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Christian

The Christian Flag

The Christian Flag

 

Introduction to Christianity

 

 
 

 

 

This is a portal that I am beginning on this website, by the time the website is finished we will have pages on the following: (Should there be a hyperlink where the text is then that page has been completed and all pages will open in the same window unless you command it otherwise.) 

  • Calvary Chapel
  • Christian Basics
  • Christian Denominations
  • Christian History
  • Christian Hot Potatoes
  • Creationism
  • Crosses
  • Justification by faith or grace?
  • Revelation and End Times
  • The Bible
  • Who was Jesus Christ?
  • Why become a Christian? 

So as you can tell, it will be quite an exciting section. I hope to include more once I get the basics done. There will be other sections and also present sections will be getting more content as we grow and as I personally have time to get it done. 

I will be honest, as a Christian, my hope is that you will read these pages and come closer to God. If you are not a Christian, then this will ignite a spark that you wish to know more. If you know that God exists but are unsure of your salvation, then I would love to hear from you. I am willing to offer counselling in these matters. If you wish to contact me, please see the contact page at the top bar. 

I could write millions of pages on this website about Christianity and about my personal experience. But I have decided that this page is only to be a quick overview, I will also go into further detail as we get more specific. This page is really a “nuts and bolts” of Christianity. 

Quick overview of Christianity 

If I had to describe what Christianity is in a few sentences it is simply the following. It is the desire to submit yourself fully to God’s plan and God’s will for your life. If is the unwavering devotion of a day to day relationship with Jesus Christ. It is about accepting who Jesus Christ is and what his mission was. Lastly it is about being transformed from an old sinful being to a new creation. 

Now Christian’s are called after the man known in history as Jesus Christ. I prefer to refer to him as Jesus of Nazareth or simply Jesus. Now Christ was not his surname, Christ was the title given to him. Christ comes from the Greek word “Christos” which means in English:

Christ = “anointed”

     1) Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God

     2) Anointed 

Now the word Christ is used 569 times in 530 different verses in the New Testament. From those numbers, if you are not willing to accept who he said he was. He was certainly an important figure. 

Now Christians believe that Christ was the Son of God. That he is part of what is known as the Trinity. (I will go more in depth on this later if you require a fuller explanation)  If you read the book of John in the New Testament, John goes to great pain to explain and to re-iterate the fact that Jesus was the Messiah that the Jewish people had been waiting for. 

Christ is also important for our calendars. In the Julian time system (and also in the later Gregorian time system) we use such terms as BC and AD. BC Stands for Before Christ and AD stands for Anno Domini which in Latin translates “In the year of our LORD” 

There has been in recent years a tendency to cast away the terms BC and AD for a more umbrella style fashion BCE and CE (Before Common Era and Common Era) under many guises from political, scientific and the old chestnut “simply not wishing to offend other religions”.  ON this website you will always see the terms BC/AD as well as the corresponding dates on all of my newer blogs to include the Hebrew date also. 

Christianity started as a Jewish sect, it started in the traditional hotbed of Judaism in the Jerusalem area and spread from there. It was not without it’s persecution and many of the early Christian converts and leaders of the church were Martyred for their faith. By the 4th Century AD, Christianity had been adopted as the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. 

The Christian holy book is the Bible, it is separated into 66 divisions called books, and there are 27 books in the New Testament and 39 books in the Old Testament. I am of course referring to the standard King James Bible. (For other translations and other variations on the Bible I will go through them in the relevant page) 

In order to understand the mission of Christ, you must first have to look at why we needed saved in the first place. In the first book of the Bible in Genesis, we meet two people called Adam and Eve. In Genesis chapter 2 these two were told they could live in a garden paradise and only had one instruction, do not eat of a certain tree in the midst of the garden. In chapter 3 they blew it and started a process known as “sinning”. 

Now God had mercy on his people, after the original sin, the people became quite wicked. God sent a worldwide flood to get rid of the sinning people and spare one faithful family called the descendants of Noah. God started a process known as “blood sacrifices” and these are all mentioned in the book of Leviticus. 

Christ came on a mission to “fulfil” the law’s of atonement. Christ said in Matthew 5 verse 17: 

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 

Christ came to minister to Gods chosen people, the Jews and offer himself up as the sacrifice. Here was God in the flesh and God’s own people wanted him dead. At the time of the calendar the Jews called Passover (See Exodus 12) Christ was crucified and rose again on the third day. 

After seeing him raised from the dead, his disciples turned from mousse to mighty warriors of the Gospel. They set about telling all who would listen, both Jew and Gentile that Gods salvation was available to all. 

That’s where we are now, Jesus is waiting for you to accept him. My prayer is that these few words will help you decide to follow Christ. 

God bless