„Denn er (Gott) lässt sich finden von denen, die ihn nicht versuchen, und zeigte sich denen, die ihm nicht misstrauen.“ (Weisheit 1,2) Das Christentum (durch Isaak) ist eine der drei „Abrahamitischen Religionen“; denn sowohl Islam (through Ishmael) and Judaism (through Isaac) are derived from the father of Abraham. Abraham is the first Hebrew after the Bible (all between now and then refers to all people and nations, for example Adam, Eve, Noah, Melchizedek, etc., are not Jews, it is important to know, for God is the God of creation to of all people, not just the Jews!). Is common to all three that they are all monotheistic religions. The separation between Judaism and Islam "was quite early. But it can not be said of Islam, because the first was built in the 7th Century AD in Mecca and Medina. But the origins (and hence the difficulties in the Middle East) are viel weiter zurück in der Geschichte. Abraham hatte, da seine Frau Sara unfruchtbar war, mit der Magd seiner Frau, Hagar (einer Ägypterin) einen Sohn, namens Ismael. Dieser war der Erstgeborene Abrahams, allerdings unehelich. Später (im Alter von 90 Jahren) bekam Sara doch noch eine Kind, einen Sohn, der den Namen Isaak (das lachende Kind) erhielt. Dieser ist zwar der Zweitgeborene, aber da er ehelich geboren wurde, ist er der rechtmäßige Erbe Abrahams. Das ist die Sicht der Juden (und auch der Christen). Aus Ismael gingen die Araber hervor und sie berufen sich auf die Erstgeburt Ismaels und damit auf ihr Vorrecht. Die Juden berufen sich auf die eheliche Zweitgeburt, die das Vorrecht habe. Die Trennung zwischen Judentum und Christentum erfolgt etwa zweitausend Jahre später. Manche meinen bereits durch Jesus Christus selbst, andere meinen, erst nachdem die Apostel gestorben waren und sich die Urchristen (vor allem außerhalb Palästinas) formiert hatten.
Das Judentum hatte die erste monotheistische Religion der Welt. Es wird zwar zuweilen behauptet, dass doch bereits der Pharao Echnaton (Amenophis IV.) nur einen „Gott“ angebetet hätte und dass möglicherweise die Hebräer eine ägyptische Splittergruppe gewesen seien, die nachdem, Echnaton gestorben war und die Priester wieder den alten Polytheismus einführten, aus Ägypten fliehen mussten. Zeitlich könnte das zusammen passen, denn der Auszug der Israeliten dürfte irgendwann have been 1250-1300 BC. The Pharaoh whose name was mentioned in the Bible, by most as Ramses II, the Great, been found. Akhenaten actually prayed not in a God, but the sun (the exclusive, however). Moreover, the belief in one God, much older, he goes back to Abraham and that probably lived around 1750 BC to 1800 BC So the time of the great Babylonian King Hammurabi I. Abraham is originally from Ur of the Chaldees (Mesopotamia) However, even as a child emigrated with his parents to Haran (now Turkey), and only much later, when he was 75 years old, he migrated to Canaan from (So he was probably ein Halbnomade). Die Israeliten zeichneten sich, als sie aus Ägypten auszogen, durch ihren Eingottglauben aus und unterschieden sich damit von allen anderen Völkern, die ihre Nachbarn waren. Diese verehrten alle möglichen Götter und Götzen. Es war ein harter Kampf, den Monotheismus aufrecht zu erhalten und die Bibel berichtet ständig davon, dass auch die Israeliten wieder Götzen anbeteten oder ihre Religion mit denen ihrer Nachbarn zu vermischen suchten.
Soviel zum groben Überblick über die gemeinsame Wurzel von Judentum, Islam und Christentum. Ich will hier keine Geschichte des Christentums aufzeigen, sondern nur das Phänomens dieses Glaubens in der Welt, so wie es sich heute darstellt, beobachten. Worin liegt nun die Besonderheit?
