Christianity in a Nutshell

A History of the Israelites and the early Jews and
the Coming of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the World

The Bible is in two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is longer and was originally written mainly in Hebrew, the language of the Israelites. The New Testament was written in Greek. The Old Testament describes, in poetic words, the creation of the universe, the arrival of mankind on the scene, the origin of the Jewish nation, rules to live by, especially the Ten Commandments (see below), and prophesies about a future Messiah, or Christ. He would be sent by God as saviour of the Jewish people, which is the Jewish view, or as Saviour of the world, the Christian interpretation. Modern-day Jews are still waiting for the Messiah, while Christians believe that Jesus Christ from Nazareth fulfilled all the ancient prophesies.

Life in the times of the Ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians and the early Israelites was incredibly cruel and unjust by modern standards. Each nation seemed intent on conquering and enslaving its neighbours. The God-given Ten Commandments (shown below) must have seemed extraordinary to the rest of the people in those far off times. The idea of worshipping an unseen God who had created the entire universe must have seemed laughable to people used to praying to local metal, wooden, or stone idols which they themselves had made.

People sometimes ask, If God created us, then who created God? The answer is that unlike a stone idol or a metal god, nobody created Him. God is eternal.

The Bible is divided into sections called "books" and each book has its own author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, God in action on earth.

The New Testament consists of four special books called The Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). They describe the extraordinary events of Jesus' birth, life, execution and Resurrection. The authors are four people who were close to Jesus, or to His family and friends, and so can give us a detailed picture of what happened.

Matthew was one of Jesus' disciples. Mark was a close friend of the disciple Peter. Luke was a doctor who was a friend of Jesus' mother, Mary, and of the disciples, and of Paul, who founded the early churches. John was the disciple who knew Jesus' way of thinking particularly well.

In addition to the Gospels, the New Testament also contains the Acts Of The Apostles in which Luke describes how Christianity rapidly spread from Israel to other parts of the Roman Empire and how the first churches were established. Most of the rest of the New Testament contains copies of letters to these early churches from Saint Paul, and others, explaining what Christianity is about.

Finally there is the rather mysterious Book Of Revelation giving a vivid impression of future events concerning the return of the Lord Jesus. Many people have attempted to use "clues" in this book to calculate the date of the promised return of Jesus. In doing so they ignore the fact that Jesus stated clearly, "No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows."

The Saviour Of The World

God created heaven and the universe
God lives with His son Jesus in heaven, a place of happiness, beauty, love, health and goodness
We are created in God's image, so heaven will seem natural to us
For heaven to remain perfect there cannot be sin there
Everyone on earth is a sinner in one way or another
If we were to enter heaven as sinners we would spoil it
God loves everyone in the world (though He doesn't always love their deeds)
God sent His son Jesus to earth to take away the sins of the world
Jesus accepted the ultimate punishment, crucifixion, to take our sins onto Himself
If we are willing to believe in God and that His son Jesus cleansed us of our sins on the Cross, we are counted as citizens of heaven
As citizens of heaven, when our time comes to die, we go to heaven where we are promised a great reward for our good deeds. Our sins are "written off" because Jesus, being our Saviour, took them onto Himself and was punished for them
Alternatively, we can reject Jesus, not believe in God and hope upon hope that we are right and that death is endless sleep
If we are wrong (it happens) we could face an eternity of watching other people in the distance enjoying the joys of heaven while we are excluded in a miserable Godless existence
Jesus is the Saviour Of The World because anyone in the world can be saved from their sins simply by accepting Jesus into their life
Belief in Jesus is all it takes to be saved, but if we want to show our love for Him we will try to do our best to please Him by the lives we lead and the way we treat other people.

Militant atheists are fond of saying things like "Oh yeah, so god created heaven at the beginning of time. So where did he live before that?" (snigger, snigger). Proud as we are of our intelligence and our intellect, human beings are relative newcomers to life on earth and our brains are still under-developed. Asking what God was doing before our concept of time began is like asking a goldfish what its owner was doing before buying it at the pet-shop and putting it in its fish-tank. Goldfish are incapable of understanding the world outside the fish-tank and we are incapable of understanding many aspects of God. The goldfish trusts its owner to feed it and we should trust God to know what is best for us, even though events in our lives may be hard to understand. We're much cleverer than goldfish, but not as clever as God!!

Thinking whether heaven exists brings to mind the imaginary conversation between a pair of twins, as yet unborn. One says to the other, "Do you believe in life after birth?" and the other one laughs and says "Don't be so stupid! Life after birth is just a fairy tale. I only believe in the here-and-now."

