Christianity 101

By Chad Price

What exactly is a Christian? Many people will tell you that a Christian is someone who believes in God, does good things to get into heaven, and then forces their faith onto others. Is this true? If God is good, why do bad things happen? If God is loving, why would He send good people to hell? Unfortunately these questions, and others like it, can stump current believing Christians into answering simply with "Uhm..." Despite the vast majority of the United States claiming to be Christian, we live in a world where most Christians can hardly explain the basic fundamentals of their own faith. This has produced a judgmental group of "believers" who spout hate at anyone who believes differently than they do, has divided our churches, and has made it so that Christians live no differently than their fellow non-believing citizens. Overall, this book will use Scripture to explain who Christ wants His people to be, it will help you answer the tough questions you will get from the world, and discern true Christian teachings from false rabble. For you nonbelievers out there, I encourage you to read this as well. See what a Christian truly is for yourself, not what the media tells you we are. Finally, I pray that this book helps everyone who reads it discover the grace, mercy, and love of Christ. I pray that this book will inspire you to pursue the Lord with all your heart. As the Scriptures say, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." (Prov. 9:10, NIV) and, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13, NIV).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640031258

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Christianity 101

Chad Price

ISBN 978-1-64003-124-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64003-125-8 (Digital)

Copyright © 2017 Chad Price

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Living with Life during Life

1

Getting Settled

2

Christ’s Death, Your Calling, and What it Means

The Theologies of our Faith

3

Knowing Your Faith, Core Christian Doctrines

4

Open-Handed Doctrine

5

Heaven and Hell, Live as though You’re Passing Through

Apologetics (Nothing to do with Apologizing)

6

The B-I-B-L-E...Yes That’s the Book for Me...

7 (Part 1)

Why is Christianity the Right religion?

7 (Part 2)

(Brace Yourself, This One’s a Dozy.)

8

The Great Commission

Section I

Living with Life during Life

1

Getting Settled

If you opened this book’s front cover, and you’re actually reading this, thank you! I know many of these How to live your life books are, many times; given as gifts, where they are then tossed on a shelf to gather dust. At least, that was usually the fate of the books I was given. Regardless, I promise this book will inspire, convict, encourage, and teach many things about the Christian religion.

To kick this book off, let’s go back in time eight years ago. I had just graduated from a small school that had only twenty-eight kids in its graduating class. I also had just broken up from a long-distance relationship of two years. A slight...well...several large lapses of judgment on my part saw me out in the cold in the relationship department, which was particularly unfortunate, because the university I had chosen to go to was merely decided for the fact that it would allow me to be closer to my ex. Though, despite the change of plans in my love life, I was still excited. College held a new town for me to explore and a clean slate to start over with. It also got me away from my parents, and was the start of my own life.

On my first day, college already proved to be quite the adventure. I met my roommate whom would grow to be one of my closest friends, and I met my wife. (Though I didn’t know it at the time.) I also got my car towed. Fortunately I was a four-year letterman in track, and three-year in cross country, and was able to keep pace with the slow-moving tow truck. For some reason the tow truck drove all the way around campus with my small Hyundai Elantra (whom I named Chip) only to park a couple buildings down from where our chase originally started. At least I got a good workout. And God bless my brand-new short-winded roommate for trying to chase after my car with me. But as I adapted to college life and grew out of that freshman awkwardness, there was one thing that troubled me more than anything else. How hard the world tried to pull me away from God.

It seemed that there was always something to do to distract myself from our heavenly Father. On campus girls wore less cotton than what you’d find on both ends of a Q-tip, beer was readily available to you, (no matter your age), and one time I even found myself sitting in an apartment during an ecstasy deal. And that was just my first semester…not even five months’ time away from the protection of Mommy and Daddy. Now not everyone’s experience may match mine, but the point is this: you don’t have to look very hard to find things that can pull you away from the Light in this world. I mean, it so very easy to get yourself distracted when there’s so much fun floating around. So, what do we do? Well, I’m glad you asked!

Now many of you may have been church rats since you were young. Meaning, your parents drug you to church by your ears with a video game controller still in your hand. (Usually my situation as well.) You went to Sunday school, youth group, and church. You know a lot about God and there are very few lessons I could preach to you that you haven’t already heard a dozen different times in a dozen different ways. This book is important because it will help guide you (I’m talking mainly to the younger adults here) to deciding this key point: Is my parents’ faith my faith? or Just because my parents believe it, should I? These are healthy and normal questions. I personally think they’re also necessary to really find God for yourself, and form that personal relationship with Him.

Others of you may be new Christians and have picked up this book looking for a way to grow in your faith. If so, I applaud you! It seems that a common theme now for new believers is a large target pasted on their back. People descend upon you and try to cast you down from your newfound love for Christ. Even close family members may try to subtly imply how foolish you are for believing in something greater than yourself. Unfortunately this book won’t stop the ridicule, but it will encourage and grow that relationship with your Father who has reached into your heart and is showing you His love. In addition, this book will also help teach you to hold your own against worldly arguments against our faith and allow you to discern real Christian theologies from false teachings.

