Introduction
Christianity is one of the monotheistic religion and has
proved to be the most influential and has dominated a large population of the
world, especially in western world. The Jesus is prophet of Christianity and he
is Jew and was born from virgin mother Mary. Although he came from Jewish
family, he was trying to cleanse Judaism of the rubbish which clustered around
it in course of time. He himself repeatedly asserted that he had come not to
destroy but to fulfill the law and the prophets
.
Jesus is treated variously in Christianity. He is so
often regarded by the Christians as the son of God.
Basic features of Christianity as a religion
1 it is a monotheistic religion. 2 God is the nature
of a person and he is nature of pure
spirit. 3 He is three in one, God the father, God the son, and Holy Spirit. 4
Jesus is the founder of this religion and regarded as the son of God. 5 God is
of the nature of a loving father. 6 God is creator, sustainer and destroyer of
the world. 7 Man is created by God, 8 the God sent Jesus on earth to educate
people on proper lines. 9 True religion consists in nothing but loving God. 10
redemption or liberation is ultimately the fruit of God’s grace. 11
Christianity believes in immortality of soul. 12 Hell is eternal damnation and
heaven is the symbol of eternal immortal life. 13 Christianity believes in
heavenly angels both good and bad, the Satan is the chief evil angel.
God
Christianity believes in only one supreme God. The god
is unlimited, infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. The god loves
his people unconditionally. He is like a loving father who loves his children
without any precondition, contract or sense of return. God has painted as three
persons into one. Three persons are God the father, God the son, and the Holy
Spirit.
World
The world is quite definitely and unequivocally God’s
creation. God created the world. the world is not only created by God but is
also sustained and maintained by him. The world is absolutely dependent upon
God for its maintenance. It is created in time and it may end at any time
according to God’s will.
Man,
According to the Genesis, God created man in his own
image on the final day of creation. God gave everything to man insight,
intelligence, sensitively and all other such qualities. Death of the body is
not the death of soul. It is immortal.
Christians are committed officially to a very high
belief in the potential greatness of man. He is a little lower than God, and he
is made in the image of God.by following the
teaching of Jesus, man can get rid of suffering. Love is the basic lesson the
Christianity teaches man. It is by love and love alone than man can attain his
redemption.
Evil and Suffering
Christian God being essentially kind and loving, no
less than a loving father, the existence of suffering in the world poses a very
serious challenge to Christianity. When god loves his creatures as a father
loves his children and he is also all powerful. In the old testament, Satan
appears not as an independent embodiment of evil but as a member of the
heavenly court whose job is to provoke people towards evil and inflict
suffering on. Jesus had to suffer but ultimately he was triumphant. The triumph
is well symbolized in the resurrection of Christ. Christian approach to
suffering makes Satan on the one hand man himself on the other to be directly
responsible for evil, but God has allowed it without interference with a moral
purpose of the ultimate good of man.
Life after Death
As the soul in the man is immortal, death is not the
total and final end of man. There is an after-life too. Resurrection of the
dead and the assignment of heaven and hell to people in accordance with their
good or bad deeds on earth. When the world comes to its final end, there is
resurrection of the dead. In this resurrection, souls of all men are reunited
with their bodies and again come in the fullness of their nature. The end of
the world will mark the arrival of the final day of judgment. On this day of
judgment all souls united with their bodies will be brought before God for the
final assessment of the value of their deeds done by them during their earthy
lives.
Human destiny
Salvation, Immortality, Life eternal, and Redemption
are the words of often used in Christianity to denote the nature of man’s
ultimate destiny. Man’s ultimate destiny consists in getting rid of this
present status and attaining to a status which may be called a status of life
eternal or that of immortality. Christian belief in the reality of heaven and
hell leads one to believe that the kingdom of God really lies in heaven, a
realm beyond this world. Man is free from all sin and suffering and enjoys
perfect peace and joy in fellowship with god. This is called eternal or
immortal life. Attaining immorality is the destiny of man’s life.
Ethics and prayer
Christianity is a religion of redemption from a life
of sin and suffering. Jesus Christ, the founder of the religion is regarded as
the redeemer of man. Love, humility, and suffering for the sake of others as
well as the sake of soul instead of flesh are the basic moral virtues that
Christianity teaches to its followers. The suffering of Christ on the cross is
really a symbol of suffering for the sake of the spirit. A primarily ethical
life of love that is essentially required of every Christian, Christianity also
prescribes and believes in the efficacy of prayers to God in so far as man’s
redemption is concerned.
Principal Sects
Broadly speaking, Christians are divided into two
sects Catholics and the Protestants. The two are divided mainly on the question
of the authority of the church. The former believe that the church is the
representative of God on earth and that God reveals his truth through it. Bible
is the only sure source of Christian faith and practice and the only the
authority of the Bible is to be accepted.
And anyone who is validly baptized and is a member of the Holy Catholic
Church is known as a Catholic. But Catholic Church is divided into Roman
Catholic and Eastern Orthodoxy.
Protestants also, there are various groups or sects.
There are Lutherians, Calvinists, Presytarians, Anglicans, so on. There are
many more groupings and regroupings within modern Christianity.
Source: Comparative religions class take note....
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