Is Christianity More Like Judaism or Islam?

It depends on how you define it. Both Islam and Judaism deny that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh, which is why they're both damned.

Since Islam came after both, it will have more surface-level similarities to Christianity but that is all they are, surface-level. Peel back the layers and you will see they deny the Gospel just as much as the Jews.
 
@GodfatherPartTwo summed it up well. Rabbinic Judaism (Talmud & Zohar) despise Jesus, while Islam attempted to establish its own legitimacy by copying and editing anything and everything they could get their hands on. Neither accepts Jesus and the Trinity.

If anyone is interested, below is more in-depth analysis. Unlike the Quran, the Talmud has some very blasphemous passages, so I have not provided direct quotes.

On Jesus' ascension to Heaven:

Judaism

As far as I know, no references of ascension in either the Talmud or the Zohar.

Islam

The Quran, Surah An-Nisa (4), 157-158: "... for boasting, 'We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.' But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so. Even those who argue for this crucifixion are in doubt. They have no knowledge whatsoever—only making assumptions. They certainly did not kill him. Rather, Allah raised him up to Himself. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise."


On Jesus as the Messiah:

Judaism

The Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 98a: "The son of David [i.e., the Messiah] will not come until the Temple is rebuilt."

The Talmud, Tractate Sukkah 52a: "Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: The son of David will come only in a generation that is either entirely righteous or entirely wicked... if they are righteous, he will come with the clouds of heaven; if they are wicked, he will come as a poor man riding on a donkey."

Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim 11:4: "If a king will arise from the House of David who delves deeply into the study of the Torah and observes its mitzvot as prescribed by the Written Law and the Oral Law, and he will compel all of Israel to walk in [the way of the Torah] and rectify the breaches in its observance, and fight the wars of God, we may, with assurance, consider him the Messiah... If he succeeds in the above, builds the Temple in its place, and gathers the dispersed of Israel, he is definitely the Messiah."

Based on such texts, they conclude that Jesus was not the Messiah, as the specified conditions were not met.

Islam

The Quran, Ali 'Imran (3), 45: "Remember when the angels proclaimed, O Mary! Allah gives you good news of a Word from Him, his name will be the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary; honoured in this world and the Hereafter, and he will be one of those nearest to Allah."


On Jesus' soul and body in heaven:

Judaism

The Talmud, Tractate Gittin 57a:1-4. I do not wish to quote this. You may look it up yourself, if you'd like.

Islam

The Quran, Surah An-Nisa (4), 158: "... Rather, Allah raised him up to Himself. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise."


On Jesus' return:

Judaism

Jesus is not considered the Messiah, therefore not expected to return.

Islam

No direct mentions in The Quran that I'm familiar with. The vast majority of interpretations come from the Hadith, which itself is slightly different between the various Islamic sects and traditions. Imam Mahdi and the return with Jesus is mentioned in both Sunni and Shia Eschatology. There is just too many Hadith.


On Jesus coming of virgin birth / his divinity:

Judaism

The Zohar, Parashat Vayechi, Section 1, Verse 212a: "The Messiah, who is the central column, is a human being, the son of a human being, and he is clothed in the garments of the Torah."

They conclude that their Messiah will be a human with no divine attributes.

Islam

Yes on virgin birth:

The Quran, At-Tahrim (66), 12: "There is also the example of Mary, the daughter of ’Imrân, who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into her womb through Our angel Gabriel..."

There are many other references. As a matter of fact, an entire Surah is devoted to Mary (Surah Maryam, 19). That Surah draws heavily from the Gospel of Luke. There are also other readings from the Infancy Gospel of James and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

No on divinity:

The Quran, Ali 'Imran (3), 59: "Indeed, the example of Jesus in the sight of Allah is like that of Adam. He created him from dust, then said to him, 'Be!' And he was!"

Here they explicitly go against the Trinity:

The Quran, An-Nisa (4), 171: "O People of the Book! Do not go to extremes regarding your faith; say nothing about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was no more than a messenger of Allah and the fulfillment of His Word through Mary and a spirit created by a command from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers and do not say, 'Trinity.' Stop!—for your own good. Allah is only One God. Glory be to Him! He is far above having a son! To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And Allah is sufficient as a Trustee of Affairs."

The Quran, Maryam (19), 36: "Jesus also declared, 'Surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him alone. This is the Straight Path.'"


