What is Christianity?

Question

I live in a secular society so I've never really heard much about it.

Answer 1

I guess dating back to the time which Jesus walked the earth, when he gained a band of followers or 'disciples', he instructed people to find him and follow him, for it is only through him that they will become absolved from being 'bad' people (sinners) and enter Heaven. It was a pre-requisite instruction made to his followers when he knew he was facing death, to spread the word about him and therefore the phrase 'Finding Jesus' came about. Albeit it was a little harder to find him after his death, but the idea that if people had enough faith in his teachings, they would find him in their own ways, whether it be a vision or a series of anomalies, or simply feeling comforted in their darkest hour by thoughts of him. In this way, a follower of the Christ is called a Christian. Many wars and atrocities have been carried out in his name, and the complex segregation of the Christian faith with sub-divided churches, combined with the watering down of the teachings etc. through several editions of the bible, serve to distort the original concept of Christianity. From an impartial perspective, it would seem that the powerful few have learned to control the helpless many, preying upon their desperation, fear and hope as tormentful tools of the trade. The same could be said of many faiths for this reason.

Answer 2

Christianity is a belief system that fundamentally believes in Jesus Christ as the savior and the second coming of the Lord.

Answer 3

Here is how I described the biblical Christian faith as it might be presented in synopsis to someone who has never heard about it..

The first thing you heard was that you were condemned by God because of some actions taken by a pair of naive progenitors. Nothing you did caused it; you could not have prevented it. But God condemns you and everyone you know.

Then God decides to choose a particular group of people to rule over called the Jews; the story continues with the history of their bloody, unmerciful battles and their leaders of highly questionable ethics. The Jewish people are carted off to various slaveries from their homeland, which, by the way, they have violently stripped away from earlier residents.

Various messages from this God are transmitted through prophets, whose words are mystical, incomprehensible and frequently full of condemnation (unless the people are suffering, and then they promise some later relief to be brought about by God at some distant time). There are also songs that describe how great this Jewish God is, there are suggestions of how to live, there is a sexually charged poem, and eventually the first part of the book ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

Then, in the second part, suddenly there's a story that says that God has somehow changed his mind. He's going to give a loophole in his condemnation. He's going to send himself/his son to teach things to this nation he has chosen. But from the beginning, The Bible notes that this God-man will be killed and raised from the dead, and he promised to raise others, too. (Not a bad outcome. Death is pretty frightening.)

However, the stories of this man, Jesus, do not make him sound overly attractive. He's a little pissy sometimes (killing a fig tree because it happened to be barren, chastising his disciples when they don't understand his strange way of speaking, manipulatively refusing to answer questions directly). He continues passing out judgment and condemning people to hell, and although he teaches some elements of love, you know people in your own life who act more loving than he does. He supposedly performs miracles, but you know from your studies that miracles were ascribed to almost any hero in the ancient world.

Anyway, as you were told, the story of his death and resurrection are told 4 times. There are some contradictions before the death, but the story holds together pretty well. But after the reputed resurrection, the story flies apart. Suddenly there are loads of contradictory accounts. The man appears in locked rooms, which doesn't sound like life on this planet. The man is not recognized by close friends who walk with him on a road. He's no longer flesh and blood, but you can touch his wounds. Suddenly things take on a fairy tale quality. And then, rather than hang around, this once-dead-now-raised person skips town, leaving a few people who believe he's alive.

The rest of the book is a bit of history, but mostly letters between early believers, trying to keep the flock in line, and always promising an end to death. One prominent member of the group named Paul decides that God no longer just means to claim the Jews for his special friends, but opens the deal up to the entire human race. The last book then once again goes back to describe horrors perpetrated by God and others. It sounds like things are as they were, with God back to his condemning ways. (Except for those who believe in the resurrection of his son.)

So now you know the story. The deal, in summary, is this. You're still condemned. You can get away from being condemned if you believe in this miracle of resurrection. If you don't, no dice.

Answer 4

Christianity is a belief that is extremely hard to accept for pretty much anyone. For the lazy, it is a religion that takes too much, because the bible asks "If you love me, you will obey what I command. (John 14:15)"
For the hard workers it is hard because, as Ephesians 2:8,9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."
What's faith? Simplified...Acts 16:31: "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
Here's what Christianity does... Titus 2:12 "It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,"

Answer 5

OK, now that all of the unbelivers and haters of Christianity have gotten their obligatory 2 points........

