As I understand it (being a Christian myself), the reason I witness to others is because Christianity teaches that you must believe in Jesus as your Savior to have eternal life in Heaven. God asks his followers to tell others, in a loving way, because neither him nor I want to see anyone NOT go to Heaven.
So my question is - do any other religions teach that their way is the “only” way? And to go tell others? I know other people witness their own beliefs and some cults may be extreme, but I really want to know if any religions specifically say that you must believe their way and that’s it.
You might want to do a search in the archives. I know we’ve covered this before.
In any event, Judaism does not teach that one needs to be a Jew in order to go to heaven, be considered a good person, etc. Judaism only asks that non-Jews keep the 7 Noahide commandments.
(BTW, you might want to reconsider your thread title next time. From the title, it seems like you are asking why Christians witness. However, that is not your question at all.)
> Do all Christians feel that “their way is the only way”? (On personal experience, no, though those who do not believe that while God in His Mercy may accept people in other ways, their way is the one He defined and, at least as far as they’re concerned, the best way.)
> Do Moslems feel that Islam is the only way?
> Are there analogues to “salvation” in other faith systems that make the question meaningful? If Buddhism, for example, does not have something sufficiently on all fours with the Christian idea of salvation that its “way” to find this something is discussable on equivalent terms, then the question becomes effectively meaningless.
> Is this a legitimate GQ with a specific answer, or is it sufficiently opinion-laden to warrant transfer to GD?
Islam, sort of. Islam believes, basically, that Judaism and Christianity are divinely inspired, but still wrong…that people like Moses and Jesus had authentic divine revelations and were really prophets from G-d, but then their followers corrupted their messages, and so G-d gave Mohammed true teachings and made sure they wouldn’t be changed. Therefore, the Qu’ran is the only true message of G-d.
Islam does believe, though, that G-d is merciful, so He’ll still let Christians and Jews into heaven, because they’re, in ignorance, worshipping G-d the way they think He wants to be worshipped (Assuming they really try to do that, and don’t go around lying, killing, and generally being immoral). However, in heaven, they’ll wind up smacking their forehead and saying “Doh!”. The same is true of Parsees…if you’re not Jewish, Christian, or Parsee, you’re out of luck, though.
Baha’is don’t witness per se. If someone is interested in Baha’i, then they will explain it. But they don’t go around explaining about Baha’i at length to those who aren’t interested.
Basically Baha’is believe that it is up to each and every individual to find the right path themselves. And since Baha’is don’t believe in hell per se, everyone gets to heaven; the whole point is how close you are to the wonder and glory of God once you are there.
Its all kinda complicated…but the short answer is they witness to those who are interested.
[ul]
[li]Murder[/li][li]Idolatry[/li][li]Forbidden sexual relations (adultery, incest, etc.)[/li][li]Theft[/li][li]Blasphemy[/li][li]Eating flesh from a live animal[/li][/ul]
Positive commandment to set up laws, courts and live as a civilized society.