Christianity and You (Part 1)

Believe and faith. In today’s world there are numerous branches of Christianity. In Kuching alone there are so many branches up to a point that I get friends and acquaintances that isn’t a Christian coming to ask me why is there so many churches and how did they come up to be an acceptable religion? What do you think?

What is meant by being a Christian? To answer that question, we’ll have to refer back in history where and how Christianity comes from. To answer these questions and the various questions linked to it, I will be blogging it in a few parts.

This has nothing to do with criticisism or giving false information on the related subject. This is merely facts that can be obtained from the libraries of old and new, of those in the world archives containing world histories.

Christian

The Latinized Greek term Khri·sti·a·nos´ was found only three times in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Christian designates(signifies) followers of Christ Jesus.

Acts 11:26 - and, after he found him, he brought him to Antioch. It thus came about that for a whole year they gathered together with them in the congregation and taught quite a crowd, and it was first in Antioch that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians

Acts 26:28 - But A·grip´pa said to Paul: “In a short time you would persuade me to become a Christian

1Peter 4:16 - But if [he suffers] as a Christian, let him not feel shame, but let him keep on glorifying God in this name

“It was first in Antioch [Syria] that Jesus’ 12 disciples were being called Christians” (Acts 11:26)

This makes it possible that this name was already in use as early as the year 44 C.E. when the events stated in the text occurred. Although some think that it might be later than 44 C.E., by about 58 C.E., in the city of Caesarea, the term was already well known and used even by the public officials. We can see this in Acts 26:28 where King Herod Agrippa II said to Paul, one of Jesus’ apostles: “In a short time you would persuade me to become a Christian.”

The Greek verb khre·ma·ti´zo in this text is generally rendered simply “were called.” With some 50 translations of the Bible in several modern languages, only the New World Translation and Young’s indicate that God had anything to do with selecting the name “Christian”.

Young’s read: “The disciples also were divinely called first in Antioch Christians.”