Introduction
Christianity, is named so because of it is based solely on the belief in the life, death, and resurrection of the historical person Jesus of Nazareth, a first century Jew, who was called by His disciples The Christ. The word Christ, as translated in Greek, was a Title that meant “The Messiah” or God’s “Anointed One”. This was an affirmation that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Jewish God’s promise to send His Messiah to save the people. Who He actually was, and the way in which He saved them, and all the rest of us, it turns out, was highly unexpected and was heaven-and-earth shattering. The reason He was sent was to defeat sin and death permanently and to provide a means for mankind to enter back into a right relationship with God.
All a person must do to become a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus—to allow Jesus Christ to be both their LORD and their SAVIOR. This begins with an understanding of what sin is and why it has separated you from God. We begin to repair our relationship with God by repenting which just means to understand, acknowledge, and hate sin, confess your sins to God and then turn away from continuing them. Forgiveness of your sin is given to you through Jesus Christ when you accept Him as your SAVIOR (“Christ” means the anointed one God sent to save you) and then allowing Jesus to be your LORD (your God, King, Master, Leader, Teacher). As you begin to follow Jesus He will help you to sin less and to become more like Him. Through Jesus you will develop a profound spiritual relationship with God and discover new meaning and insight as God reveals to you His purpose for your life.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:16-17) See also: (Isaiah 59:1-2) (Ephesians 2:1-5) (Romans 7:14-20) (Ephesians 2:8-9) (Romans 3:22-24) (1 John 4:9-19) (John 17:3) (Galatians 4:4-7)
Biblical Christianity
Exclusive Truth Claims. Christianity is often criticized as being arrogant for claiming to be the way to God. However, Christianity is far from being the only religion that makes this claim for exclusive truth. Many religions claim to be the most or only correct one, to have a better understanding of reality, to have the right methods to access God, or the best way to live rightly, and thus they all make exclusive truth claims. Some religions, for example, Hinduism or Buddhism suggest that there many different paths one can take in this lifetime with many different roads eventually leading to liberation either in this life or in another.
While certainly appearing more open-minded on the surface, each of these religions is based on foundational principles that contradict other religions, and furthermore appear vague lacking any kind of definitive certainty. Even making a definitive statement over virtues, like “murder is bad” or “unselfishness is good”, is to a make truth claim that goes beyond your personal opinion by stating that these statements are eternal divine truths that are recognizable to all, despite your religion, culture, or society. In addition, if these are “true” laws that are eternal and knowable, wouldn’t that then suppose that there must be an eternal law-giver?
Even simplistic ideologies like “god is love” or “god is everything” make a truth claim. If “God is love” and “everything is God” then the question one begs to ask is then who or what is causing all pain and suffering? Even belief in religious pluralism (believing that more than one religion can be correct) also make a truth claim. By making this claim, they themselves claim that all monistic religions, such as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, that claim to be the only true path, are actually then false.
This is likely an even worse position to take, since while not believing that they themselves know which is the true path, they still make the claim that the others, who do make this claim, are wrong anyways. However, rather than considering religions as right or wrong, or good or bad, we believe that you should consider all religions as valid systems of belief that you should approach with reverence and respect, weighing their evidence and logic, and make a determination for yourself about which of them is more likely to be divinely-inspired scripture or teaching that will better lead you towards God.
It’s All About Jesus. Christianity is different than all other spiritual belief systems or religions because it is rooted, and based on, a singular historical person—rather than specific divine laws to follow, or even concepts, principles, or ideas about God and the spiritual realm. For example, Judaism or Islam are based on teachings, the ways in which man can earn a right standing before God. The majority of world religions share this common characteristic. They are usually centered on what we should do, rather than who we are.
By contrast, Christianity is grounded solely in an actual, historical person—who claimed Himself that He was the way and the truth. It is through Him personally, and everything is completely dependent on His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, being literal, historical events. It is faith in this man, who exactly He is and what He did exactly, that provides eternal life for Christians—not what they do themselves. There are subsequent beliefs and practices of faith of course, but these are secondary. How the Christian demonstrates that they actually do have faith is how they live their life and submit to the teachings and the example set forth by Jesus. For Christians, salvation is not earned later on, but rather, received now by grace through faith in Christ. It is by God’s grace that the Holy Spirit dwells in baptized Christians and they can have a personal experiential relationship with Jesus in this life, as well as the next.
