Christianity

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity

Christianity is the world's largest religion, with 2.8 billion adherents, a third of the world Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament and chronicled in the New Testament. It is one of the three monotheistic religions of the world along with judaism and Islam. "Christian" is derived from "followers of the Christ," became the name of a group who followed the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth who was the predicted messiah of the prophets.

Jesus

Christianity has a historical founder whose existence is verified by outside sources. The most reliable of these sources is the account from Josephus, a first-century historian born in Jerusalem, who eventually became a Roman citizen. In his work, Antiquities of the jews, he makes several brief references to Jesus, both as a Messiah and as a wise teacher. Josephus also records that Jesus was crucified, and that his followers believed he was restored to life. Beyond that, however, history is silent. The greayer amount of information about Jesus is recorded in four books of The Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is important to note here, however, that these books were not written as biographies; their purpose rather was to Show others that Jesus was the son of God and the savior of the world. Thus, they describe the life and ministry of Jesus as the one they knew was God in the flesh. In other words, what we have in these four books of the Bible is an account of Jesus the Christ, a history of Jesus the man from Nazareth.