On Jesus' Miracles:

Judaism

The Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 43a:20-22. Again, I do not wish to quote this. Suffice it to say that it says the miracles were done by sorcery and idol worship.

Islam

The Quran, Ali 'Imran (3), 49 "... ‘I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: I will make for you a bird from clay, breathe into it, and it will become a real bird—by Allah’s Will. I will heal the blind and the leper and raise the dead to life—by Allah’s Will. And I will prophesize what you eat and store in your houses. Surely in this is a sign for you if you truly believe."

The "bird from clay" is a direct copy from the non-canonical Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
 
Both are refuted on the simple fact that the Old Testament, in multiple instances, identifies the Messiah as God.

The Jews revised their interpretation of the Tanakh in counter reaction to Christianity.

The Muslims never understood either the Old Testament or the New Testament altogether.

Both twist the Scriptures to their own destruction.
 
We distance ourselves from both, so in Islam they believe Christ assended into heaven but they dont actually believe Christ was crucified, that He died and went to hell or was resurrected from the dead, they also dont believe in the divinity of Christ, they say Jesus was just a prophet and messenger, they have the green light to read the gospels yet they dont nor do they believe in the stuff Jesus says, for example Jesus says if you blaspheme the Son you will be forgiven but if you blaspheme the Holy Spirit you wont be forgiven, so Jesus talks about the Trinity many times and about His divinity but they reject it all together, so do the Jews they both in heresy. I think an old testament jew who reads the torah can more easily be convinced of Christ in the scriptures compared to Muslims as they have their own scriptures and commentaries where we at least share the old testament with the old Hebrews
 
N°6 said:
Today's context. Many western Christians see Zionism as another denomination which just hasn't got round to accepting the kingship of Jesus while seeing Islam as Babylon, Allah as Ba'al and modern-day Palestinians as the Philistines.
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Westerners could see Moloch and Baal fighting, and still vehemently choose a side between which one gets chosen by the left or right online.
 
Here's a rant on this topic:

Christianity had early on developed a self-conception that was different from Judaism, which was necessary for its propagation among anti-Jewish pagan masses. While Jesus, Mary, Paul, Peter, and the disciples were all Jews, Jews never did accept Jesus as their savior, they agitated for the Romans to execute him, and Jews still practiced exclusive customs and social mores. Melito of Sardis made anti-Jewish comments in 160 AD; Tertullian too in 200 AD and Hippolytus in 220 AD, and they become explicit and harsh around 375 AD with Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, and Jerome. Additionally, as the Catholic Church developed it established a rigid hierarchy that, by its very nature, became reactive against external pressures (such as financial and media pressures by non-believers) and one that served to check and limit the textual radical egalitarianism in the New Testament itself.

On the other hand, the Talmud is quite negative in its characterization of Jesus and Mary. Many prominent Jews in the modern era (especially secular leftist ones) have what seems to be a visceral hatred toward white Christians. What is interesting is that they don’t seem to feel such extreme emotions toward Islam and Muslims today; in fact they appear more or less neutral toward them, except perhaps to fear physical violence from them, to encourage them to vote Democrat for mutual political gain, and to calculate their impact in relation to Israel’s security (ultra-conservative Wahhabi Saudi Arabia is a close ally of Israel). Historically, while Jews lived under Islamic lands in the Middle East for 1,300 years, they were consistently discriminated against as Dhimmis (i.e. treated as second class citizens) to the point where the famous Jewish Rabbi Maimonidies exclaimed, “God has entangled us with this people, the nation of Ishmael, who treat us so prejudicially and who legislate our harm and hatred…. No nation has ever arisen more harmful than they, nor has anyone done more to humiliate us, degrade us, and consolidate hatred against us.” And Jews were expelled from all Middle Eastern Muslim countries between 1948 and the early 1970s. On the other hand, during many periods of Jewish life under Islamic rule, they experienced toleration (per many Jewish historians) and they were, per historian Mark R. Cohen, generally physically safer than under Christian rule. So what explains the difference in Jewish feelings and approach between Christianity and Islam?

