Lets think about what is written for all to view:
Christianity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament.[2] Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God and the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2001, Christianity is the world's largest religion.[3] It is the predominant religion in Europe, the Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Philippine Islands and Oceania.[4] It is also growing rapidly in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea.[5]
Christianity shares its origins and many religious texts with Judaism, specifically the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament.[6] Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is classified as an Abrahamic religion (see also, Judeo-Christian).[7][8]
The name "Christian" (Greek Χριστιανός Strong's G5546), meaning "belonging to Christ" or "partisan of Christ",[9] was first applied to the disciples in Antioch, as recorded in Acts 11:26.[10] The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" (Greek Χριστιανισμός) is by Ignatius of Antioch.[11]
Beliefs
Although Christianity has always had a significant diversity of
belief, mainstream Christianity considers certain core doctrines
essential.
Jesus Christ
-
As indicated by the name "Christianity", the focus of Christian theology is a belief in Jesus as the Messiah or Christ. The title "Messiah" comes from the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (māšiáħ) meaning "the anointed one" or "King." The Greek translation Χριστός (Christos) is the source of the English word Christ.
Christians believe that, as the Messiah, Jesus was anointed as ruler
and savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus's coming was the fulfilment
of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept.[12]
The core Christian belief is that, through the death and resurrection
of Jesus, the perfect Son of God, mankind is reconciled to God and
thereby attains salvation by grace and the promise of eternal life to
all who trust in Christ. The need for salvation was caused by original sin.
While there have been theological disputes over the nature of Jesus, most Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate and "true God and true man" (or both fully divine and fully human). Jesus, having become fully human in all respects, including the aspect of mortality,
suffered the pains and temptations of mortal man, yet he did not sin.
As fully God, he defeated death and rose to life again. According to
the Bible, "God raised him from the dead",[13] he ascended to heaven, to the "right hand of God",[14] and will return again[15] to fulfil the rest of Messianic prophecy such as the Resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and establishment of the Kingdom of God (See also Messianism and Messianic Age).
According to the Gospels, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the the virgin Mary.
Little of Jesus' childhood is recorded in the Gospels compared to his
adulthood, especially the week before his death. The Biblical accounts
of Jesus' ministry include his baptism, miracles, teachings and deeds.
Death and Resurrection
-
The Crucifixion by Diego Velázquez (17th Century)
Most Christians consider the death of Jesus, followed by his resurrection, the cornerstone of their faith[16] and the most important event in history.[17]
According to the Gospels, Jesus and his followers went to Jerusalem the week of the Passover where they were eagerly greeted by a crowd. In Jerusalem, Jesus cleansed the Temple,[18] and predicted its destruction[19] - heightening conflict with the Jewish authorities who were plotting his death.[20]
After sharing his last meal with his disciples, Jesus went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane where he was betrayed by his disciple Judas Iscariot and arrested by the temple guard on orders from the Sanhedrin and the high priest Caiaphas. Jesus was convicted by the Sanhedrin of blasphemy and transferred to the Roman governor Pilate, who had him crucified for inciting rebellion. Jesus died by late afternoon and was entombed.
Christians believe that God raised Jesus from the dead on the third
day, that Jesus appeared to his apostles and other disciples, commissioned
his disciples to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son (Jesus) and of the Holy Spirit."[21] and ascended to heaven. Christians also believe that God sent the disciples Holy Spirit (or Paraclete).[22]
Salvation
-
Christians believe salvation is a gift by unmerited grace of God, who sent Jesus as the savior. Christians believe that through faith in Jesus one can be saved from sin and spiritual death. The crucifixion of Jesus is explained as an atoning sacrifice, which, in the words of the Gospel of John, "takes away the sins of the world". Reception of salvation is related to justification.[23]
The operation and effects of grace are understood differently by
different traditions. Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy teach the
necessity of the free will to cooperate with grace.[24] Reformed theology places distinctive emphasis on grace by teaching that mankind is completely incapable of self-redemption, but the grace of God overcomes even the unwilling heart.[25]
The Trinity
-
Most Christians believe that God, an uncreated, eternal and spiritual being, is omnipotent and created and sustains all things, and worked the redemption of the world through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Against this background, belief in the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit was expressed as the doctrine of the Holy Trinity,[26], which describes the single Divine substance existing as existing as three distinct and inseparable persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ the eternal Word), and the Holy Spirit.
According to the doctrine, God is not divided in the sense that each
person has a third of the whole; rather, each person is considered to
be fully God (see Perichoresis).
The distinction lies in their relations, the Father being unbegotten,
the Son begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding.[27]
"Begotten", in these formulae, does not refer to Mary's conceiving
Jesus, but to the Son's relationship to the Father, which is described
as being "eternally begotten" of the Father.
Trinitarian Christian also conceive of salvation as one work of the
triune God, in which "the three divine persons act together as one, and
manifest their own proper characteristics."[28]
Trinitarian Christians trace the orthodox formula of the Trinity —
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — back to the resurrected Jesus himself,
who used this phrase in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).
