Kingdoms and Cultures - Essay Sample on Religion

The Christian religion is enshrined on the biblical concepts and teaching. One of the greatest promise that the Christian have been promised in the Bible is an eternal life that would be perfect, peaceful, with God reigning with his son Jesus Christ. However, there are some people who do not believe in the presence of God and associate much of the concepts in the bible as correlation with various cultural variety and psychological context in people. Many cultures that did not believe in the Christian teaching associate Christianity as propaganda that is used by the west to institute and exploit their powers in the world. Regardless, Christianity is a dominant religion, and as at 2010, 31% of the world population was Christianity. The ideals shared in the Bible, and its promises seem to have contributed so much in the huge following of the Christian religion.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Christianity is a way of life, and the Bible has explained the role and duties as a Christian. In the Genesis book of creation, the origin of man is explained in the first two chapters of the Bible. The role of man was to take care of the environment, till the land, and obey what God wants. However, a dramatic turn of events happened and now, the man commits sin, and he is expelled from the Garden of Eden, which was expected to be perfect, and the only sin would separate man from God. According to Christian, that is the origin of sin. Besides elimination from the garden, punishment emerged where the woman was burdened with giving birth painfully, and man would have to toil to eat. That marked the creation of the first family in the world according to the Christian theory of creation as outlined in the Bible.

However, history unfolds, and the world becomes populated. Sin dominate the world and attempts to reconcile the people to God through prophets were in vain, and people continued to sin. Israelites were a chosen race and had suffered very many tribulations due to their sinful nature. God devised a plan to save the world. The prophets tried to warn the people of the dangers of sin, but it were ignored (Bersani, Thomas & Speer, 2012). Punishments were served which include mass deaths, exile, and diseases but their hearts remained hard. As a final stage of the salvation strategy, it is written that God sent his only son, Jesus Christ, in the world.

Jesus came into the world through the biological way, and it is reported that her mother became pregnant through the means of the Holy Spirit. He did great works, performed miracles, and created a huge following in the world. Being the promised Messiah, the Israelites expected that he would establish an earthly kingdom, but he said that his kingdom was spiritual. Again, the Israelites lost cool and planned to have him killed. The Roman Empire, which ruled over Israel at the time, allowed the Jews liberty to do with Jesus what they wanted according to their rules. The plot to persecute Jesus was accomplished but he left a huge following. Three days after his death, he was raised from the dead and later left for heaven after launching what came to be referred to as the Great Commission. He commissioned his disciples to go around the whole world and lake a following based on his teaching. Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian religion, and the gift of eternal life is anchored to his teaching (Matt, 28: 16-20).

When Jesus, the foundation of Christian religion left earth, he later sent the Holy Spirit who would act as a guide to the people enabling them to comprehend the complex nature of Christianity. Through dying on the cross, the other people of the world found solace and now were invited to share in the promise made by God to eternal life. Once a leading persecutor of Christians, Paul was pivotal in the spread of the Christian faith to non-Israelites. With the help of other apostles and disciples, Paul dedicated his life to teaching the Christian doctrine to other people who the Bible refers to as gentiles. Paul has a comprehensive history of spreading the good news of Jesus to all the nation of the world. The current Europe was his main area of operation, and throughout his life, he made three important journeys that led to the conversion of very many people. Although some of these people had a religion or worshiped some deity, Paul brought a religion that was based on faith and had a great promise of eternal life. To these days, many of these deities have stopped because the Christian doctrines prohibit the worship of other deities.

How then does Christianity affect the life of an ordinary Christian? According to the biblical teachings, humans are required to live in harmony, helping each other, and peaceful. To this regard, the Bible has various guidelines and commandments that provide a relationship between man and God and God and man. The other teachings of the Bible are derived from the Ten Commandments in the Bible. Looking at the content of the commands are guidelines that for instance, demand children to respect their children and that prohibit committing murder, adultery, and forbid stealing. When Jesus came in the world, he also managed his congregation with teachings that were slightly different from those in the Old Testament (Todd & Rufa, 2013). However, he is quoted as saying that he only came to fulfill the word and makes it stronger and not to abolish the law.