Traditional Christianity Hinges On Historical Jesus. Because the historical Jesus is central to the Christian faith, Christians have painstakingly sought to preserve the original teachings and historicity of Jesus as well as ancient Judaism. Ancient history, geography, culture, religious ideologies, language, etc. all provide insight to better understand the text itself as well as the context surrounding the events and affecting the authors at the time of the original writings. The metaphysical complexity of Jesus and His teachings about the spiritual realm transcended everything people had thought about God/the gods. Christianity has thus inspired an incredible amount of theological, philosophical, literary, and scientific thought over the past two millennium.
This even includes helping to birth several new disciplines including: Christian apologetics (the discipline of defending the position through systematic use of information); textual criticism (the discipline of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism concerned with identification and removal of transcription errors in ancient texts); and historical criticism (literary criticism that investigates the origins of ancient text in order to understand “the world behind the text”). Ultimately, all disciplines coalesce with the teachings of the early church to form the foundation of Traditional Christianity. This all begins with a thorough understanding of who God is and who Jesus is.
The Holy Bible is THE witness when it comes to knowing exactly who God is, who Jesus is, and what He did. The Bible is the authority on how to know God, to know His ways, to understand Him, the meaning and purpose for our lives, and where we should find comfort and hope. The English word “Bible” comes from tà biblía in Greek and it means “the books”. The Bible, in it’s current form, is actually a compilation of many individual books written by 40 different authors, over a span exceeding 1,500 years. It was originally written primarily in Hebrew and Greek on parchment or papyrus scrolls. It is separated into two primary divisions, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word testament means covenant, or binding-agreement, and refers to important promises that God made to mankind.
The Old Testament consists of 39 books that are commonly-accepted by all Christians, written between 1446 – 400 BC, by a prophet named Moses and then by God’s other appointed prophets, judges, kings, and others during the history of the Israelite “Jewish” people. Through the many historical stories, poems, prophecies, songs, prayers, wisdom, and instructions we learn how the universe began and see the way God relates to humanity, both His chosen people in particular and the nations in general. These are the exact same books included in the Jewish Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh) only in the Christian Bible they are arranged differently. (For Apocrypha see footnotes at bottom of this page)
The New Testament consists of 27 books/letters that are universally-accepted by all Christians, written between AD 48 – 95, shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus in AD 30. The first four books, the Gospels, (meaning “good news”) narrate the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. The next Book of Acts tells the story of the first Christian disciples and the first 40 years of building the early church. The next 13 books, the Epistles, are actually short letters written by the Apostle Paul in between AD 48 – 67 to the leaders of the first churches that he founded giving them instruction and guidance. The next 8 are also Epistles and the final book of prophecy called Revelation and have been attributed to James, the half-brother of Jesus, and others including the Apostles Peter, Jude, and John. (Timeline)
The Bible is the source for determining Christian beliefs. The Bible contains the core teachings of Jesus, his eye-witness followers, and the people who helped them build the early church in the first century. Jesus and his contemporaries confirm the ancient scripture (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) as reliable as the ancient witness of God. The Bible provides everything a person needs to know for salvation and right living. The Bible has proven itself as a collection of extremely reliable historical documents.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) (2 Peter 1:20-21) (2 Kings 17:13-14) (Nehemiah 9:30) (1 Corinthians 2:13) (1 Peter 1:10-11)
Beyond The Bible. While the Bible should always be your ultimate authority, accompanying the Holy Spirit leading your conscience of course, Christians should dedicate themselves to a lifelong journey of education, implementation, and renewal. Christians should read and study the Bible regularly, participate in group study, learn from the teachers of the past, and learn from each other in the present. Christians should also continue to expand their knowledge beyond the pages of the Bible.
The church itself is an active body of knowledge and much can be learned from studying the evolution of beliefs within the Christian tradition. The unbeliever without faith, or any personal experiential relationship with God, or the church, can certainly pick up a Bible and form radically different ideas about who Jesus is and what He meant. At the very least, one must begin by taking the Biblical text at its own word, and afford it at least a temporary consideration, that there is a reality beyond the physical one and that spiritual deception and cult/religious movements used for that purpose of deceiving is very literal and very real.
An extraordinary amount of effort has been given over the past two millenia by the church and secular scholarship to better understand and support Biblical scripture. This includes the teachings of the early church from the second-century on, ancient history, culture, language, the growth of church traditions, and all supplemental beliefs that all provide an opportunity to better understand our interpretation of the lens with which we look at the Biblical record.