Was mich in erstaunen versetzt ist der Daseins- und Wirklichkeitswert des Christentum. Das Christentum wendet sich nicht exklusiv an eine Gruppe (wie das Judentum), Gott ist kein Gott für ein bestimmtes Volk, sondern für alle Menschen. Der Einfluss des Christentums ist überall auf der Welt spürbar, unabhängig davon, wie man persönlich auch dazu stehen mag. Doch ist weniger entscheidend, wie weit sich der Rahmen des Einflusses über die Erde ausdehnt, als viel mehr, wie tief dieser Einfluss in seiner Qualität auf den Einzelnen, aber auch auf menschliche Gruppen und Völker wirkt. Die Realität des Christentums kann nicht bestritten werden. Jetzt ist aber von Bedeutung, was es does and how it helps the world in their development?
The Christian God is not vulnerable! This may be a powerful statement called, and it is. Maybe people have alleged that this was arrogant, but that is just as with the question of who is right, the condition that you do not know what is right and wrong. After all, who says "I have (absolute) right!" Which is arrogant when he says the truth. But if he was right, so this statement is not arrogant, but simply true. Why should God not be so vulnerable? This is because God is all powerful and unlimited. "No one has ever seen God," is to say, that man has never seen God in its entirety. Because the Christian God is by definition a God by the human mind can not be detected. Some scoffers said that this is a fine definition for those who fear it could one day be able to prove God or disprove, and they would have nothing left to believe what they could. That objection is itself a belief, he assumed bad motives in doubt and assumes the worse. Such an attitude is itself not a science but a dogma. So we must content ourselves with the fact that God can not be detected. That does not mean that we can know about God at all. In Romans It is about "What may be known of God is manifest in them, God has revealed himself to them. His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divinity have been creating the world by the light of reason to recognize his works. " (Romans 1:19-20).
Man has free will and so everyone has the authority to accept the faith or not. If one accepted the faith but, then it itself becomes the authority over those who elected him. But that is only apparently so, because the believer is aware that the higher authority of God always existed, so it not by faith to a transformation of the facts but only to the recognition and acceptance, comes. The man is from the beginning under the authority of God, but acknowledges he does not do often, and he recognizes this, he may still not accept it. God does not force itself on the people not, not free will is inconsistent with the omnipotence of God. Rather it is a sign of God's love, who does not want slaves, but upright, self-conscious creatures. However, God makes the rules and a failure to comply with them has consequences. This must never be forgotten. Not the man makes the rules. God makes them.
So what can be known by God? On the one hand we have the word of God in the Bible. But this is the knowledge of God is not finished, the verse quoted above shows that can be detected by the light of reason in the works of God, though only in a small frame, the human is able to recognize because of its spirit. It would be hubris to say: "I have realized God (in its entirety)," No one can do it.
I think the key attribute of God that is revealed to us that love. Thus, because the two most important commandments of Christians: 1) Unconditional love and trust in God and 2) love of neighbor. And that is crucial: both are equally important! (Mark 12, 29-31) On these two commandments hang the whole "law" and the prophets. This is a tremendous statement. God is no tyrant, not a distant God who wants to be worshiped, but a loving father, a personal God, the loving people and expensive, the love between people is the same love for him.
In a cynical world, as we find them today often one may not believe in the sincerity with which people pretend to love their neighbor. Nevertheless, there has been this love forever and they are still there today. People who are in loving care for others is a fact. Likewise, people who do not make their own earthly existence in the center of their attention, but serve a higher purpose, which extend the look and the bigger picture that stupid Egoism prefer. This is precisely the claim of Christianity. Not to serve people, not on its own little horizon to see, but far beyond to create something for the Infinite. And the intensity with which Christianity has in the good in people will still be on. The Christian faith can grow the crops.
I distinguish here between religion and faith. Religion is very important for any society, because no other system can stimulate people emotionally beneficial. Here, the individual is a part of something bigger. It is by no means an illusion or a "Seelentrösterei" (for men to feel important in a vast universe, which apparently does not care about him). But I want to write more about what the faith by the individual, being in the world.
