Essay on Afterlife in Christianity and Hinduism

Introduction

The afterlife called life after demise or the hereafter life is a belief enshrined in many religious groups that an individual's essential component or identity is commonly known as the consciousness stream continue to manifest even after the individual is dead ( the death of the physical body). According to Manjan and Bullock (2016), the current religious groups (in this case Christianity and Hinduism), they believe that the crucial element in an individual's life; the soul or spirit that carries an individual's personal lives after his or her death. Therefore, it is important to analyze the impact of the afterlife beliefs among the Christians and Hindus on their way to salvation. The important component to consider is the presence of hell and heaven that motivates the two religious beliefs in the way to salvation. This work also analyzes the differences between the ideological beliefs on the afterlife.

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Myths of Afterlife in Christianity

Christianity bases the view of hereafter life on the Biblical teachings of the birth, growth, ministry, crusification, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to the Christian religion, the birth of the Jesus of Nazareth marked the Common Era that Christian believed that Jesus who is the anointed one is the son of God who promised to all who believed in him shall not perish but have an everlasting life. In this case, the bible promises an everlasting life promised in Hebrews 9:27 that talks about Christian who believes in God dying once and face judgment after that. Therefore, according to the afterlife in Christianity, God judges one on the way he or she lived on earth and the good deeds enable the individual to enter the kingdom of God (heaven) or go to heal where the dead person burns for eternity with the devil (Slater, 2016).

According to the teachings of Paul in 1st Corinthians 15 ( chapter 50 to 52), he talks about the afterlife by saying " the flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption, for the trumpet will soon sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" . This enables the Christians to believe in life after death. According to Mallampalli (2018), the evil deeds of dead individuals will determine whether they will resurrect to see the Messiah. As a result, those who did well will see Jesus and will go to heaven to celebrate their victory for 1000 years before the evildoers resurrect. This teaching enables the Christians to hold firm on their religion and obey the commands enshrined in the bible since they believe that what they do ( actions while still alive) will determine their entry to heaven or hell. According to biblical stories, hell has viewed a place where people burn and there is the gnashing of the teeth while in heaven there are golden cities, rivers flowing with milk and honey and people transformed into an immortal form where they will live forever (Brockington, 2016).

The Relationship/Impact of Myths of an Afterlife to the Other Christian Beliefs and Practices

Some of the beliefs and relationships affected by the myth of afterlife in Christianity include the second coming of Jesus Christ, death and descent into hell, resurrection, and ascension of the holy to heaven with Jesus and finally the Day of Judgment. The practices affected by this myth of afterlife include the baptism, salvation and the participation in the Holy Communion. As a result, the belief in the afterlife affects the belief of the second coming of Jesus and the way to salvation. In the Bible, it is written that Jesus will come like a thief and His time is soon coming. Therefore, according to the teaching of Isaiah and Daniel in chapter 9 respectively, Jesus is coming soon and people should repent their sins. Repenting and accepting Jesus as one's personal savior called salvation. Therefore Christians believe that when the commit (wrongdoing), the repent by praying, turning away from the sin, and being baptized to signify the birth of a new life in Christ that enables them to cleanse their sins and become whole again. The ideology of hell, heaven, and judgment affects by the afterlife of an individual. Therefore, it encourages them to undergo baptism, abandon the old ways of life, pray and participate in the Holy Communion that makes them be closer to Jesus and God the father (McGarth, 2016).

The belief of afterlife relates and affects Christian's activities like donations, charity activities, and preaching the gospel to the nation and spreading it to other parts of the world. This signifies the spread of churches in the universe like the Catholic that is universally accepted. According to the BBC, Christianity is the largest religious groups in the world. The beliefs of the afterlife relate to the second coming of Jesus Christ since according to the Bible, Jesus will come to take his people by resurrecting the ones who died in his name and believed in him. Therefor this encourages Christians to get baptized, repent and get salvation through accepting Jesus in order to go to heaven ( which according to them is real) and prevents them from going to hell to burn eternally (Mallampalli, 2018).

Myths of an Afterlife in Hinduism

According to the BBC, the Hindu religion is the 3rd largest religious group in the world. According to the Hindus, they do not believe in life after death like the Christians but they believe in reincarnation, a process whereby the life (soul) of the deceased person returns to the life cycle. Therefore, evil deeds of an individual do not earn them reincarnation but only the good deeds. In addition, Hindus do not believe in hell or heaven thus justifying their action of cremating the deceased (Leibold &Van der Westhuizer, 2015).