Even following the Bible alone calls upon some faith in God to work in the many believers that came before our time to get the biblical canon developed, transmitted and translated into its current form. Christians will come to faith and continue to renew their faith when they dedicate themselves to a lifelong journey to know the truth about God and dedication to their relationship with Him. We multiply our efforts when we learn from others within the Christian community as a whole. The Christian who continues to seek God will undoubtedly find Him. We take Jesus at His word:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
The Bible, and essential doctrines and creeds (official statements of belief) defined by the early church are the basis for a proper foundation of Christian beliefs. These earliest creeds form a proper understanding about who God is and who Jesus is, and they are shared by all traditions within Christianity.
Will The Real Jesus Please Stand Up?
“Who Do You Say That I Am?” (Mark 8:28-29) Throughout Christian history church leaders have fought to keep the Gospel message correct and pure. Even in the first century there were false teachers (also called heretics) such as the Gnostics who would attach Jesus’ name and credibility while promoting a radically different message than the historical accounts proclaimed by apostolic (first-hand follower) eyewitnesses. Fortunately, we have the preserved letters of the Apostles Paul, Peter, John, and Jesus’ brother James that actually knew Jesus rebuking these false teachings during the formation of the first churches.
Another reason to trust the New Testament scriptures is that Jesus and his followers were all Jews. The Old Testament scriptures perfectly laid the foundation for expectation that the God of the Jewish people (YHWH) would send a God-himself appointed King, that was also somehow suffer and pay the penalty for others, that would be King David’s descendent yet still be his Lord, that would rescue all people and end death and suffering forever.
There are prophecies in the Old Testament with over 100 specific requirements of the Messiah making it all but impossible for the Messiah to be anyone other than Jesus. Jesus himself confirmed the reliability of the Old Testament understanding of God and of the Hebrew scriptures and personally claimed to be the fulfillment of God’s promised Messiah.
The alternate concepts about God and Jesus presented by false teachers from the 1st to the 5th centuries introduce new age concepts and negate what we learn about God and Jesus from first century eyewitnesses or the Old Testament scriptures. And if the God of the Hebrew scriptures is as He claims repeatedly to be, which is trustworthy, eternal, never changing, and never makes mistakes then we know that anything taught by Jesus isn’t going to contradict what He has already revealed.
We learn more about the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and more about God in the New Testament. By studying how God has revealed Himself in His creation of the world and how He has directly interacted with mankind throughout history as recorded in scripture, we continue to gain an even better understanding of Him. The Holy Spirit of God, who spoke through the Prophets in the Old Testament scriptures, was the helper Jesus promised to send to be with His disciples after he left.
Using the writings of the Apostle Paul and others, the Holy Spirit illuminated God’s grace and invoked an even more profound understanding of God. The Holy Spirit has remained with us and continues to work in believers all over the world. As God, and as Jesus promised, He will also never contradict the Father or the Son. What has been revealed in the inspired Word (Bible) can be trusted. His presence to this day continues to attest to and illuminate the words of the Bible for believers further testifying to it’s accuracy.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) See also: (Deuteronomy 32:39) (Deuteronomy 4:2) (Psalms 110:1) (Psalms 45:7) (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Micah 5:2) (Isaiah 7:14) (Isaiah 25:8) (Isaiah 59:16) (Isaiah 61:1) (Matthew 1:22-23) (John 8:54) (Luke 24:25-27) (Matthew 22:29) (John 16:13) (John 8:32)
False Christs and Teachings
Unfortunately, False Jesus’ And New “Understandings” About Him Still Pop Up Now! In fact, it has happened all throughout history, with each cult having it’s own new ideas that even conflict with each other. Jesus warned His followers this would happen. The Bible teaches that earth is the battleground for a spiritual war and the enemies of God do not want you to love or follow God or know the teachings of the true Jesus.
There are many ways the enemy has deceived people into creating alternative cults and religions. In the meantime, rest assured that the amount of reliable, historical, physical evidence we now have that supports the Bible as a collection of reliable historical documents—let alone a spiritually-inspired book—is just astounding. We have more than 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament with over 5,800—written in the original Greek language—prior to the 4th century!
