Christianity

From Conservapedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Risaacs (talk | contribs) at 02:39, October 18, 2009. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Christianity is the world's largest religion, having 2.1 billion followers. It is a monotheistic religion that professes belief in Jesus as the Son of God. Christianity takes its name from Jesus Christ meaning "Jesus the Savior" and "Jesus the Anointed One". Followers of Jesus are called Christians, meaning "of Christ" or "belonging to Christ".[1]

Jesus5.jpg
Christianity

Foundations
Jesus Christ
The Gospel

Bible
Old Testament
New Testament
Ten Commandments

Christian Theology
Trinity: Father,
Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit
Atonement
Nicene Creed
Creation
Defense of Christianity
Salvation

History and Traditions
Messianic Judaism
Roman Catholic Church
Arianism
Orthodox Church
Crusades
Protestant Reformation
Counter Reformation
Protestantism
Missions
Great Awakening
Social Gospel
Mainline
Liberal Christians
Evangelical Christians
Fundamentalism

Important Figures
Saint Paul
Saint Athanasius
Saint Augustine
Thomas Aquinas
Martin Luther
John Calvin
Jonathan Edwards
John Wesley
Pope

Main Christian groups

 
Anglican Christ Church in Western Australia

The three largest self-governing bodies of Christians are:

  • The Roman Catholic Church (approx. 1.1 billion baptized members) traces its roots back to Saint Peter who Catholic believed established the Church and the succession of the Popes as the spiritual authority over the Christian body of believers.
  • The Orthodox Churches (approx. 300 million baptized members) also trace their roots back to the beginnings of Christianity, but do not believe in the Primacy of the Pope. Different theological perspectives led to the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches in A.D. 1054.
  • Protestantism, the largest Communions are the Anglicans (approx. 77 million baptized members) and the Lutheran World Federation (approx. 68 million baptized members). Protestantism has its origins in the European Reformation. It first broke away from the Roman Catholic Church under Martin Luther when differences over the nature of faith and works in the role of salvation could not be adequately reconciled with Papal prescriptions as well as other practices that Luther saw in the Catholic Church at that time that he did not agree with. Other preachers and movements then followed Luther's example and also left the Catholic fold.

Christian Beliefs

STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD STEPHEN COLBERT IS GOD

Resurrection of Jesus Christ

 
"The Resurrection" by Carl Heinrich Bloch

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is critical to the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul wrote, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain" (I Cor:15:14). Traditionally, Christianity has believed in a physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.[2]

In recent history Gary Habermas is considered the foremost Christian apologist for defending the resurrection of Jesus.[3][4][5][6][7] Other notable defenders of the resurrection include: William Lane Craig,[8] Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell,[9] Edwin M. Yamauchi,[10] N.T. Wright[11] and Michael Horner.[12]

The Meaning of the Resurrection for Christians

The Fact of the Resurrection of Christ is a key element of the preaching of the message about Jesus and an essential of Christian belief. But there are also certain effects that this belief has on the lives of believers.

1. It is because Jesus rose from the dead, that believers now can resort to a living Savior to help and deliver them from sin and from situations overwhelming for them by their own powers.

2. The New Testament sees in the resurrection of Christ a certain vindication of what apparently to the world and to all beings was a failure and an overcoming of Him by His crucifixion. He was "declared to be the Son of God" by His resurrection. This brings believers in Him to a strong confidence in the determined power of God to both vindicate in their own lives and to bring His reign upon earth.

3. The coming of Jesus back to life means to the believer that, indeed, their sins are totally forgiven. This is because believers know that His death was as a payment for sins - a "wage of death" for our sins that He received in our stead. If He remained dead, believers would know that the wage had not been fully paid. His resurrection, carries with it our knowledge that our sin with its attendant death has been totally and finally paid for.

4. It is a now living Savior that Christians know can go before them, can closely lead them through life - as He did when He was on earth. This makes following Him practical and real.

5. The New Testament reveals that it is the Risen Christ who received from the Father the Holy Spirit and He, through Himself ascended to the Father, has given the Holy Spirit to us. This gives the believer in Christ both the knowledge and the power to live a godly life, and live a life that can be an intimately and personally directed one.

6. The resurrected Christ was no mere reassembling of the molecules and particles of the Body that had been crucified. It was, indeed, a physical body, but one that was fully under the Spirit's control, guidance, and empowerment. It was a "spiritual body". Christians know that likewise, they will one day be granted the nature of a spiritual body, and full of health. They therefore are full of hope and consolations, and consider that even now in this life, there is an overcoming through Him, a restoration, and that tears, even now, are wiped away.

Evangelism

In what is called the Great Commission, Jesus sent his disciples out into the world to preach the Gospel (literally "good news") and make disciples.

Great Commission
But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." --Matthew 28:16-20 NASB
 
The Departure of the Apostles by Charles Gleyre.


