Christianity

Part I

Uncovering What Christianity’s All About 

The way I see it, it’s important to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and onto your dashboard. 

In this part...

If you’ve ever left your car out in ice or snow, you know that before driving, you first have to scrape off the windshield to have a clear view of the road. This first part helps act as that ice scraper by creating a clear picture of what Christianity is and showing you how the Christian faith compares to other world religions. Here I give you a backdrop on what Christianity claims as truth, so you can delve into the details that I discuss later in this book and understand why Christians do what they do. In that light, this section explores how Christians answer questions about the existence of God and the reliability of the Bible. I also introduce you to that which is responsible for Christianity’s existence: the message of God’s grace. 

Chapter 1

Good News in a Bad News World 

In This Chapter

Getting the gist of Christianity

Exploring the many paradoxes of the Christian faith

Breaking it down: Seeing how Christianity fans out

Understanding Christianity’s role in today’s world

Recognizing the difference between Christianity and major world religions 

When you click the remote and watch the nightly news broadcast, good news is sure hard to come by. Instead, other people’s bad news always seems to take centre stage: A burglar steals an elderly couple’s life savings, a fire rips through an apartment building, or a hijacked plane crashes in Siberia. You visit the checkout aisle at your local grocery and see that other people’s bad news sells tabloids: a celebrity’s failed two-week–old marriage, a politician’s scandal, or a mystery illness that causes an Olympic gold medallist to grow a second nose. 

You and I are inundated with bad news, but it’s the yearning for good news that keeps us getting out of bed each day: a marriage proposal, a job promotion, the expectancy of a child or grandchild, the winning ticket of the Super Lotto. Good news not only makes your day, but it also gives you hope and optimism for the future. 

Christianity is a faith that’s all about good news. The heart of the Christian message is called the gospel, which means – you guessed it – the “good news.” The Christian faith, therefore, claims to offer meaning and hope to people, not just for a day, but also for all eternity. 

So what exactly is this so-called good news that Christianity claims? How is it different from other religions? And if Christianity is supposed to be about good news, why does it seem that so much bad news – scandalous priests, corrupt televangelists, and so on – flows from the Christian Church these days?

 
In this chapter, you discover the essence of Christianity and how it compares to other world religions. You also explore some popular misconceptions of the Christian faith so that you can discern what Christianity is and is not.