Q. What does it mean to be a Christian?
A. Christians, first mentioned in Acts 11:26, is the name given to men and women who have believed into and received Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13). A Christian is thus a disciple and a follower of Christ, a person who has been joined to Him by life (1 John 5:11-12), and a person who is a member of His Body (Ephesians 5:30). We were specifically designed and created by God to be Christians. This is the meaning of our human life.
Q. Who is Christ?
A. Jesus Christ is God incarnated as a man to be our Savior (John 1:1, 14). He is the Lord, He is God, and He is the Son of God. He is the Savior of the world and the One who is the center of every Christian’s faith. Without Christ there would be no Christians.
Q. How do I become a Christian?
A. To become a Christian one has to believe into and therefore receive the Lord Jesus. You just have to pray a simple prayer such as:
Lord Jesus, I open myself to You. I need You. Come into me. I repent of all my sins. Thank You for dying for me. I take You as my life and Savior. Fill me with Yourself. Thank You for saving me. Amen.
By doing so, He will come into your spirit, and you will receive Him as your life (be born again, or regenerated).
Q. What does it mean to be saved?
A. Generally speaking, to be saved is to believe in Christ and therefore to become a Christian. When someone believes into Christ He comes into them, regenerating their spirit. They are thus saved. However, man was created with three parts: a spirit, a soul, and a body(1 Thessalonians 5:23). God’s salvation is not limited to just our spirit. He wants to also save us in our soul and eventually save us in our body (Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:2). The salvation of our soul is called transformation (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18). This is a life-long process whereby Christ renews our fallen soul until we are just like Him in our thinking, our choosing, and our feeling.
Q. Now that I am a Christian what should I do?
A. A Christian should love the Lord (Romans 8:28), love the other Christian brothers and sisters (1 John 3:14), grow in the divine life (Colossians 2:19b), read the Bible (Matthew 4:4), pray (Matthew 6:9) and meet with other Christians (Hebrews 10:25). There are also other things that you should do, but these are a good beginning.
Q. What do Christians believe?
A. Christians believe in a number of key things–these can be described as the items of the faith. They are as follows:
1. The Bible is the Word of God.
2. God is the Trinity, or Triune. This means that is He is three and one at the same time.
3. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and man. He is at the same time fully God and fully man.
4. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived a perfect human life (without any sin), died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected on the third day, ascended to the Father in heaven, and will return one day.
5. To become a Christian one has to repent to God and believe in Christ (Act 20:21); upon believing, one becomes a child of God and a member of the Body of Christ.
6. All genuine believers are part of the church, which is Christ’s Body.
Q. What is the Bible?
A. The Bible is a book that Christians believe is the divinely inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). It is divided into the Old Testament (covering the time before Christ was born) and the New Testament (from the time of the birth of Christ). The Bible is divided into chapters and verses – this makes it easy for a reader to find any particular passage.
Q. What does the Bible tell us about the nature of God?
A. There are three verses that describe what God is: God is Spirit (John 4:24), God is light (1 John 1:5), and God is love (1 John 4:8, 16).
Furthermore God is triune, or three-one. He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, although He is only one God. This is a great mystery. The mystery of the Trinity can be seen throughout the Bible. One verse that shows this is John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word (Christ) is both with God (the aspect of three) and is God (the aspect of one). Another verse that shows the mystery of the Trinity is Matthew 28:19:
Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The name is singular, but it is of three–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is triune so that He can enter into us.
Q. What does the Bible tell us about man?
A. The Bible says that man was created in the image and according to the likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), that is, in a way that man can receive God. Furthermore, man was created with an outward body, an inward soul, and an even more inward spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The spirit is the deepest and most important part of man–it is the organ that can contact, receive and contain God.
Q. How can I be sure that there is a God?
A. Christians believe in God. This is a matter of faith. Faith means that you believe in something that you cannot see, or perhaps objectively prove to others. However, there are two good ways to prove that God exists. The first one is outward–that is creation. If you consider the wonders, beauty, order, and complexity of creation, you will be drawn to the conclusion that there must be a God (Romans 1:20). Second, within every person there is a yearning for God. This is described in Ecclesiastes 3:11 where it says that God has put eternity in man’s heart. This is a longing for God. Every human being, whether consciously or unconsciously, has a longing for God.
Therefore, if you consider both the outward creation and the feeling deep within you, you will know that there is a God.
Q. How can Jesus come into us?
A. Jesus can come into us as the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 15:45b says that the last Adam (who is Christ) became a life-giving Spirit. Thus, He is available anytime and any place to be received by men. We simply have to call on His name to receive Him. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
