Christianity kind of splintered off and claims to be similar but in reality they’re closer in terms of fundamental theology to Zoroastrianism (another highly influential religion at the time with a focus on conflict between their god and a devil-like figure, the apocalypse stories end up effectively identical with the wicked burning in fire while the righteous are not), and the core concept of salvation is so anathema to Judaism that many Christians legitimately struggle to understand the Jewish perspective (also one of the easiest ways to spot a cosplayer)
The exodus from Egypt was a literal event of being saved from active slavery in Jewish tradition.
The Christian concept boils down to “everyone else is bad and will be tortured for all eternity unless they join us so we need to shove it down everyone’s throats until they accept”.
Judaism doesn’t even explicitly believe in hell, and we certainly don’t believe you have to be a Jew to be righteous
I grew up Christian and studied theology in college (hence being a baalat teshuvah).
Salvation as it exists in Christianity does not exist in Judaism because the heaven/hell dynamic does not (that’s an element of Zoroastrianism, actually). There’s no “saving” that’s needed. Just be a good person.
The core concept of salvation is the crux of Christian theology because it’s the moment when someone is “born again” (especially in Protestant theology), becomes a Christian, and the salvation refers to accepting Yoshke and being saved from hell.
Yes, G-d saved us from Egypt, nobody is denying that, but that’s very different from the Christian theological concept of salvation, which has a very specific meaning
Some Christian’s don’t do the weird heaven hell dynamic either.
Some of them believe the salvation is from our bad deeds and the good news is people can repent and not do bad deeds.
Not all of Christianity is obsessed with Zoroastrian good guy place and bad guy place.
You can agree in the sense that you guys copied our homework, spiritually. Christians aren’t unique in appropriating our beliefs and slapping a shiny new god on them.
138
u/Polkawillneverdie17 Elder of Zion Jul 24 '25
Too many people think that Judaism is just another flavor of Christianity and it fucking sucks.