User:A.J.A./Tohu&Bohu/Beliefs

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[edit] Beliefs

Jesus and Mary
Jesus and Mary

Although Christianity has always had a significant diversity of belief, mainstream Christian theology considers certain core doctrines esential to orthodoxy. Mainstream Christians often consider followers of Jesus who disagree with these doctrines to be heterodox, heretical, or outside Christianity altogether.

[edit] Jesus

Main article: Jesus

Christians identify Jesus as the Messiah. The title Messiah comes from the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (mashiakh) meaning the anointed one, for which the Greek translation is Χριστός (Christos), the source of the English word Christ. Christians believe that as Messiah Jesus was anointed as ruler and saviour of both the Jewish people specifically and of humanity in general. Most Christians hold that Jesus' coming was the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy and the inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Christian concept of Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept.[1]

Most Christians believe that Jesus is "true God and true man" (or fully divine and fully human). Jesus is believed to have become fully human in all respects, including mortality, and to have suffered the pains and temptations of mortal man, yet without having sinned. From being true God he was capable of defeating death and rising up to life again, known as the resurrection.

According to Christian Scripture, Jesus was born to a virgin, after having been conceived not by sexual intercourse but by God through the power of the Holy Spirit. (See Nativity of Jesus). Little of Jesus' childhood is covered by the Gospels compared to his ministry and especially his last week. The Biblical account of his ministry begins with his baptism, and recounts miracles such as turning water into wine at a marriage at Cana, exorcisms, and healings, and quotes his teachings, such as the Sermon on the Mount. He also appointed apostles.

The Crucifixion
The Crucifixion

Most Christians consider the death and resurrection of Jesus the central events of history. According to the Gospels, Jesus and his followers went to Jerusalem for the Passover and he was greeted by a crowd of supporters, an event called the triumphal entry. Later that week, he enjoyed a meal (possibly the Passover Seder) with his disciples before going to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he was arrested by Roman soldiers on behalf of the Sanhedrin and the high priest, Caiaphas. The arrest took place clandestinely at night to avoid a riot, because Jesus was popular with the people at large. Judas Iscariot, one of his apostles, betrayed Jesus by identifying his location for money.

Following the arrest, Jesus was tried by the Sanhedrin, which considered his answers to their questions blasphemous and wished to kill him but lacked legal authority. He was sent to Pontius Pilate, who in turn sent him to Herod Antipas (son of the Herod who tried to kill Jesus as an infant). Initially excited at meeting Jesus, about whom he had heard, Herod ended up mocking Jesus and sent him back to Pilate. Remembering that it was a custom at Passover for the Roman governor to free a prisoner (a custom not recorded outside the Gospels), Pilate offered the crowd a choice between Jesus of Nazareth and an insurrectionist named Barabbas. The crowd chose to have Barabbas freed and Jesus crucified. Pilate washed his hands to display that he claimed himself innocent of the injustice of the decision. Pilate then ordered Jesus to be crucified with a charge placed atop the cross (known as the titulus crucis) which read "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Jesus died by late afternoon and was buried by Joseph of Arimathea.

According to the Gospels, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. He appeared to Mary Magdalene, and then appeared to various people in various places over the next forty days. Hours after his resurrection, he appeared to two travellers on the road to Emmaus. To his assembled disciples he showed himself on the evening after his resurrection. During one of these visits, Jesus' disciple Thomas initially doubted the resurrection, but after being invited to place his finger in Jesus' pierced side, said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Before his Ascension Jesus instructed his Apostles to "teach all nations", known as the Great Commission.

[edit] Salvation

Main article: Salvation

Most Christians believe that salvation from "sin and death" is available through faith in Jesus as savior because of his atoning sacrifice on the cross which paid for sins. Reception of salvation is called justification, which is usually understood as Divine grace, not something that can be earned. [2]

The operation and effects of grace are understood differently by different traditions. Reformed theology goes furthest in teaching complete dependence on grace, by teaching that humanity is completely helpless (Total depravity) and that those who are given this grace invariably put their faith in Christ and are saved (Irresistible grace).[3] (See Five points of Calvinism.) Catholicism, while still teaching dependence on grace, puts more emphasis on free will and the need to cooperate with grace. [4]

Ancient Gnostic Christians stood out for believing that salvation came from divine knowledge, or gnosis, which Jesus had revealed to selected adepts. [5]

[edit] The Trinity

Main article: Trinity
The Hospitality of Abraham
The Hospitality of Abraham

Most Christians believe that God is one eternal being who exists as three distinct, eternal, and indivisible persons: the Father, the Son (or Jesus, or the Logos), and the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost).

