Christianity for dummies

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Bibliographic Information

Christianity for dummies

by Richard Wagner ; foreword by Kurt Warner

（--For dummies）

Wiley, c2004

Available at  / 4 libraries

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Includes 1 detachable plate

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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

Table of Contents

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 Seeing sacrifices as prototypes of the real deal 93 Uncovering others' prophecies about the Messiah 93 Considering Jesus' prophecies for his own life and death 95 Questioning Why Jesus Was Crucified 96 Expecting the Messiah to be different 96 Feeling threatened by Jesus 97 Manipulating authority to get rid of the troublemaker 98 Peering into an Empty Tomb: Revisiting the Resurrection 99 Reviewing biblical facts 100 Explaining it away 101 Coming to a Conclusion: Was Jesus a Good Teacher or the Son of God? 103 Chapter 6: Peeking Inside God's Diary: The Bible 105 Retracing the Bible's Formation 106 Stage 1: Hebrews first recognized writings as sacred 108 Stage 2: Jesus and the early Church treated Old Testament writings as scripture 109 Stage 3: Jesus indicated that more scripture would come 110 Stage 4: New Testament writers recognized their writings as inspired by God 111 Stage 5: Early Church recognized New Testament writings as scripture 111 Stage 6: The Church closed the book 113 To Be or Not to Be: The Apocrypha 114 Reasons for including the Apocrypha 115 Reasons against including the Apocrypha 116 Reading the Bible Appropriately 116 Believing the Bible is inspired 117 Dealing with inconsistencies 118 Confronting contextual issues 119 Finding No Expiration Date for the Bible 121 Chapter 7: The Trinity: How 1+1+1 Equals 1 123 Introducing the Trinity 124 Considering God as a Whole 125 Qualities of God that'll make your head spin 125 Qualities of God that humans resemble 126 Qualities of God that express his personal nature 128 Examining the Three Parts of God Individually 129 God the Father 129 God the Son 130 God the Holy Spirit 131 Understanding the Significance of the Trinity 131 The Trinity made Jesus' sacrifice worthwhile 132 The Trinity justifies worshiping Jesus 133 Digging Up the Biblical Foundation of the Trinity 133 Picking up on hints in the Old Testament 134 Putting the pieces together in the New Testament 136 Chapter 8: The Rite Stuff: Sacraments, Ordinances, and the Christian Faith 139 Understanding the Role of Sacraments and Ordinances 140 Grasping four keys to understanding the sacraments 141 Viewing sacraments through different lenses 142 Baptizing Christians into the Faith 146 Considering the nature of baptism 147 Exploring the relationship between baptism and salvation 148 Deciding who should be baptized 149 Add one part water (But how?): Choosing a method of baptism 151 Exploring the Lord's Supper 153 Deciphering Jesus' explanation of the elements 154 Timing the observance of Communion 155 Being earnest regarding the Eucharist 156 Maintaining a Christlike Balance 156 Chapter 9: Heading for Home: The End Game 159 Enjoying Heaven for Eternity 159 Exploring seven ideas about a place called heaven 160 Speculating on heavenly bods 162 Being Purged of Sin in Purgatory 166 Catholics: Purgatory is part of God's plan 166 Protestants and Orthodox Christians: Purgatory is a Colorado destination 167 Going to Hell: Considering the Underworld 168 Eternal suffering 169 Extinction of the unsaved 170 Awaiting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ 171 Enduring Tribulation 172 Being taken up in the Rapture 172 Celebrating Jesus' triumphant return 173 Resurrecting the dead 173 Enjoying the Millennium: Peace on earth 174 Facing final judgment 175 Frolicking around the new heaven and new earth 175 Part III: Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple: Peeking into the Christian Church 177 Chapter 10: Tradition, Tradition: The Catholic and Orthodox Churches 179 Transferring from a Nation to a Church 179 Following the deaths of the apostles: The apostolic Church 180 Expanding and governing as a single Christian Church 182 The Great Separation: Western and Eastern Churches go their own ways 184 Viewing the split today 187 The Catholic Church: From Rome to a Parish Near You 188 Understanding what it means to be Catholic 188 Examining the Catholic Church structure 196 The Orthodox Church: Restoring the Image of God in People 197 Understanding what it means to be Orthodox 197 Examining the Orthodox Church structure 202 Chapter 11: Back to the Basics: The Protestant Church 203 Exploring the Protestant Reformation 204 Urging the Church to reform 204 From reformation to separation 206 Examining Core Protestant Beliefs 210 Yielding to the Bible as the one and only