• What is Christianity?
• Is Jesus God?

What is Christianity? It is centered on Jesus Christ. Christ is a title, not part of his name. It is Greek for anointed, as in the new King is anointed. Christians believe Jesus Christ is the long awaited, anointed King, promised in the Old Testament.

Jesus himself said:

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.  I and the Father are one.

John 10:27-30 [NIV]HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® by Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved., Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society publisher: International Bible Society

Jesus used stories to teach the crowds that came to listen. He is the shepherd, we are his sheep if we follow him. He grants us eternal life. How could anyone grant eternal life?

He tells us he is God. Not a little bit of God, but fully God. Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. How could that be true? Why would anyone believe it?

Crowds of people watched Jesus heal the sick, lame, and blind. They listened while Jesus told stories. Many were yearning for a King to overthrow the Roman occupation. Some of his closest followers thought Jesus was the promised King. These disciples thought they would become exalted nobles. But Jesus surprised and disappointed them:

... "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.

Matthew 17:22-23 [NIV]HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® by Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved., Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society publisher: International Bible Society

They could not understand. Jesus also told them that the Holy Spirit would be sent to them:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.

John 14:16-17 [NIV]HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® by Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved., Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society publisher: International Bible Society

Jesus and his disciples went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival, as did many thousands of others. Then, that Thursday, before Passover, at night Jesus was arrested. The next day, Friday, he was crucified and died, along with two criminals. Jesus was placed in a tomb on Friday, before sunset. His disciples were terrified. Would they be next? How could Jesus end in such disgrace? They hid in locked rooms, trying to save themselves.

On the third day, Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead. He appeared first to some of the women. The women ran to tell the disciples, but they could not believe it. Later He appeared to them, and to many others.

A few weeks later, at Pentecost, the next large festival, huge crowds filled Jerusalem again. Peter emerged from hiding and delivered the first Christian message:

Listen to these words, fellow Israelites! Jesus of Nazareth was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven to you by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through him. You yourselves know this, for it happened here among you.  In accordance with his own plan God had already decided that Jesus would be handed over to you; and you killed him by letting sinful men crucify him  ... God has raised this very Jesus from death, and we are all witnesses to this fact.  He has been raised to the right side of God, his Father, and has received from him the Holy Spirit, as he had promised. What you now see and hear is his gift that he has poured out on us. 

Acts chapter 2 verses 22-23,32-33 [GNB]Good News Bible by American Bible Society, 1992 publisher: American Bible Society, Click Here^<1>

What brought Peter out of hiding to preach this powerful message? The Holy Spirit filled him with courage, love, and words, just as Jesus promised. Nothing else could have done it. Peter was a common fisherman, speaking to a crowd that included well educated, rich people. Some of them were the very people who wanted Jesus to be crucified. Yet there was Peter, teaching all of them, and inviting even those who crucified Jesus to repent, and follow Jesus. The result of Peter's message was astonishing:

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. 

Acts 2:41 [NIV]HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® by Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved., Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society publisher: International Bible Society

Everyone in the audience knew about the recent events: the crucifixion of Jesus, and the reports of his resurrection. Peter was not proposing a new philosophy. He was inviting the people to consider the facts and make a decision. There were plenty of eye witnesses in the crowd. The facts could be verified.

It is the same today. No one is expected to simply believe. Everyone is expected to examine the claims, check the facts, and make a decision. Peter's audience could consider what they had witnessed themselves. They could research the facts with other witnesses.

In 55 AD, about twenty years after the resurrection, Saint Paul wrote in a letter to the church in Corinth:

By this gospelGospel means "good news."^[1] you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.  For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,  and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 

First Corinthians 15:2-8 [NIV]HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® by Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved., Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society publisher: International Bible Society

Paul was writing to an audience that was not present in Jerusalem when Jesus was resurrected. He invited them to contact the witnesses to corroborate details. He did not expect them to take him at his word without checking facts.

Today we cannot check with eye witnesses. But, we can examine history and archeology. The writers of the Biblical books often placed events carefully in a time that could be identified later. For example,

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  And everyone went to their own town to register. 

Luke 2:1-3 [NIV]HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® by Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved., Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society publisher: International Bible Society

Despite earlier skepticism, these names and events are now supported by the historical records of the Roman empire. The claims of Christianity are rooted in real history.

Another way to confirm the Christian message is to consider the alternatives. If it is not true, then what? C. S. Lewis put it this way:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

C. S. Lewis in [MereChristianity]Mere Christianity by Clive Staple Lewis, 1952 publisher: Harper Collins

Consider, too, what the disciples and other early Christians were willing to do to spread the good news. They all suffered persecution, many of them even torture and death for their beliefs. Of the apostles, only John lived to old age.

How can Jesus be both man and God? We have a model for it. Each of us is both body and soul (see Do We Have Freewill.^<2>) Our souls are not little bits of God, they are created by God (see What is Your Soul.^<3>) Jesus Christ is not a little bit of God, He is God.

What do you think? Is there sufficient evidence to support the Christian message? What does the Christian message mean for your life? You are invited in, no matter what your history is; even if at one time you wanted Jesus crucified.