Christianity continued from Judaism a belief in the existence of a single God who created the universe and has divine power over it. Against this background belief in the divinity of Christ developed into the doctrine of the Holy Trinity [6], which in brief considers that the three persons of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) share a single Divine substance. This substance is not considered divided, in the sense that each person has a third of the substance; rather, each person is considered to have the whole substance. The distinction lies in their origins or relations, the Father being unbegotten, the Son begotten, and the Spirit proceeding. [7]

In Reformed theology, the Trinity has special relevance to salvation, which is considered the result of an intra-Trinitarian covenant and in some way the work of each person. The Father elects some to salvation before the foundation of the world, the Son performs the atonement for their sins, and the Spirit regenerates them so they can have faith in Christ, and sanctifies them. [8]

Christians believe the Scriptures were written by the inspiration of the Spirit[9] and that his active participation in a believer's life (even to the extent of "indwelling", or in a certain sense taking up residence within, the believer) is essential to living a Christian life.[10] In Catholic, Orthodox, and some Anglican theology, this indwelling in recieved through the sacrament called Confirmation or, in the East, Chrismation. Pentecostal and Charasmatic Protestants also believe the gift of the Holy Spirit is a distinct experience separate from other experiences like conversion, and some believe it will always be evident through speaking in tongues. Most Protestants believe that the Spirit indwells a new believer at the time of salvation.

[edit] The Creeds

Main article: Creed
The Shield of the Trinity
The Shield of the Trinity

Christianity adopted the practice of drawing up concise statements of belief. These statements, called Creeds, began as baptismal formulas and were later expanded during the Christological controversies of the Fourth and Fifth centuries. The earliest creed still in common use is the Apostles' Creed.

The Nicene Creed, largely a response to Arianism, was formulated at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the Council of Ephesus in 431. The full text is included here. The phrase "and the son" (presented in brackets below) did not appear in the original creed and is not accepted by the Eastern Orthodox Church.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
By the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]
Who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
Who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.[11]

The Chalcedonian Creed (which is not accepted by the Oriental Orthodox Churches) taught that Christ is one person who has two natures, one divine and one human, and that both natures are complete, and that the two do not mix, but are nevertheless perfectly united into one person. The last point is also known as hypostatic union.

In the Western Church the Athanasian Creed is recieved as having the same status as the Nicene and Chaceldonian. It says: "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons not dividing the Substance."

Most Protestants accept the Creeds. Some Protestant traditions believe Trinitarian doctrine without making use of the Creeds themselves. [12]

[edit] Non-Trinitarians

Main article: Nontrinitarianism

The earliest non-Trinitarian belief claiming descent from Jesus was Gnosticism, which generally held that the God of the Old Testament was a lower, evil god, while Jesus was an emissary from the higher good god.[5]

Some non-Trinitarians condemn Trinitarian doctrine as an implicit tritheism, though Trinitarians have explicitly denied holding such a view of God [13] and Trinitarian statements of faith from all traditions affirm that there is only one God (e.g., the Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, and Chalcedonian Creed; the Protestant confessions; catechisms of both Protestant and Catholic origin).

Ancient examples of this kind of non-Trinitarianism include the Ebionites, Sabellianism, and Arianism, and modern examples include Oneness Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Unitarianism.

[edit] Scriptures

Main article: Bible

Virtually all Christian churches accept the authority of the Bible, a collection of canonical books in two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament contains the entire Jewish Tanakh. In the Christian canon the books are presented in a different order and some books of the Tanakh are divided into several books by the Christian canon (e.g., the minor prophets are twelve books in the Christian canon but one book called "the Twelve" in the Jewish canon). The Catholic and Orthodox canon includes the Jewish canon and other books called Deuterocanonical, while Protestants classify the latter as Apocrypha.

The first books of the New Testament are the Gospels, which tell of the life and teachings of Jesus. There are four canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The first three are often called synoptic because they share much material, while John has more unique material. Ornamental books of the four gospels are sometimes used in church liturgies.

The rest of the New Testament consists of the Acts of the Apostles, a sequel to Luke's Gospel which describes the very early history of the Church; the Pauline epistles and General epistles, which are occasional letters from early Christian leaders to congregations or individuals; and the Book of Revelation, an apocalyptic tract.