Christianity is focused on the world, to creation. It is absolutely life-affirming and hinders death. The wealth, the development, construction, the good and noble is what God wants, including the man is called. God is a personal God, not a metaphysical idea, not a mere thought, but a real person. Man is not a matter of prayer meetings, he has a real opponent, someone who responds. Man is responsible to God. This clarifies that no one with any Sache davonkommt, selbst wenn nie ein Mensch davon erführe. Denn ohne Gott würde der Schwindler, der Betrüger, der Unredliche, der es fertig bringt von der irdischen Macht nicht erwischt zu werden, damit durchkommen. Dass dem nicht so ist, dessen ist sich der Gläubige gewiss.
Anders als viele glauben, ist der christliche Glaube nicht dualistisch. Der Teufel ist kein Anti-Gott, der mit Gott um die Seelen der Menschen und um die Schöpfung wetteifert. Der Teufel ist selbst eine Schöpfung Gottes und untersteht auch völlig der Autorität Gottes. Der Teufel kann nichts gegen Gott tun, was dieser ihm nicht selbst im Rahmen seiner Schöpfung zugesteht. Die Ansicht, dass Gut und Böse um die Welt wetteifern ist manichäisch und hat sich eine zeitlang im Orient und bis nach Rom hin gehalten. Doch ist es eine falsche Theologie, dies heute noch zu vertreten, weder das Christentum noch das Judentum können einen solchen Dualismus heute noch ernsthaft vertreten.
Das Christentum ist auch die Religion der Freiheit schlechthin! Das Christentum ist die Religion der Aktivität. Der Mensch ist nicht nur Geschöpf, sondern Mitschöpfer. Gott ist kein Polizist, der dem Menschen ständig auf die Finger klopft, wenn er etwas falsch macht. Gott ermutigt den Menschen etwas zu wagen, etwas zu tun. Geht der Mensch in die Irre, dann holt ihn Gott schon wieder zurück. Er möchte, dass wir unsere Sünden bekennen, das heißt aber vor allem, dass wir völlig honest in all things. The lie is blocking people. Therein lies the psychological freedom that Christianity holds. You can make mistakes, we sin, it can be awarded one, the load can be thrown "to the Lord." Man is free from all encumbrances by his past, nothing is a multi-kept, if one has repented. Which religion has the force of liberation? People may hold things forever, God holds before a nothing that was taken! (It's called God forget it even!). This is the mental freedom. There is also a "secular" freedom, namely those of the human masters. While someone might in a other servants, but he serves God and his truth to a higher goal. On the surface, this may not make a difference and are not recognized by others for the individual but it is as different as day and night. Even the most mundane activity gets more importance when it is done for God. Incidentally, this also has very mundane effects. The quality of work is better and life satisfaction is increased. The psyche is resilient and through the turmoil of life one goes through without any real damage. A man who stands firm in the faith (Luther says that faith is his "strong tower"), which can be shaken by anything. I am deeply convinced that, therefore, will also suffer a man who never falls from the faith, never a neurosis, psychosis or personality disorder. Christianity calls therefore on activity to create something in the world and "fruitful" to be in every possible way. Therefore, Christianity is not anti-scientific. Thomas Aquinas pointed out that faith and reason are looking for each other. It is exactly the Christianity that God calls people to study works, think about it and draw his own conclusions.
Most religions is not possible on the modern requirements of science and the world as it is in the 21 Century is to adapt. Much too narrow, the mythical ideas of pessimism and passivity. Not so with Christianity. Of course, there are also certain people who would rather represent a narrow range and they will receive as the greatest problems with the world. But not so with the person who has absorbed the spirit of Christianity to a higher degree in itself. With the vastness of the universe, with the infinite smallness of the elementary particles, as we now realize that Christianity is not inconsistent. Quite the contrary. This reflects the more God's greatness. Certainly this view is not mandatory and it is possible without surprise and without thought of God, the magnificence of the universe to consider, but this is only the case when a person based on reason alone remains limited. Does the man to the cosmos with all his being, then it remains nothing more than to be amazed. The greatest scientists have tended to this second view. As Einstein said there are people to meet towards nature with wonder and those for which nothing is erstaunenswert.
