Beliefs of Christianity Christians are monotheistic, that is, Christianity remains culturally diverse in its western and eastern branches, as well as in its doctrines on justification and the nature of salvation, ecclesiology, ordination and Christology. The creeds of various Christian denominations generally have in common Jesus as the Son of God, the incarnate Logos, who ministered, suffered and died on a cross, but who rose from the dead for the salvation of mankind; and is known as the gospel, which means the good news. The four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe the life and teachings of Jesus, with the Old Testament as the respected background of the gospel. Christians believe that there is only one God.
God has existed since the beginning of time. He created and sustains all things. God is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (everything is present). God is perfect, holy and good.
Emperor Constantine the Great decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire through the Edict of Milan (31), and later convened the Council of Nicaea (32), where early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the state church of the Roman Empire (380). Other Christian religions, such as Unitarian Universalism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormonism, do not share these views on the Trinity. In general, Christianity has not practiced aniconism, nor has it avoided or banned devotional images, although the first Jewish Christians and some modern denominations, invoking the prohibition of idolatry in the Decalogue, avoided figures in their symbols. Despite the decline in numbers, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western world, where 70% are Christians.
The gradual division of Gentile Christianity meant that Jewish Christians continued to follow the Law of Moses, including practices such as circumcision. Several Christian denominations use it for liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly in Western Christian liturgical churches, including the Latin Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism and Western rite orthodoxy. Chesterton, wrote in the early 20th century about the benefits of religion and, specifically, of Christianity. Everyone responds with a simple “I believe and trust him”, or by reciting the three parts of the Apostles' Creed, one of the oldest summaries of the Christian faith.
Most Christians believe that human beings experience divine judgment and are rewarded with eternal life or eternal damnation. We'll continue to answer some of the most common questions people ask about Christianity in future blog posts. Criticisms of Christianity and Christians date back to the apostolic era, since the New Testament records frictions between the followers of Jesus and the Pharisees and the scribes (e.g., while there have been many theological disputes about the nature of Jesus during the first centuries of Christian history, in general, Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate and true God and true man (or both fully divine and fully human).
