DID YOU KNOW

CHRISTIANITY

Is a monotheistic (the doctrine or belief that there is but one God) religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, His life, death, resurrection, and teachings as presented in the New Testament. Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God and the awaited Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, they call Him the Christ.

With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2001, Christianity is the world's largest religion. It is the predominant religion in the Americas, Europe, Philippine Islands, Oceania, and large parts of Africa. It is also growing rapidly in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea and in Northern Africa, and remains one of the fastest growing major religions with a growth rate of 2.3%.

Christianity began in the 1st century as a Jewish sect, and shares many religious texts with Judaism, specifically the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament. Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is classified as an Abrahamic religion because of the centrality and pre-cedence of Abraham in their shared traditions though Jesus himself stated that He had pre-existed Abraham (John 8:58), and Christianity places Jesus as God incarnate (not Abraham) as central to the faith. The name "Christian" was first applied to the disciples in Antioch, as recorded in Acts 11:26. The earliest recorded use of the term Christianity is Ignatius of Antioch.