Judaism Vs. Biblical Christianity Series

So, What does Judaism believe?

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Well to start with, there are some things that Christianity and Judaism have in common, like

Judaism believes in One God

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Just like those of Islam and Christianity, each holds to a view that there is only one true God.

Now Jews might refute, like those of Islam, that Christians believe in One God, but that is because they do not understand the Trinity.

Secondly,

Judaism believes that the Tanach (Old Testament) is the word of God

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They would believe with Christians that the Old Testament is God’s word. Judaism also believes the Talmud (the Oral Torah) is the inspired word of God, but they would not believe the New Testament is God’s word at all.

One final think I was trying to understand about Judaism is there belief about salvation and how a person is saved, but

Judaism doesn’t believe in Salvation as Christianity understands it

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I talked to several people and checked several sources and the best summary of thought on this was this from a website called “Being Jewish.”

They said this in regards to the beliefs of orthodox Judaism and what comes after death.

It is possible for an Orthodox Jew to believe that

the souls of the righteous dead go to a place similar to the Christian heaven, or

that they are reincarnated through many lifetimes, or

that they simply wait until the coming of the messiah, when they will be resurrected.

Likewise, Orthodox Jews can believe that

the souls of the wicked are tormented by demons of their own creation, or

that wicked souls are simply destroyed at death, ceasing to exist.

http://www.beingjewish.com/basics/beliefs.html

What I understand from this is that you can be Jewish and believe almost anything you want regarding what comes after physical death.

Another source sums up their thoughts and says

while in traditional Jewish thought the subjects of heaven and hell were treated extensively, most modern Jewish thinkers have shied away from this topic, preferring to …focus on life on earth.

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/heaven-and-hell-in-jewish-tradition/3/

Modern Judaism doesn’t focus so much on eternity, but rather the here and now of life on earth.

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Ok, so that is some basic things to know about Judaism’s beliefs, but what do they believe about Jesus?

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What does Judaism believe about Jesus?

Judaism doesn’t believe Jesus was the Son of God

Claiming to be the Son of God to the Jews was a claim to be God, which was blasphemy. It did not matter if he could show that He was God by signs and wonders and miracles and eventually resurrecting from the dead. To the Jews, this was blasphemy.

We see this in John 5:18 where it says

For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

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And in John 19:7, when the Jews brought Jesus before Pilate, they said

“We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”