What is the Christian faith (page 1)

Welcome to 'WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN FAITH?' (Page 1)

Thank you for turning to this page. We respect your wish carefully to think through the claims of the Christian faith. Many questions may be in your mind... What is it all about? Who was Jesus Christ? Doesn't religion clash with science? Is it intellectually credible and sustainable? Isn't it just a matter of opinion, and don't all religions lead to God anyway? Let's have a look at some of these issues.

Although it is certainly possible to approach the Christian faith by examining some of the questions surrounding it, the key issue, in the end, always turns out to be 'Who was Jesus Christ?'. That is not to say that all the other intellectual questions are not valid and very important. They are important. But they lead nowhere if the central figure of the Faith and what happened to Him is not properly understood.

(1) The Christian faith is intellectually sustainable. That is to say that we do not have to jettison our minds when anyone thinks about becoming a Christian. 'Faith' is not anti-intellectual. Therefore we need not be afraid of trying to think things through. The Christian faith stands up to careful enquiry!

(2) The whole of the Christian faith rests on the person and works of Jesus Christ. There may be lots to talk about which is important but which is not truly central to considering the truth of the Christian faith. We need to beware of going off into lofty debates on mysterious flights of fancy that do not lead to a serious consideration of who Christ is and what He did for us.

(3) There are limits to what any of us can know. By this is meant that since we are

trying to think through matters to do with the God of the Universe, there will be limits to what our finite minds can cope with. We can only be clear about things that God has made clear. However, this observation does not nullify what was said in Point (1) because God has told us a great deal in the Bible to orientate our thinking, even if He does not provide a complete answer to every issue. One thing God has made clear is how we can know Him and relate to Him - which is obviously the crux of the whole matter. So we continue ...

The question of whether the Christian faith is true rests on three things of first importance. Like a stool with three legs, if one of those legs fails, it all falls to the ground! But on the other hand, when understood they create a formidable basis for belief and living! They are:

(1) Who was Jesus Christ? The Christian faith claims He was (and still is) the Son of God.

(2) What is the significance of His death? The Christian faith claims that his death was sacrificial and substitutionary. That is, Jesus Christ died in our place to take the punishment for the sins of anyone who believes in him, and thereby obtain for us the forgiveness of God.

(3) Did he really rise from death to life and what does it mean? The Christian faith maintains that Jesus did indeed die and come back to life again, proving him to be who he said he was, and establishing him, his death and his resurrection as the key to understanding and determining the eternal destiny of all those who belief in him or reject him. Jesus Christ is a cosmic figure, not just an intriguing teacher who lived in an obscure place at a remote time in history.

In summary, the Christian Faith teaches that all mankind is in a state of rebellion against Almighty God who made the universe, and is subject to his moral condemnation. It further asserts that Jesus Christ through his life, death and resurrection on our behalf, is the only way, through faith in him, to the reconciliation and restoration of any individual person to an accepted relationship with God which removes his condemnation.

There seems to be a common perception that 'faith' is believing in something despite the evidence to the contrary. But Christians would claim just the opposite, that 'faith' is believing because of the evidence! And faith is not just a question of intellectual assent, but of trust in daily living.

There is also a common idea around today that religion only belongs to the category of 'opinion'. This implies that religious beliefs cannot be subjected to objective assessment. This view does not think that the bases or propositions of any religion can be tested or examined to ascertain the truth about them, or to identify the differences between religions.

We must not think of 'faith' in the abstract. There must always be an object, otherwise faith is meaningless. 'Faith' is trust in something objective, a person or a system or a procedure. We put our trust or faith in the doctor when we take the tablets he/ she has prescribed for our illness. When we offer a shop keeper a bank note to pay for goods, we are putting our faith (or trusting) in the system of currency that it works. And so is the shop keeper or otherwise she will be out of pocket!

In the New Testament (Hebrews 11:1), for example, it says 'Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see'. This is not speaking of 'blind' faith, but of coming to a logical conclusion on the basis of evidence from the written record (the Bible) and experience (of ourselves and others). Elsewhere it says (Hebrews 10:22), 'let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...'. Notice the atmosphere of certainty in these two quotations.

'Faith' in the Christian sense is also 'personal'. Although you may be a long way yet from embracing the Christian Faith, it may clarify the situation at this point to state that the 'faith' that is specifically Christian is a personal faith in and trusting commitment to Jesus Christ as a living person for the forgiveness of all our wrongdoing (which otherwise will lead to condemnation on the Day of Judgement) and for eternal life with God (in place of the spiritual death that otherwise dominates us now and finally fully awaits us on that Day). Well, now you've heard it spelt out!

Christian faith rests entirely on who Jesus Christ was and what He did for us. That's what every enquirer needs to examine.

It is not unusual to hear people say that all religions are the same and that all worship the same God, but in different ways. This is usually said when people are trying to be tolerant. But the statement does not stand up to scrutiny. There is just no way that an examination of what the world's leading religions say about God, permits us to conclude that they are the same. It is virtually an insult to each to say they are the same.

Let's consider an example which is loosely parallel, but which illustrates the problem. Suppose we were to ask 3 people in the United Kingdom who is the Head of State. (Assume they are not confused about the difference between the Monarchy and the Civil Government).

Person A answers: the Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II whose son is Charles whom she made the Prince of Wales. (That uniquely identifies the Head of State)

Person B answers: the Head of State is someone we call 'Majesty'. She does not have a son called Charles who is therefore not the Prince of Wales.

Person C answers: all the Royal Family are heads of state; none of them is the chief head of state, and who is the most important is not an issue anyway.

Now, we do have to ask, don't we, whether these three people can possibly be talking about the same Head of State. Surely the answer must be 'No, they are not. They cannot be, because their descriptions are mutually contradictory'.

The answers given by the three people roughly parallel the answers about who God is, which would be given by Christians, Muslims and Hindus. Christians believe that the God of the Bible is the one and only God; that He has a Son - Jesus Christ - who died on the Cross and rose again to life - whom God has made Lord of All. Muslims believe God is 'Allah' (the Great, the Merciful) but Jesus is not His son, only a prophet; and Jesus did not die on the Cross; so he did not rise from death to life. Hindus believe there are many gods; some are more prominent than others but that there is one supreme god is not an issue for them.

By all means we may examine with sincerity what each religion teaches, but we cannot start with the premise that all religions worship the same God.

There are about 10 questions that are usually asked about the Christian Faith. They are ..

	1.	How do you know God exists?
	2.	Can you trust the Bible?
	3.	Why does God allow suffering?
	4.	What happens to those who have never heard the Gospel?
	5.	What about other religions?
	6.	Aren't all good people Christians?
	7.	Do you have to go to church to be a Christian?
	8.	Isn't faith only psychological?
	9.	Hasn't science disproved Christianity?
	10.	Isn't religion only a matter of opinion anyway?

These questions are comprehensively considered on a special page on this web site, entitled Answering Frequently Asked Questions. If you want to go there then click here. However, remember to come back here for further consideration of the three main Christian beliefs. You will be able to use a link from that page using the light blue link-box in the top left hand corner of that page.

This web site has many pages containing articles on a wide range of subjects. Some of these you might find helpful in thinking through the questions you have about the Christian Faith. Here is a list and where to find them:

THIS ENQUIRERS' PAGE will now continue with an examination of the three fundamental Christian beliefs. To prevent the current page being too long for downloading we will move to a separate page ENQUIRERS' PAGE 2. Click here to go there.

*Understanding the Bible*
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