Here are some possible explanations:
  1. Intermarriage and conversions threatens Judaism’s longterm outlook: One possible explanation is that white European culture and Christianity proved to be enticing for Jewish conversions and intermarriages in a way that Islam later was not. Just as the Jews had bitterly fought the Romans and the non-Roman Jewish Hellenists in order to preserve their way of life, they ultimately came to see Christianity, so useful for the pressing purpose of revenge against Rome, as immensely threatening to the longterm continued existence of the Jewish community — they call it the “silent Holocaust” as it caused so many to abandon their community, intermarry and convert. As Joseph Sobran said, “Western man towers over the rest of the world in ways so large as to be almost inexpressible. It’s Western exploration, science, and conquest that have revealed the world to itself. Other races feel like subjects of Western power long after colonialism, imperialism, and slavery have disappeared. The charge of racism puzzles whites who feel not hostility, but only baffled good will, because they don’t grasp what it really means: humiliation. The white man presents an image of superiority even when he isn’t conscious of it. And, superiority excites envy. Destroying white civilization is the inmost desire of the league of designated victims we call minorities.” That is quite possibly the reason why many Jews feel so negatively about Christian, as western civilization is so awe-inspiring and attractive that it serves as a self-preservation technique for community preservation.
  2. Commonality between the Koran and Old Testament: Both Islam and Judaism are religions which regulate to minute detail every aspect of a believer’s life with their respective Sharia and Halakhah systems. Both traditions contain detailed legal and ethical instructions for both religious and social life. Unlike Christianity, which relies on councils or synods to rule on doctrine, ethics and behavior, the laws and beliefs in Islam and Judaism are derived through a process of debate. In fact the two religions are so close in terms of their structure that the tenth-century rabbinic leader Saadia Gaon unselfconsciously referred to Jewish law as shar’ia, the prayer leader in a synagogue as an imam and the direction Jews faced when praying as qibla. Both religions emphasize correct action (orthopractic belief), versus the Christian focus on prayer/repentance for salvation and an emphasis on correct belief (orthodoxy). Per Israel Shahak, Jews view Christianity as idolatrous but not Islam.
  3. Christian Tolerance Undermines Jewish Desire to Feel Oppressed: Jews are used to living in environments of outright repression and hostility, which Islamic countries provide. It feeds into the Jewish identity as persecuted victims. According to this theory, Jews cannot function in a society in which they are not oppressed by a stronger tribe; to these people being without a group to point the finger at is akin to being a fish without water. They live and breath perceived oppression, perceived slights, which they never forgive and never forget. Kevin MacDonald confirmed this point when discussing the Jewish role in opening up America to massive, unchecked immigration: “Non-Jews have a difficult time fathoming Jewish communal memory. For strongly identified Jews, the “vilely discriminatory” actions of immigration restrictionists are part of the lachrymose history of the Jewish people. Immigration restriction from 1924–1965 is in the same category as the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., the marauding Crusaders of the Middle Ages, the horrors of the Inquisition, the evil of the Russian Czar, and the rationally incomprehensible calamity of Nazism. These events are not just images drawn from the dustbin of history. They are deeply felt images and potent motivators of contemporary behavior. As Michael Walzer noted, “I was taught Jewish history as a long tale of exile and persecution—Holocaust history read backwards.” From this perspective, the immigration restriction of 1924–1965 is an important part of the Holocaust because it prevented the emigration of Jews who ultimately died in the Holocaust—a point that Steinlight dwells on at length.”

    On the other hand, modern Christian Americans are not in a position of domination, and they offer forgiveness freely as a condition of their faith; their kind-heartedness and humbleness inoculate them from the verbal aggression and dexterity that defines Jewry. Many Jews hate Christians for living simple lives unmarred by obsession over who wronged them generations ago, and sneer at their ability to let an argument rest instead of sharpening verbal claws over millennia. They consider the goy their lesser, dumb cattle, but remember all too well when those dumb, physically superior cattle lashed out. Mercy, grace and forgiveness are confounding to the Jewish psyche, beyond their understanding, and it both terrifies and enrages them.
  4. Christian Faith in God Prevents Ideological Indoctrination: A theory which serves as a corollary to #3 in that the Christian focus on God and on judgment in the afterlife, that this world is fallen and cannot be perfected, prevents true-believing Christians from wholeheartedly adopting the secular ideologies de jure, whether that is communism or critical race theory. This in turn gives those who are obsessed with “tikkun olam”, where they attempt to create heaven on earth through endless ideological tinkering, significant consternation. People only have room in their hearts for one core belief, and if that belief is a religious God then there isn’t room in it for a secular ideology.
  5. The Jewish/Christian conflict is a false dichotomy and Christianity serves as false opposition: Under the theory advanced by Adam Green, by gentiles buying into the notion that Jews were originally the Chosen People, by adopting their Old Testament as a cornerstone of their belief system, and by adopting the Jewish God, gentiles become unable to fully oppose Judaism; while there are periodic pogroms over the centuries, it was a half-hearted opposition based on Jews killing Christ where the Jews represented an errant cousin religion. In other words, gentiles adopting Christianity resulted in elevating Jews to a special position which they never possessed among the pagans; Romans had treated Judaism as an unexceptional sect among a multitude of sects that the Roman Empire managed without special status or preferment. Adam Green posts many videos of Orthodox Jewish rabbis who publicly argue this point: they state, in a semi-conspiratorial tone, that Peter and Paul were Jewish double agents sent to convert pagans to Christianity so they would obey the Noahide laws and worship the Jewish God. Therefore Christian antagonism to Jews is half-hearted and it serves Jewish purposes by preventing assimilation. The same argument would apply to Islam, which is another religion “of the Book”. Green further argues that the stories about Jesus were deliberately crafted by early converts to fulfill the requirements in Old Testament scripture pertaining to the arrival of a sacrificial Messiah to encourage Jewish conversion into the sect.
Whatever the reason(s) are will continue to be long debated.
 
