Christianity For Dummies

Get to know the beliefs and practices inspired by Jesus Christ

Discover what it means to be a Christian and follow the gospel

Curious about Christianity? This friendly guide helps you understand the basic teachings of the Christian faith, exploring the common ground that all Christians share, the differences among the major branches, the key events in Christian history, the key theological issues, and the many ways Christians live out their faith in today's world.

The Dummies Way

• Explanations in plain English

• "Get in, get out" information

• Icons and other navigational aids

• Tear-out cheat sheet

• Top ten lists

• A dash of humor and fun

Discover how to:

• Express the core essentials of Christianity

• Appreciate the life and teachings of Jesus

• Understand why the Bible is central to the faith

• Respect the unique roles of the Trinity

• Explore controversial issues among the branches

Autorentext

Richard Wagner is publisher of Digitalwalk.net, a Web-based Christian discipleship magazine. He has more than a decade's broad experience in church leadership and teaching roles.

Zusammenfassung

Get to know the beliefs and practices inspired by Jesus Christ

Discover what it means to be a Christian and follow the gospel

Curious about Christianity? This friendly guide helps you understand the basic teachings of the Christian faith, exploring the common ground that all Christians share, the differences among the major branches, the key events in Christian history, the key theological issues, and the many ways Christians live out their faith in today's world.

The Dummies Way

• Explanations in plain English
• "Get in, get out" information
• Icons and other navigational aids
• Tear-out cheat sheet
• Top ten lists

• A dash of humor and fun
  Discover how to:

• Express the core essentials of Christianity
• Appreciate the life and teachings of Jesus
• Understand why the Bible is central to the faith
• Respect the unique roles of the Trinity
• Explore controversial issues among the branches

Inhalt

Foreword: xxiii

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

What You're Not to Read 4

Foolish Assumptions 4

How This Book Is Organized 4

Part I: Uncovering What Christianity's All About 5

Part II: Exploring the Basic Principles of the Christian Faith 5

Part III: Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple: Peeking into the Christian Church 5

Part IV: Christian Living in a Postmodern World 5

Part V: The Part of Tens 6

Icons Used in This Book 6

Where to Go from Here 7

Part I: Uncovering What Christianity's All About 9

Chapter 1: Good News in a Bad News World 11

Packing Christianity into a Nutshell 12

Going back to the beginning: People choosing, God responding 12

Understanding how Christians define their faith 13

Being forewarned of stereotypes: What Christianity is not 16

Making Sense of Christian Paradoxes 20

Understanding How the Branches of the Church Came About 21

Putting It into Perspective: Christianity in the World Today 22

Focusing on facts about the faith 22

Relating Christianity to other world faiths 23

Chapter 2: Christianity: But Is It True? 27

Defending the Faith Through Apologetics 28

Exploring Whether God Exists 28

The world appears to be intelligently designed 28

People (most, anyway) can think and reason 29

People instinctively sense right and wrong 30

Demonstrating Christianity as a Livable Faith 31

Retracing Christianity as a Historical Faith 33

Examining artifacts 33

Documenting history in the Bible 34

Chapter 3: That Amazing Stuff Called Grace 41

Defining Grace 42

Grace is a costly gift 42

Grace is undeserved 43

Grace is an unexpected surprise 45

Grace in a nutshell 46

Receiving God's Gift of Grace: Salvation 47

Principle #1: God loves 48

Principle #2: People sin 48

Principle #3: God responds 50

Principle #4: People must choose 51

Understanding Salvation by Faith 52

Being Born Again 54

Dealing with Hopeless Cases 55

Last gasps for a thief 56

Within a stone's throw of judgment 56

The original wretch like me 56

Part II: Exploring the Basic Principles of the Christian Faith 59

Chapter 4: Sin: Why Do's and Don'ts Miss the Bigger Picture 61

Desiring to Be Different: The Original Ego Trip 61

Revisiting the Fall 62

Considering how the Fall changed everything 63

Grappling with the Definition of Sin 65

Categorizing two types of sin 65

Weighing different sins 67

Misunderstanding sin 67

Empathizing with God's View of Sin 69

Tying in Humans' Relation to the Fall 70

Warring with Satan (And Knowing Who You're Fighting Against) 71

Experiencing Temptation 74

Recognizing temptation 74

Responding to tempting situations 76

Sinning After You're Saved 77

Chapter 5: Jesus Christ: His Life, Ministry, and Radical Claims 79

In Brief: Introducing Jesus 79

Accounting for the early years 80

Stepping into the spotlight 82

Fulfilling his purpose 82

Looking at How Jesus Lived 83

Jesus pointed people toward himself 84

Jesus healed and cared for the down and out 85

Jesus taught his followers how to live 85

Jesus provided the ultimate example of how to live 87

Jesus changed the perspective of one's relationship to God 88

Jesus prepared his disciples to be leaders of his Church 89

Jesus voluntarily died on the cross 90

Considering Who Jesus Claimed to Be 90 Saving People: God's Game Plan from the Get-Go 92</...