Cultural Awareness

Christianity

Christianity is at least three things:

A set of beliefs
A way of life
A community of people

Different Christian groups place different weights on these three aspects, but they always involve all three, based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who is also known as The Christ. ("Christ" is the Greek form of the Hebrew "Messiah", meaning "anointed".)

Christianity shares a number of beliefs and practices with other religions, particularly Judaism and Islam. With Judaism and Islam, Christians believe that:

1. There is One God, (monotheistic) who created the universe and all that is in it.
2. God is active in history, guiding and teaching his people.
3. Christianity has been described as a form of "ethical monotheism".

This term emphasizes the belief in one God, and the fact that following this God commits us to a number of specific ethical rules or principles based upon the model of Jesus Christ.

Christianity originally developed as a part of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. He lived from about 3 BC to 30 AD. He lived and taught in Palestine, primarily (although not exclusively) among fellow Jews. Christianity separated from the main body of Judaism for two major reasons:

1. Christianity came to regard Jesus as in some sense God's presence in human form. This was unacceptable to most Jews.
2. Judaism is defined by a covenant made between God and the Jewish people. Part of this covenant is the Law, a set of religious and ethical rules and principles. Most Christians came to regard both this covenant and Law as in some sense superseded by Jesus' teaching and the community that he established. On the night he died, Jesus talked about establishing a "new covenant" based on his death and resurrection.

Being a Christian
The term “Christian” implies that an individual accepts the major Christian beliefs. However, Christianity is also a way of life and a community. Most Christians do not think it is appropriate to apply the term Christian based simply on the fact that someone has Christian parents and grew up as a Christian, or even based on the fact that they admire many of Jesus' teachings. To be classified as a Christian, one is normally expected to accept the major Christian beliefs, to be following the way of life that Jesus taught, and to be a part of the Christian community.

Diverse Christian Groups
Most Christian groups have standards of belief. Groups differ both in the way their standards are codified, and in the degree of conformity that they expect. Some have detailed formal standards of belief. Others use only the Bible, and allow a good deal of variation in interpretation.

The most controversial aspects of Christianity -- and those that are emphasized in presentations of Christianity -- tend to be beliefs, particularly beliefs about Jesus.

Core Christian Beliefs

1. God as Father and Creator
Christians believe in one God, who created the universe and all that is in it. God is a person but is entirely spiritual. He exists in a sphere outside the normal physical universe.
Human beings are created in the image of God. Humans share with God the fact that:

1. They are rational beings
2. They are capable of making responsible decisions
3. They are capable of relationships with each other and with Him.

God is One, but He it is not an isolated One. God is a person, who is capable of affecting and being affected by others. This is implicit in the concept of God as Father.

2. Creation
Creation is genuinely distinct from God. The world has a genuine existence of its own. God cares about and interacts with the creation. Human beings are responsible to God. As the creator, God is responsible for the world and its history. The world is distinct from God, it is not completely independent. God is thought of as continuously sustaining the world.

3. Jesus (the) Christ and The Trinity
The Christian Creed has an overall form based on the Trinity. Thus it deals first with the Father, then the Son, and finally the Holy Spirit (The Trinity).
While Jesus’s teachings generally fit into First Century Judaism, there are notable exceptions, most importantly that of His own personal role.

1. Christians see Jesus as in some sense embodying God. Every account we have of Jesus sees him as playing a role beyond that of a normal teacher. In some of the Gospels it is implicit in the way Jesus acts: He forgives people's sins, something that only God can do. In the Gospel According to John, he says "I and the Father are one" and "he who has seen me has seen the Father". However He clearly is a normal human being, who sees God as distinct from himself.
2. He is also the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and He sustains all things by His powerful word.
3. Jesus is seen as a human vehicle for God to be present. He is God's way of being present as a human being to humanity. He embodies God completely.
4. Christ is seen as "pre-existent". That is, creation was done through him. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.

4. Jesus' Life, Death, and Resurrection
Christianity is based on historical events. In Christian faith, the birth of Christ was miraculous. Jesus' mother was still a virgin. Thus God was responsible for the birth, but not physically.
Jesus was explicit in referring to his blood being shed to establish a new covenant (agreement with God), for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus died and was resurrected after three days. The term "resurrection" means coming to life again. Note that after the resurrection, Jesus seems to have had a somewhat transformed existence.

