Sunday, January 07, 2007
Reading 3 - Christianism
“ Cut the ‘I’ feeling clean across, and let
your Eternity. ”
INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIANITY
Christianity is the religion of those who accept Jesus Christ as God incarnate, and are guided by the Holy Spirit, and participate in the fellowship of the Christian Church. Christianity was founded within the Judaism faith. Christians hold that Jesus Christ is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. The Christian belief was at first taught by the Apostles by word of mouth; however the need for a written record of Jesus Christ’s life and teaching was soon fulfilled by the Gospels.
Challenged in the 19th and 20th centuries by Materialism, Atheism, and Agnosticism, the Christian Churches have come under severe pressure in many parts of the world. The ecumenical movement of the 20th century has sought to unite various Schisms. The belief of Christianity is based on the New Testament and for most Christians is summarised in the traditional creeds of the Church. The doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation of Christ, and the Resurrection are central, as is Christ’s role as the redeemer of mankind. The total number of Christians has been estimated at more than 944 million, or approximately 24% of the world population. Christianity has moulded the shape of Western civilisation, and has been carried by missionaries to nearly all the countries of the world.
There are many kinds of Christians who interpret the way of life Jesus prescribed in different ways. Christians interpret these ways to help them best live the life they believe Jesus commanded. The three major “ways” or sects of Christianity are Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox. However, all Christians regardless of sect, believe that Jesus is the Son of God who became a man, lived in a particular place during a particular historical time, was put to death, rose from the grave to a new life, and lives now as the Lord of the Universe and the Lord of history.
THE BIBLE : SCRIPTURES OF CHRISTIANITY
The Bible consists of 66 books in total. That is 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. In these books there are 1189 chapters all together, 927 chapters in the Old Testament and 620 in the New Testament.
The Old Testament consists of : 1) The Law, 2) The Historical Books, 3) The Poetical Books, and 4) The Prophetic Books. Overall, it deals with ancient Prophets and Kings of the Hebrews. While the New Testament contains the life teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles. It had been promised in the Old Testament that God would send a Saviour. Jews believe that their Promised Saviour was not Christ and is yet to come. Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Promised Saviour. The New Testament consists of : 1) The Historical Books, 2) The Epistles And Letters, and 3) The Prophetic Books.
THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST
Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, a small town Southwest of Jerusalem. His parents took him to Egypt for a period to escape a threat to His life posed by Herod, the Rome-appointed king. After returning from Egypt, Jesus Christ and His parents settled in Nazareth, a town in Galilee, a Jewish province in the northern part of Palestine.
Jesus Christ grew up in Nazareth and worked as a carpenter when He came of age until He was about thirty years old. At that time, He moved from Nazareth to Caoernaum, a town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and became a preacher. After being Baptised or ceremonially bathed to remove all sin, Jesus Christ began His own mission of preaching that the reign of God was at hand. During nearly three years of preaching, in which He made an extraordinary impression on all who met him.
Jesus Christ came into conflict with some of the Jewish religious authorities. They had Him put to death by the Romans; who were the military, economic, and political rulers of Palestine. Jesus Christ was condemned to death by crucifixion. After having been scourged by the Roman guards and crowned with thorns, He was forced to carry a cross to Golgatha, a hill of execution outside the city of Jerusalem. He was nailed to the cross and exhibited to curious onlookers between two thieves who were also crucified. After three hours on the cross, Jesus died. After a Roman guard ran a spear through His heart to insure His death, He was taken down from the cross by his friends, anointed with burial oils and herbs and buried in a tomb near Golgatha. He was about thirty-three years old.
Jesus Christ’s career as a preacher was marked by unusual ability as a speaker, and by many signs that led a great number of people to accept him as a messenger of God. He was, as later events showed, a very extraordinary person who had influence on people's lives, the course of history, the development of civilisation, and people's awareness of the nature of God and the relationship that all of creation has with God.
As unique as the person and career of Jesus Christ was, the event which told His followers who He was and how unique He really was, was His resurrection from the dead. His followers said they saw Him alive, talked, ate, and met with him several occasions after He had been buried. When they became convinced of who they believed Him to be, they preached about Him, not simply as the Messiah which is a term meaning a human person sent by God to lead the Jewish people to their days of glory, but as the Son of God; God Himself, expressing Himself as a human person.
JESUS CHRIST & HIS TEACHINGS
In various cities that were visited by Jesus Christ, the inhabitants received him warmly. He came to them with a special message of hope. Many could not afford the special sacrifices that had to be taken annually to the Temple at Jerusalem. The priests had told them that such sacrifices must be offered if they wished to be in God’s favour. Jesus Christ said that that the offerings of a loving heart and a pure life were far more important to God.
