Cristnogaeth - What is Christianity?

Cristnogaeth
A Website on Christianity Featuring the Anglican Communion and Celtic Christianity

What is Christianity?

This site is an introduction to Christianity. I ask and answer the question Christianity: Who Was Jesus Chris and Why is He Important? and also provide Further Information and Other Links at the end.

A) Christianity: Who Is Jesus Christ and Why Is He Important?

Let's start at the beginning. Here is a short summary of what Christianity is all about, stripped down to the essentials. You can link here, here or here for websites that introduce Jesus directly. At this site, you can read quickly about Jesus Christ in context - sort of "The Concise Version of Christianity 101". Nothing is a substitute for reading the Bible and this can be done on the web now, although reading it in book form would be easier on the eyes.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, including humankind. The purpose of the first part of the book of Genesis is theological - it was not intended to be a guide to exactly how God created things or of early human prehistory. When thinking of Genesis, then, think in terms of general principles.

God created all things good. Human beings were created with free will - God did not want robots, but rather beings who could choose to love Him and follow His divine will and justice. As part of this divine plan, humans were given the task of being good stewards of God's creation.

Humans chose to rebel against God by disobeying God. Instead of listening to God, they followed Satan's advice to seek "knowledge of good and evil", or in other words, to substitute God's idea of what was right and wrong with their own. Why is this bad? Shouldn't each of us be able to decide what is right or wrong for us? Isn't it very progressive and tolerant for each one of us to decide what our own "truth" is? A tempting thought to many people and a cornerstone of modern Western "spirituality." But think a little bit more about it. If we each decide what is right for us individually, then nothing can ever be condemned. Hitler had his own "truth" and we have ours - by what right do we tell Hitler that his "truth" was wrong? This is the path to spiritual death - as it was for Adam and Eve in Genesis. There is an absolute truth - God's truth - and it is our choice to recognize it or reject it. Our quest should not be to make up our own "truth" but rather to seek out and learn God's truth.

God's moral law is just and is written in the consciences of each one of us. When we try to ignore this moral law, we turn our backs on God's love, and this leads to alienation from God, from creation and from each other. God's moral law does not exist to ruin our fun. God created us and knows what is best for us. Violating God's law will always result in greater alienation between us and God, each other and creation.

Cosmic justice also demands that our sins be punished. Some think this requirement for punishment is barbaric, but this view fails to understand the big picture. We all recognize that people who commit crimes deserve punishment. Allowing evil to remain unpunished is tantamount to condoning it. We also recognize that sometimes people punish themselves by refusing to reconcile with others. In any case, it clearly is not God's will that anyone be punished, but rather that they become reconciled to Him.

God foresaw this human fall and had a plan in place to bring human beings back into a right relationship with Him. God called the people of Israel out from amongst the nations as His chosen people to bring about this reconciliation. This is what the Old Testament of the Bible is all about. God began by establishing a covenantal relationship with His people Israel. He promised to bless Israel if they would be faithful to Him, follow His law, and practice justice and mercy. Israel was repeatedly unfaithful and God sent prophets who called for a return to faithfulness, justice and mercy. God was also preparing Israel during this period for His ultimate plan to bring human beings and His creation back into a right relationship with Him - Jesus Christ.

God finally sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to be born into the world, to live among us, to die for us and our sins, and finally to conquer death and rise after three days. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary - and so was both fully God and fully human. The four Gospels contain the story of Jesus' ministry on earth, his death and his resurrection. Jesus began his earthly ministry when He was about 30 and preached true obedience to God, radical justice and mercy, and love of fellow human beings. He demonstrated the power and mercy of God by performing miracles of healing and sustenance and even raising some people from the dead.

Jesus was also crucified. On the one level, the earthly authorities put Him to death because his Gospel message was too great a challenge for them. On another level, his death was divinely ordained to satisfy cosmic justice. Jesus Christ died for our sins - "a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world" (from the Anglican Church's Book of Common Prayer). This is the heart of the Gospel - Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins and has shown us a new way to live in harmony with God and creation.

Jesus Christ rose again from the dead and He is alive today. He ascended into heaven but sent the Holy Spirit to guide and support the Church and individual believers. He commissioned the Church to make disciples (followers of Christ) of all nations. Although Christ's death and resurrection have bought us our freedom from sin and death, we nevertheless must accept this gift. We still have free will and we can reject God's gift of salvation - we can choose to live without God. But if we do choose God, then we are also called to live in obedience to God's moral law, to do justice, to be merciful, to take good care of creation, and to love one another. What happens to those who do not know Christ or never have a meaningful opportunity to accept His gift? I don't know because the Bible does not address this question. All I can say is that I know that God will dispense true justice and true mercy. It is not our job to judge the world, but it is our job to follow Jesus Christ's great commission to make disciples of all nations.

A good resource to learn more details about the Christian faith in a simple question and answer format can be found in a catechism (statement of beliefs) in the back of the American Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer. Another site titled Reasons to Believe discusses the many reasons to believe in Christianity.