5. The Holy Spirit and Christian Living
The Holy Spirit is the bond that unites Christians with God. God is personal, so the Holy Spirit is God’s personal presence to and in the individual Christian.

6. The Christian Community: Church

1. Christians are called to live in community called “Church”. It is not possible to be united with Jesus without also being united with other Christians. Because the Church is seen as “Christ's body on earth”, there is ultimately only one Church. While the ideal is that the Church is holy and one, the reality is that it is human. That means that it is often less than holy, and it is all too often far from one. This does not mean that Christians can live without it. Christian love isn't real unless it's willing to come to grips with real human relationships and the problems that arise with them.
2. The motivating force behind the Christian life is love. Since love is a personal relationship, there's no way to grow in love other than to be with others.
3. The term "communion of saints" refers to the unity of all of Christ's followers, living and dead.

7. The Gospel, Sin and Forgiveness
The good news of the gospel is that God is ready to deal with sin. Jesus is ready to forgive and to "regenerate" mankind. Christ is the living embodiment of God’s call to repent and seek forgiveness through Him. The gift to mankind was purchased through the sacrificial death of Christ.

1. "Gospel" means "good news". The Gospel is the heart of the Christian message: that Christ died for mankind, and that through Him Man can be reconciled to God and live in communion with Him.
2. Christians see the world as in a state of rebellion against God, plagued by suffering and injustice. Many diagnoses have been proposed.
3. Christians focus attention on the human relationship to God, believing that the most serious problems result from the fact that human beings have lost sight of their proper relationship to God and each other. Man lives in a situation of rebellion against God. referred to as "sin".
4. Individual actions of disobedience are referred to as "sins".
5. Sin is self-perpetuating. The further one gets from God, the more distracted the individual becomes by secondary concerns, and the less likely it becomes that he will be able to find a way out.
6. Sin can be seen both as intentional rebellion and as analogous to a sickness. It has elements of both.
7. Jesus' forgiveness generally comes at the beginning of his encounter with a person. In the gospels, people didn't come to Him asking for forgiveness. Rather, Jesus called them. Man is often incapable of realizing his situation. Thus God must take the initiative.
8. Jesus called and forgave sinners and tax collectors but was critical of many leaders for their self-righteousness and abuse of power, those who felt that they didn't need God's help. The "sinners" that he forgave were all people who knew very well that they were sinners, and in need of forgiveness.
9. Those Jesus forgave responded with repentance. "Repent" is a word meaning "turn around". When someone repents, they regret what they have done. They rejected sin and start going in the other direction.
10. Forgiveness is connected with Jesus personally. Jesus tended to forgive on his own authority. Forgiveness must be accompanied by repentance, which leads to a new life in Christ.
11. While God is anxious to forgive us and help Man re-establish proper relationships, something has to happen to make that forgiveness and regeneration real. Christians regarded Jesus' death as doing that. For those who are united to Christ, his death and resurrection.

Heaven and Hell

Christians believe that God created human beings to live eternally in fellowship with him. Everyone's life will be evaluated. Those who depend upon Christ for salvation can be assured that they will pass this judgment.
The future includes:

1. The resurrection of all people
2. Judgment, and
3. Eternal life in either: Heaven (defined as eternal life with God), or Hell (defined as eternal separation from God with the knowledge of that separation and all the loss that it entails)
Eternal reward in heaven, the Kingdom of God, is made possible through Salvation. Salvation is only available through Christ

Is Hell Unfair?

1. Most Christian groups believe that it is possible that Christ can come to someone in an inward and spiritual way, even if they've never heard of Christ. Thus someone can be an "anonymous Christian." That is, they can know Christ spiritually without realizing that it is Christ.
2. Most Christians also believe that God's judgment will take into account the sorts of opportunities a person had to learn the truth. A person who has never heard the Gospel can't be said to have rejected Christ. An even worse situation occurs when Christians have persecuted other groups. A person who sees Christ as a persecutor has hardly had a real exposure to the Gospel. he Gospel.

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