Judaism or Christianity, I need to choose but I don't know what my heart says?

Question

My mom is Jewish but she's not religious, my dad's christian. They raised me very secular. They agreed on I should be the one who choose. I talked to reverends and rabbis. I asked them to be objective. In a nutshell, both said I should listen to my heart. They said heart never lies. The thing, I'm listening to it but it doesn't seem to say anything at all! What do you think I should do get clear guidance from my heart? I feel really uncomfortable. What if I die tomorrow, will I be judged as a christian or jewish? Or the worst, someone who lacks a religion?

No, I'm not gonna be an atheist or buddhist. Without God, there's an empty hole in life (that's what I think).

Answer 1

The Christian follows his heart

the Jew follows his heart

the Muslim follows his Heart

the Mormon follows his heart

the Buddhist follows his heart

the Shinto follows his heart

the Hindu follows his heart

the Witch follows his heart

the Satanist follows his heart

the atheist follows his heart.

People make different choices because they are making THEIR choices. They are picking what they want to believe.

They can't all be right.

You need to follow what is right.

You have two choices.

You can try to figure it out yourself or you can ask God to guide you.

I say do both. As God earnestly and go about your search.

Religion is for knowing God. You can make up what you want . God is who God is not what you want to imagine him to be.

Pray with all your heart and wait for his answer not yours. The answer will come at the right time for you.



From a Christian



All this time we have been told that Jews don't proselytize. Seems that it is not true judging from these answers.

Answer 2

Judaism or Christianity?? Perfect example of a dysfunctional family.....Brought up very secular??? No Wonder kids today are all screwed up. No one in the family house hold has any leadership abilities.. Almost as if they want to be your friend rather than your parents.. No final decision making from neither of them..

If there is a empty hole without the Lord , don't you think you should by now , know something about him??? This would make your decision a lot simpler.

Answer 3

I think you should ask yourself what you have faith to be true. Do you believe that Jesus came and died on the cross for your sins, and he is the messiah and son of God? Which would put you in the Christian category. Or do you believe that he has not come yet but he will, believing that there is a messiah but Jesus was not it and he never came here to cover your sins, that would put you more toward being Jewish. Maybe read an overview of both, pray and ask God for clarity and for him I speak to your heart and give you the answer. He will anyways answer it just takes time.





Also I just want you to understand something about the verses that "Ladyren" posted to you;

First: all from the Old testament-- before jesus came and died for our sins. God is more about the law in the old testament and the new testament focuses on his love for us, WHICH WE FOLLOW TODAY BY THE WAY. the old testament is no longer the "contract" we follow, Jesus came and died the death we deserve so the God could forgive us and now we have the new testament thanks to Jesus Christ!



And second, those verses is God talking about the Nations that are either enemies of israel( his chosen land and people) or it is a city that is filled with sin and disgusting things that God hates. Before Jesus came and died for us and showed us the Lords compassion, God did expose his wrath on the sinning nations that murdered, and cheated, adulterer, lied etc, Don't listen to that person, they know nothing. Read the new testament and see how much God loves you!

Answer 4

Why don't you just believe in God, without religion?



There is a fundamental flaw in the mindset of religions. For example, one parent is Jewish and one Christian? Both were told that their religion was the right one to heaven, but obviously both cannot be correct, right? The way I see it, neither is, because every other religion around them is claiming the same.



I think the only important part is what you feel, and if neither sticks out to you, pick neither. If God is such an important part in your life, hold onto it and don't think about the religions attached on the side, because they are hardly important.



Oh, and you mention that your parents would let you choose? Then, this I think is probably the best choice. If it is a matter of trying to "hear your heart" you've already heard it. Neither sticks out to you, so pick neither, just pick what's important to you now.



Good day to you, sir.

Answer 5

Ok, first of all I'm Jewish. So that's my bias. But I'll try to be as unbiased as possible.



I'm kind of puzzled as to why your rabbi and everyone else would tell you to "follow your heart". Not impressed. Because really, what kind of advice is that? How are you supposed to know what your heart is saying? What if you're not a heart-reader? And what if your heart just doesn't know? How is it supposed to know, anyway?

