What is
Christianity
Christianity is a religion stemming from the teachings of
Jesus Christ, Son of Mary. He was a prophet to Israel.
As per the senses reports, it is the largest religion in the world. It was
originally a movement of Jews who accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah or
Christ (the expected king of the line of David, who would deliver the Jews from
foreign bondage and restore Israel’s
Golden Age). But this movement quickly became predominantly Gentile under the
leadership of St. Paul who gave
shape to the early Church. The sacred scripture of Christianity is the Bible, a
compilation of Old and New Testaments. Its principal tenets are the Holy
Trinity, the Redemption by Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ and
the Doctrine of Justification through the Faith.
According to Christian theologians though the God is
theoretically one, practically He is “three in one”. This dogma which marks the
unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is called Trinity. The word Trinity is not
found in The Bible. This doctrine was formulated by the early Church to
interpret the way of God revealed himself firs to Israel, then in Jesus as
Savior and finally as the Holy Spirit. The Doctrine of Trinity explicitly was
announced first at the First Ecumenical Council of Christian Church held at
Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey).
It was called by Roman emperor Constantine I. The Council condemned Arianism and drew up
Nicene Creed.
Arianism declared that Christ is not truly divine but a
created being. According to Alexandrian presbyter Arius
(AD 250-336) God alone is immutable and self existent, and the son is not God
but a creature with a beginning. His views were publicized through his major
work, Thalia (at AD 323). The council of Nicaea in AD 325,
proscribed Arianism as a heresy and declared the son
to be “of one substance with father”. However, Arianism
posed a threat to Christian Orthodoxy for several centuries and beliefs are held
in the present day by the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” (1) and by some adherents of Unitarianism
(2).
Jesus was
born as a Jew in Bethlehem before
the death of king Herode (Mathew 2/1), and as per all
gospels he died while Pontius Pilate was Roman Governor of Judea.
His mother Mary was married to Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth.
Nothing is known about his childhood after the birth narratives in Mathew and
Luke, except for one visit to Jerusalem
with his parents at the age of twelve. About the age of thirty, he began his
ministry as preacher, teacher and healer. He gathered disciples in the region
of Galilee, including twelve Apostles and preached the
imminent arrival of ‘Kingdom of
God’.
He never claimed that he is a god or a person in Trinity but a messenger who
tells what he heard from God, the almighty whom he addressed as ‘Father’.
“For these
are not my own ideas, but I have told you what the father said to you and I know his instructions lead to
eternal life “ (John 12 /49-50)
“Truly,
anyone welcoming my messenger is welcoming me, and to welcome me is to welcome
the father who sent me “(Ibid 13/20)
But passing
over three centuries the church declared hem as God, the second person in Trinity.
When he showed miracles the Church misunderstood that only a divine person
(God) can show so.
In fact, Jesus
himself revealed that he did so only as a messenger from God and by His
suggestion. According to John 10/32 when Jewish leaders picked up stones to
kill him, “Jesus said: ‘at God’s direction I have done many a miracle to help
the people. For which one are you killing me?
Bible again reveals the truth that
when he assured that he would be arrested at the night and tortured he
requested his apostles to guard and be awake with him while they were in Gethsemane,
a garden grove. He told them ; ‘my soul
is crushed with horror and sadness to the point of death …………..stay here………..
stay awake with me’ (Mathew 26/38)
Various
times Gospels Quote that Jesus Christ offered prayer to a God. As an example
read Mathew 26/39.
“He went
forward a little and fell face downward on the ground, and prayed, “My father! if
it is possible let this cup be taken away from me” .
In a
nutshell, Bible explicates that he was neither a God nor a Son of God (in the real meaning ) but a
slave and messenger of his, as Qur'an says “Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more
than ) an apostle of god” (Surah 4/171)
According
to Christian doctrine, our faults and failures, whether great or small and sins
separate us from presence and perfection of God. St. Paul
writes ‘every one has sinned as is far away from God’s saving presence. But by
the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus,
who sets them free. God offered him, so that by his sacrificial death he should
become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him
“(Romans 3/23-26). That is, God’s love for the world is essential component of
his being. So he himself became a man –Jesus Christ – who reached down to us,
taking our sins upon himself. His crucifixion and resurrection performing any
duty in accordance) one can experience a restored and revitalized relationship
with God. This is the Christianity in brief. Let us discuss its major tenets in
detail
1. “Jehovah’s witnesses” is a religious movement founded by
Charles T Russell in Pittsburgh in
1872. The movement was originally known as the International Bible Students’
Association, but its name was changed by Russell’s successor, Joseph Franklin
Rutherford (1869-1942). Their beliefs are based primarily on the apocalyptic
sections of the Bible, notably Daniel and the book of revelation. They believe Jesus
as god’s first creation rather than one person in Trinity. Their goal is to
establish God’s kingdom on earth and hold that Jesus is God’s agent in this
plan. Their national headquarters is in Brooklyn,
New York. Their major publications the “Watch
tower” and “Awake!” and published in about 80 languages.
2. Unitarianism is a religious movement that stresses free
of reason in religion. It holds that God exists in one person, and denies the
divinity of Jesus, and the doctrine of the holy Trinity. Its modern roots are
traced to several liberal, radical and rationalist thinkers of the protestant
reformation, who were in turn inspired by Arius. The
mainstream of British and American Unitarianism grew out of Calvinist
Puritanism.
Protestant reformation breaks with Roman Catholicism. It is
an establishment of Protestant Churches in the 16th Century through
reformers such as John Hus and john Wycliffe attacked
abuses in the Roman Catholic church in the late Medieval period, the reformation
is usually dated from 1517, when Martin Luther posted his “ninety – five theses
on the Church door in Wittenberg.
John Calvin established a theocracy in Geneva
after his conversion to the Protestant cause, which is known Calvinism or
Calvinist Puritanism. It was further developed by his followers. As shaped by
his successor, Theodore Beza (1519-1605). Calvinism
emphasize the doctrine of Predestination, holding that God extends grace and
grants salvation only to the chosen or elect. It stresses the literal meaning
of Bible.