Finally, some of you may not be Christians at all. If so, awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to delve into our faith and see what it actually is for yourself. I pray this book will encourage you to join me as a brother or sister in Christ and to become a part of our heavenly family. This book will try to answer the tough questions like, If God is real, why do bad things happen? If God is loving why does He send people to hell? Why is Christianity the right religion among all the others? Now not every answer may be perfectly rounded and satisfactory, but I’ll do my best to address these questions, and try to make sense of them. Regardless, I ask...no, beg you, to read on with this book to find out some of the key points about our faith, and hopefully, make it your own. I ask not because you’re an evil person going to hell, but because you’re completely missing out on the awesomeness of having a relationship with God! I’d have to really hate you to not even try to share this good news with you. So please, read on!

But no matter what your background or story, we’ll start with this simple fact to level the playing field. You are on your own when it comes to pursuing God. It is up to you to grow in the Lord’s love and establish your faith. Your parents aren’t going to do it for you, your pastor won’t do it for you, your good Christian friend won’t do it for you, and God gave you a free will so the Lord Himself won’t make you. (Even though He pursues the snot out of you.) The decision to answer God’s calling and grow in His love rests on your shoulders, so let’s talk about how to keep that faith alive.

The first step is to Spend Time with God! One of the biggest misconceptions of Christianity is that we are a people who: a) Believe in God, b) Go to church, and c) Try to get into heaven by not sinning. That is completely wrong! Those may be things that Christians do, but that’s not what a Christian is. That’s like saying you must be a truck driver if you drive a lot, love small town diner food, and listen to country music. Or, as a wise man once said, Just because you’re in a garage doesn’t mean you’re a car. A Christian is someone who has a relationship with God. That means you talk with Him, love Him, trust in Him, and know Him.

So, two of the best ways to spend time with Him is by opening your Bible and spending time in prayer. I’m not saying you need to spend an hour a day in a meditation room while you pray. That certainly wouldn’t hurt, but even just a little time is better than nothing. But a relationship requires some time and upkeep. If you’re best friend lives on the other side of the country and you never call/text them, write to them, or keep in touch, what happens? You drift apart. The same goes for God. If you do not spend time with Him, you drift away from Him. He will still love you the same no matter what, but He’s God, you’re not. Therefore, pray to Him. Prayer is your way of speaking to Him. Tell Him about your day, tell him about what’s worrying you, thank Him for the blessings He’s brought to you, lift up your friends (and enemies) to Him, bring your burdens to Him; and overall, just talk to Him.

Further, Ecclesiastes 5:1–2 talks about keeping your words few when you pray. Meaning, don’t pray about useless things. For example, Dear God, let the Broncos win today, may not be something God finds terribly important. (In my personal experience, that prayer even seems to backfire. Take the 2014 Super Bowl for example.)

On the other hand, I’m not saying God doesn’t care for the little things in your life either. Though unfortunately, many do think that way. For example, some people won’t pray, Dear God, help me to do well on my exam, because they don’t want to inconvenience God with something so small when compared to the grand picture. But that is a very false idea. God cares about the smallest details in our lives.

If you flip that coin over, people are afraid to pray big prayers as well; like, God, please bring a revival to the United States, or Please bring peace to Israel. Remember God is infinite, and so is His power. There’s no such thing in His mind as too many requests, too few requests, too big, or too small. He can answer them all. (Didn’t mean to rhyme there, but it may help you remember, so we’re going to let it ride.)

So then why doesn’t He answer all my prayers?

You need to know that God does hear all prayers; He just may not answer all prayers in the way we want Him to. We are so shortsighted we don’t always understand this. For example, getting an A+ on a tough exam would be great, but there are some things that you have to earn. God’s not going to just hand everything to you. Have you ever met a person who gets whatever they want, when they want it? Have you ever liked that kind of a person? Me neither, I love them because God tells me to, but liking them is difficult. Anyways, God loves you way too much to allow you to become that kind of a spoiled child. God will also not answer prayers if He has something better in mind for you than what you’re asking for. For example, I prayed every day that God would bring my ex-girlfriend back to me the summer before I went to college. Then I met my wife, and am now blessed with a loving family and would have things no other way. Now, I thank Him for not answering that prayer.

Thus I am now brought to Romans 8:26–27. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God (NIV). Essentially, we won’t always pray for the right thing; but the Holy Spirit knows what we need, and brings it before God on our behalf.

Overall remember that prayer is important! If you do not speak with God, you grow apart, but that’s only half the battle. Spend some time in God’s word. The Bible is one big way God speaks back to