My Month Of Understanding Christianity

It is with great delight and joy that I welcome you to this special month of Understanding Christianity. Christianity, like the proverbial mustard seed that Jesus gave as an analogy of faith, as a small seed has grown to become a big tree. Christianity, as one of the religions on earth, even though it is not actually and technically a religion, it has become the biggest among the top ten. Currently, with one third of the world's population embracing Christianity, it has become a big shelter of faith, comfort, peace and serenity for all humanity, especially, its believers.

For those who have given their lives to Jesus and as Paul puts it in Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4-5: "it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come" Christianity is the best thing that could happen to them, for such people, this month's discourse is a delightful refresher course. For, there are some who are watching with disdain those who call themselves Christians. There are also outright agnostics., or atheist. And there may be some young fellows whose parents are Christians but have being going to church grudgingly, wondering why the parents are 'choking' them with this Jesus palaver. And there may be some genuine restless and curious persons who think there must be more to this world than just seas, oceans, animal, human beings, buildings, roads, gender issues, sex, technology, education, life and death and may be seeking the way to God. In every one of these types of dispositions, it is my hope that such persons would be supervised and convicted by the Holy Ghost to find information for transformation for his searching and weary soul. The necessity to understand the total picture of Christianity so that every human being can be saved is our goal.

For the purpose of understanding our study today, let us begin by asking a few questions:

1. What is Christianity?

2. What is the origin of Christianity?

3. Why people hate Christianity?

4. How do you become a Christian?

5. What is the implication of not being a Christian?

6. What are the benefits of Christianity?

7. Why is Christianity?

8. Why do we have denominations? Which one is best?

9. The challenge of Christianity.

What is Christianity? "Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Christ, God, the Son of God, and the savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, called the Old Testament in Christianity, and chronicled in the New Testament. It is the world's largest religion with about 2.6 billion followers ." Christianity as a vocabulary was actually a colloquial nomenclature and appellation given by unbelievers to believer of Christ, in Antioch. "And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch" Acts 11:26. Christians believes in the Trinity or Triune God, God the Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost

Origin of Christianity. The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christendom, and the Church with its various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Though it could be argued that Christianity has its root in heaven, but for academic exercise it could be said it started from Genesis Chapter three, that narrates the fall of man. It was in the process of God cursing the serpent for deceiving Adam and Eve that represented humanity to commit sin, that God revealed not only his redemption plan for humanity but also the personality of the redemption plan.

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Genesis 3:15. We see again God calling Abraham from an idol background for a special purpose in Genesis Chapter 12. "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee……. and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. From Abraham promise's son Isaac, we had Jacob, who had the twelve sons that eventually multiplied and metamorphosized to a nation as God promised by God, which is now called the nation of Israel.

Based on repeated prophesies, one of the basic phenomena that distinguishes Christianity from other religions, an attribute that only Christianity can lay claim on, we see Jesus emerged in what is known as the New Testament, born of a virgin birth, that qualifies him to be sinless. In summary, "Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus in the 1st century Roman province of Judea. According to the Gospels, Jesus was a Jewish teacher and healer who proclaimed the imminent Kingdom of God, and was crucified at c.30-33 AD. His followers believed that he was then raised from the dead and exalted by God, and would return soon at the inception of God's Kingdom " Furthermore Jesus in answer to the issue of his identity, said "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18. He promised to build a church.