christianity Defined

Israel - Origin Of Christianity

One of the major religions of the world today is Christianity. The history of Christianity, however, and how it all began is most interesting. It all started about 2,000 years ago in the country of Judea, which is the present-day Israel. Israel had become a melting pot of various cultures, with many cities and farms. rome had control over Israel at this time and the Jewish people hated it. The Jews refused to the pagan ways of the roman people. The one hope that the Jews had was that their Messiah would come and deliver them from Roman rule.

It was during this tempestuous time that Jesus of Nazareth was born. He was a well-taught Jew who observed the Jewish faith. He also knew Jewish law very well. When Jesus was in his early thirties, he began going to various villages, teaching and healing people along the way. His teaching began to revolutionize the world. Jesus questioned the religious leaders of that day, telling them that they needed to repent for their self-righteous attitudes and become servants. The whole community was in an uproar and people began to question the religious leaders.

Soon after Jesus began his ministry, a group of men began to follow him and recognized him as a teacher of the law. We know these men as the twelve disciples of Jesus. Jesus taught his disciples about the will of god and a “new covenant” in which man could be saved without obeying the laws of the Old Testament. He taught them about a loving, faithful God who wanted to have a relationship of grace with his people.

The new covenant that Jesus spoke of was a result of Jesus himself dying on a Roman cross, judged unjustly, for the sins of all humanity. He promised to rise again three days after being crucified, proving that he ws their promised Messiah. This was exciting to the disciples and they began to tell everyone about this new way of hope and forgiveness of sins.

To make things even more interesting, the life of Jesus fulfilled many of the prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the coming of their Messiah. Jesus' ability to understand and quote the law upset the religious leaders and scholars of the day, along with his knowledge of the prophets. They decided that the only way that Jesus could be silenced was for him to be put to death.

Jesus was betrayed by one of his own disciples, Judas Iscariot, and was taken to be judged by Pilate, the Roman ruler. The people demanded that he be killed, even though Pilate could not find any reason to judge him. In fact, they requested that a thief and murderer, Barabbas, be released instead. Pilate ultimately decided to allow Jesus to be crucified, consenting to the demands of the Jewish people.

Three days after Jesus was crucified, some of his friends came to place spices on his body. To their amazement, he was gone. When Jesus' disciples heard that his body was missing, they remembered his promise to rise from the dead on the third day. Although the religious leaders did their best to stop the gossip, word quickly spread that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead.

Soon after this, Jesus visited his disciples and told them what they needed to do. Jesus told them that they would receive the gift of the Holy spirit in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. He also told them about the power they would have after this event. They left, excited and ready to build churches for the kingdom of God.

If you visit Israel on one of the many Holy Land tours, you will be privileged to see where many of these events took place. You will have the privilege to see where Jesus was born, lived, taught in the temple and was crucified. An Israel tour will also take you to the Upper Room, where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost. There is no end to the excitement of walking where Jesus walked and imagining all that happened there so many years ago.
LIVING THE LIFE OF TRUE CHRISTIANITY

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