A Thumbnail guide to Christianity

In the beginning..

Christianity started nearly 2,000 years ago with the birth, in Bethlehem of Jesus of Nazareth. Bethlehem was a small town in the country of Palestine, now Israel, in the Middle East. It now has the largest following of any religion in the world with over 2,000,000,000 believers.

There are many different groups of Christians in the world (see the entry on The Christian church). Each of these groups is usually called a church. The word refers to both the people and the buildings. The largest of the Christian groups is the Roman Catholic church. This group accounts for over half of the Christians in the world. The leader of the Roman Catholics is the Bishop of Rome, better know as the Pope. The other two main groups are the Orthodox Church and the Protestants.

Thought these Christian groups often disagree about things they have 3 main areas of agreement:

Jesus

Jesus is thought to have been born in Bethlehem during the time of the Roman occupation. He was the son of Joseph and Mary. During his life he preached a message of love and forgiveness and told people about his father, God. He won a large following of disciples. Many Jews thought of him as the Messiah who was going to save humankind from its sin. With his disciples Jesus traveled around the country preaching the gospel about the kingdom of God. He is believed to have performed many miracles of healing and power over nature. He taught and showed by his example the importance of love and compassion. He criticised the authorities of the day and eventually was crucified by Pontius Pilate. Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead three days after he died, this is called the Resurrection and is celebrated during the festival of Easter. 40 days after his resurrection Jesus ascended into heaven where he lives with his Father and the Holy Spirit.

Worship

Jesus predicted that he was going to be put to death at his last supper. The night before he died he instructed his disciples to share bread and wine with him. Jesus said that these represented his body (the bread) and his blood (the wine). Most Christian churches remember this event in a ceremony which is called different things in different churches. It is known in different churches as the Mass, Eucharist, Holy Communion, or The Lord's supper.

As well as this all Christians use the bible, Hymns, sermons and personal and group prayer as part of their worship.

Bible

The bible is the written source of authority for all Christians. The bible is divided into the Old and the New testaments. The Old testament tells the story of the creation of the world, of the history of the Jews and the relationship between the Jews and God. The Old Testament contains the 10 commandments. The New Testament tells the story of the life of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In the book called Acts the bible tells the story of Pentecost when after the death of Jesus the disciples received the power of the Holy Spirit. The letters, or Epistles of Paul give advice to Christian communities on the problems that they are facing.