Some traditions maintain less mainstream canons. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church maintains two canons, the Narrow Canon, itself larger than any Biblical canon outside Ethiopia, and the Broad Canon, which has even more books. The Latter Day Saints hold three additional books to be the inspired word of God: The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

The Gnostics had numerous books outside of the orthodox canon, for example The Gospel of Thomas.[5]

[edit] Interpretation

Though Christians largely agree on the content of the Bible, no such consensus exists on the crucial matter of its interpretation, or exegesis, an issue which dates to ancient times.

The earliest schools of Biblical interpretation were the Alexandrine, and the Antiochene. Alexandrine interpretation, exemplified by Origen, tended to read Scripture allegorically, while Antiochene interpretation insisted on the literal sense, holding that other meanings (called theoria) could only accepted if based on the literal meaning. [14]

Traditional Catholic interpretation admits four senses of Scripture. The literal sense is the plain meaning (which would still take account of figures of speech), so that a reference to David means the historical figure. The allegorical or typological sense teaches Christian doctrine, so that a reference to David may mean Christ. The tropological or moral sense contains ethical teaching, and the anagogical or eschatological sense teaches about the Last Things. The meanings derived from the three non-literal senses may also be stated literally elsewhere.

Protestantism rejects the elevation of other senses to the same level as the literal, although typology remains fairly common in Protestant interpretation.

[edit] Last Things

Main article: Eschatology

Traditional Christian theology teaches that the soul will continue consciousness after death until the General Resurrection, in which all people who have ever lived will rise from the dead at the end of time, to be judged by Christ when He returns to fulfill the rest of Messianic prophecy. [15]

Christian views of the afterlife generally involve heaven and hell. These realms are thought to be eternal. Catholicism adds the transitory realm of purgatory whose denizens are purified for a period of time before entering into heaven.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Moshiach: The Messiah. Retrieved on August 26, 2006.
  2. ^ Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9
  3. ^ Westminster Confession, Ch. X. Retrieved on May 29, 2006.; Spurgeon, Charles. A defense of Calvinism. Retrieved on May 29, 2006.
  4. ^ Grace and Justification. Catechism of the Catholic Church (October 11, 1992). Retrieved on May 29, 2006.
  5. ^ a b c Gnostics, Gnostic Gospels, & Gnosticism. Retrieved on May 30, 2006.; J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (Prince Press, 2004), pp. 22-28.
  6. ^ J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (Prince Press, 2004), pp. 87-90; T. Desmond Alexander, Brian S. Rosner, D. A. Carson, Graeme Goldsworthy, New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (InterVarsity Press, 2000), pp. 514-515; Alister E. McGrath, Historical Theology (Blackwell, 2000 edt.), p. 61.
  7. ^ Lossky, Vladimir. God in Trinity. Retrieved on May 29, 2006.; Boettner, Loraine. One Substance, Three Persons. Retrieved on May 29, 2006.
  8. ^ Hendryx, John. The Work of the Trinity in Monergism. Retrieved on May 29, 2006.
  9. ^ 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21, Sacred Scripture. Catechism of the Catholic Church (October 11, 1992). Retrieved on August 26, 2006.; Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (October, 1978). Retrieved on August 26, 2006.
  10. ^ John 16:7-14, 1 Corinthians 2:10ff
  11. ^ Text taken from the translation by the Consultation on Common Texts.
  12. ^ E.g., The Southern Baptist Convention gives no official status to any of the ancient creeds, but the Baptist Faith and Message says:
    The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
  13. ^ Kelly James Clark. "Trinity or Tritheism" (pdf), Virtual Library of Christian Philosophy, Philosophy Department, Calvin College, retrieved May 18, 2006; Donald K. McKim, ed., Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (John Knox Press, 1996), p. 288: "tritheism (Lat. "three gods"): Belief in three separate and individual gods. Some early formulations by Christian theologians were considered to move in this direction. Early Christian apologists sought to defend the faith from charges of belief in three gods."
  14. ^ J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (Prince Press, 2004), pp. 69-78.
  15. ^ See, e.g., Aquinas, the Summa Theologicum, Suplementum Tertiae Partis, questions 69 through 99; and Calvin, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book Three, Ch. 25.