History of the name "Christian"

The early Christian faith was sometimes called That Way, (Acts 19:1,9,23; 24:22) and the church its adherents were also called Nazarenes, (Acts 24:5) evidently after the city of Nazareth where Jesus lived. Probably close to A.D 50 the Book of Acts (Acts:11:26) records that "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." The title Christian is also used in Acts 26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16, and likely is referred to in James 2:7, "Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?"

Early Church: Community and Commitment

The Bible records that that at least initially, the church was a single organic community, in which

they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. {43} And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. {44} And all that believed were together, and had all things common; {45} And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. {46} And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common."(Acts 2:42-47; 4:32)

This community was soon "scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles" due to determined persecution, which resulted in the dispersed disciples going "every where preaching the word." (Acts 8:1,4)

Other evidence indicates believers had their own houses and goods. (Acts 10:6; 16:14,15,40; 21:8; 1Cor. 11:22; 1Tim. 6:17; Philemon)

Early ecclesiastical writer and leader Tertullian (A.D. 160 -220), in his Apology (response to pagan charges) in describing the early church community (197 A.D.) stated,

We are a body knit together by one faith, one discipline and one hope. We meet together as a congregation, uniting together to offer prayer to God. We pray for the emperors and all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for peace and for the delay of the final end. We read our holy scriptures to nourish our faith, hope, steadfastness and good habits. We hear exhortations and rebukes. We take such judging very seriously – as befits those who believe they are in the sight of God – especially seriously when anyone sins so grievously we have to cut them off from our prayer, our congregation and all sacred things. Our elders preside over us, obtaining that honor not by money, but by their established character. There is no buying and selling in the things of God. Though we have a fund, but not because people can buy religion. Once a month, anyone who wants to makes a small donation – but only he who is able and willing; there is no compulsion. It is not spent on feasts, but to support and bury poor people, to provide for orphans, the elderly old persons, victims of shipwreck and those in prison for their faith.[13]

Pliny the Younger, the Roman governor of Pontus & Bithynia (northern Turkey) from A.D. 111-113, reporting to emperor Trajan of Christians, whom such pagan rulers found intolerable, wrote,

...in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome.
... Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ--none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do--these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.
They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food--but ordinary and innocent food.[14]

Also See

 
Orthodox Church's icon artwork.

Denominations or branches of Christianity

Disputed

Other articles

Further reading

Encyclopedias

Histories

United States

  • Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A religious history of the American people‎ (1979) 1192 pages; classic history from broad perspective excerpt and text search
  • Balmer, Randall. Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism (2nd ed. 2004), 655pp
  • Lippy, Charles H. and Peter W. Williams, eds. Encyclopedia of the American religious experience: studies of traditions and movements (3 vol 1988) 1872 pages; standard reference work; long essays by scholars
  • Noll, Mark A. A history of Christianity in the United States and Canada‎ (1992), by leading Evangelical historian excerpt and text search
  • Queen, Edward L. et al, eds. Encyclopedia of American Religious History (3rd ed. 2 vol. 2009) 1200pp
  • Reid, Daniel G. et al. eds., Dictionary of Christianity in America (199)
  • Wooley, Davis C. ed. Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists‎ (5 vol 1958-19820; 2565 pages

References

  1. ↑ Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
  2. ↑ http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/crj0056a.txt
  3. ↑ Habermas, Gary, Experiences of the Risen Jesus: The Foundational Historical Issue in the Early Proclamation of the Resurrection, Dialog: A Journal of Theology, Vol. 45; No. 3 (Fall, 2006), pp. 288-297.
  4. ↑ "Wildcat" and Holding, J.P., Book review of "The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus", 22nd June, 2004 (Tektonics)
  5. ↑ Habermas, Gary, Jesus' Resurrection and Contemporary Criticism: An Apologetic Criswell Theological Review 4.1 (1989) 159-74.
  6. ↑ Habermas, Gary, [http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/crj_explainingaway/crj_explainingaway.htm Explaining Away Jesus' Resurrection: The Recent Revival of Hallucination Theories], Christian Research Journal / vol. 23, no. 4, 2001.
  7. ↑ Habermas, Gary, Why I Believe The New Testament Is Historically Reliable (Apologetics.com)
  8. ↑ Craig, William Lane, Articles: Historical Jesus
  9. ↑ McDowell, Josh, Evidence for the Resurrection, 1992.
  10. ↑ Jamauchi, Edwin M., Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History?
  11. ↑ Wright, N.T., Early Traditions and the Origins of Christianity, Sewanee Theological Review 41.2, 1998.
  12. ↑ Horner, Michael, Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?
  13. ↑ Defense by Tertullian (39), Trans. Rev. S. Thelwall. Modernized, abridged and introduced by Stephen Tomkins. Edited and prepared for the web by Dan Graves.
  14. ↑ Pliny the Younger Letters, 10.96

External Links

Retrieved from "https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Christianity&oldid=711404"