Since I was born, I was raised with the Buddhism culture and beliefs and I never thought to learn about other culture or religion which is out of my comfort zone. However, since I am a curious person, I enrolled for the religious class to learn about other religious culture and beliefs, and I decided to write the paper about Christianity. In this paper, I am going to express about the History, culture, Christianity beliefs and my own experience of the visit to the church.
When you heard the word, Christianity, the first thing you think would be Jesus, also called Christ ( Came from the Greek word called Messiah). Jesus was born in first decade B.C.E in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth. Two of the Gospels, Matthew and Luke recorded the birth of Jesus that Jesus was born to a Jewish couple called Joseph and Mary and He almost got killed by the governor of Palestine according to a massacre of all Hebrew children under the age of two unless Jesus’ family escaped by fleeing to Egypt.
Any understanding of Christianity must start with Judaism, because Jesus was born a Jew, and he grew up in the Jewish tradition. There is a prophet about John the Baptist who carried the message from the god, and he encouraged people to believe in god and undergo the ritual of
baptism. Jesus also underwent the baptism by john and began to carry the message from god after john got arrested. At that time, Jesus was one of many teachers who spreads his ideas in the Roman, and he was part of a messianic tradition that helps us understand why he was something much, much more who performed miracle events such as physical healing, command over nature, and the casting out of demons. A lot of people followed Jesus and only twelve of them were selected as the closest to him which were called Apostles.
At the age of thirty, Jesus is going to start a public ministry and he’s basically a Jewish priest at that time period who is traveling around talking about monotheism. He’s talking about the ten commandments but he’s also doing this new type of spin about how people can really have a personal relationship with God and that’s one of the underpinnings the foundations of Christians believe. There’s also a lot of teaching of love, forgiveness, looking out for the poor and the weak and the meet the meek shall inherit the earth Jesus of Nazareth is also promising something that is pretty hopeful for a lot of people for eternal life that if people follow him and if they wash themselves of their sins, they can eternal life with the Heavenly Father. Jesus of Nazareth goes to Jerusalem where he is seen by many people of Jerusalem as beginning of the Messiah and this is a problem for the Romans the governor. At that time period was Pontius Pilate and he saw Jesus of Nazareth as a threat. These are the conditions that create the context for what is going to be the crucifixion of Jesus.
Prior to him being arrested and tried, he had a Last Supper with his Twelve Apostles and Judas, one of the apostles betrayed Jesus by going to the Rome and turning him in for thirty silver pieces, then Jesus is sentenced to be crucified. Christians believe that he was had a crown of thorns that were put on him that he was given poison to drink mixed with wine; he was made to carry his own cross and eventually be crucified by having his ankles and his hands nailed to this
cross between two thieves. It is believed that he was on the cross for about six hours before he died, then Roman soldiers were said to put a spear through his side to make sure that he was dead, and he was put into a tomb. Three days later he was resurrected which his body was gone and during this time period he visited the Apostles. He basically told them to tell the world what happened and then he ascended into heaven. The advancement of Christian doctrine is its political, religious, and social value. Based on religious and religious values. In the first century, the growth of ancient Christianity was an interesting history, and the new Roman Empire was extended to Lebanon. The relationship between Romans and the history of Judaism has a lot of differences as the Romans believed that they had to do what they could to secure the Pax decorum, the goodwill of the gods, and they were willing to do whatever they needed to do to get it. As a result, their Pantheon was filled with gods, and at the time of conquering some new territories, the pinnacle of their work was finding a way to integrate these new gods or integrate them with the current Roman god.
According to Christianity, they desire to be separate and do their own religious thing apart from Roman state and it helps explain why the Christians were so fiercely prosecuted. If the Christians did not conform to the Roman religion, or at least did not accept their own devotion to Christ, at least he would have been robbed of the Pax decorum and the result would have failed. According to my visit to the church near my house, the church itself is fabulous with the water fountain decoration and palm trees around the church. I saw the different type of flags from different countries and a big stage as soon as I walked into the building. I felt welcomed and warmed by everyone and everyone looked happy and blessed. I also interviewed pastor from the church. The person I interviewed, Jeremy Higdon, the pastor of Oasis church, I asked him a couple questions according to Christianity. The first question was “ What is Christianity, who is Jesus and what
does the Christians believe? He said Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior who died for Humanity’s sins. Christians also feel that people are saved and achieve eternal life through faith in Jesus. The three major forms of Christianity are Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox and Protestantism and all Christians believe that Jesus is the savior, but they all have developed their own beliefs and practices. They all have that one thing in common even though Frances Protestantism Catholicism may have different ways to practice, but they all have that major central belief. Some Christian’s don’t go to church for instance like Catholics go to church every week which is part of how they worship God, but some Christians feel that they don’t need to go to church unless they just live the way Jesus says and that’s enough to worship God. For example, you don’t necessarily have to go to a physical location on a Sunday; you can be a Christian, follow the basic teachings and not even be involved in a weekly activity.
The next question is about the bible and he answered that the sacred texts of Christianity is the Bible which is inspired by God. A passage from Matthew suggests that “Christians should be meek righteous merciful and parent heart they should be peacemakers and they should be faithful to the religion no matter what might stand in their way if there could there could be somebody who threatens to beat you up for worshiping Jesus and every day no matter if you get beaten up as long as you worship Jesus then you’ll receive eternal life in the end”. People believe that Jesus’s death redeemed all of mankind and all those who follow his teachings.
There is a sacred site called Bethlehem in modern-day Israel and I asked that “what’s the significance of that?” He answered that it was the birthplace of Christ and it’s also the home of the Church of Nativity. There are also many Christian celebrations that particularly celebrate the life and death of Jesus Christ and the most important ones are our Christmas which celebrates Jesus’s birth, Good Friday and Easter are celebrated because it represents Jesus coming back to
life three days after he was crucified and then his ascent into heaven to the death and resurrection. No matter what denomination you are these are central that your celebrations to your practices
The next question I asked was that “what denomination of Christian does he consider himself?” He said that he is denominational since he teaches a great message from Jesus at the Oasis Church which was open to any kind of Christian whether you were Catholic or Protestant. I also asked his opinion on how he thinks that the different from a traditional Catholic and a Protestant church. His opinion was that in the Catholic Church, the only people who go there are Catholics because the Catholics are very particular about how they worship god. He like to teach to a denominational, give an interesting experience since there are a lot of different people which we had a family come there who was Messianic Jews ,meaning they were Jews who believed in Jesus. We will be singing and worship God through music.
After the visit to the church and interview with pastor Jeremy, I learned many things about Christianity and the last thing I want to learn is that the Christianity made the world better and I found the source which is reliable and credential. It is the magazine by Gillian R. Evans who is the Emeritus Professor of Medieval Theology and intellectual history at the university of Cambridge. He mentioned that to look back the history and judge what the Christians made the world better or not is not the hard and he said it would have been better or worst in lot of ways, but it wouldn’t make much difference. At least, They made the bible, something known as a good thing. The best answer from the magazine is that “The mistake is perhaps to ask what ‘Christianity’ has done for the world, as distinct from the difference individual Christians have made.” In my opinion, I believe that the Christianity bring happiness, disclination, joy to the followers and it is important to understand the religious and make the profit out of it by believing and following the god.