[edit] Comments

Further, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't a lack of legal ability that prevented that orthodox jewish sect from killing Jesus, I though it was because of a strict Jewish belief in killing, they believed that others did not have to live by that however. Unfortuantely, the commandment wasn't as strict as an Egyptian one, "Thou shalt not kill, nor bid anyone kill." I made the change in Gnostic beliefs, but make sure that I am right. You had a source, and I'm not sure how much, but my understanding was that the real creator is the one that sent Jesus. If I'm wrong, feel free to revert that part back, this isn't up on the main namespace yet.

I like the melding of Beliefs and Differences in beliefs though....... it is much better than the current version.

KV 17:12, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

First, I'm fine with people tweaking this. When I wanted to wok on it by myself I kept everyone else out by the simple expedient of not announcing this page's existence.
For KV, John 18:31 says they lacked the authority to execute people. I vaguely remember reading a controversy somewhere about whether that's historically accurate -- which would fit in "Controversies" or maybe Historicity of Jesus (it might already be there for all I know). I tried to avoid constant "most Christians believe" or "according to the Gospels" attributions, but if it's confusing something could be added right there.
About the creator in Gnosticism, it depends what you mean by "creator". What the high god created (or emanated) was the Pluroma, which the lower god was the misbegotten product of. The material world was created by the demiurge. But it's not terribly important, since it's part of the section of non-Trinitarians. The important thing is the duelism, not the doctrine of origins.
I've tweaked the tweaks a little. I made "the Jewish concept" into "the contemporary Jewish concept" (the NT is a largely Jewish text, after all) and added a wikilink. I made the Gnostic view of salvation its own paragraph. A.J.A. 22:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
I specifically agree with this last tweak. This was one of my concerns as well.

In the version currently in the article, somebody moved the big monotheism reference to a place included in this revision, the part about early Christians getting belief in one God from Judaism. I don't want to be accused of removing references, but I don't see the need for it there. It seems the whole thing is focused of justifying the use of the word "monotheism". But the meaning of an English word tells us nothing about what Christianity got from Judaism. Besides, the intended audience of that reference is other editors, not a general readership. I'm not sure it adds anything or is needed apart from the context of that specific debate.

If a reference is really needed at that point I can russle up some citations from the NT and early Fathers.

Also I made the reference about Gnosticism into a named reference and put it in a couple more places. A.J.A. 15:08, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Was the mention of the Gnostic view of salvation simply removed from this? KV 17:51, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
No. I moved it down to form its own paragraph. I thought it flowed better that way. A.J.A. 13:30, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Here are my comments and suggestions, as implemented above:

  • Simplified and refocused the "Virgin birth" issue (don't mention the place, provide more relevant links, mention the Holy Spirit instead of simply saying "miracle")
  • Simplified "wedding at Cana" reference (aside: shouldn't it be "wedding"?)
  • removed the "influence of the Church's triadic baptismal formulas" as misleading (the formulas stem from the development described, not the other way around (and BTW: triadic is wrong)
  • included baptismal formulas in the development of Creeds, also simplified the wording
  • the "Hypostatic union" was misplaced as it preceded the Chalcedonian formula (for that see below) and is actually shared by Copts and other so-called Monophysites. The HU was formulated by Cyril of Alexandria and approved of by the 3rd Ecumenical Council of Ephesus.
  • the term "Deuterocanicals" should be mentioned alonside with "Apocrypha". However, take note that these issues are also included under the "differences" section in the current Christianity article.

Also

  • I have some doubts about the usage of "we" instead of "I" in the creed
  • Shouldn't the Apostles' creed be mentioned as well?
  • I know that we have a WP article of that name but "Chalcedonian Creed" is a bad wording in my book. It doesn't start "I believe" and is not a "updated version" of a creed but a formula outside of the creed (it is just as binding nonetheless)
  • I don't think that "Ancient Gnostics" have any place in this description of Christian beliefs, as it a) should focus on the mainstream (see the intro) and b) concerns matters of history and not of current Christianity - encyclopedic articles are always concerned with describing and explaining phenomena of the present and then might give an explanation how the present derived from the past or narrate the history of the phenomena.
  • For the same reasons the "less mainstream" canons shouldn't be included in a description of beliefs of mainstream Christianity. The same goes for the LDS, which are of a doubtful status. However, a mentioning that there are disputes about the canon is okay.

Str1977 (smile back) 11:30, 5 June 2006 (UTC)