Art

Reflection paper 1

Introduction to Christianity
Being a Christian means to be god-like, to follow the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.   Catholics are the most known Christians and is also the most critiqued religion to date.  The Christian bible is a sacred book for Christians, like Koran for Islam. The bible is filled with stories of miracles, hope and love shown by their savior Jesus Christ the bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament.   The Old Testament consists of stories before Jesus of Nazareth was born and the New Testament consists of stories after Jesus of Nazareth was born.

The bibles New Testament has four main gospels, the gospel of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.   Most people recognized them as the first four books in the New Testament.   Mathews gospel speaks about Jesus being the King of Kings.   Mark, wrote about Peter and how he came to understand Jesus was the messiah God has promised.   Luke investigated people who have seen, experience Jesus as a Messiah, but he himself did not meet the Messiah.   John, unlike Luke who has met Jesus the Messiah, he wrote about how his own experience and how people interacted and acted upon knowing that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.  

The four gospels in the New Testament covered all areas to which a person who hasnt lived in the time Jesus the Messiah lived can feel and understand what he has gone through to save each and every living soul alive, the pain and suffering He has received from the people He want to save.   The four gospels want people to know his love is eternal.

Dei Verbum originated from the Latin word for word of God,  it is also commonly known as the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation is circulated by the Vatican, they have stated it since the 60s, Pope Paul VI starter the whole Dei Verbum to spread the love and understanding of God more, it contains normal title of the Catholics.

Dei Verbum and the four gospels have strengthened the faith of most Christians and I wanted to see for myself if it could persuade me to change my religion.
  
Studying about another religion apart from the religion I am engaged is a little embarrassing and I first thought that I was turning my back on my own religion.   But as the time progressed, the more comfortable I became in studying other religions. Christian theology isnt that bad, in fact their similarities in the ways of Islam.

Dei Verbrum from what I have understood is that it is a doctrine to keep the faith of Christians alive and their doubts to disappear. Revelation Itself tell the story of how God created the world and how He viewed that his word would live up and keep people knowing who He is and that he is the only living God, but like Adam and Eve, people make wrong judgments and the world became full of sins.   Even though people in the earth made mistakes and His love is everlasting, wanting to give people a clean slate, He sent his only son to die for our sins.

In Handling on Divine Revelation, The Vatican is wants the people to know that it is God who has asked the apostles to write about his story through the Holy Spirit.   Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the apostles are able to build a church and allow His good will to spread, be known and receive the gift of truth. The Vatican is not a above the Word of God, the Vatican can only pass on the Word or God and acknowledge h His superiority.

Sacred Scripture, Its Inspiration and Divine Interpretation tackle about how the apostles became inspired to write the bible. In the doctrine, it stated that the apostles inspiration is the Holy Spirit and that the apostles arent really the real author, all books are authored by God with the help of the Holy Spirit. Since the books are authored by God Himself, teaching it will solidify the faith of a person to God and closer to salvation.   And not because the scriptures are authored by God it means that you would be able to communicate with just like that, like great authors in our time and everything in this world, you must analyze what He wants to say and understand its core meaning.

In the Old Testament, God is preparing his people to meet Him in person through Jesus Christ. He gathered people who he could trust prepare them and their people of his coming, and the future inhabitants to be prepared through prophecy.

In the New Testament, the coming of Christ will glue together what God has been doing all throughout the Old Testament, he has shown proof of His existence through Jesus Christ and because He has shown and performed miracles while He was in earth, people can bare witness to His power.   The faith of people will be stringer because of it, those that have doubts in His power and His ability now have proof of it.

Sacred Scripture In The Life Of The Church states that the continuity to use the sacred scriptures and will always respect the body of Christ, and spread its faith by the guidance of the New Testament and Gospels.

Dei Verbum is teaching people to have faith in God, it is shorter that the bible and it is concentrated, it can also be the core of the teachings of the Catholic Church.   They have summarized the bible and concentrated on writing the will of God that concentrated on faith and how his word will be taught.   Dei Verbum can be considered a stepping stone to salvation, having faith in him will bring salvation to anyone and if the divine doctrine is spread out, more people will have faith and will be saved.

If people are having doubts about His word and His will, people would have to read about the four gospels, it is also mentioned in Dei Verbum and through these gospels faith will be much stronger.   The four gospels will help people who are lost and is in need of guidance, if they have lost their faith in God, reading and understanding the four gospels will make them see that Him for what He is.

The gospel of Matthew, he has written that the Messiah is indeed coming according to God and that He will be betrayed by man and kill him, but he will raise again in the third day.   The gospel of Matthew is the start of the prophecy, the foundation if you may, he has written that God is coming and those who believe Him should have faith that it will happen.  

The book of Mark will show the compassion of Christ to people, He would rather comply with the need of people than satisfy his own needs.   He also stated that in order to show people that He cares, they must act like him and follow Him, and they must also suffer if He is suffering to prove that they do not doubt Him in any way.   The last supper was also written in the book of Mark to further emphasized that they are one, they trust him no matter what, that they will be there for Him and assist Him in guiding people to salvation.

In the book of Luke, God is showing us that those miracles do happen, two old women giving birth after being promised that they will indeed have a child and that their children will serve Him.   Luke is like the recorder of things, he has recorded the conversation the Angle Gabriel had with Mary. He was sent by God to heal the hearts of those who has doubted God, to mend their hearts and bring them back to the warm embrace of God.

The gospel of John emphasize that He is the Messiah, Jesus is indeed the son of God, because he was with Him, he has seen for himself the miracle He can do and the amount of love and hope He have for the salvation of men and women in the world.

The four gospels will built and rebuilt the faith of those who want to seek knowledge from God and Dei Verbum will guide them and keep them in tacked to reach their goal, to saved, to see salvation and give praise to Him.

I may not be a Christian but by reading the four gospels and the Dei Verbum, I can understand why people seek His salvation.   God made sure that His menwomen will never stray, giving them evidences and guiding them back whenever they stray, eliminating their doubt by presenting miracles and fulfilling his promises.

As a Muslim who studied the four gospels and the Dei Verbum critically, I have come to realize that it is not that bad, in fact, there is several teaching in the bible that has also appeared in Koran.   Knowing what the similarities and difference of the bible and Koran interest me.   The Koran and the bible do not differ that much, they similarities like the creation of world creation and the Ten Commandments.  

Their basic concept of God is exactly the same He is omnipotent, omniscient, immanent within his creations yet transcendent.   But they dont always have the same point of view, Muslims dont believe in the holy trinity, while the Catholics involve them in their everyday prayer one of their major difference is the way Jesus (God) transcended, Islams believe that He has taken by God or rather transcended and that God wasnt crucified by Jews nor was He killed, the Christians on the other hand believe that He was indeed crucified and was killed by Jews, then was resurrected after three days and transcends to heaven.

Even though Islam and Christians have different ways of worshiping, it is important that we still respect other peoples religion and not to judge their religion so easily, in the semester, we have tackled Christian faith and Dei Verbum and has proven that faith alone cannot deepen a person in a religion if heshe himselfherself doesnt put an effort to it.  If a person doesnt exert effort on hisher religion of choice, heshe would never experience faith in religion.