I dunno, Judaism's not about what your "heart" feels. It's about reality. I don't think kids are born with the knowledge that 1+1=2. They're taught it, and it makes sense, because it's reality, but do they know it because their heart told it to them? Or what about more complicated math concepts? Or anything complicated in the world? There would be no universities around today if people were able to just figure out what the truth was by "following their hearts". Anyone who thinks that you can choose between Judaism and Christianity with your heart is discrediting them both. You choose what slice of cake you want with your heart. Or what color shirt you put on in the morning with your heart. You don't choose your religion and whole life's belief with your heart. Again, I'm very unimpressed with your rabbi if what he said was that "the heart never lies". Of course the heart lies. Let's say you're trying to lose weight, and you get tempted by an awesome piece of cake. Your brain tells you not to eat it. If you think about the consequences and the meaning of what you're doing, you wouldn't do it. But your heart - it pushes you, to despite any consequences, to just DO it. Just because you want to. Just because it tastes good. And your heart convinces you that it's all worth it. That nothing bad will happen if you do. That your brain is being stupid. Oh yeah, the heart definitely lies. You better believe it lies. And people believe their lying hearts all the time.



It makes zero sense to accept anything as reality without a concrete reason that's better than "that's where the wind blew me". If you're actually interested in living your life according to what the reality about the world is - which is all religion is really about - then I strongly suggest that you involve your brain.



Now, for advice on how to go about figuring it out, what I'd suggest you do is talk to an extremely religious and knowledgeable Jewish person, and an extremely religious and knowledgeable Christian, and find out from them what their reasons are. I'd assume they could give you what to go on and how to go about doing more research (your original rabbi and priest were obvious fails though, unfortunately). What religion you go with should NOT be about what you feel. It should be about what you know, what you realize to be true. Religion, at least in my view, is about truth. You're going to dedicate your life to it, so you'd better hope it's true. Of course it also will feel right if it's true. Of course it will feel amazing if it's true. Judaism feels right, feels fulfilling, and all that. But is that why I think you should choose it? No. I think you should choose it because it's true. So you have to find that out for yourself.



Take a look at my answer to someone who asked a sort of similar question, on the topic of how to figure out which religion is correct https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20110922071108AAJnY7O



Also, just since you asked -

According to Judaism, if you died tomorrow you would be judged according to what you knew and what you were able to do under the circumstances. You obviously wouldn't be punished for not keeping laws you never knew about. You would be held accountable for what you were aware of yet didn't do, but that would be temporary, and then you'd be rewarded eternally for all the good things that you did. According to what I gather from Christianity, I think if you died tomorrow you'd go to Hell forever if you didn't accept Jesus into your life and all that.



By the way, I'm guessing the rabbi you went to was reform, right? I'm saying that because what you say he told you does not sound like Judaism's stance on things. Reform is a kind of secular Judaism, not really hardcore at all. If you do want to give Judaism any chance at all in your Judaism vs. Christianity dilemma, you're going to have to be willing to judge Judaism based on real Judaism, and not the cop-out versions which were invented within the past couple hundred years. *My humble opinion*. Peace. And wish you much luck.

Answer 6

Yes, without God there sure is an empty hole!



I would say Christianity. Jesus' existence is well documented. It is a religion that has tons of evidence supporting it.

Answer 7

If your mother is jewish you are jewish period. You should begin studying judaism from legitimate traditional sources and begin a dialogue with a competent orthodox rabbi. Its shame that your mother first intermarried at all and then did you the double disservice of not insisting that you are raised jewish and given a proper jewish education.



Your parents are obviously not going to be any help for you and even a hindrance in terms of your pursuing a religious life, but you cant choose who your parents are and any rabbi will recognize this and will attach no stigma to your father being a gentile.



As for getting "hear my heart" and not "choose this religion" advice, im sorry to break it to you but thats not how it works, anyone who says differently is doing you no favors. The heart is the dominion of the evil inclination, a jew is to take the torah and jewish law, and train the mind and good inclination to dominate the realm of the heart, emotion, and earthly desires to instead serve G-d instead of the self. Only when the good inclination dominates the evil inclination in such a manner that you desire to serve Hashem with your emotional faculties will "following your heart" have anything near a good outcome.



In your present state of ignorance, and your total separateness from the jewish people and HAshem (which are both matters of circumstance and not your fault) following your heart is probably the worst choice you could make. If you did this you would certainly remain secular, become an apostate, or only adopt one of the watered down versions of judaism which dominate mainstream conscientiousness today (reform, reconstructionist, conservative, messiantic).



Any of these choices, anything short of real Jewish practice will add culpability to what is already a life absent your purpose as a jew. So as i said go learn and start returning to a proper jewish life and your place in the jewish community.



