Name:

Class Period:
Christianity Notes 10.24.2022

What is Christianity & what do Christians believe?

1. Christianity Definition:
1) Christianity is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of
Nazareth.
2) Major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ) in
the 1st century AD/CE. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the
most widely diffused (def: spread abroad, dispersed) of all faiths. It has about 2-2.8 billion
believers.
2. In contrast, the definition of Judaism is:
1) A monotheistic religion developed among the ancient Hebrews. It is characterized by a belief in
one transcendent (def: surpassing all others; supreme) God who revealed himself to Abraham,
Moses, and the Hebrew prophets and by a religious life in accordance with Scriptures and
rabbinic traditions (rabbi: “my master”. Person trained in Jewish law, ritual & tradition who leads
a congregation).
2) Judaism is the complex phenomenon (def: an unusual, significant fact or occurrence) of a total
way of life for the Jewish people, comprising theology (def: the study of the nature of God &
religious truth), law and cultural traditions.
3. What do Christians believe?
1) Christians believe in the Trinity of God: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the
Holy Spirit. God exists in three persons.
2) Jesus was conceived immaculately (def: free from sin), born of a human woman (Mary), walked
the earth as a human man (“the only begotten son of God”), died for humanity’s sins, was buried,
was resurrected and now lives at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for the
believers forever, and offers salvation to all who receive him in faith. (I Corinthians 15:1-9)
3) Instead of following a list of do’s and don’ts (religious laws), the goal of a Christian is to walk
closely with God. Christians are more concerned about relationship with God than with following
religious practices.
4) Christians believe all human beings are sinners, for no person can follow the law infallibly; there
is nothing that anyone can do to earn salvation but Christians are saved from their sin by the
sacrifice of Jesus’s death on the cross and this is what restored the broken relationship between
God & man.
5) Christianity teaches that in order to be saved and be granted entrance to heaven after death,
one must place one’s faith entirely in the finished work of Christ on the cross: that Christ died in
humanity’s place (he paid the sin debt owed by all men) and rose again.
6) While many religious systems require that a person do or not do certain things, Christianity is
mostly about believing that Christ died on the cross as payment for humanity’s sins and rose
again.
7) Christians follow the 10 Commandments and God’s laws. In spite of the Christian belief that
there is nothing anyone can do to earn salvation, Christians believe in living to please God.
Christians must show that they have faith in God by their actions (James 2:14-26)
8) Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired, “God-breathed” Word of God and that its
teaching is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice.
I Corinthians 15: 1-9 (Apostle Paul, circa 51-55 AD, one of 13 epistles)
1 Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You
welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to
believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first
place.
3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for
our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just
as the Scriptures said. 5He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. 6After that, he was seen by more than
500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7Then he was seen by
James and later by all the apostles. 8Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw
him. 9For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I
persecuted God’s church.
*Corinth was a Greek, Hellenistic & Roman city located on the isthmus which connects mainland Greece with
the Peloponnese. It was a major city and center of center of trade at the time Paul visited. It had a naval
fleet and participated in several Greek wars. The Pegasus was a symbol of the city and was featured on her
coins. Hellenistic: 507 BC the 1st democracy in Athens – 323 BC, the death of Alexander the Great. Given
their polytheistic history, it is no wonder that there was some confusion in the churches in Corinth as to what
behavior was proper and acceptable as Christians. The church was known to blatantly ignore sin amongst its
members during Paul’s time.

James 2: 14-26

Faith without Good Deeds Is Dead

14What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can
that kind of faith save anyone? 15Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16and you
say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food
or clothing. What good does that do?
17So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
18Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you
show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
19You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe
this, and they tremble in terror. 20How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
21Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he
offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his
faith complete. 23And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted
him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. 24So you see, we are shown to
be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.
25Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she
hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. 26Just as the body is dead without
breath, so also faith is dead without good works.