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First Facts about the Christian Religion for K-12 Public School Students

By Lesley Barker

The Kentucky Faith and Public History Education Project exists to provide educational resources about the Christian history of Kentucky for K-12 public school students and to create an appropriate vocabulary for discussing this history in the public schools. This post introduces four important facts about the Christian religion.

Christianity is the largest religion in the world

Students should understand that Christianity is the largest religion in the world. In fact, there are more than two-billion people alive today who affiliate as Christians. Christians live on every continent.  The word, Christian, comes from the Greek word, “Christos”. Christ is one of the titles for Jesus. At first everyone who believed the Christian message was Jewish.  Once non-Jewish people started believing the Christian message, they were nicknamed Christians and the name stuck.

There are many different Christian groups

 Just like many different families live in a community, Christianity is made up of many different groups. Christian groups are called denominations. Each denomination has a different name just like each family has its own last name. Every family makes their own house rules. Every family has its own favorite foods. Every family decorates their house differently. Every family has its own memories, celebrations and stories. It is the same for denominations. They each have a different way to express their Christianity but they all believe the same Christian message. Some Christian denominations that you may have heard of are Baptists, Presbyterians, Nazarenes, Christians, Roman Catholics and Pentecostals. There are many other Christian denominations around the world. While there are many different expressions of Christianity, all Christians ascribe to the same basic message and beliefs.

The Christian message is about Jesus Christ

The Christian message says that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son. It says that there is only one God and that He made and rules the universe. The Christian message says that Jesus Christ was sent by God to earth. It says that God became a human being. Even though Jesus did nothing wrong, He was put to death when He was 33 years old. The Christian message says that Jesus' shed blood served as the sacrifice to pay for the sins of the whole world. The Christian message says that, after three days, God brought Jesus back to life. The Christian message says that this all happened to Jesus Christ so that people could know and fall in love with God. The Christian message says that people who believe and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ will have eternal life. The Christian message is found in the Holy Bible.

Christians meet in churches

By church, Christians can mean two different things. First, a church is the building where Christians gather together to worship God, listen to a speech (called a sermon) about God, and pray (talk) to God. A church is also the name for a group of Christians who share their lives together as a close community of believers in Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

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