Phenomenal post, JR5

First, I commented on this topic or thread across the street, which should first start with the question "Who do you say that I am"? If you ask that question, an important question for all of the supposed "christian" religions as well, you'll uncover what's really going on in each. As noted above, Islam and rabbinical/pharasaical Judaism (which is what we should call it since it isn't "judaism") are constructionist religions, and I think I read that term used by Huston Smith in his book The World's Religions. It basically means that they are legal codes that dictate the proper behavior and form that the people in the community should adhere to, but pervasive to even mundane or practical ways of living, such as eating, cleaning, going to the bathroom, yes oddly specific stuff - well beyond evaluation of moral action, integrity, or virtue of a person and his conduct. Once you realize that Islam is just window dressing and deceptive as a matter of practicality for Christianity, which may have many historical reasons, you'll just find that basically they hate "jews" more and still call christians sinners and idolaters with their "shirk" (associating partners with God), so effectively any commonality is just hating you less, but still calling you a liar (God deceived you guys by substituting someone to make you think Christ was crucified, or it appeared that way).

JR5 said:
What is interesting is that they don’t seem to feel such extreme emotions toward Islam and Muslims today; in fact they appear more or less neutral toward them, except perhaps to fear physical violence from them, to encourage them to vote Democrat for mutual political gain, and to calculate their impact in relation to Israel’s security (ultra-conservative Wahhabi Saudi Arabia is a close ally of Israel).
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Very insightful. I'd chalk this up to the "underdog" mentality of America and the peoples of the world, who prioritize the elevation of different or less achieved groups, which is part of egalitarianism/leftism and its chaos, linking to your other point ...
JR5 said:
Other races feel like subjects of Western power long after colonialism, imperialism, and slavery have disappeared.
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And why wouldn't they? One of the things I understand, because I understand people and their envy as you noted, is that no one likes being reminded of the realities of the world. It's obvious that men have certain aptitudes and they are attacked now too. That has happened to the greatest civilizations ever, most of which (and certainly the most technological and convenience based) or all, are European. Everyone knows this and can't hide from it, but rather than be humble and accept reality, and seek God since this world is passing away anyway, they keep up this lie and continuous disdain for the most competent, well achieved, and efficient people. They even hate that they have portions of beauty, physically and in their culture, that also are the most elite. Whether it's good or not, people seek what Euros have and have produced, history can't be more clear.

One of the things about the red pill and conservativism in general is accepting reality, admitting how things are, and then doing our best to be a steward in light of the good and bad that we have in the fallen world. This, however, takes humility. An analogy might be something like knowing your older brother is a better athlete, smarter, and better looking than you are. And you hate it because you are insecure, not because your older brother did anything to you, per se. But your father still loves you the same, and calls you to do what you must do in this world, because this world isn't all there is. That is, of course, where the God pill comes in.
 