Feel free to contact me.

Answer 8

there is this if you follow the Lord Jesus Christ and you get born again ( born of water and the spirit ) you will be able to enter heaven and you will not be under the law as the Jews are this is why Jesus Christ came to do away with the law most Christians are under grace. if you are still not sure go to this web site ( www.livingwaters.com. ) Shalom

Answer 9

Instead of your heart, give logic a try. The answer should be clear.

Answer 10

In my opinion, the only truth religion is the catholic

Answer 11

Give them both a try and see what suits you best.



@ Beware: Muslims accept Mohamed even though Allah rejected him.



Allah killed Mohammad to show he wasn’t a true prophet & he also brought him to shame.



Qur’an 69:44-46—And if he (Muhammad) had forged a false saying concerning Us We surely should have seized him by his right hand (or with power and might), and then certainly should have CUT OFF HIS LIFE ARTERY (AORTA). (Hilali-Khan)



Qur’an 69:44-46—And if he had fabricated against Us some of the sayings, We would certainly have seized him by the right hand, then We would certainly have CUT OFF HIS AORTA. (Shakir)



Tafsir Jalalayn on Qur’an 69:44-46—And had he, namely, the Prophet (s), fabricated any lies against Us, by communicating from Us that which We have not said, We would have assuredly seized him, We would have exacted vengeance [against him], as punishment, by the Right Hand, by [Our] strength and power; then WE WOULD HAVE ASSUREDLY SEVERED HIS LIFE-ARTERY, THE AORTA OF THE HEART, A VEIN THAT CONNECTS WITH IT, AND WHICH IF SEVERED RESULTS IN THAT PERSON'S DEATH.



Mohammad wanted to die in the cause of Allah.



Sahih al-Bukhari 2797—The Prophet said, . . . “By Him in Whose Hands my soul is! I would love to be martyred in Allah’s Cause and then come back to life and then get martyred, and then come back to life again and then get martyred and then come back to life again and then get martyred.”



But that is not what he got a Jewish woman poisoned him. Mohammad inflicted a lot of torture to the Jews and Jewess Zaynab's family was not spared by Mohammad. And secondly, Mohammad called women deficient in intelligence.



But here we have a Jewish woman who poisoned Mohammad. Allah allowed a Jewish woman to poison Mohammad. Thus bringing Mohammad to shame disgrace and humiliating him.



Let's see what Mohammad says after he has had the poison.



Sahih al-Bukhari 4428—The Prophet in his ailment in which he died, used to say, “O Aishah! I still feel the pain caused by the food I ate at Khaibar, and at this time, I FEEL AS IF MY AORTA IS BEING CUT FROM THAT POISON"



Sunan Abu Dawud 4449—Umm Bishr said to the Prophet during the sickness of which he died: What do you think about your illness, Apostle of Allah? I do not think about the illness of my son except the poisoned sheep of which he had eaten with you at Khaibar. The Prophet said: And I do not think about my illness except that. THIS IS THE TIME WHEN IT CUT OFF MY AORTA.



According to Qur'an 69:44-46, if Muhammad were a false prophet, Allah would sever his aorta. Interestingly, when Muhammad died, he said he could feel his sorta being severed.



So we have Allah who not only severed Mohammad's aorta but added to his degradation by making him die at the hands of a Jewish Woman.



To conclude: Nothing what I have said about Mohammad comes any where near what Allah says about Mohammad. If you take all the human insults towards Mohammad like the Danish cartoons, the Satanic verses etc & roll it up into a big ball even then it comes no where close to what Allah did to insult Mohammad by severing his aorta. Allah is Mohammad's biggest critic.



Now are you Muslims going to run around screaming that Allah is an islamophobic bigot because he insulted Mohammad? Or are you going to accept correction from the Almighty?



Islam means submission. Muslims think it means submission to Allah but Allah has already given his answer. He commands you to reject Mohammad. If you continue believing in Mohammad, what you are really saying is Allah cannot make me stop believing in Mohammad I don't care what Allah says I will believe in Mohammad anyway.



But in that case Islam isn't submission to Allah but to Mohammad.

Answer 12

Oh, is this the god that makes your life empty?



I see you have never read the Bible...





