Is the Cross really Christrian?

Question

How do you feel about it?

Answer 1

it is not the cross itself that is a symbol of Christianity but the crucifix, the difference is the crucifix has an image showing Jesus dieing and suffering for our sins, and it is not just limited to Christianity but all of Catholicism

Answer 2

The cross and crucifixion was originally developed by the Assyrians, natural enemies living to the north of the Israelites, around 1100 years before Christ.

In the old testament, the Assyrians serve as an antetype of Satan.

The Romans knew a good thing when they saw it, so they adopted the practice of crucifixion, and perfected it, shortly before the time of Christ, as a primary deterent against rebellion and resistance to the empire.

That's one of the reasons we can be sure that Jesus really died on the cross. Thanks to Roman expertise, nobody ever survived one of their crucifixions.

But, of course, the Romans had never before crucified the son of the living God, the one who had the power to lay down his life and to take it up again.

That's where the cross was transformed from an instrument of torture into the new tree of life.

With the help of the cross, Christ defeated death, destroyed Satan's power, and once again made peace between God and man.

Then, he established his church, so all the rest of us could learn how to do the same.

The cross was just the logical symbol of both.

In a 1st century society consisting of largely illiterate and unschooled people, a simple and widely recognized symbol could be very useful, especially when it's meaning was literally turned upside down and inside out.

Imagine what the Romans must have thought when Christians began to think of the cross as salvific, rather than an instrument of torture and death.

Totally wacko!

But it wasn't until the 4th century, the night before the battle of the Milvian bridge, when the Roman emperor Constantine saw an image of a cross in the sky, that the primary symbol of Christianity rose to a new level of prominence.

The embattled emperor believed the cross to be a sign of victory from the one, true God, and chose to adopt it as his own. And it worked. Constantine handily defeated the opposing force.

Constantine soon proceeded to make Christianity legal throughout the empire, for the very first time.

He became a loyal patron of the church, exempted the church from taxation, treated the clergy with honor and respect, made reparation for earlier persecutions, and encouraged the growth of Christian worship all over the empire.

Before his death, Constantine would accept Christ as his own personal savior, and be baptized, as well.

After the discovery of the remains of the true cross, in the ruins of Jerusalem, the cross quickly became synonymous with Christianity, all around the known world.

Catholics prefer to use a crucifix, a cross complete with an image of the crucified Jesus, because it reminds them of the singular, perfect, and eternal sacrifice of Christ at Calvary, which is solemnly celebrated at every Catholic worship service (mass).

Did Christ die on the cross for our sins?

Did Jesus really transform an instument of terror, torture, and death, into a symbol of our salvation?

Does looking at the cross remind Christians of Jesus, and of all the trouble he went through, in order to secure our salvation?

Is the pope Catholic?

Of course the cross is really Christian!

Answer 3

A cross as a symbol is very old and very common in almost every civilization. Therefore it is not originally Christian, however the symbol was adopted as an identifying symbol of Christianity.

Answer 4

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

To me, this means no crosses, no crusifix, no pictures of Jesus, no likenesses of Jesus on the cross, no fish symbols, no making signs of the cross, no rings to kiss.

Free will. You chose what to do and how to behave.

Answer 5

What it represented 2000 years ago is one thing. What it represents today is another. Then it was a mode of execution, pure and simple. Today it represents the resurrected Christ and the promise of eternal salvation. It's roots are irrelevent to its current meaning, just as the individual's knowledge of ancient Aramaic is irrelevent to our ability to understand the messages of Christ today.

Answer 6

No it was made by the Romans. They loved to use it to torture the people condemned to die.
The reason that christians look at it as a bit christian would be because Jesus was crucified

Answer 7

it's suppose to be but,if you read deeply the bible says,it is a symbol and it's wrong to display it.I can't remember it exactly but,I'm sure there's some hard core christian's out there that know what I'm talking about.It has something to do with an image.

Answer 8

No, it was primarily used for crucifixions by the Roman empire. To teach people what would happen if you broke the law.

Answer 9

Roman. He was just killed on it

If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.

Answer 10

There are Christian denominations that are just not into crosses.