This question deserves more than just a quick answer on Yahoo Answers, but I'll try to summarize it for you.

Christianity is a belief that God created man in His image - IOW, man is a being with a spirit. God set man up in an idyllic existence where he was wanting for nothing. All he had to do was be obedient to God. However man was disobedient to God and sinned against God. Mankind was removed from the paradise-like state he had enjoyed, and was subjected to a world of suffering, toil, disease, disorder, and ultimately death. Future generations of mankind ended up paying for the sin of our original forebearers. Mankind tried to make amends on it's own, offering sacrifices to God, worshipping God, and even following Laws and prescribed religious rituals to try and atone for man's sin. But it was never quite enough. God's goodness was so greatly offended that no amount of human action could ever make up for this gap, this disconnect between the human race and God. What had to happen is that God had to come and do this for us. God actually came down to earth and became a man, a man we call Jesus Christ. He was completely human in every way except sin, but at the same time completely God. Jesus Christ became the ultimate sacrifice to atone for the sins of mankind. He did this by willingly suffering and dying a criminals death on the Cross. I say willingly, because remember, He was human as well as divine - He could have backed out of it had He wanted to. He was actually considering it while praying in the olive garden at Gesthemene just before they led him away to be crucified. But in the end He said "but Your will, not Mine be done." As I said, he was human in all things except sin. With His death and resurrection, He conquered sin and death for all time, loosing Satan's hold on the human race - a hold that Satan had since Adam and Eve.

Christians are believers who believe in:

Christ as God made man dying for our sins so we might have eternal life.

One baptism with water, a second in the Holy Spirit

A final resurrection and last judgement of all, where Christ will come again

A belief in eternal reward and punishment

Answer 6

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but for me, Christianity is having a relationship with a God in heaven who loves me and living each day and treating every person like he would. But I would never push my beliefs on anyone.

Answer 7

Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as depicted in the New Testament. Most Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God and the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, and they see the New Testament as the record of the Gospel that was revealed by Jesus. With one estimate implying 2.1 billion adherents, or approximately 33% of the world's population in 2007, Christianity is the world's largest religion. It is the predominant religion in Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa, the Philippines and Oceania. It is also growing rapidly in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea, Africa and Middle East.

Christianity began as an offshoot of Judaism, and includes the Hebrew Bible (known to Christians as the Old Testament) as well as the New Testament as its canonized scriptures. Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is classified as an Abrahamic religion (see also, Judeo-Christian).

The name "Christian" (Greek Χριστιανός Strong's G5546), meaning "belonging to Christ" or "partisan of Christ", was first applied to the disciples in Antioch, as recorded in Acts 11:26. The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" (Greek Χριστιανισμός) is by Ignatius of Antioch.

The above information came from Wikipedia.

In other words, Christianity or a Christian (a person who is part of Christianity) is someone who believes in Jesus Christ of Nazareth; in His message, that He is our Savior from sin and the evil one.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

The above is the apostles creed in what most Christians believe. If you see any answers here that are degrading or toward Christianity or Jesus Christ or telling it is a fairy tale, they aren't answers from Christians (obviously), so if you sincerely want to know about it, why not ask a Christian. If you want to know more about Christianity, email me and I can tell you more about it from a Catholic Christian perspective.

Answer 8

After reading other replies, I saw nothing but hatred, bigotry and ignorance. But I didn't see the Truth.

Christianity is a relationship with the Living Word, Jesus. It isn't a religion and it doesn't require liturgy or belonging to a church. It's walking (living) as a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is both the most rewarding and the most ridiculed life there is. It is everlasting life.

God bless you!

Answer 9

christianity is an idea that at the beginning was kinda ok..then it bacame part of an ally to the established power and you know what happens with power, it may corrupt...so christians who are just people no matter how divine their beliefs are got "infected" of this power craving, and changed their beliefs to suit their interests...until today when they do not know exactly what they believe in...and fortunately they have lost this politicalpower they used to have and now it comes the moment when they have to get used to not having it

Answer 10

christianity is- a twisted religion; polythiestic; possibly the worlds MOST confusing LIE.