Most Christians believe the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures,[29]
and that his active participation in a believer's life (even to the
extent of "indwelling" within the believer), joining the believer's
free actions with his own, is essential to living a Christian life.[30] In Catholic, Orthodox, and some Anglican theology, this indwelling is received through the sacrament called Confirmation or, in the East, Chrismation.
Most Protestant traditions teach that the gift of the Holy Spirit is
symbolized by baptism; however some (Baptists and comparable groups) do
not attribute any sacramental significance to baptism. Pentecostal and
Charismatic Protestants believe the baptism with the Holy Spirit
is a distinct experience separate from other experiences like
conversion or water baptism, and many Pentecostals believe it will
always—or at least usually—be evident through glossolalia (speaking in tongues).
Non-Trinitarians
-
In antiquity, and again following the Reformation, several sects
advocated views contrary to the Trinity. These views were rejected by
many bishops such as Irenaeus and subsequently by the Ecumenical Councils.
During the Reformation, though most Catholics, Orthodox, and
Protestants accepted the value of many of the Councils, some groups
rejected these councils as spiritually tainted.[31] Clement Ziegler, Casper Schwenckfeld, and Melchior Hoffman advanced the view that Christ was only divine and not human. Michael Servetus denied the divinity of Christ, as did others who were tried at Augsburg in 1527.[32]
Modalists, such as Oneness Pentecostals,
regard God as a single person, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
considered modes or roles by which the unipersonal God expresses
himself.[33]
Latter-day Saints
accept the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but deny that
they are the same being, believing them to be separate beings united in
will and purpose.[34] (see Godhead)
Present day groups who do not consider Jesus to be God include Unitarians,[35] descendants of Reformation era Socinians and Jehovah's Witnesses.[36]
Scriptures
-
Christianity regards the Bible, a collection of canonical books in two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, as authoritative: written by human authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and therefore the inerrant Word of God.[37] Protestants believe that the scriptures contain all revealed truth necessary for salvation (See Sola scriptura).[38]
The Old Testament contains the entire Jewish Tanakh,
though in the Christian canon the books are ordered differently and
some books of the Tanakh are divided into several books by the
Christian canon. The Catholic and Orthodox canons include the Hebrew
Jewish canon and other books (from the Septuagint Greek Jewish canon)
which Catholics call Deuterocanonical, while Protestants consider them Apocrypha.[39]
The first four books of the New Testament are the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), which recount the life and teachings of Jesus. The first three are often called synoptic because of the amount of material they share. The rest of the New Testament consists of a sequel to Luke's Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles,
which describes the very early history of the Church, a collection of
letters from early Christian leaders to congregations or individuals,
the Pauline and General epistles, and the apocalyptic Book of Revelation.[39]
Some traditions maintain other canons. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
maintains two canons, the Narrow Canon, itself larger than any Biblical
canon outside Ethiopia, and the Broad Canon, which has even more books.[40]The Latter-day Saints hold the Bible and three additional books to be the inspired word of God: the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.[41]
Interpretation
Though Christians largely agree on the content of the Bible, there is significant divergence in its interpretation, or exegesis. In antiquity, two schools of exegesis developed in Alexandria and Antioch. Alexandrine interpretation, exemplified by Origen,
tended to read Scripture allegorically, while Antiochene interpretation
adhered to the literal sense, holding that other meanings (called theoria) could only be accepted if based on the literal meaning.[42]
Catholic theology distinguishes two senses of scripture: the literal
and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical,
moral, and anagogical
senses. The literal sense is "the meaning conveyed by the words of
Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound
interpretation." The allegorical sense includes typology, for example the parting of the Red Sea is seen as a "type" of or sign of baptism;[43] the moral sense contains ethical teaching; the anagogical sense includes eschatology and applies to eternity and the consummation of the world.[44]
Catholic theology also adds other rules of interpretation, which
include the injunction that all other senses of sacred scripture are
based on the literal,[45] that the historicity of the Gospels must be absolutely and constantly held,[46] that scripture must be read within the "living Tradition of the whole Church",[47]
and that "the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops
in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome."[48]
Many Protestants stress the literal sense or
historical-grammatical method,
[49]
even to the extent of rejecting other senses altogether. Martin Luther
advocated "one definite and simple understanding of Scripture".
[50] Other Protestant interpreters make use of typology.
[51]
Protestants characteristically believe that ordinary believers may
reach an adequate understanding of Scripture because Scripture itself
is clear (or "perspicuous"), because of the help of the Holy Spirit, or
both. Martin Luther believed that without God's help Scripture would be
"enveloped in darkness",
[50] but John Calvin wrote, "all who refuse not to follow the Holy Spirit as their guide, find in the Scripture a clear light."
[52] The
Second Helvetic Confession
said, "we hold that interpretation of the Scripture to be orthodox and
genuine which is gleaned from the Scriptures themselves (from the
nature of the language in which they were written, likewise according
to the circumstances in which they were set down, and expounded in the
light of like and unlike passages and of many and clearer passages)."
The writings of the Church Fathers, and decisions of Ecumenical
Councils, though "not despise[d]", were not authoritative and could be
rejected.