What do Christians Believe?

This might seem like a given, but it's important to clarify that God is not some sort of force or a natural part of the world. God is an entity, a being, who is not bound to a specific place or time. This greatly contrasts with how many gods are depicted in other religions, as they often only have power over a specific place or structure, such as a temple or statue.

When we say that our God is Triune or a Trinity, we're saying that He is one in Essence, but also three distinct Persons. In other words, we believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all one God despite being three unique individuals. Don't worry too much if this is confusing; it's not an easy thing to understand, and theologians have struggled to make sense of it throughout our history.

However, it's important to remember that there are groups out there that reject this view and try to explain this mystery by denying that Jesus or the Holy Spirit are divine. This "simple" solution requires more mental gymnastics than accepting that Jesus is God, and it's often a sign that a group doesn't actually believe what the Bible says.

You've probably heard people talk about "sin" before. Sin plays a major role in Christian doctrine, but unfortunately, it's also something that often gets misunderstood or twisted around. To put it very simply, a sin is any action that either denies God's authority or says we know better than Him. As an example, doing anything Scripture tells us is wrong (such as stealing or murder) is sinful. Importantly, since sins are things you do, nobody can be a sin. Watch out for people who say otherwise - something is very wrong with what they believe!

The obvious problem with sinful actions is that they always result in someone being harmed. This isn't that difficult to understand - we can see the negative effects of harmful actions pretty easily. But there's another side to this that we can't see so clearly: when we sin, we're pushing God away, and this harms the relationship our Creator meant for us to have with Him.

More about the relationship between sin and temptation can be found over here.

When God created mankind, He wanted us to live with Him in a true paradise. Although our actions have often damaged this relationship, He's never been content to just let us destroy ourselves. Throughout history, He's used many great men and women to try and bring us back into the fold. Eventually, He lowered Himself to our level by becoming a man named Jesus. During his life, Jesus experienced temptations and hardships, just like the rest of us. Yet, because He is also God, He was able to live a pure and sinless life. It's vitally important to remember that last part, as it's the key to the everything we believe about Salvation.

When someone does something wrong, we instictively know they need to make it right somehow. They may need to apologize, pay for what was stolen or damaged, or in more extreme cases go to prison (thus paying for what they did with a portion of their life). This holds true spiritually as well. The problem is that when a divine law is broken, we cannot afford to pay it back. As an analogy, if I was to break a precious vase, I could not replace it with another broken vase and say things were fixed. I'd need to find a new, unbroken vase of the same type.

To continue the analogy, Jesus - as a pure sinless human - was able to stand in our place and pay the spiritual debt we owe. He's the unbroken vase that set things right.

This is the cornerstone of the Christian Faith. To reject Christ's sinlessness is to reject Christianity itself - not that this has ever stopped people from claiming otherwise.

Back when this was happening, people could teach the Truth via word of mouth - it's very easy to spread the news about what's happening around you, after all. Eventually, however, this information needed to be recorded for future generations, and so records of these events were compiled into several books. Later on, these records, most of the Hebrew Scriptures, and some letters that were deemed especially valuable were gathered together in a single work, known as the Bible.

Nearly every Christian group claims that their doctrine and authority comes from this Book. That also means that you can always test the truthfulness of any Christian teaching by reading what the Bible has to say about it.

Beware of any group that needs to "correct" what the Bible says, or that claims to have "secret" or "hidden" knowledge that was not given to other Christians.

There is no such thing as hidden knowledge in this religion, and if the Bible is a source of Truth like we claim, then it doesn't need to be "updated". After all, truth, by definition, cannot change.

Throughout the Bible, friendly divine spirits known as "angels" bring help and important news to people around the world. Exactly what people believe about angels tends to depend on what branch of Christianity they belong to, but it's safe to say that most Christians accept that angels exist. Sometimes angels who played important roles are even explicitly named, like Michael and Gabriel.

However, our Scriptures also talk about malicious spirits who wish to harm Mankind and steer us away from God and His promises. Known as demons, devils, or fallen angels, these creatures were once angels themselves, but chose to rebel against God's authority and go their own way. This resulted in a heavenly civil war, and the renegade angels were forcefully and permanently removed from God's presence. Left angry and bitter, they now spend their time trying to get back at God by harming His creations.

Their greatest achievement has probably been convincing many Christians that they don't exist - and when we stop watching for their influence, they gain easier access to our lives.

Everyone wants to believe that Heaven exists, just like how everyone wants to go there. On the other hand, it's much harder to accept that there's another place where people could end up spending eternity. Understanding this makes it obvious why Christians want everyone to accept Christ - they don't want anyone to go there!

One important thing to remember about Hell is that while the Bible is very clear about it existing, it also prefers to leave the details vague. Most of our pop culture understanding of the place actually comes from non-Biblical sources, like Dante's Inferno or Milton's Paradise Lost.

In addition to the previous point that Heaven and Hell both exist, the Bible also makes it very clear that we have neither the knowledge nor right to claim who is bound for either place. We can say that openly living a sinful life is spiritually unhealthy and suggests that a person doesn't really believe in Christian teachings, but that's as far as we can go.

To put it more bluntly, wishing that someone is going to Hell is literally the most vile thing a Christian can do, as it shows a level of hatred for a fellow human being that rivals the hatred expressed by literal demons.

One of the things that sets Christianity apart from many other religions is that it's not just a list of things you shouldn't do - we're instructed to do things too! Being a Christian means accepting that we have duties and responsibilities. Many of the things we are commanded to do take the form of simple rituals, known as Sacriments. Sacriments include things like getting baptized or partaking in the Lord's Supper (also known as the Eucharist or Holy Communion). Other commandments include taking care of the poor and needy, regular church attendance, and assisting in the spiritual growth of other people in our community.

People sometimes try to create their own personal religion by blending together elements from existing religions. Often, this is done by stapling parts of one religion onto another, creating a bizarre hybrid practice that's not faithful to any of the religions it was made from. When it comes to using Christianity this way, I've encountered people who are trying to worship the Christian God as part of a pantheon or through the use of natural magics.

I don't doubt that these people are well meaning and have a sort of genune faith in their private religions, but whatever they are doing, this is not the Christianity established by the Bible. In fact, there are passages within Scripture that explicitly condemn these practices.

Interestingly enough, many of the people who try things like this also claim that common interpretations of Biblical passages are wrong and need correcting - just like some of the other groups I've already talked about on this very page.