There were Jewish laws telling the people what to eat, and how the food should be served according to their religious customs. Jesus Christ told them that they should not be worried about the laws for their literal meaning, but to remember the inner significance of the laws. The laws emphasised two things: love of God and love of the neighbour.
Not all people liked what Jesus Christ had to say. There were many Jews who felt that a man could not live a good life unless he fulfilled each Jewish Law in the most exacting detail. Some of the religious leaders became very angry as Jesus Christ’s reputation as a healer increased. They thought that sinful people deserved to suffer. What right did Jesus Christ have to make them feel that they had been forgiven? God alone knew whether they were forgiven.
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Many followers could not understand what it was that Jesus Christ was saying when He described His ideas of the Kingdom of God. He emphasised again and again that people did not have to wait until conditions were ideal in order to live in the right way. A man is what he is inside himself. This quality of the inner life is not determined by occupying armies, by exact following of laws, or by large offerings at the Temple. The thought you have before you speak is more important than what you say. The attitude you have underneath your act is more important than what you do.
Jesus Christ told stories to make the Kingdom of God seem real to his listeners. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, smallest of all the seeds. But when it is grown, the mustard plant is very large. Just so, the Kingdom of God within is at first so tiny that one may not even be aware of it. But when it is fully developed, it overshadows everything else in a person’s life. The Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man discovered it, he rushed out and sold everything he had in order to buy that field. In the same way, when a man discovers the inestimable value of the Kingdom of God, he gives up everything for it.
To Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God was the ultimate goal of all human effort. There was really nothing else worth seeking. Men were designed to live in such a Kingdom. It did not depend upon a certain time or a certain place. The Kingdom of God required only righteous people as its citizens, only mercy, kindness, and love as its laws. Wherever there were righteous people using mercy, kindness, and love as their way of life, there was the Kingdom of God.
THE CHRISTIAN TRINITY
The doctrine of the Trinity is difficult to understand because no other teaching of the Church ventures so deeply into the nature of God himself. Christians confess that the one true God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of the Christian life. One cannot enter into the full meaning of God as He was revealed to the first Christians unless they enter into the meaning of the God who is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Christianity focuses upon God as the Creator of all things, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, who revealed Himself to Israel by His great redeeming acts. He delivered the enslaved people of Israel from Egypt; He led them through their wilderness journey; He gave them a land of their own; He sent them Prophets and Kings. And through all these events Israel came to worship the Lord as a God of Righteousness and Grace. Even when the nation faced ruin in the face of foreign invaders, a remnant in Israel saw that the Lord was somehow working out His purpose for His people.
Fifty days after Jesus Christ’s resurrection, the disciples experienced in Jerusalem an overwhelming event. All who spoke in this supernatural power interpreted it to mean the fulfilment of Jesus Christ’s promise. His Spirit; the Father's Spirit had come to fill them and empower them to be witnesses of God's work for them and in them.
The early Christians intended to designate something genuinely threefold when they spoke of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They knew that the Trinity is more than three attributes or three appearances of God. Within His own mysterious being God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Within the Godhead there are three persons who are neither three Gods nor three parts of God, but coequally and coeternally God.
In summary, The Father is God, The Son is God, and The Holy Spirit is God. The result is not three Gods, but one. What they share equally and completely is deity. At the same time, The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father.
FESTIVALS OF CHRISTIANITY
Christian festivals are recollections of God's saving actions through Jesus Christ in the past, and in the present. These Liturgies, as they are called, are the Churches official, public worship of God through Jesus Christ. Although various Christian groups celebrate these actions in various ways, and each group has its own special feast days, all Christian groups celebrate three major feasts: Easter Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, and Christmas Day.
Easter Sunday, the most important feast day for Christians, celebrates what Christians believe was Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Christians believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the second day after his death by crucifixion. It is also a celebration of a present reality for Christians : Jesus Christ's presence in his Church and the resurrection of all people to a new life in God.
Pentecost Sunday, celebrates what Christians believe took place some fifty days after Jesus Christ's crucifixion. They believe that on that day the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles to enlighten them about Jesus Christ. It is also the celebration of a present reality for Christians: the action of the Holy Spirit in the continuing creation of the world, and his action, in the life of each Christian.
Christmas Day, December twenty-fifth, celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Although it celebrates a specific event in history, it also celebrates what is for Christians a reality : the presence of God in the world.
For further reading, refer to Heart2Heart publication:
BE A GOOD CHRISTIAN… A TRUE CHRISTIAN… A BETTER CHRISTIAN
(Heart2Heart - Volume 4 - Issue 04 - April 2006)
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