Supporters of this view believe that “ to a hypothetical outside reader, presents Christianity as enlightened, harmless, even beneficent .” Some believe that through this work, Luke intended to show the Roman Empire that the root of Christianity is within Judaism so that the Christians “ may receive the same freedom to practice their faith that the Roman Empire afforded the Jews .” Those who support the view of Luke ’ s work as political apology generally draw evidence from the facts that Christians are found innocent of committing any political crime ( Acts 25: 25 ; 19: 37 ; 19: 40 ) and that Roman officials ’ views towards Christians are generally positive.

* Modern Christians typically believe it is acceptable to play instruments or to attend weddings, funerals, banquets, etc., where instruments are heard.

Though God is never explicitly mentioned in the Book of Esther, some Christians believe that his influence during the story is implied.

The Jewish people still await the Messiah's first coming, while Christians await his second coming, when they believe he will fulfill those parts of Messianic prophecy left unfulfilled in the first century AD.

Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, referred to as the " Old Testament " in Christianity.

Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as saviour of humanity, and hold that Jesus ' coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

While there have been many theological disputes over the nature of Jesus over the earliest centuries of Christian history, Christians generally believe that Jesus is God incarnate and " true God and true man " ( or both fully divine and fully human ).

In contrast Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Arminian Protestants believe that the exercise of free will is necessary to have faith in Jesus.

Many, but not all, Christians believe:

Many of the debates among Christians have roots in questions about the sources of authority different Christians believe represent God's purest or most definitive message.

Many Christians believe that marriage is defined by the union of a man and a woman, and that any sexual act outside of the marriage relationship is inherently sinful.

Some Christians believe that the book of Leviticus contains prohibitions against male-male sexuality.

As an alternative to a school-sponsored Day of Silence opposing bullying of LGBT students, conservative Christians organized a Golden Rule Initiative, where they passed out cards saying " As a follower of Christ, I believe that all people are created in the image of God and therefore deserve love and respect.

Some Christians believe that marriage is the union of two people and that homosexual behavior is not inherently sinful.

Some Christians believe that Biblical passages have been mistranslated or that these passages do not refer to LGBT orientation as currently understood.

It is especially important in the Catholic Church, but is also used in Orthodox and Eastern Catholic, as well as Anglican, and Lutheran churches, ( though less often in other Protestant churches ), and it emphasizes Jesus ' sacrifice — his death by crucifixion, which Christians believe brought about the redemption of mankind.

Some Christians believe that gender equality is appropriate for Christian marriages and that the spouses share equal responsibility within the family.

Some Christians believe that husbands and wives have differing, complementary roles.

Christians believe that marriage is considered in its ideal according to the purpose of God.

Schweitzer found many New Testament references to apparently show that 1st-century Christians believed literally in the imminent fulfillment of the promise of the World's ending, within the lifetime of Jesus's original followers, He noted that in the gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks of a " tribulation ", with his coming in the clouds with great power and glory " ( St Mark ), and states when it will happen: " This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled " ( St Matthew, 24: 34 ) ( or, " have taken place " ( Luke 21: 32 )): " All these things shall come upon this generation " ( Matthew 23: 36 ).

Schweitzer writes that modern Christians of many kinds deliberately ignore the urgent message ( so powerfully proclaimed by Jesus during the 1st century ) of an imminent end of the world.

Thus, over the past 1, 500 years, some Christians have used the term Arian to refer to those groups that see themselves as worshiping Jesus Christ or respecting his teachings, but do not hold to the Nicene creed.

Many who side with this view disagree that Luke portrays Christianity or the Roman Empire as harmless and thus reject the apologetic view because “ Acts does not present Christians as politically harmless or law abiding for there are a large number of public controversies concerning Christianity, particularly featuring Paul .” For example, to support this view Cassidy references how Paul is accused of going against the Emperor because he is “ saying that there is another king named Jesus .” ( Acts 17: 7 ) Furthermore, there are multiple examples of Paul ’ s preaching causing uprisings in various cities ( Acts 14: 2 ; 14: 19 ; 16: 19-23 ; 17: 5 ; 17: 13-14 ; 19: 28-40 ; 21: 27 ).

* Pictures of the cave where it is believed by Christians that Jesus was buried and from which it is believed he resurrected and a picture of the remains of the walls of the Temple of Venus previously constructed on that site by the Emperor Hadrian

The first 39 chapters prophesy doom for a sinful Judah and for all the nations of the world that oppose God, while the last 27 prophesy the restoration of the nation of Israel and a new creation in God's glorious future kingdom ; this section includes the Songs of the Suffering Servant, four separate passages referring to the nation of Israel, interpreted by Christians as prefiguring the coming of Jesus Christ.

Christians have traditionally interpreted it as a prophecy of Jesus as the Christ ( i. e., Messiah ).