"And I the Lord will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend." - Jeremiah 19:9



"Behold, I the Lord will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it." - Malachi 2:3



"Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you" - Deuteronomy 28:53



"The King asked her, 'What’s the matter?' This woman said to me, 'Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we'll eat my son.' So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give up your son so we may eat him,' but she had hidden him....The king said, behold, this evil is of the Lord." - 2 Kings 6:28-29,33



"Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open!" - Hosea 13:16



Frankly, I'm just delighted that this nut job really doesn't exist.



How awful to meet such a vicious jerk in a dark alley.

Answer 13

read your New testament. If God enlightens you, and you believe it, you are a christian. If you read it and don't believe it you are in trouble.

Answer 14

Orthodox Jew

Answer 15

If you're looking for "how to hear your heart" advice, you're not looking for Judaism. What is your current concept of God? Are you strongly connected to a particular concept that you're struggling with? This is something you need to figure out..in your head, not your "heart". I ask that first because you say you have an "empty hole in life" without God, but what is it you think God will do for you that you cannot do for yourself? What are you expecting God to fill? If you don't know what God is, how would you know that God is going to fill the "empty hole"?

I would not seek to study with any rabbi who tells you that your heart never lies and that's how you should make a decision when the Torah obligates us to use our discernment to determine if something is real and true. Judaism encourages testing, questioning, continually..striving to do better and to help others along the way.

Judaism is more about deed than creed. There is a difference in striving to righteousness and behaving self-righteously as there is in discernment/judgment and behaving judgmentally. Jews may make the same mistakes all people make, but we have the covenant of Torah , the ethical precepts and values within. The very name of our people, Yisrael, means struggle with God. Tikkun Olam is a way of living that seeks to connect to God through striving to better this world, restore the earth to justice, mercy, brotherhood, a harmonious balance for all living things now and in generations to come after us. It honors God's gift of life and does not obsess with the afterlife. Teshuvah is a way to better ourselves by admitting when we do something wrong to hurt or harm or act in selfishness, to make amends with acts as best we can, ask the one wronged to pardon us and we make a sincere effort to not do the same mistake, then we ask God to forgive us and expect that it will be granted if we do our part. Torah teaches that we are partners with God and our fellow living creatures working to repair and restore the world to harmony and a state of perfection. As a Jew I find fulfillment of a sense of purpose and gratitude in the ethics that honors repairing anything out of harmony, any and all injustice or oppression, any poverty, sickness, or imbalance in the environment as a means to embrace the gift of life God gave us. May you find that your study of Judaism will enrich your life whether or not you one day take your place as a member of the tribe as your birth to a Jewish woman gives you the right, Judaism is not about blind faith. It's astonishing to me, as a Reform Jew that any Rabbi would not have told you this!

You are telling us here you don’t want help choosing which religion but help to “listen to your heart”. No one can tell you how to know yourself if that is what you imply, but it does reveal that you lack a centeredness in a sense of who you are, of belonging, something that is also a basic need of the social human, to belong..Your situation is a reflection upon the fact that your parents failed in their obligation to give you a sense of identity. You are not responsible for their failure and your situation is not an uncommon one.



The lack of guidance to develop your own discernment and sense of grounding in who you are has left you easy prey for the cultist or to be misinformed. I wish you much luck on your journey of self-discovery and discovery of Judaism.

Judaism is a religion whose doctrines and laws serve many purposes. Traditions arose over the centuries and throughout many different Jewish communities to honor the laws and covenant between God and Israel. Direct commandments in the Torah tell Jews how to honor many of the ethical precepts for every generation for eternity. They set the Jewish people apart as a covenant nation dedicated to exclusive worship of an incorporeal omnipotent Creator God who is One. The laws, holy observances and traditions honor the covenant relationship and the obligations of Israel as a covenant nation set apart in service to God and humanity.

In every generation Jews are obligated to live according to the laws of the covenant. Just as in our modern legal system, laws are often up for interpretation how to apply them to a changing world, changing technologies, changing world view and knowledge. Over the centuries new traditions arose, (such as the hiding of the Afikomen matzoh at a seder for example) that over time become so established that they're accepted as the way they always were but they're still honoring and fulfilling the basic core precept of the covenant all believing Jews honor as eternal.



edit: Please note, there is absolutely NO movement or branch of Judaism that uses the New Testament dogma. Period.

Answer 16

listen to the Noble Quran and I GUARANTEE you will feel something even if you dont know Arabic

http://upquran.com/saud-al-shuraim.html



give it a try please :)

Answer 17

then just be a deist