STORY OF JESUS IN OTHER FAITHS

Attention Readers: This is just summary review of a documentary I watched and do not include any of my idea. I thought I should share this with you.


A British Theologist, Robert Beckford travelled around the world to investigate the ‘Story of Jesus in other Faiths’. He gave a briefed on Christian faith. He said that Christians believe Jesus is a son of god and was crucified and resurrected. He did not separately investigate the belief of orthodox, catholic and Protestants.
He then travelled to Israel which is Major Jew’s state. He found out that Jews deny Jesus as messiah and son of god. According to Jews faith Jesus was born due to an illegitimate act of Mary (Mother of Jesus). Jew opposes the beliefs of Christians. They compare Christians as Nazis which reminds them of Holocaust in World War II. Documentary also showed a group of young people who was campaigning for ‘Jesus for Jews’, who said that they are Jews but believes Jesus is a Jew and was born in Israel. But people who believe in Jesus in Israel cannot live peacefully due to the public oppression. A couple who faced various threats due to their faith was showed as evidence. In an interview, they talked about the threats they received like ‘to kill them like Jews crucified Jesus a century’s ago’ and they also mentioned that every night people gathered in front of their house but did not get much help from police to stop this cruel acts.
Then, he travelled to Kashmir, Srinagar where he met controversial Sufi professor Husain who argued that Jesus escaped the crucified attempt and migrated to Kashmir. In Kashimir Jesus was known as Yosuf. Professor Husain showed some of the documents from 2nd Century as an evidence, which seemed more like as novelist writings. He also claimed that Jesus was buried in Kashmir which is now a holy place for Muslims. Mr. Robert managed to visit the Tomb but was escorted by another person as government prohibits Professor Husain entering into this Holy place due to his controversial stories. The person who escorted Mr. Robert told that the Tomb is not of Jesus but a Tomb of another prophet.
In search of more stories, he then travelled to Palestine, Egypt, India and Europe. He met with Rector of Azhar University of Egypt which is the largest Muslim University in the world. The Rector answered his question in Arabic which was translated to English. According to Rector, Jesus was not crucified but taken by Allah and will save the world from Anti Christ and rule world for 40 years before judgement day. In his interview he did not give reference to any holy book, however mentioned about the cruelty of westerners towards Muslim world giving Iraq and Afghanistan as an example. To add more evidence Mr. Robert questioned a Sheikh from Palestine, who answered with reference to Quran and gave more evidence comparing the believes with books of people (Christians and Jews) but again here the language was a barrier. But Sheikh said that Jesus ( Issa Alaihi Salaam –PBUH) is not son of God in fact is a messiah (prophet) of Allah from Israeel ethnicity who was send to spread Islam, but people of Israel opposed him and group of people went against him. He also mentioned that Jesus (Issa alaihi salaam) was not crucified instead the leader of the group was crucified and Jesus will be send to Earth before the judgement day. When Mr. Robert asked when is judgement day, the Sheikh replied saying ‘no one knows only god knows’. Mr. Robert however, said that he finds similarities between the signs of judgement day (dooms day) mentioned in the Bible and Muslim beliefs.
He also managed to research ancient findings on Jesus and studied the documents found in 1945. He said that the documents do not mention birth, death and resurrection of Jesus but gave insight ideas of the teaching of Jesus. He questioned the librarian if these documents will be a threat to the traditional belief of Christian and she strongly agreed. He then compared with the Ghandi philosophy of non violence with Jesus teaching and other non violence movements. It felt to me that Mr. Robert wanted to tell it is not the story or the traditional beliefs which matters but the teachings.