I forgot to mention this, but Green is of course mistaken. He's got it all in reverse, or doesn't understand the trajectory of things. They weren't "chosen" if you look at the whole story, but it was to this group of people whom God first revealed various things, yes the one true God. They were chosen for the beginning of the revelation with a plan. The point he is missing of course is that Christians don't adopt the jewish God, they rightly understand who God is, and now the confusion is that those who are called "jews" have changed what and who God is, since they rejected God. Thus, they provide a challenge in their anti-Christian beliefs and behaviors, that were absolutely checked and put down for centuries, as we all know. That in the enlightenment and later part of this age they became resurgent is a different issue; this is what he's talking and complaining about, but even then it's still mostly the secular leftist cultural "jewish" group ... who doesn't even believe in God! It is a very confusing topic for most people since it's all language games and if you don't understand second temple judaism, Christ, Christianity, or history you will easily be fooled or get lost.
JR5 said:
Romans had treated Judaism as an unexceptional sect among a multitude of sects that the Roman Empire managed without special status or preferment.
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This is not correct. They were revered to a degree, since they had an ancient religion. Even Titus when he entered the Temple found nothing in the Ark, reportedly, or evidence for God/idol, so he said they worship with their minds (an elevated way in Roman thinking). Apparently, he did take the Menorah and paraded with it during the after the victorious siege/sack of Jerusalem. One must mention that they were driven out of Rome many times, however, for acting up or not doing what the Romans wanted them to do religiously, or if the Romans lost a war they blamed the jews for no sacrificing to the gods for a victory in battle, etc. If they were "unexceptional" they wouldn't have had many roman citizens as donors to the jewish temples, known as the god-fearers (some dispute this but it is a mainstream idea with historical and textual references in greek).
 
Without looking at specific dogmas (e.g. Jesus was born of a virgin), a monotheistic religion ideally requires at least the following elements:

1. Ethical Law. An ethical and moral system, i.e. how to act in this world. Generally it covers not causing harm to others.​
​
2. Love thy neighbor. Fair and ethical treatment of “outgroups”. This could be seen as a subset of 1, but I think it needs separate consideration, because the fact is that most ethical systems distinguish – de facto if not de jure – between different groups. We are well aware of this in Islam, with the concepts of “taqiyya (deceiving infidels) and “dhimma” (second class status of non-Muslims), and the extreme in-group preference of Jews. But even in systems like Confucianism and Chinese culture, you will be treated radically differently depending on whether or not you are “in the family” so to speak, and this is viewed as normative and perfectly acceptable. So we are talking about altruistic actions, and not merely refraining from harming others.​
​
3. The Holy and the Eternal. A concept of the holy: Of the necessity of worshipping God, and also of working to achieve likeness and closeness with God, as well as a notion of eternal life: That this life is both transitory and less important than the next life.​

Looking at it from this perspective – and this will involve a lot of generalizing and painting with a broad brush – we can compare Judaism, Islam and Christianity. And it isn’t a black and white or neat and tidy comparison, as there are liberal and conservative groups in all three religions. (I believe that there are individual Jews, Muslims and Christians who hold to all three of the above tenets.) But to generalize, one could state the following:

A liberal, fairly secular Jew may only have 1, but lack 2 and 3. A traditional religious Jew may have 1 and 3 but be lacking in 2.

Likewise, even many traditional Muslims lack 2. But many Muslims also appear to lack 3: i.e. Islam is essentially a secular and imperialistic political project: What matters is spreading Islam in this world, regardless of how this is done. Another way of viewing it would be to say that they lack 1 and 2 while having a powerful but skewed version of 3. We can see this most clearly in who is considered a martyr in Islam vs. in Christianity. Christian martyrs “do not return evil for evil” even where it means their own torture and death. The stereotypical Islamic martyr suffers death while engaged in offensive battle.

This is not to say that Christians generally have all three. In fact, I would say that most of Christianity today lacks 3: A true sense of holiness and the type of faith that would embrace death. Much of Christianity has become, by and large, a moralistic and altruistic but very worldly project. I call it “NGO Christianity”. The pro-masking, pro-vaxxing and enthusiastic voluntary shutting down of churches during Covid under the pretext of political pressure reflected this attitude in spades: Christians thought they were being “nice”, while showing zero regard for the value of suffering in this world in order to serve the eternal.

Anyway, my point in the context of this thread is that both Judaism and Islam are distant from (ideal) Christianity in their failure (by and large) to have a universalist outlook as well as in some cases no meaningful conviction in, or a skewed belief, in holiness and the eternal.

We can add a 4 that has already been discussed and is by definition exclusive to Christianity, namely the belief that God became man and dwelt among us, and other specific dogmas. In both Judaism and Islam, God is distant and unbridgeable. For Christians, God can be personal and tangible as a result of the incarnation in a way that He cannot be for Jews, Muslims, or any Deist.
 
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