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Christianity....
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Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life, teachings,
death by crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of
Nazareth as portrayed
in the New Testament writings of his early followers. After nearly two
thousand years, Christianity is the world's largest religion with an
estimated 2.1 billion followers, or about one-third of the world's
population. It shares with Judaism most of the books of the
Old Testament
(also known as the Hebrew Bible), and for this reason is sometimes called
an Abrahamic religion.
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According to the New Testament
Jesus of Nazareth was a
descendant of Judah, declared himself to be the long awaited Messiah
(John
8:23–24, 14:11), but was rejected as an apostate by the Jewish authorities
(Matt. 26:63–64). Around the year 30 he was accused of blasphemy in a
meeting by leading Jews and hours later accused before the
Roman procurator
Pontius Pilate and then crucified. The charge cited in his execution was
subverting Roman authority (Luke 23:1–5): he was called the "King of the
Jews" by Pontius Pilate (John 19:19–22; see
Luke 16:8) on the titulus crucis
or statement of the charge hung over the condemned on the cross. |
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The Gospel accounts suggest that the Roman charge was an
attempt to appease the Jewish authorities, although some scholars argue that
it was merely an ordinary Roman trial of a rebel. In
Christianity,
the Old Testament prophecies considered to be Messianic by first century
Jewish rabbis predicted the death and humiliation of Jesus
as recorded in
the New Testament. Examples include parallels between the crucifixion
accounts (Matt. 27, Mark 15:34,
Luke 23 and John 19) and
David and Isaiah’s
writings about death and the suffering servant (Psalm 22, Isa. 53). |
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The story goes that an early
Christian, upon meeting another person, might draw an arc in the
earth, and if the other person shared the faith, he would draw another
arc completing this ichthys, a symbol of Christianity.
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Many of the New Testament's
twenty-seven books were
written by Paul of Tarsus. Twelve Epistles name him as writer, and some
traditions also credit him as the writer of the book of Hebrews. The
Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are stated as having
been written by Luke, whom many believe to have been under
Paul's direct
influence. Acts cites Paul as a student of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), a leading
figure amongst the Jewish Sanhedrin (Acts 5:34–40) and a noteworthy
authority in his own right (Acts 28:16–22) considering that the Jews of
Rome sought his opinion on Christianity. Paul was the principal missionary
of the Christian message to the Gentile world. |
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