UNUSUAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OR PRACTICES

Unusual Religious Beliefs or Practices

Unusual Religious Beliefs or Practices

Thesis statement

Its a general concept that “Most people's destination after death is Hell, where they will be tortured for all eternity”.

Introduction

Down through millennia of history, Christian theologians have based many foundational Christian beliefs on their interpretation of biblical scriptures.When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, it caused their downfall. This sin was transferred to their children, grandchildren etc (Earhart, 1993). even to the present generation. The concept of transferring sin form the innocent to the guilty is seen in many places in the Bible, although it appears immoral to many people today. Because of humanity's downfall, most people's destination after death is Hell, where they will be tortured for all eternity. Through personal salvation, a person can avoid Hell and attain Heaven after death (Smart, 1995). This is common sense to me because I was raised a Christian. I went to church and I read the Bible. This is how we establish foundational religious beliefs, by the concepts of religion that you were forced into at a young age, the root of your faith. I had no decision on what I wanted to believe in. I went to church because that's what my parents made me think I was supposed to do. I was deprived from other religions, just like most religious families tend to do with their children.

Unfortunately, biblical scriptures which describe how a person is saved are ambiguous. Paul generally wrote that people are saved as a result of believing in the resurrection of Jesus. The authors of the Gospel said that one must believe that Jesus is the Son of God in order to be saved (Earhart, 1993). Jesus, as reported in the synoptic Gospels, appears to have given two main paths to salvation: One can be saved by performing good works, or you can be saved by adopting a simple life of poverty and following Jesus' example. Other scriptures say that a person is saved, and her/his sins forgiven, through baptism. This is where denominations of Christianity branch out and away from each other. So we have a chaotic situation where some say that salvation is attained by church rituals, particularly baptism and in the Catholic churches - confession (Smart, 1995). Or it may be attained by good works, belief in Jesus' resurrection, Jesus status as the only begotten Son of ...