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Christian Beliefs |
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There is one God and only one God. He is
personal and knowable. He manifests Himself in three persons: the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
God created the universe and all that is in
it. God is a person, but of a somewhat different type than human beings.
God is entirely spiritual. He exists in a sphere outside the physical
universe he created.
The Bible is the Word of God. It is
inspired and inerrant in its original autographs. It is a complete and
final revelation of God.
Jesus Christ is God
manifest in the flesh, born of a virgin, without sin, and the chosen
Messiah who will one day set up his kingdom on earth.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for our
sins, was buried, rose again from the dead, ascended back to heaven, and
will one day return to this earth again.
All persons are sinners, guilty before God,
deserving of judgment, and in need of a Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Salvation from sin, death, and hell is by
God's grace, based on the work of Jesus Christ alone. It is received by
faith apart from any human performance or merit.
Eternal life is a gift of God and nothing
can separate the believer from the love of God.
Unbelievers face eternal punishment.
Believers face eternal life.
All believers should attend a local church
for mutual edification, encouragement, evangelism, service and worship. |
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The Ten
Commandments |
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❶ I am the Lord your God. You shall have
no other gods before me.
❷
You shall not make for yourself an idol.
❸
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God.
❹
Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
❺
Honor your father and mother.
❻
You shall not murder.
❼
You shall not commit adultery.
❽
You shall not steal.
❾
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
❿
You shall not covet your neighbor's house or wife.
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Jesus on Love |
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You must love the Lord your God with all your
heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest
commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on
these two commandments...
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Origins and Beliefs
Christianity is a monotheistic religion
centered on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as
presented in the New Testament.
The first Christians were Jewish Christians.
Through missionary work and colonization, Christianity spread firstly in the
Middle East, North Africa, Europe and parts of India and subsequently
throughout the entire world.
Christians believe that, as the Messiah, Jesus
was appointed by God as ruler and savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus'
coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.
The Trinity is often regarded as an essential
doctrine of mainstream Christianity. The common understanding of the Holy
Trinity, espoused in the Nicene Creed, is one God who exists in three
Persons – Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – who are coequal,
co-eternal, of the same substance.
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Christians generally believe in the immortality
of the soul. Forgiveness of sins is one of the key marks of Christianity.
Jesus
Jesus Christ also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of
Christianity. Jesus is revered by Christians as the incarnation of God.
Muslims
consider him a prophet, and several other religions also consider him an
important figure.
Christians profess that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Old
Testament, who, through his life, death, and resurrection, restored
humanity's communion with God in the blood of the New Covenant. His death on
a cross is understood as the redemptive sacrifice: the source of humanity's
salvation and the atonement for sin which had entered human history through
the sin of Adam.
The Bible's four canonical gospels are the main
sources for the traditional Christian biography of Jesus' life. According to
Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea to Mary, a virgin, by
a miracle of the Holy Spirit. Jesus' childhood home is identified as the
town of Nazareth in Galilee. The Gospels state that Jesus, as Messiah, came
to "give his life as a ransom for many" and "preach the good news of the
Kingdom of God."
Over the course of his ministry, Jesus is said
to have performed various miracles, including healings, exorcisms, walking
on water, turning water into wine, and raising several people, such as
Lazarus, from the dead. At the height of his ministry, Jesus attracted huge
crowds numbering in the thousands.
In Jerusalem, high priests and elders
condemned Jesus for blasphemy. Jesus was crucified Golgotha. According to the Gospels,
Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. Christians
consider the resurrection of Jesus to be the cornerstone of their faith and
the most important event in human history.
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Jesus promised to come again to fulfill the
remainder of Messianic prophecy.
Christian
Love: the
Foundation for all Relationships
The motivating force behind the Christian life
is love.
Jesus' teachings are largely a description of
what love means:
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or
arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Jesus summarized the law as love for God and
for our neighbor. Thus much of Christian
practice is focused on finding ways to show love for our fellows.
Christianity is characterized by helping
people. This ranges from the personal to the institutional. At the personal
level, Christians should help others. At the institutional level, Christians
have been active in creating hospitals, schools, and other institutions to
help people.
The Moral Law
The moral law is often summarized in the "Ten
Commandments", which the Bible says were given by God to Moses.
Afterlife and Eschaton
Most Christians believe that upon bodily death
the soul experiences the particular judgment and is either rewarded with
eternal heaven or condemned to an eternal hell. The elect are called
"saints" and the process of being made holy is called sanctification. At the
second coming of Christ at the end of time, all who have died will be
resurrected bodily from the dead for the Last Judgment, whereupon Jesus will
fully establish the Kingdom of God in fulfillment of scriptural prophecies.
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