What is Christianity?

Christianity – 08 I had never heard of Kat von D (Katherine von Drachenberg) until I saw on the internet a piece about her baptism in a Christian church—which includes two videos:  one of the baptism itself, and one in which she speaks about it.  For those who may not know, Kat von D is apparently a public celebrity among tattoo aficionados.  Before accepting Jesus as her personal Savior, Kat von D was also a witch, a practitioner of the occult. Parts of the video of the baptism looked very weird to me, and a closer look revealed why.  Many of Kat’s friends attended the church ceremony.  Some of them were dressed in the kind of garb associated with believers in the occult.  Apparently, they are not Christians.  Yet, they attended as a gesture of support for Kat’s decision. In Kat’s video where she speaks of the experience, let me start by saying that the authenticity of her faith came across to me as unpretentious, humble, and inspired by the Hol...

Christianity Made Simple – 07 One of the most popular topics in the Bible is the End Times, often referred to as the end of the world, or as Armageddon.  There are many differing opinions about how the end will come about, so we will stick to what the Bible clearly tells us.  First, we are told that no one can know when the end will occur.   Therefore, anyone forecasting a specific date is speaking falsely.   On the other hand, the Bible tells us that we can know the signs of the near approach of that date, somewhat as we can look at storm clouds.   We can predict that a storm is coming, even if we cannot pinpoint exactly when. In past centuries, men have falsely predicted specific dates, and of course they were all wrong.   In more recent times, men have pointed to world events, and said that the End is near.   Some of those seemed to have been very reasonable at the time.   For example, the rise to power of Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin and ...

Christianity - 06 The short answer is yes, they do.  Christians, Buddhists, even atheists, all go to Heaven.  Everybody.  I know, I know, I am well aware that conventional thinking says that the one and ONLY way to Heaven is through the grace of Jesus, and the Bible reveals that truth to us.   But the Bible also says that when Jesus died on the Cross, the work of salvation was completed, and we cannot add anything to His perfection. Many Christian authorities will tell us that in order for us to benefit from Jesus’s sacrifice, we must “accept Him as our Savior.”   That, however, would mean that we would have to do something to complete Jesus’s work, which as we already said, is impossible.   The work of salvation is already complete, and we cannot add anything to it. Now wait just a minute here, someone might say, are you saying that you can reject Jesus and still go to heaven? Not at all.   That’s why I said the SHORT answer is yes.   T...

Christianity - 05 In the movie, The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, there is the famous scene in which God parts the Red Sea, so that the Jews fleeing slavery in Egypt can pass to safety, while the Egyptian army pursues them. The Jews escape, by walking between the walls of water. Then, when they have crossed to safety, the water covers the Egyptian army, and they all drown. While the story is true, some have said that the miracle in real life did not look like the movie. Even the smallest miracle is awesome indeed, so in our lives, when we look for the miracles, we might easily miss seeing them, especially if we are looking for high drama, As it says in Psalm 23, even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou [God] art with me. Life is not a movie, so it sometimes seems as if the good guys (that's us) lose, but we don't. We always win, because God always wins the victory for us--not because we deserve to win, but b...

Christianity Made Simple – 04 What is the Trinity? Of course, a central theme in both Christianity and Judaism, is the belief in God.   Not only that, but we believe that there is one, and only one, God. In ancient times, there were many religions, and most of them taught that there are many gods, not just one.   The idea of only one God was rare, and it made the religion of the Jews very different from the others in the region where the Jews lived. But in modern Christianity, the description of God seems to break away from the idea of just one God.   We worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.   How can that be, if there is only one God? The opening words of the Bible tell us that, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”   Genesis 1:1 This verse portrays God as the Father, that is, the Creator.   In the New Testament, Jesus says of Himself that, “I and my Father are one.”   John 10:30 How can a ma...

  Christianity Made Simple (3)   Note to the reader:  The automatic formatting of this blog places the newest entries first.  To read them in order, start with the oldest entries. Most people seem to think of praying as something you do, to get what you want for yourself or someone else.   People pray for a new car, or for world peace, or other things.   And it is okay to do that. What prayer really is, however, is a communication with God.   Communication goes both ways.   We speak to God.   We should not be surprised, then, that God speaks to us.   God always listens to us.   Do we always listen to Him? It is our nature to shut God out.   Otherwise, we would be in constant communication with God.   Salvation has freed us from our bondage to sin, but we retain our power to freely choose.   We can choose to commune with God, but we are easily distracted. Choosing to pray opens for us the line of communicatio...

  Christianity Made Simple (2)   Note to the reader:  The automatic formatting of this blog places the newest entries first.  To read them in order, start with the oldest entries. Why is there something, instead of nothing?   Why are things this way, and not some other way? These two questions have perplexed scientists and philosophers for thousands of years.  They are not idle questions.  As we shall see, they lead us to the problem of evil.  Why does it exist?  How can we overcome it? The very first line of the Bible, Old Testament, Book of Genesis, starts us off on the right track.   “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”   All the wisdom of man, all the science, all the great minds of philosophy, have found no better answer than this.   Without the right answer, we pay a heavy price. There is a problem.   Even though God created the universe in a state of perfection, we can clearly see that t...

  Christianity Made Simple --by Robert Arvay Christ is a word meaning, “Anointed One.”  Jesus, the anointed one, was born in the year, One (1) in the city of Bethlehem, Israel, on Christmas Day, that is, Christ Mass Day. His birth, death and His resurrection from the dead are the central miracles of the Christian faith, and are described in detail in the Bible, New Testament, which begins with The Book of Matthew. The birth of Christ Jesus’s mother was named Mary.  She was a virgin when, it was announced to her by the angel, Gabriel, that she would bear the Son of God.  Jesus was conceived in her womb, not by any man, but by the Holy Spirit of God, in the miracle known as the Immaculate Conception. Jesus is both fully man, and fully God. The death of Jesus At age 33, Jesus was put to death under Roman law by being nailed to a cross.  This was the most brutal and painful form of death.  Jesus’s death is the reason why the Cross is the most recognized symbol ...