The Nature Of God

Some people today say they could never believe in "the God of the Old Testament" because He seems to have been cruel and so different from the God Of Love that Jesus and Saint Paul tell us about in the New Testament. For example, in the New Testament God heals a lot of sick people through the actions of His son Jesus. It was in the New Testament that today's concept of organised charity was born.

On the other hand, in the Old Testament God is sometimes directly responsible for the death of innocent people and at first sight this seems unjust. When the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt God used a fierce wind to part the waters of a shallow region of the Red Sea (known in Hebrew as the sea of reeds) to enable His people to cross to the other side. When the pursuing Egyptian troops followed in their chariots God caused the wind to stop, the sea closed in and all the Egyptians drowned. People may ask how God can be loving and caring when He was directly responsible for the deaths of so many Egyptians.

What we sometimes forget is that God loves everyone on a personal, individual basis, including each Egyptian soldier. God is fair and just. Each one of those soldiers would one day have died, been judged and either have perished or gone to paradise. On this occasion their judgment day was brought forward so that God's Chosen People could reach their Promised Land, become a great nation and in due time produce the Saviour Of The World.

The Old Testament part of the Bible is about 2.8 times as long as the New Testament by number of pages, but the Old Testament is almost totally the story of a small, but great, nation who at their largest only numbered about two million people. The New Testament, on the other hand, focuses its message on more than 7 billion people, the population of the world. Everybody deserves the opportunity to go to heaven when they die. Because the focus is on a much smaller stage in the Old Testament, we get a more limited view of God.

During most of the Old Testament times the Israelites were the only people who knew of the existence of God and on many occasions they were in mortal danger from their cruel enemies. God was not going to allow the bearers of the new religion to be snuffed out and forgotten. He dealt strongly and decisively with their enemies. He was determined to set the stage for sending His son Jesus Christ to live amongst us here on earth to help show us the Way.

Because of the drastic circumstances of the Israelites in Old Testament times God often appears to have been harsh, by Christian standards. People comparing the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New Testament can easily get an impression of two different Gods.

In the Old Testament we often see God helping the Israelites in their struggle for survival. This is God in a war situation. In the New Testament, through the words and deeds of His son Jesus, we get a much more complete picture of a loving, caring God reaching out to the whole world.

Standards to Live By

People who have never read the Bible are fond of saying that it is boring and full of old-fashioned rules which are of no relevance to the 21st century. They say that Jesus, if He ever existed (!) (hardly any reputable historians doubt that He existed), can have nothing of any interest to say to the people of today. So what was Jesus' first miracle and where did He perform it? Jesus first demonstrated that He was no ordinary man when He was at a party and they ran out of drink. Jesus asked that some large stone jars be filled with water. He then said the guests should get their drinks from the jars. When they dipped their cups and withdrew them, each cup was full of vintage wine. As usual His miracle was beneficial and amazing. He made it beneficial because He always wanted to help people and He made it amazing because He wanted to back up His claim that He actually was the son of God. Some might say that what He did was just as relevant now as it was then.

Scattered throughout the Bible there is guidance on how to live life so that you bring happiness and pleasure to yourself and to other people. Christianity encourages you to have fun and be happy as long as it is not at anyone else's expense, or at the expense of your health. Drinking alcohol is OK - Jesus did it, but brawling with people when under the influence is not. If two people enjoy teasing each other, that's fine, but if one of them doesn't like to be teased, then it's not fine. It's a question of being considerate and trying not to be selfish.

Many people don't like living by rules. They cherish their freedom. Perhaps a world where everyone lived according to their own standards would be ideal. Imagine three people in a work place. They work together all day. One is a bully, but is prone to making mistakes which seriously affect the other members of the team. The second person is a thinker and can solve most of the team's problems, but is shy. The third is a schemer, looking for chances to benefit at everyone else's expense. Left to their own devices, would they make a happy team? Probably not. Two of them wouldn't trust the schemer, two would loathe the bully and the bully would despise the other two. Would they be an efficient team? With them each thinking about themselves all the time, obviously not. Would they be a successful team? Definitely not. The bully's ideas would always win and because they were wrong, the team would keep failing.

Suppose a few simple rules were laid down:- 1. Do your best for the Team, 2. Be considerate to each other, 3. Be honest, but tactful. The arrival of rules obviously means the loss of a bit of freedom, but is this such a bad thing if 1. everyone trusts each other, 2. everyone is considerate to each other, 3. everyone benefits as the team goes from success to success?

The "commandments" of Christianity work in a very similar way. Sure, we lose a little bit of personal freedom, but living the Christian way doesn't make many demands on us!