Isaiah 52: 13 – 53: 12, the fourth of the " Suffering Servant " songs, was interpreted by the earliest Christians as a prophecy of the death and exaltation of Jesus, a role which Jesus himself seems to have accepted ( Luke 4: 17 – 21 ).

Many Christians interpret Boaz and Ruth as typical of Jesus and the Church.

Billy approves them, Billy condones them, Billy recommends them .... I think that Dr. Graham is doing more harm in the cause of Jesus Christ than any living man ; that he is leading foolish and untaught Christians, simple people that do not know the Word of God, into disobedience to the Word of God.

Some Christians, such as Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, also have traditions of fasting, in which saints, as well as Jesus, are claimed to have been able to go for a period of time ( without any food, or with no food but the Eucharist ).

The followers of Jesus became known as Christians ( as in Acts ) because they believed Jesus to be the Messiah ( Christos ) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.

Christians designate him Jesus Christ, meaning Jesus the Christos.

In the Pauline Epistles the word Christ is so closely associated with Jesus that it is apparent that for the Early Christians there is no need to claim that Jesus is Christ, for that is considered widely accepted among them.

Because of this, Christians commonly refer to Jesus as Christ or Messiah.

Christians call the message of Jesus Christ the Gospel (" good news ") and generally adhere to the Ten Commandments.

The same word in adjectival form ( purgatorius-a-um, cleansing ), which appears also in non-religious writing, was already used by Christians such as Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory I to refer to an after-death cleansing.

Moyers was inspired to focus on the song's power after watching a performance at Lincoln Center, where the audience consisted of Christians and non-Christians, and he noticed that it had an equal impact on everybody in attendance, unifying them.

Though pagan, Marcellinus was mostly tolerant of Christians.

He presumably completed the work before 391, since at 22. 16. 12 he praises the Serapeum in Egypt as the glory of the empire, and the temple was destroyed by Christians at the end of that year.

While the precise identity of the author is debated, the consensus is that this work was composed by a ( Koine ) Greek speaking Gentile writing for an audience of Gentile Christians.

The city of Assur was still occupied by Assyrians during the Islamic period until the 14th century when Tamurlane conducted a massacre of indigenous Assyrian Christians.

It also remained the spoken tongue of the indigenous Assyrian / Babylonian citizens of all Mesopotamia under Persian, Greek and Roman rule, and indeed well into the Arab period it was still the language of the majority, particularly in the north of Mesopotamia, surviving to this day among the Assyrian Christians.

At a later period, Paul's epistles place him with Paul and Saint Timothy at Ephesus, whence he was sent by Paul to Corinth, Greece for the purpose of getting the contributions of the church there on behalf of the poor Christians at Jerusalem sent forward.

Unlike the Israelite worship assembly, which was only able to look on during Temple worship as the Levitical Priest sang, played, and offered animal sacrifices, in the New Testament, all Christians are commanded to sing praises to God.

# It was most widely circulated among Western Christians.

Years later in 1890 Edward Granville Browne described how ` Abdu ' l-Bahá was " one more eloquent of speech, more ready of argument, more apt of illustration, more intimately acquainted with the sacred books of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muhammadans ... scarcely be found even amongst the eloquent.

Support for Arius from powerful bishops like Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia, further illustrate how Arius ' subordinationist Christology was shared by other Christians in the Empire.

" While Disraeli did not argue that the Jews did the Christians a favour by killing Christ, as he had in Tancred and would in Lord George Bentinck, his speech was badly received by his own party, which along with the Anglican establishment was hostile to the bill.

Gladstone, however, saw the issue in moral terms, for Bulgarian Christians had been massacred by the Turks and Gladstone therefore believed it was immoral to support the Ottoman Empire.

The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the naked candidate to be immersed totally ( submersion ) or partially ( standing or kneeling in water while water was poured on him or her ).

This discovery has shed much light on the differences between the two versions ; while it was previously maintained that the Greek Septuagint ( the version used by the earliest Christians ) was only a poor translation, professor Emanuel Tov, senior editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls ' publication, wrote that the Masoretic edition either represents a substantial rewriting of the original Hebrew, or there had previously been two different versions of the text.

Antioch, the third-most important city of the Roman Empire, then the capital city of Syria province, today Antakya, Turkey, was where Christians were first called thus.

:"" There are there ," he said, " many great and powerful gods, and in former time a church was built there, and there are many Christians there who worship Christ --"" ( Chapter XIX )

BJU has taken the position that orthodox Christians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries ( including fundamentalists ) agreed that while the KJV was a substantially accurate translation, only the original manuscripts of the Bible written in Hebrew and Greek were infallible and inerrant.

The Church of South India was the first modern Episcopal uniting church, consisting as it did, from its foundation in 1947, at the time of Indian independence, of Anglicans, Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Reformed Christians.