Christianity what is it, who is a christian and more

roblems involved in writing about Christianity:

Many Christians believe that a Christian is a follower of Jesus or that a Christian is exactly who the Bible defines to be Christian. Unfortunately, there is no consensus on precisely what Jesus' teachings were, and exactly how the Bible defines Christians. Estimates of the percentage of American adults who are Christian varies from about 80% to less than 1% depending upon which faith group's definition that one uses.

There are on the order of 1,500 different Christian faith groups in North America which promote many different and conflicting beliefs. Further, many groups believe that they alone are the "true" Christian church and that all of the others are in error. Consider, for example, belief in Yeshua of Nazareth (a.k.a. Jesus Christ). There are Christian groups that consider him purely divine, others consider him as 100% human and 100% divine; still others consider him as purely human -- the greatest of all of the prophets.

And so, while the followers of any given Christian faith group are certain that they are Christian, some have doubts about hundreds of other denominations and sects.

On this site, we use the same definition as is used by public opinion pollsters and government census bureaus. We define as Christian any person or group who sincerely, devoutly, seriously believe that they are Christian. This makes some of our visitors very angry, and is responsible for more negative Emails than any other topic.

Because of the diversity of religious belief among Christians, one cannot write about the history or current status of the religion in a way that is acceptable to all faith groups. Where Christian groups differ, we follow the historical record. The following overview is probably agreeable to most Christians.



About Yeshua (Jesus):

Christians follow the teachings of, and about, Yeshua of Nazareth, commonly referred to as Jesus Christ. (Jesus is the Greek form of Yeshua which is normally translated as Joshua; Christ is Greek for "the Messiah" or the "anointed one.") Yeshua was a Jewish itinerant preacher who was born probably between 7 and 4 BCE, probably in the Fall. He was executed by the Roman occupying authorities in Palestine, perhaps on a Friday, in the spring of the year 30 CE (e.g. 0030-APR-7). Estimates of the year range over about a five year interval from the late 20s to the early 30s. Most Christians regard him as the son of God. They further believe that he is God, the second person in the Trinity. (The Trinity within Christianity consists of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three separate persons, all eternal, all omnipresent, all omnipotent, all omnibeneficient, who form a single, unified deity.) Most Christians believe that Jesus co-existed with God before the creation of the world, was born of a virgin, was bodily resurrected about a day and a half after his death, and later ascended to Heaven. Most conservative Protestants believe that Hell awaits anyone who has not repented of their sins and trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Muslims believe that Jesus was never executed on the cross. An error was made by the Roman executioners and another person was substituted for Jesus.

Many progressive Christians generally believe that the miracles of Jesus' virgin conception, walking on water, resurrection, ascension to Heaven are religious myths -- stories of immense spiritual value, but of events that never happened.

One of the more interesting, and frustrating, features of religion is the variety of meanings given to common words and terms. Many religious words have multiple -- often mutually exclusive -- meanings. For example:

We have found 9 meanings for the term "cult:" one positive, four neutral, three negative and one very negative.
We have found 17 meanings for the term "witch" - mostly unrelated to each other; mostly negative.
There are also many distinct definitions of the term "Christian" (pronounced 'kristee`n). Four examples are:

Most liberal Christian denominations, secularists, public opinion pollsters, and this web site define "Christian" very broadly as any person or group who sincerely believes themselves to be Christian. Thus, Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox believers, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, United Church members, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, etc. are all considered Christian. Using this definition, Christians total about 75% of the North American adult population.
However, many Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Protestants define "Christian" more narrowly to include only those persons who have been "born again" regardless of their denomination. About 35% of the North American adult population identify themselves in this way.
Some Protestant Christian denominations, para-church groups, and individuals have assembled their own lists of cardinal Christian doctrines. Many would regard anyone who denies even one of their cardinal doctrines to be a non-Christian. Unfortunately, there is a wide diversity of belief concerning which historical Christian beliefs are cardinal.
Other denominations regard their own members to be the only true Christians in the world. Some are quite small, numbering only a few thousand followers.
Different definitions on such a fundamental topic makes dialog and debate among Christian groups very difficult. It also makes estimating the number of Christians in the U.S. quite impossible. By some definitions, 75% of Americans are Christians; by other definitions, it is a small fraction of 1%.

(Taken from Religioustolerance.org)