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Worldviews, Faith, Origin of Life

January 9, 2026

Worldviews, Faith, and the Question of Origins

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How Different Belief Systems Understand Reality, the Origin of Life, and Jesus (Yeshua)

Prologue: Faith Is Unavoidable

No matter which worldview a person holds—religious, spiritual, philosophical, or secular—faith is unavoidable. Faith may be placed in God, gods, spiritual forces, human reason, scientific naturalism, or even uncertainty itself.

Atheism requires faith that reality is purely material.
Agnosticism rests on faith that ultimate truth is unknowable or inaccessible.
Religious worldviews place faith in divine revelation.

The issue, therefore, is not whether faith is exercised, but where it is placed.

1. Theistic Worldviews

Core belief: One or more gods exist and intentionally created life and the universe.

A. Biblical Christianity (Theistic – Monotheistic)

Founder / Origin:
Not founded by a human individual. Christianity is rooted in Jesus Christ Himself, a 1st-century Jewish Messiah, with its theology shaped by His apostles and early church leaders.

1. Biblical Christianity (Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal)

Origin of life:
Created by the one eternal, personal God (Genesis 1).

God:
Transcendent and personal; distinct from creation yet actively involved in it.

Authority:
The Bible alone (Old and New Testaments).

Salvation:
By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, eternally uncreated, the Son of God, crucified for sin, bodily resurrected, and the only mediator between God and humanity.

Denominations include:

  • Anglican (Evangelical streams)

  • Baptist

  • Presbyterian / Reformed

  • Lutheran

  • Methodist

  • Pentecostal / Charismatic

  • Non-denominational Evangelical churches

1a. Messianic Judaism (Within Biblical Christianity)

Founder / Origin:
Modern Messianic Judaism emerged in the 19th–20th centuries, but its roots trace directly to the first Jewish followers of Jesus, including the apostles.

Core belief:
Messianic Jews affirm Jesus (Yeshua) as the promised Jewish Messiah, while retaining Jewish cultural identity and practices where consistent with Scripture.

Authority:
The Hebrew Scriptures (Tanakh) and the New Testament.

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, fully divine and fully human, fulfilling the Law and the Prophets.

Distinctives:

  • Strong emphasis on OT messianic prophecy

  • Observance of some Jewish customs (not for salvation)

  • Rejection of Rabbinic Judaism’s denial of Jesus

Messianic Judaism affirms that faith in Christ does not erase Jewish identity, but fulfils it.

2. Early Church Biblical Catholicism (Pre-Medieval)

Founder / Origin:
Jesus Christ and the apostles (1st–4th centuries).

Overview:

  • Rooted in the apostolic era and early ecumenical creeds

  • Precedes Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox institutional divisions

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Fully divine and fully human, worshipped as Lord and Savior.

3. Roman Catholicism (Post-Medieval Development)

Founder / Origin:
Claims apostolic succession from Peter, but institutional form developed significantly between the 4th–15th centuries.

Authority:
Scripture + Sacred Tradition + Magisterium.

Distinct doctrines:

  • Prayers to deceased saints

  • Marian dogmas (Immaculate Conception, Assumption, “Queen of Heaven”)

  • Purgatory

  • Papal infallibility (under specific conditions)

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Affirms Jesus Christ as God incarnate, but salvation is mediated sacramentally through the Church in ways Protestants see as later doctrinal developments.

4. Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Founder / Origin:
Early church bishops and councils of the Eastern Roman Empire; formal split from Rome in 1054 AD.

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Fully God and fully man; salvation understood primarily as healing, restoration, and union with God (theosis).

B. Seventh-Day Adventism (Theistic, Distinct Doctrines)

Founder / Origin:
19th-century America; influenced by William Miller and later shaped by Ellen G. White.

Origin of life:
Literal six-day creation.

Distinct teachings:

  • Investigative Judgment (beginning in 1844)

  • Saturday Sabbath observance

  • Ellen G. White regarded as a prophetic authority

  • Jesus Christ identified as the pre-incarnate Michael the Archangel (not created, but a specific heavenly role)

  • Teaching that Sunday worship will function as the Mark of the Beast during a future tribulation period

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Affirms Jesus Christ as divine Savior, but with non-historic interpretations of His heavenly identity and end-times role.

C. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Shared Figures, Different Foundations

Judaism and Christianity: Shared Scriptures, Divided Fulfilment

Founder / Origin of Judaism:
Moses (as covenant mediator), tracing identity back to Abraham.