The Relationship/Impact of Myths of an Afterlife to Other Hindu Beliefs and Practices

According to the Vedas, the Garuda Purana is a Hindu god who deals only with what happens to an individual's afterlife. Yama, the god of death sends his followers to take the soul of an individual they feel is due to die and takes it to Yama. After this, Yama records the individual's deeds while still alive to their timing and Chitragupta, Yama's assistant keeps the records. As a result, the reincarnation of an individual will entirely depend on the good and bad deeds. Therefore, this encourages the Hindu community to do good while still alive in order to undergo reincarnation once they are dead. Everyone wants to live longer if not forever, thus this will create a path to 'salvation' among the Hindu that will enable them to enjoy the benefits of reincarnation. Hindus believe in Karma that refers to an individual's good and bad deeds. According to their religion, good deeds of an individual are Satkama while vikarma refers to the bad deeds. Thus, their religion bases on the concept of 'you shall reap what you sow'. Therefore an individual who had bad deeds is killed by the Arjuna thus prevents such souls from undergoing reincarnation (Brockington, 2016).

Comparison

Even though both are religions with a path to salvation, more than similarities there are differences because of the underlying foundation of the two religions as reflected in their myths of the afterlife are two different. Some of the similarities include the existence of judgment of an individual's life while alive that determines whether they either go to hell or heaven (among Christians) or undergo reincarnation in Hindu. Another similarity is the two religions have their beliefs enshrined in a book referred to Bible among Christians and Vedas among the Hindus. In both religions, there is a strong belief of afterlife in terms of rewards of good deeds and punishment of the bad deeds. One common similarity is that evil deeds are killed though in different ways; Christians burn eternally while the Arjuna kills Hindus. They both base the afterlife on the spirit of the deceased individual but not the body (Howarth& Jupp, 2016).

Some of the Differences between These Two Religions Include the Participation and Process in the Afterlife

Among the Hindus, the god of death Yama sends representatives to take the soul of the people who are about to die while Christianity believes God takes and gives the Breath of life. When taken away, the person dies and is buried, however, they believe in the person's spirit or soul since according to the Bible, Jesus will transform our souls to immortality when in heaven. This is different from the Hindus who do not believe in anyone but their deeds of 'you reap what you sow'. Another difference is that Hindus do not believe in the second coming of Jesus and resurrection but reincarnation where the soul of an individual undergoes the life cycle (McGarth, 2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Hinduism and Christianity have many differences than similarities. Their belief in the existence of hell and heaven shows a similarity by other researchers. According to the Hindus, reincarnation and a person's deeds determine their afterlife that is similar to Christianity where an individual's deeds on earth determine their entry to heaven or hell among others (Nicholas, Strohminger, Rai & Garfield, 2018). Christianity differs on the process of the afterlife to that of Hinduism that entails the participation of several gods like Arjuna, Yama, and Chitragupta. Due to limited sources on this topic, there should be more research on the similarity and differences between these two religions besides how their beliefs affect their activities.

Reference

Brockington, J. L. (2016). Hinduism and Christianity. Springer.

Howarth, G., & Jupp, P. C. (Eds.). (2016). The changing face of death: Historical accounts of death and disposal. Springer.

Leibold, M., & van der Westhuizen, B. (2015). Religious Beliefs and Practices Affecting Marketing by Health Care Organizations in a Multicultural Community: A Preliminary Investigation. In Proceedings of the 1998 Multicultural Marketing Conference (pp. 469-473). Springer, Cham.

Mallampalli, C. (2018). Dalit Christian Reservations: Colonial Moorings of a Live Debate. International Journal of Asian Christianity, 1(1), 25-44.

Manian, S., & Bullock, B. (2016). Sensing Hinduism: Lucian-Indian Funeral "Feast" as Glocalized Ritual1. Religions, 7(1), 8.

McGrath, A. E. (2016). Christian theology: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons.

Nichols, S., Strohminger, N., Rai, A., & Garfield, J. (2018). Death and the self. Cognitive science.

Slater, T. E. (2016). The higher Hinduism in relation to Christianity. Elliot Stock (1902).