precisely what Christianity offers the breadth and connectedness, which is responsible for the discovery of the world and the cosmos is needed. Despite its small size organic would never come to Christ to be negligible on the idea, he never came to a nihilistic view, since he is quite certain to be important, because its creator loves him unconditionally. With this certainty, it appears quite different approach to the world, as without it, the lights one each. Just by exploring the world and through the work of Christians he expresses his love for God. Especially by the Christianity can be infinitely large with the infinitely small "reconciled." A synthesis based on love, which is aligned to a transcendent pole, which is what both the protection of all being, as well as its development ensured. What other religion or way of thinking can match this? Christianity draws not just from the past. For it is not his reason for some time been built up over time by the people but was from the beginning, when heaven and earth were created. It is the seed that was present from the first second of the existence of any matter already, and accompanied the creation in their development until the end of all being. It is this highest point of this comparison is transcendental to all aligned. Saint Augustine read this: "Thou hast created us oh Lord to you now and why our heart is restless until it rests in you." This is aptly expressed what drives the people inside. But not only humans, but the whole of creation from the smallest particle to the largest galaxy. This point is like a bright ray of sunshine, the cloud cover breaks, human tears out of his solitude and makes us realize that there is a noticeable influence of another who has the universe outside his "dwelling place" and yet quite in its creation. And exactly that is consistent Christianity. It will probably can not be random talk.
Christianity is programmatically oriented toward the perfection ("Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect" - Matthew 5:48). Of course this is not to be descriptive, for no man may be the same. It would be quite wrong to assume this Sun No one is at fault because he did not perfect, that would mean to be at fault, because you're a human. God is just and therefore is a man not guilty of one thing he could do differently. But it gives an indication of that. People are imperfect, but God is perfect. It can be seen easily that it is so between man and God a divide. This gap is called sin. An imperfect being can not come to a complete system by itself, so bridging the gap only on the part of the perfect can be done. God did this by, he sent his son (perfection) in the world, which was by the sacrifice of separation of time, such that for all now a "bridge" exists over the abyss. I think this is the best pictorial explanation of what Christianity says in essence is: Jesus Christ is the way to God!
"An atheist, God can be found just a few, like a thief can find a policeman." These words come from the mouth of a famous American preacher. I think it is a very good analogy. The atheist is proud, he would raise himself to God and hates the idea that he can not make the rules and even more that he will be judged. Like so much to him and he puts his faith in accordance with his wishes rightly: This belief is then atheism. The Bible says that those who not believe in God glaubt ein Narr ist. Eine Beleidigung? Könnte man vielleicht annehmen, doch Gott gedenkt nicht Menschen zu beleidigen. Vielmehr ist damit gemeint, dass derjenige, der nicht an Gott glaubt der Weisheit entbehrt. Weisheit offenbart sich dem Demütigen, denn sie kommt nicht durch den Verstand alleine. Nur wer ein „erweichtes“ Herz hat, dem kann sie sich zeigen. Der Stolze kann niemals weise genannt werden. Weisheit aber ist eine Gnade, nicht etwas, das der Mensch sich selbst zulegen kann, weder durch Studium, noch durch Lebenserfahrung. Wer aber dieser Gnade zuteil geworden ist, der erkennt auch deren Ursprung und den dahinter stehende Schöpfer. Das Böse entspringt der Unwissenheit des Menschen, denn bei richtigem Verständnis zeigt that bring the commandments of God is no tyrant work but sensibly and freedom, happiness and success with it (note also that the Christian "free from the law" (from the Old Covenant) is, as Paul describes in Galatians!). I am not exaggerating when I say that a lived life with God is a life that brings fulfillment. And this is the greatest thing that can be achieved in this world. Everything else is a question of the afterlife.
So what is the "benefit" of Christianity? There are two levels. The first relates to the here and now, the other in the hereafter. In this world, Christianity has a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This means that the Man gets answers to the question: 1) Who am I? 2) Where did I come? 3) Where do I go after death? And 4) What is the meaning of my life? The quality of life increases, the entropy in the spirit declines. And finally: the acceptance of Jesus Christ in the hereafter, or while out in his word for eternal life in heaven. Who could this seriously say "no"?
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