We have one fragment within one generation from its original composition, whole books within 100 years of the original, most of the New Testament in less than 200 years, and the entire New Testament within 250 years. In addition, there are also some 86,000 quotations from early church leaders quoting scripture from the original manuscripts creating a reliable ancient record for over 99% of the New Testament alone. The argument that the Bible is copies of copies of copies and translations of translations is absolutely absurd. Bottom line? You can TRUST the Bible! We know that what the actual, historical Jesus taught and that what the early followers of Him actually believed are what we have in the Bible!
Compare any “new” teachings you receive about Jesus or God with what the Bible says. Called heresies, many of these abstract “new” ideas were already taught by somebody at one point, and through ecumenical (worldwide) councils discussed, disputed, and determined false by the very early Christian (catholic) church. So they are in fact, not new, but regurgitations of old ideas that had no support in scripture or church tradition then or now.
The church carefully considered the ideas of these later Gnostic (meaning “knowledge”) writings and rejected them as not being inspired by God and completely unreliable. In fact, many of today’s “cults” and supposed “religious” organizations still use the name of Jesus, and sometimes even call themselves “christians”, but then twist the words out of context or apply “secret” meanings behind His words to push their own misguided, and often occultic, agenda.
These false teachings continue to pop up and claim that they know what Jesus meant even though they came hundreds, some even thousands of years later. Most also happen to deviate from the Old Testament understanding of God (the ancient witness to pre-incarnate Jesus) and teach radically new concepts about God, sin, the soul, creation of the universe, nature of the world, God’s relation to mankind, moral law, reality of spiritual entities, methods of acceptable spiritual practice, etc.
Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He!’ and will mislead many. (Mark 13:6) See also: (1 John 4:1) (Matthew 24:24) (Acts 20:30) (1 Corinthians 10:20) (1 Timothy 4:1-2) (1 Timothy 6:20) (1 Corinthians 15:14-17) (2 Peter 2:1) (Jude 1:4) (Galatians 1:6-7) (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Do not be deceived! Recognize the common theme. It is anything that ADDS TO or TAKES AWAY FROM their being ONLY ONE GOD and Jesus His ONLY Begotten Son that paid the penalty for our sins on the cross! There are hundreds of false teachings but they are all just manipulations of these earliest teachings. They can usually be summarized as doing one or more of the following: Jesus was not God, Jesus was only one of many gods, he wasn’t really fully human, he didn’t really die, he did die but it didn’t pay for our sins, sins are not real, or that we (humans) are all gods we just need to learn secret knowledge in order to realize our potential.
Do not be deceived brothers and sisters! The Bible teaches that on earth is a spiritual battleground and the enemy wants you to do anything but turn to God. It is then easy to understand why there are so many competing religions, spiritual theologies and ideologies, and so many interpretations of Jesus that are ALL EQUALLY happy with you believing ANYTHING BUT Christianity.
The Bible is the inspired Word of God and is the greatest authority we have. It is all you need. Don’t trust organizations or churches that only use “certain parts” of it, or tell you that you NEED their “support materials” in order to fully “interpret it correctly”. (There is a difference between Bible study materials and single-organization-only support materials). Hesitate to trust churches that use gospels or ancient writings not found in the Bible—these were rejected by the early followers of Christ for a reason!
Some false teachers are more subtle, using the Bible but then just adding on their own ideas invented hundreds or thousands of years later with little or no actual support for it in the Bible. Learn everything you can and be discerning and decide for yourself. Some claim that they received direct revelation from God. One example of many includes the serial killing followers of Charles Manson, believed him that he was the 5th reincarnation of Jesus. They should have never believed in a non-biblical Jesus!
While true that the Holy Spirit is still active in the world, but as God with God’s ONE SOLE WILL, He will never conflict with the purpose of, nor contradict with the Father or the Son as revealed in the inspired Word (Bible). His presence to this day continues to confirm and illuminate the words of the Bible for believers further testifying to it’s accuracy. Remember that new revelations or prophecies that are supposedly inspired by God will never contradict what God has already revealed about Himself or His Plan in His Word (the Bible).
New revelations by the Holy Spirit are to help you or another person specifically, and to build up the church to glorify God. They will expand on the current foundation of Christianity, and grow God’s kingdom in love—not create divisions or wars, etc. And they would never ever deny the divinity or lordship of, or your salvation through, Jesus Christ.
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist.. (1 John 4:2-3) See also: (2 John 1:7) (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) (2 Timothy 4:3) (Ephesians 4:14) (1 Timothy 6:3-4) (Romans 1:18) (2 Cor 4:2) (Col 2:8) (Col 2:2-4) (Psalms 34:22)
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