over 2000 Year’s ago out of the ashes of Judaism a new religion was born,surrounding its self around the birth and death of Jesus Chris,the messiah. This rapidly progressing religion is called Christianity. The Bible states in acts 4:4,” but many who herd the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about 5000″(NIV). In the first years of its exsistance christianinty was called “the way.” What most people don’t know is that jesus was not the first one to call his desciples Christians. It was in fact Paul who gave his followers the name christians.
To understand Paul and how he came to name his followers you have to first know the story of Saul. Saul was born in Turcos, Turkey to Jewish parents who possessed Roman citizenship. His family soon moved to Jerusalem, where he began learning Hebrew Scriptures and jewish laws under the famous rabbi Gamaliel.
Saul fell in love with his culture and religion,so much so that he would reprmend anyone who dared to contradicted his religion or beliefs; that even included christ’s disciples. On his way to Damascus to pursacute some of Christ’s followers,Saul was struck with a sudden blindness and confronted by the voice of Jesus the Bible reads in acts 9:4-6″He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, he replied. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Paul arrived to Damacacus,a new man completely converted to”the way” He wondered the streets preaching the wonderful news of Jesus our savor. He then found Ananias,one of the disciples, and he healed him of his blindness. From that day on Saul changed his name to Paul the apostle, and began calling his followers christians, which comes from the Greek word ?????????? (Christianos), meaning “follower of Christ.”He spent the rest of his life converting people to ” the way.
” , changing their lives forever. Throughout the centuries they continued to call Christ’s disciples christians. It was later that the -ity was added at the end which means condition or quality of being ,so, the word Christianity means quality of being a follower of Christ. Although being a Christian means accepting Jesus as your savor, that isn’t the only thing you are intilted to to do; reading the Bible is one of the most important acts you can do. The word Bible comes from Latin word biblia sacra which means “holy books”.
It is said the B-I-b-l-e stand for Basic instruction before leaving earth, and that’s exactly what the Bible is , a guide to how your expected to behave and live on earth so that your eternal soul can reside with God in heaven. For a Christian heaven is a perfect ideal place to be. As a follower of Christ you are motivated and influenced to abide by gods rules in your daily life,to become a better person, in order to dwell in his kingdom.