authority 210 Seeing Christ as the one and only mediator 211 Being saved by grace alone and faith alone 211 Giving kudos to God alone 212 Considering all Christians as equal in God's eyes 212 Answering the core questions 213 Breaking It Down into Denominations 213 Looking at More Protestant Labels 217 Confronting the Challenge of Modernism 219 Looking to the Future: Trends in Contemporary Protestantism 220 Chapter 12: Making Sense of Worship 223 I Worship, You Worship, We All Worship: Defining the Christian Tradition 224 Examining the Worship Service as a Whole 226 Worshiping together: Why Christians believe it's essential 227 Deciding when to worship 228 Exploring Ways to Worship: Liturgical Versus Free Worship 229 Taking the high road with liturgy 230 Worshiping freely along the low road 231 Incorporating Music: A Call to Musical Arms 232 Leaving out the band 233 Tooting a few horns 233 Revolutionizing praise and worship music 234 Crossing Cultures with Worship 235 Part IV: Christian Living in a Postmodern World 237 Chapter 13: I'm a Christian - Now What? 239 Experiencing Spiritual Transformation 240 Fellowshipping with a Church 241 Considering why biblical Christianity says church is necessary 241 Finding a church that you can call home 242 Going One-on-One with the Lord 245 Being a Disciple 247 Living Out Your Faith 249 Seeing why faith is fundamental for a Christian 250 Clutching four keys to living out your faith 251 Boosting your faith in three (kind of) easy steps 255 Taking on a Christian Worldview 256 Viewing the ripple effect of worldviews 256 Looking at the Christian worldview 259 Bringing the Christian binoculars everywhere you go 262 Chapter 14: Being in the World but Not of It 265 Being Salt and Light for the World 266 Adding zest with salt 266 Shining truth with light 267 Living Out Christ's Calling in Different Ways 267 Running from the world 268 Hugging the world 269 Working for the greater good 269 Walking a tightrope 270 Transforming the world 270 Delving into the Messy World of Politics and Governing 271 Looking at what the Bible says about government 271 Interpreting the Bible in regard to government: Five key understandings 273 Tossing political hot potatoes 276 Chapter 15: Tackling Thorny Issues in the Church 281 Observing Hypocrisy 281 Considering two types of hypocrites 282 Weighing hypocrisy against Christianity's truth claims 284 Dissing Nice-Guy Thinking 286 Pointing out fundamental flaws of the Nice Guy approach 287 Finding out how to be good enough for God 289 Playing Salvation Monopoly 290 Questioning whether all roads lead to heaven 290 Understanding why Christians say Jesus is the only way 291 Accounting for people who've never heard of Jesus 292 Chapter 16: Taking On Tough Issues Raised in the Real World 295 Wondering Why Bad Things Happen 295 Specifying two types of evil 297 Understanding why evil exists 297 Debating Moral Relativism 299 Seeing why moral relativism is popular 299 Sizing up moral relativism from a Christian view 301 Considering Darwinism 304 Noting the difference between Darwinism and science 304 Distinguishing between two theories of evolution 306 Exploring Christian alternatives to Darwinian evolution 308 Part V: The Part of Tens 311 Chapter 17: Ten Christian Holy Days, Holidays, and Seasons 313 Lent 313 Palm Sunday 314 Maundy Thursday 315 Good Friday 316 Easter 316 Pentecost 317 National Day of Prayer 318 All Saints' Day 319 Advent 319 Christmas 320 Chapter 18: Ten Christian Leaders You Should Know About 321 St Augustine of Hippo 321 St Francis of Assisi 322 St Thomas Aquinas 322 Martin Luther 323 William Tyndale 324 John Calvin 324 John Wesley 325 William Wilberforce 326 Dietrich Bonhoeffer 326 Alexander Solzhenitsyn 327 Chapter 19: Ten New Testament Teachings You Should Know About 329 Walking Along the "Roman Road" to Salvation 329 Listening to the Sermon on the Mount 330 Praying the Lord's Prayer 331 Identifying with the Prodigal Son 332 Detailing the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ 332 Going Out with the Great Commission 333 Appreciating Ancestors in the Hall of Faith 333 Mixing Faith with Deeds 333 Promising the Coming of the Holy Spirit 334 Suiting Up with the Armor of God 334 Appendix A: Glossary of Christian Lingo 335 Appendix B: Timeline of Christian History 347 6-0 B.C (approximate) 347 A.D 27 (approximate) 347 30 (approximate) 347 30-70 348 64-312 348 70-73 348 85-95 348 271-272 349 313 349 324 349 325 349 374-430 349 380 349 393-397 350 403-461 350 429 350 451 350 1054 350 1095-1270 351 1208 351 1382 351 1382-1415 351 1427 351 1457 352 1517 352 1525 352 1532-1534 352 1536 352 1530-1540s 353 1540 353 1609 353 1670 353 1703-1791 353 1734 354 1789 354 1793 354 1820-30s 354 1901 355 1962-1965 355 1978 355 1950-present 355 Index 357

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