What is Christianity?

1. Christianity would not be in the vocabulary of humanity were it not for the OT prophets who prophesied that a christ/messiah would emerge. There were specific prophetic descriptions of what this person would be like what he would do and what would befall him. In due time Jesus, born in Bethlehem as prophesied, coming out Nazareth, sought out to be killed as an infant, born of a chaste young woman/virgin, born in a lowly place, riding into Jerusalem on an unbroken colt, to be rejected by his people, to suffer, having his side and hands pierced, having soldiers railing at him, parting his garments, to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, the betrayer being burried in the potter's field, being burried in a borrowed tomb, etc, did emerge on the scene to fulfill the above predictions and much more. Thus the word term Christianity came to be known. This christ of Christianity had 12 very close desciples who followed him and who wrote and taught his doctrines quoting him often, his purpose for being born, his purpose for allowing himself to be crucified, how to be born from above spiritually, i.e. to become a child of God, i.e to become a christ-ian/christ-one proclaiming emphatically that he and he alone was the way to the father, Jehovah, god of the OT and the NT. He said any who attempted to get in any other way were to be considered thieves and robbers. His desciple Paul said "as many as were saved were added to the church daily," and "they were first called Christians at Antioch."Jesus went on to instruct his desciples to go into all the world, beginning at Jerusalem and preach the specific gospel he had established, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.Both Jesus and his desciples taught the following criteria for one to consider oneself to be his follower/desciple/Christian.
1. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
2. Believe Jesus's sacrificial shed blood "cleanses from all sin, and he arose from the grave for our redemption.
3. One must call upon God, receiving Christ Jesus as saviour and lord of one's life. Jesus, of course here is referring to his spirit, the Holy Spirit and he explained to Nicodemus that he must be born from above spiritually by receiving this Holy Spirit of Jesus into his being and body. See John chapter 3So I go at answering this question for myself as a scientist would go at arriving at a given theory. I assemble all the data I can which is specifically applicable to the term/word to be considered or studied and base my conclusions on the research pertaining to that assembled data. Please note that I have not and imo, need not mention any denomination, sect, or faction or human organization in my answer to this question of what I believe a Christian is. I have, however, presented an answer which is absoulutely EXCLUSIVE, as was made very clear by both Jesus, the christ of Christianity and his apostles.This, understandably does not set well with those of other persuasions, followers of other gods and unbelievers. Thus, as prophesied by Jesus himself, those who would truly become his followers SHALL SUFFER PERSECUTION and be generally misunderstood, hated, and despised by the world for their Christian witness and testimony of this exclusive gospel.

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The immeasurable present is forever consuming the eternal future and extending the infinite past. buz

Since this is not going to be a debate response, I hope Jar won't mind my clarifying my belief on the Holy Spirit relative to your remarks and relative to Christianity. I do not believe in the penticostal doctrine which goes with some kind of 2nd experience with an encounter with the Holy Spirit they call the baptism of the Holy Spirit.. There is only one scripture I know of that deals with this experience specifically. It is in I Corinthians 12:13 where we are told that WE ARE ALL, referring, I believe all true Christians, BAPTIZED INTO ONE BODY BY ONE SPIRIT. Another verse says the very bodies of Christians become the temples, i.e. dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. When one receives Christ as Saviour it is understandable that Jesus, the man does not come down from Heaven and enter our bodies, but his Holy Spirit, the spirit of him and the father literally comes into the recipient's body and being. When I received Jesus the Christ as my saviour as a child I felt nothing physically, but simply took God at his word that I was, by calling upon him for salvation, now his child and a Christian by faith in his promise. As I grew in the Christian experience via prayer, church attendance and study of the Bible, especially the NT, my faith grew stronger and firmer that I I was truly a Christian and thus [/i]baptized by his Spirit[/i] We Christians are never admonished to be baptized by the HS, but to be filled by that Holy Spirit. Thus I believe in ONE baptism when one receives Christ and becomes a Christian and MANY fillings and many DEGREES to which one may be filled by that Spirit. Some have a little and others have a lot, depending on how devout, obedient and active in prayer, study, etc, but all who have his Spirit via receiving Christ as saviour and lord, regardless of how full of the spirit they are, nevertheless, STILL A CHRISTIAN.

Hi Mike. I sensed from your post that you needed some clarification. I believe the Holy Spirit was prompting me to clarify as it seemed that my post had left you a bit despondent and discouraged. Satan is the accuser of the brethren who discourages and brings doubt. I find the way to keep on keeping on in the Christian walk is to 1. read the Bible daily. 2. have a time of personal prayer daily. 3. Meet with likeminded Christians at least once a week in public assembly which would include Sabbath or Sunday school. The study time together with other believers is important since you can communicate with the teacher and vise versa. It is also good to pray with other believers. I've always said if one does all these, one will likely keep positive as a Christian and on track. Daily personal Bible study is priority. Why? Because by becoming knowledgeable of the book, one can then spot the true and the false in and out of church.While I'm at it I forgot two things of significance in what I believe about Christianity. '
1. The word baptize implicates to imerse. It signifies death, burial (going under) and resurrection, {rising up and out). It signifies both the death and resurrection of Jesus and our future death and resurrection. Water baptism does not save a person nor make him/her a Christian, imo. It is that physical public thing that one who has received Jesus as saviour does as a public testimony of becoming a Christian. Jesus stressed the need to publically acknowledge him before men. This's how one begins that public testamony. He said if we are ashamed of him before men, he will be ashamed of us before the Father.2. Communion is that ordinance which Jesus commanded us to do regularly so as not to forget his suffering and death on the cruel cross for our redemption. This is to be done with other Christians as that's how he did it. Imo, it, like baptism does nothing to make one more saved of less, but is to be done in obedience to Jesus strictly as a remembrance. He said "this is my body" and "this is my blood." I see nothing in this that indicates a change in the food to flesh. It's like pointing to your man, i.e. wood or plastic piece on the monoply board and saying to your opponent, "this's me."I hope I haven't gone outa bounds from topic here, but to answer the quesion of what a Christian is, but I consider it to be a very important question which must be answered with at least equally as much precision and comprehension as one would go at a medical or science problem.

Glad to be able to edify you, my brother. Thanks for being there when I needed you also! May God bless you richly for it!

Since you asked, I'll comment. It appears that you answered your own question by quoting three prayers to Mary. Many Catholics also offer prayers to St Jude for protection. These prayers have been published in our local Pennysaver in the past.As a Biblical fundamentalist Christian, I pray to God the father in the name of Jesus the son is our 'high priest' and 'mediator.' I base this on scriptures like I Timothy 2:5 which says, "there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus." and the words of Jesus in John 15:16 where he says, '.........that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it you.' He makes similar statements to that effect in other scriptures.Btw, which professing Christians have we not heard from yet in this thread? It would be interesting to have other input.

Of course. I wasn't thinking when I posted. There is, however definitely one prayer, by definition, to Mary, in your post, requesting for her to interceed to God for us. Prayer is defined as communicating, and usually implicates communication with deity.