World Religions: Christianity Christianity is the third monotheistic world religion.  The founder was Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew.  He was born around 4 B.C. in Bethlehem in Israel.  At the age of about 30 he began teaching and preaching  His main teachings are found in “The Sermon on the Mount”  Love your neighbor as yourself  Love even your enemy  Forgive others up to 490 times  Help the poor  Be truthful  Do not have lust  Be married for life  Do not judge others (condemn)  Be just and merciful  Do not be angry with your brother

 Jesus claimed to be the Messiah the Jews were told was coming  Jesus claimed to be the Son of God  He was arrested for these claims and crucified (This was the common death penalty for criminals)  His followers claim that on the third day after his crucifixion, he arose from the dead  After a total of 40 days he ascended into heaven and his believers believe that he will return to judge the earth.  Christians believe that because Jesus died without sin, others can have their sins forgiven by having faith in him as the son of God and following him.  Christians believe that all people have sinned and need forgiveness to avoid eternal punishment. They believe that is open to all people.

Most Christians worship on Sunday as the day of Christ’s Resurrection rather than the Sabbath which is Saturday. Some groups do worship on the Sabbath. Many Christians celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus and Easter as the day of his Resurrection. Baptism is an initiation rite for Christians and at communion, Christians observe the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples before he was crucified. Most do not include the Passover meal that was part of that supper but just use bread and wine (grape juice). The New Testament, which was written mostly in Greek is the Christian holy book along with the Jewish scriptures which Christians call the Old Testament. A man named Paul wrote about half of the New Testament.

Romans often persecuted Christians in the first three centuries. Nero and Diocletian especially put large numbers to death. Christians did not fight back, but died singing songs and forgiving those who were killing them. In 325, Constantine became a Christian and he moved the capital of the empire to Turkey. This later would become the Byzantine Empire. He made Christianity the official religion of the empire. In 1056 the church divided: the Roman Catholic Church in most of Europe and the Orthodox church in Africa, Asia, and Russia.

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