing newer religious groups and old alternative groups, which, together, have challenged mainstream religious traditions and the secular society back in the 19th century, and still to this day. The three popular NRMs during the 19th century are Christian Science, Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism), and Jehovah’s Witnesses. According to Daschke and Ashcraft, people are intrigued by NRMs for a number of reasons: new understanding, new self, new family, new society, and new world (Daschke and Ashcraft 1-13). Conversely...
In 1929, Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant, claimed that he had a new message for the Seventh Day Adventist church. He submitted it to the church in the form of a book called "The Shepard's Rod". In the book he points out how the church has departed from basic church teachings. The churches leaders frowned upon his claims and felt that they would start uproar in the church. The leaders decided to ban him from the church. Once he was banned he formed a new church called the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists. He got the Davidian from the belief to restore the Davidic kingdom. In 1955 after Houteff's death the movement split forming the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists. The term branch refers to the new name for Jesus Christ. The group, founded by Benjamin L. Roden, settled outside of Waco, Texas. The group occupied land formerly owned by the Davidian group. George Roden, the son of Benjamin, claimed he was the group's prophet but was sent to jail. The group never had a clear-cut leader until Vernon Howell took charge in 1988.
In every sense, the Emergent church is at least, improvisational. It takes Christianity, and not only challenges the traditional ways of the religion, but alters it in order to appeal to a new generation of non-believers as well as believers. The emerging church is used to describe the new and rapidly growing amount of mission Christian congregation. It is a name given to those who believe that God is the truth alone, but the old ways of exposing that fact are no longer useful in today’s society. Such things include worship, prayer, preaching, and outreach. The emerging generation sees these aspects as very flexible features of the Christian church since the old forms of expression don’t seem to have as much of an effect on society today than it did decades ago. In this logic, the emergent church is seeking alternative forms of spiritual formation that are controversial to, and within Christianity, which is making it a misunderstood movement. Like every other type of movement, this effort had just started as a conversation among its leaders.
The Branch Davidians trace their origins to the Davidian movement, a splinter group of Seventh-Day Adventists founded by Adventist leader Victor Houteff in Los Angeles, California, in 1934. Houteff retained the traditional Adventist belief that the apocalypse (the end of the world) and the Second Coming of Christ were imminent and would be preceded by catastrophes and war. Houteff also taught that the kingdom of ancient Israelite monarch David—hence the term Davidian—would be reestablished in Palestine. After splitting from the Adventists, Houteff led his followers from Los Angeles to Waco, where they established the communal Mount Carmel Center. Houteff died in 1955, and the Branch Davidian movement itself eventually splintered.
Throughout the Western culture, Christianity has played a crucial role in the spiritual life of many people. In fact, it is a one of the largest religion in the world with an estimating range from 2 to 3 billion Christians (Religions of the World: Numbers of Adherents; Growth Rates). Spreading with this worldwide religion, the idea that God is at the centre of daily life has a high importance to many people. In the early 20th Century, one of the significant developments of Christianity was the Pentecostal Movement (A Brief History of Christianity). More specifically, Pentecostalism is “the principles and practices of Pentecostal religious groups, characterized by religious excitement and talking in tongues”; its most remarkable detail is its emphasis of the Holy Spirit and the value of prayer (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). It has outspread around the world by the people who believed that they had experienced the marvelous moves of God.
Mead, Frank S., and Samuel S. Hill. Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1995. Print.
Eastman, Roger. The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. Third Edition. Oxford University Press. N.Y. 1999
The history of Pentecostalism is widely disputed amongst historians; some believe that Pentecostalism began with Jesus’ disciple’s baptism in the Holy Spirit at the first Pentecost, while other historians argue that the religion itself dates as recent as the early ninety’s. In the historiographical essay, “Assessing the Roots of Pentecostalism,” Randall J. Stephens claims that the Pentecostal movement started in 1901 and the famous 1906 Los Angeles revival on Azusa Street helped the religion grow to currently contain approximately 420 million followers. The followers, being mostly lower and middle-class groups who were “multi-ethnic and often challenged racial norms” (Wilma Wells Davies 2), of the revival were unhappy...
Over time religion has played an important role in society, and continues to do so today. Religious practices are different for every one. This is simply because there are several types of religions. Different religions include: Islamic, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity. There are several different similarities, and differences within all of these religions. Although these religions may not share many of the same ideas and beliefs, they do have several things in command such as, they almost all have idols in which they worship or follow, they all have their own religious texts, and many use numeric systems.