S.Y.

2021 - 2022
First Quarter
Module 1.3
INTRO TO WORLD RELIGION AND BELIEF SYSTEM
CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIANS BELIEVE
 There is only one God, but that he is revealed in three different forms: God the Father, God the Son and
The Holy Spirit. Christians model themselves on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught people
to love God and love their neighbor.
 That God sent Jesus to live as a human being in order to save humanity from the consequences of its sins
- the bad things humanity had chosen to do which had separated them from God.
 That through the death and resurrection of Jesus this broken relationship with God is restored.

The Christian holy book is the Bible. It is divided into the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament
explains how God sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to restore the broken relationship between people and God
which had been caused by human wrong-doing.

Jesus was executed on a cross (Crucifixion) as a criminal by the Romans and according to Christian teaching
after three days he rose from the dead (the Resurrection).

Christianity is a religion that was meant to be universal. Jesus Christ’s evangelical command, “Go and teach all
nations” to his disciples shows that He intended His teachings not just for the Jews, but for the entire world.
Christianity is a religion that developed from Judaism; some of its first followers were originally Jews.

The essential Christian beliefs are recorded in creeds, and there are different versions of such creeds.

 Holy Trinity – belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Practices

 Baptism – the person is cleansed with water, to signify repentance and cleansing.
 During the Last Supper, Jesus broke the bread and shared the wine to represent His Body and Blood, and the
Apostles were sharing His suffering. This is commemorated through the sacrament of the Eucharist, where
Christians gather in the church, and share the Body and Blood of Christ.
 Confirmation – a blessing of initiation after baptism
 Reconciliation – someone confesses his\her sins and gets absolution
 Matrimony – where two people commit themselves with each other for life with God as the center
 Ordination – where someone commits himself to priesthood
 Anointing of the sick – which is usually taken by a sick person

Liturgical Year
 Christmas to celebrate Jesus’ birth, and Easter to celebrate His Resurrection from the dead.
 Advent is a four week preparation for Christmas, which symbolizes the 4000 years that was once thought to
be the gap between Creation and the coming of Jesus.

Origin
The main tenets of Christianity originated with Jesus Christ, it was His 12 disciples, and eventually
apostle, who institutionalized and established the bureaucratic structures of the religion. We see in the books of
Acts, the book after the Gospels, the accounts of His disciples after His ascension to heaven. Fifty days after His
resurrection, the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of God, came down upon the followers of Jesus, in the form of fire
and wind, to inspire them to spread their leader’s teachings (Molloy 2005, 350 – 351).

This is celebrated as the feast of the Pentecost, and it is considered to be the birth of the Christian Churh
(Brown 1992, 34).

The early Christian Church in Jerusalem was composed of many Jews. Both Judaism and Christianity were
strong religions for about 40 years after Jesus’ death, but with the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem
in 70 C.E., they disappeared. The non-Jewish early Christians were spread through the Roman Empire through the
missionary, Paul ( Molloy 2005, 352).
 S.Y. 2021 - 2022
First Quarter
Module 1.3
INTRO TO WORLD RELIGION AND BELIEF SYSTEM

Test I: T/F: Write T if the statement is TRUE and if the statement is incorrect suffice the correct answer on the
given space before each number.

____________1. Christians model themselves on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught people to
love God and love their neighbor.

____________2. The three different forms: God the Father, God the Son and The Holy Spirit.

____________3. Both Taoism and Christianity were strong religions for about 40 years after Jesus’ death, but
with the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., they disappeared.

____________4. Christmas is a four week preparation for Christmas, which symbolizes the 4000 years that was
once thought to be the gap between Creation and the coming of Jesus.

____________5. Confirmation which is usually taken by a sick person.

____________6. Holy Trinity belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

____________7. The Christian holy book is the Bible.

____________8. Baptism the person is cleansed with water, to signify repentance and cleansing.

____________9. Islam is a religion that was meant to be universal.

____________10. Matrimony someone confesses his\her sins and gets absolution.

Activity 2
Direction: Answer the question briefly.
1. If you are given a chance to have a tour to Europe or in the country, which countries and cities played an
important role in the development of Christianity? You may research to help put your itinerary together.