Judaism and Christianity share the Hebrew Scriptures (Tanakh / Old Testament):

  • Torah (Law)

  • Prophets

  • Writings

Key divide:

  • Judaism rejects Jesus Christ as Messiah and rejects the New Testament.

  • Christianity affirms Jesus Christ as the fulfilment of the Hebrew Scriptures and accepts the New Testament as inspired revelation.

Islam and the Old Testament: Use, Reinterpretation, and Departure

Founder / Origin of Islam:
Muhammad (7th-century Arabia).

Islam draws heavily from Old Testament figures, but not from the Old Testament text itself as authoritative Scripture.

Shared Figures (Reinterpreted):
Adam, Noah, Abraham (Ibrahim), Moses (Musa), David (Dawud), Solomon (Sulayman)

These figures are reframed through the Qur’an, not the Hebrew Bible.

Key Distinctions Between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity

Scripture

  • Judaism: Tanakh = OT

  • Christianity: OT + NT

  • Islam: Qur’an alone (claims previous Scriptures were corrupted)

Covenant

  • Judaism: Abraham → Isaac → Jacob

  • Christianity: Covenant fulfilled in Jesus Christ

  • Islam: Abraham → Ishmael

Jesus Christ

  • Judaism: Rejected as Messiah

  • Christianity: God incarnate, crucified and risen

  • Islam:

    • Prophet only

    • Mohammad a greater prophet

    • Not divine

    • Not crucified

    • Not resurrected

    • Will return, but not as Savior

Salvation

  • Judaism: Covenant obedience

  • Christianity: Grace through faith in Christ

  • Islam: Submission to Allah and balance of deeds

2. Pantheistic, Panentheistic & Non-Theistic Spiritual Worldviews

A. Pantheism

Founder / Origin:
Ancient philosophical traditions (no single founder).

God = the universe

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Seen as an enlightened teacher or divine expression among many.

B. Panentheism

Founder / Origin:
Ancient Eastern philosophy; later articulated by thinkers such as Plato and modern process theologians.

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Spiritually significant, but not uniquely God incarnate.

C. Buddhism (Primarily Non-Theistic)

Founder:
Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), c. 5th century BC.

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Regarded as a wise moral teacher.

D. Gnosticism

Founder / Origin:
1st–3rd century syncretistic movements blending Greek philosophy and mysticism.

Belief about Jesus Christ:
A revealer of hidden knowledge, not truly incarnate or bodily resurrected.

3. Polytheistic Worldviews

Founder / Origin:
Ancient tribal and national religions.

Belief about Jesus Christ:
One spiritual figure among many.

4. Paganism & Witchcraft

Founder / Origin:
Ancient nature-based religions; modern revival movements (e.g. Wicca founded by Gerald Gardner).

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Rejected or symbolically reinterpreted.

5. Atheistic Worldviews

Founder / Origin:
Modern philosophical naturalism; thinkers such as Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, Dawkins.

Belief about Jesus Christ:
A historical figure, myth, or moral teacher only.

6. Agnosticism

Founder / Origin:
Term coined by Thomas H. Huxley (19th century).

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Undecided or suspended judgment.

7. Satanism & Freemasonry

Satanism

Founder / Origin:

  • Atheistic Satanism: Anton LaVey

  • Theistic forms: various occult traditions

Belief about Jesus Christ:
Rejected or mocked.

Freemasonry

Founder / Origin:
Developed from medieval stonemason guilds (formalised 17th–18th centuries).

Belief about Jesus Christ:
One moral teacher among many, not uniquely divine.

Conclusion

Every worldview interprets reality through faith-based assumptions. Christianity uniquely claims that God entered history in the person of Jesus Christ, fulfilled the Hebrew Scriptures, died for sin, and rose bodily from the dead.

Judaism awaits the Messiah and denies Jesus as Messiah.
Islam denies the Sonship of Jesus, His death on the cross, and therefore His resurrection.
Other worldviews reinterpret or reject divine revelation and Jesus altogether.

The central question remains:

Who is Jesus Christ—and what authority do His claims hold?

“Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:21

Additional considerations

Ayurveda (Hindu Vedic Tradition)
Ancient Indian system (~1500 BCE) balancing three doshas via herbs, diet, and rituals rooted in Vedas/panentheism. Views health as karma harmony; Jesus as enlightened sage at best. Christians may use practical remedies (creation’s gifts) but reject reincarnation/karmic cosmology.​

Grace in discernment—test all things (1 Thess 5:21).

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