Christianity

From Wikireligion

Christianity is a monotheistic taking its name from Jesus Christ. Adherents are called Christians. It seems that at first the religion was called "The Way" and the adherents were called Nazarenes (after the city of Nazareth where Jesus lived). The name Christian arose in Antioch in the first century A. D. and its use spread. The three largest self-governing bodies of Christians are the Roman Catholic Church (approx. 1 billion baptized members), the Orthodox Church (approx. 300 million baptized members), and the Anglican Communion (approx. 77 million baptized members) which is part of Protestant Christianity.

Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God and the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, and they see the New Testament as the record of the Gospel that was revealed by Jesus. With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2001, Christianity is the world's largest religion. It is also growing rapidly in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea.

Overview

Christians believe that the whole world and everything in it was created by God. God is a personal being, and by some mystery that we cannot understand, he is three, yet one: Father, Son and Spirit. He created people in his image, to love him. Yet every person has rebelled against God. Yet instead of turning his back on us, God became a man and lived among us, dying because of us, the death that we should have died. He was crucified on a cross, but he rose from the dead, and now calls us to trust him, to love him and to repent of our rebellion. If we do this, then we our relationship with God becomes restored and we will live forever with God.