Well, from the above analysis is it possible to say that the Christian religion is the force behind understanding the idea of what is good and evil. According to Osman (1998), the concept of good and evil existed among the people even before the Christian religion was spread to these people. For these people, evil was associated with demons, misfortunes, and calamities. On the other hand, the good was associated with prosperity, success, and luck. He people in many cases believed in the power of a supreme creator who was represented in objects and in some cases, animals like the Buddhist. Religion in those circumstances only became significant during the life of a person and those who sinned were destined to be evil spirits while those who were good would join the ancestors. There is a huge similarity between these religions.

In the biblical teaching, Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, highlighted some concepts that would help in understanding the topic better. He was explaining how the promise of eternal life would be appraised. Jesus commissioned the disciples to spread the gospel to the whole world so that the people could share in the great promise found in the book of revelation. The law of Christianity, which is recorded in the Bible, is the word of God written by people inspired by his spirit. It is a constitution of the Christians that guides the believers was of life. At the end of times, it would be used as the reference to prosecuting people, and an appropriate reward is given according to one's deeds.

However, the gentiles noted that it could be possible that some people who were to bear in the promise, for those who did not have a chance to receive the gospel. They, therefore, sought clarification on the issue. In a long and detailed letter, Paul says that those who are not under the law and does things, which are required by law, their conscience the witness are justified (Rom, 2: 14-15). What Paul meant is that the concept of good and evil is not enshrined in the biblical and Christian teaching but is a found in our underlying psychological and social cultures.

Many societies in the world had established principles and rules that governed about good and evil. Without knowledge of the Bible, there is the sixth sense, that inner self that enables people conscience function. Evil was punished in many societies through established means. In some culture, evils against the deities were associated with calamities including earthquake and famine. They would offer sacrifices and perform other rituals to appease their deities. However, the Christian religion is different, and James describes it as the law of liberty (James, 2:12). Unlike the current world where committing evil is punished instantly, the Christian faith encourages repentance through our advocate, Jesus Christ but the final promise of eternal life would be awarded at the end of times. Punishment to the sinful would also be administered in the same day.

The concept of good and evil is found in the Christian religion that dates back to the creation story. Through man history, God has tried to reconcile man, but evil continues to ruin the world. Many teaching in the Christian faith teaches about good and evil, which have helped shape morally. However, good and evil is correlated to the psychological, social, and cultural complexities but also highly related to the biblical concepts. Just like the Christian religion believes in the reward of doing good through eternal life or complete destruction of the evil, other people also believed in good and evil. They associated calamities with evil and believed in the power of a deity who would be worshiped for mediation. As such, it is clear that the concepts of good and evil are not anchored to the Christian teaching per se, but is a correlation between an individuals social and psychological complexity. Even Paul in the epistle of Romans is aware of the lot that may not access the Christian doctrine, but they are said to be judged according to their deeds with their conscience bearing witness to their actions. Good and evil is a manifestation of the nature of a person and reveal the true personality. Christian teaching is a promise that was given to those who do what is good, and their reward is an eternal life where God and Jesus Christ would be its ruler.

References

Bersani, I., Thomas, W., & Speer, C. P. (2012). Chorioamnionitisthe good or the evil for neonatal outcome?. The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 25(sup1), 12-16.

James 2:12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://biblehub.com/james/2-12.htm

Matthew 28:16-20 - The Great Commission - Then the eleven - Bible Gateway. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2016, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A16-20

Osman, F. (1998). Monotheists and the other': an Islamic perspective in an era of religious pluralism. The Muslim world, 88(34), 353-363.

Romans 2:14-15 - (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have - Bible Gateway. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2016, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+2:14-15

Todd, N. R., & Rufa, A. K. (2013). Social justice and religious participation: A qualitative investigation of Christian perspectives. American Journal of Community Psychology, 51(3-4), 315-331.