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The Monotheistic Concept of God and the Afterlife
Concept of God
The monotheistic tradition of God
includes the idea of a covenant, or promise, of God. The
covenant is a trust placed upon human beings to believe in
God, to worship only Him, and not to worship any other gods.
 All
three Abrahamic faiths share many ideas about the nature of
God. He is the Creator of the Universe. What's more, the
scriptures describe God’s characteristics, or attributes.
They include His justice, mercy, and power over all of
Creation.
Another shared concept of God is that He is omnipresent, or
present everywhere at all times, and not distant or removed
from the world. And each human being can approach God and
become nearer to Him, through prayer and other acts of
worship.
Theology is the study of the nature of God. It developed as
an important intellectual tradition in the Abrahamic faiths.
Theologians have written thousands of books discussing the
characteristics of God, trying to grapple with ideas that
seem to contradict each other and affect the human
condition.
For example, the idea that God created human beings with a
free will seems to contradict the idea that God decides the
fate, or outcome, of each person’s life.
Meanwhile, the idea of evil in the world and disasters that
happen to innocent people seems to contradict the idea of a
merciful, benevolent God. These questions concern people in
traditions other than the Abrahamic faiths, but there is
much shared philosophy among them.
The Afterlife
The scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths
describe the promise of God to judge all human beings on
Judgment Day. After humans have died, they will be rewarded
or punished according to God’s justice. The promise of God
is for eternal life after death, in a heavenly paradise.
Equally, those who do evil will be punished in Hell.
All of the faiths believe that God requires human beings to
show mercy to others and do good deeds, such as helping
others. In return, He will reward those who have faith and
do good works in this world.
Some Christians differ over the importance of having faith
versus doing good works. They believe that human beings are
only granted salvation by the grace of God and His mercy,
not by virtue of good works.
However, the scriptures indicate that the most important
thing for human beings is to have faith in God; He will
grant mercy to whomever He wills, and forgive their sins or
wrongdoing. Back to
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