Religion essay

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University of California, Los Angeles *

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11

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Religion

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Jan 9, 2024

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Using the Comparative Method: Christianity and Judaism in Los Angeles Religion 11: Religion in Los Angeles December 3, 2019
The Middle East is a geographical area that holds much importance and is considered the birthplace of many religions. Two of these religions include Christianity and Judaism. Since Christianity was birthed from the Jewish faith, the two religions are very similar to each other in terms of beliefs and practice many ritual traditions that can easily be cross referenced with each other. As these religions began to expand and become known as world religions, more noticeable differences between Judaism and Christianity began to arise. When looking more closely at the different ritual traditions that each religion practices and analyzing them with regards to their origin, historical development, and significance in Los Angeles, more differences are noticeable. Two important traditions that are practiced by Christians and Jews are the baptism and the brit milah, respectively. These are two ritual traditions that have been practiced over centuries, and still hold much importance for the followers of Jesus Christ and God as they set the way for a covenant with each respective being. With the expansion of Christianity and Judaism, these ritual traditions have been practiced globally, by almost every follower of the religion. In Los Angeles, the Christian and Jewish communities have grown, and now populate the city. There are churches and synagogues all over the city, where these ritual traditions are practiced on a daily basis. CHRISTIANITY With more than two billion followers, Christianity is one of the most widely practiced religions in the world. The Christian faith is centered around beliefs regarding the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. More specifically, Christians believe that God sent his son, Jesus Christ to save the world. It is believed that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross for
the forgiveness of all mans sins, and was resurrected shortly after his death before rising to heaven. Christianity has many denominations, including Protestantism, Pentecostalism, Catholicism, Evangelicalism, and Anglicanism. In Los Angeles, older protestant denominations are traced back to the history of Hispanic ministry in southern california in the eighteenth century. Twenty one missions were built around southern California, all with the intention of spreading the Christianity faith to the surrounding Native Americans. After the transition from missions and Hispanic ministry to churches and European domination of the religion, Christianity quickly expanded and became a very popularly practiced religion with many important traditions that date back to very early times and have much historical and modern significance. One main tradition that is widely known and practiced is baptism. Baptism is a tradition of the utmost importance for most denominations in the Christian faith. “From Pentecost onward, Holy Baptism has been an essential part of the Christian movement. [...] Throughout the New Testament, we find it to be the ritualized celebration in which one publicly expresses one’s acceptance of Jesus as Lord and in which one believes that God accepts and forgives the individual baptized”'. Baptism is the first sacrament of initiation into the Roman Catholic church and several other denominations of Christianity, along with the Holy Communion and Confirmation being the two other sacraments of initiation, which all celebrate the act of giving an individual who is new to the Christian faith the gift of experiencing and knowing eternal life, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the word of God. Baptism is " Osborne, Kenan B. “The Christian Sacraments of Initiation.” Google Books. Paulist Press. Accessed December 4, 2019. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bZaqx7pL6FUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=christi an+sacraments+of+initiation&ots=L7gzMIszzc&sig=JAN4EOg-1v 7mzI Ww3PRS4uMgK Sw#v=0 nepage& q=christian sacraments of initiation& {=false.
the beginning of the religious journey through Christianity, and is meant to be the first sacrament practiced. Being baptised means that one is prepared to commit and dedicate themselves to the Christian faith. Baptism has been a significant part of the Christian church and dates back a very long time to the Old Testament in the first century C.E. Baptism has a pre-christian history, and can be traced back to the Jewish people who were baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. “When John the Baptist came to the deserts of Judea preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins he was met with great success. Matthew 3:5 says, ‘people went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” Luke adds that crowds were coming out to be baptized by him. And ‘when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.” (Luke 3:7,21)7% It is believed that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, who was first baptized by God. With the baptism of Jesus Christ, many Christians believe that he then instituted the practice of baptism as a sacrament of Christian faith. Though I am not Christian, a very close friend of mine practices the Christian faith and took me to Sunday service with her so that I could experience first-hand what kinds of things are preached to followers of the faith. This was a very interesting experience for me to have, especially because I am an agnostic theist, so I have never been to any type of religious service where an important member of the church preaches the word of God. We went to her church, Gracepoint, which holds Sunday service at the Northwestern Auditorium at UCLA. This was an especially great experience because I was able to see how the UCLA Christian community is 2 Barnes, Ed. “Baptism: A Pre-Christian History .” Baptism: A Pre-Christian History, October 2005. http://www.bible.ca/ef/topical-baptism-a-prechristian-history.htm.
united through the grace of God. Luckily, I was able to also experience the baptism of three students right at the end of service. This baptism was very public as it was held outside. There was a big tub of water where the pastor baptized each student by immersing them in the water. Prior to the immersion, he asked the student to publicly say their confession of faith. During service, there was a portion where each of the three students confessed their sins to the rest of the people in the auditorium, as if to rid them before the official ritual. After service was officially over, I was able to talk to the pastor, Manny Kim, and ask him questions about Christianity. The one thing that I was most curious about was the fact that one must make a public confession of sins prior to the baptism itself. When asking pastor Kim about why the confession of sins is not private, he responded by explaining that “baptism is a public pronouncement of one’s acceptance of Jesus Christ as the son of God and the Lord of life. When one 1s confessing their sins [before the baptism], they confess directly to Jesus Christ rather than through a pastor. This is their way of publicly showing Jesus Christ that they are ready to be baptized”. Pastor Kim referred me to Mark 16:16 which says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved”. Kim explained that, “1f one 1s a believer, then baptism will save them, but the public confession is the expression of faith that qualifies them for the baptism, which is why it is so important”. In modern context, baptism is a ritual tradition that 1s practiced by a majority of Christians globally. One ongoing debate pertaining baptism that has been brought up several times 1s if it 1s ethical to baptize a child when they are unaware of what is happening or are unable to consciously decide their religion affiliation for themselves. Most Christian families will baptize their child within the first year of their lives because parents want their child to become a member of God's church at a young age. When talking to pastor Kim, I was curious to
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