Judaism vs. Christianity

I often tell my parents that I believe we might actually be Jewish, and the reason I believe this is because my father's father was from Lithuania. The Republic of Lithuania is located along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. When the Jews were run out of Russia, they fled to Lithuania. Many of my father's cousins, aunts and uncles have Jewish names such as: Bernard, Monica and Edie. The problem is that when Jews fled to Lithuania they often changed their last names to Christian names so that they were not killed for their religious beliefs. Well, my father's family changed their name several generations in a row. Even my father changed our last name to Gray, and I'm sure if my father had had a son he'd change his last name too...although I'm not sure you could make Gray any shorter! I'd love to admit the name he changed it from, but he yells at us anytime we tell our friends. It's always, "Why did I even bother changing it if you girls are just going to tell the whole world what it used to be?!" At any rate, if at anytime in the future I decide to trace my family history it's going to be difficult because of the long line of name changes.

I find it interesting however, that Christianity and Judaism in the Old Testament are actually very similar. Jesus and his family followed Judaism all their lives. Jesus' followers believed he was the messiah, which was predicted in the Bible. It was the people who were not his followers as well as Jewish followers of today who believe Jesus Christ was not the messiah, but that the real messiah is yet to come. Both religions do believe in one God though, and that is comforting to me because I've come this far believing in God that I think it would be hard to stop believing now. In addition, having grown up believing in Jesus as the Son of God and the savior of the world, it would be hard if I decided to follow Judaism to believe that Jesus was actually a false prophet.

What I do find particularly interesting is that Judaism believes in "right action," meaning that what you do on Earth now while you are alive is what will be factored into where you go after death. Judaism is about making the right choices in life while you are physically alive, and that it's too late to ask for forgiveness when you are near death or already dead. Christianity on the other hand believes in "correct belief," meaning that it is never too late and you have never sinned too much to ask for forgiveness. Even if you are on your death bed in prison, you can ask for forgiveness from the Lord and you will be reconciled. Judaism is also fundamentally characterized as the religion of love, in that their Great Commandment is to "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Therefore, If you love yourself, then by default you have to love your neighbor if you do not want to sin.

Despite all of the similarities and differences between Judaism and Christianity, I am going to have to admit that I do not think I could ever believe in Judaism simply because this religion does not believe that Jesus was the savior. I am trying to find the religion that best suits me, not find one that I have to suit. So I am going to have to decidedly rule out Judaism.