Interfaith Council of
Greater Sacramento

Christianity is founded on the worship of Jesus Christ as Son of God, the unique self-revelation of God to the human race. At the same time it remembers this same Jesus is a historical figure, a man of insignificant social standing who during his life was unknown outside the obscure corner of the Roman Empire where he lived and died.

Almost all we know about Jesus come from the four accounts of his life which we find in the New Testament. The account that follows is based on those Gospels.

History of Christianity

Christians follow the teaching of and about Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus). He was a Jewish teacher who lived around 2,000 years ago. He was executed by the Romans for his teachings, and beliefs. Most Christians regard him as the son of God, and believe he existed before the creation of the world, and that he was born of a , and was resurrected three days after his death.

Christianity Today

Today an estimated 33% of the world is considers themselves Christians, or about 2 billion. And an estimated 87% of North American's identify themselves as Christians, this number has been slowly dropping in recent years.

Every person who identifies themselves as Christian has these similar beliefs:

• Belief in the existence of one God, creator of the of the Universe, who is all powerful.
• Belief in the fact that humans are made in the image of God.
• Belief that God, who is the righteous judge, is gracious and merciful.
• Belief that Jesus is the son of God, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
• Belief in the Trinity (The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost)

Who was Jesus

He was hailed as a prophet , a man sent by God. In his preaching, teaching and healing he matched up to that role, and as such he is one of a long and noble sequence of God's people before and since. But Christians believe, and as his own life and teachings suggest he is much more than that. He called for faith in and loyalty to himself, and presented himself as the final arbiter of people's destiny. He not only proclaimed forgiveness and salvation: but by his one life and suffering he achieved it. He is the messenger and also is the heart of the message. He calls people to God but is also himself the way to God. During Jesus' earthly life his disciples only dimly understood all this though thy understood enough to make them tenaciously loyal to him.. But after his "resurrection" they quickly came to speak of him as more than just a man, and to worship him as they worshipped his Father.

What Jesus taught

The Gospels sum up Jesus' teaching in Galilee in the challenge: "The time has come; the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Here is a short summary of his message:

• "The time has come" Jesus saw this as the time of fulfilment. In other words, however he shared popular ideas of a political deliverer, he saw himself as the Messiah, come to save God's people. He called himself the son of man, echoing a figure in the Old Testament book of Daniel who represented the ultimate deliverance and triumph of the true people of God.
• "The kingdom of God is near" It means that God is in control, that his will is done. So he called people to enter God's kingdom to accept his sovereignty and to live as his subjects. He taught them to look forward to the day when this kingship of God, already inaugurated by Jesus, would find its fulfilment when everyone acknowledged God as king, when Jesus himself would return in glory, and share the universal and everlasting dominion of his Father.
• "Repent" Jesus called his own people, primarily those in Israel , to return to their true loyalty to God. He warned them of God's judgement if they refused. After his "resurrection," he sent his disciples to call all nations into the kingdom of God . God's demands are absolute and disobedience or disloyalty would no be overlooked.
• "Believe the good news" Now was the time for deliverance. Jesus preached this not in a political sense, but in terms of the restoration of a true relationship with God. Those who repented would find forgiveness and a new life. And as Jesus predicted his own suffering and death, he saw this as the means of restoration.

Different Sects and Denominations of Christianity

The Early Church has separated into 3 distinct groups that can distinguished from each other. They are:

• Eastern Orthodox
• Roman Catholic
• Protestant / Churches of the Reformation:
  • Anabaptists
  • Lutherans
  • Reformed/Calvanists/Presbyterians
  • Anglicans/Episcopalians
  • Baptists
  • Methodists
  • Evangelicals
  • Fundamentalists
  • Liberalists
  • Adventists
  • Pentecostalists
  • Latter Day Saints
  • Christian Science
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses
  • Unity Church

The history of these branches can be easily defined and the time of the split is easily determined. The Early Church split into two groups Eastern Orthodox, and Western Catholic, during a period of time called the Great Schism. The Western Catholic Church in turn separated into the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism, also known as Churches of the Reformation, which has many denominations underneath itself. This split occurred during a period known as the Reformation and Counter Reformation.