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Explore Scripture, its story, its people, and what it means for life today.
Christianity 101
If the whole thing is new to you, start here. No assumed vocabulary, no assumed background.
If the whole thing is new to you, start here. No assumed vocabulary and no assumed background — and no question is too basic for this page.
What you’ll explore
- 01 What Christians actually believe, briefly
- 02 Who Jesus was and what he claimed
- 03 What the Bible is and how it is arranged
- 04 What happens in a church service
- 05 The words people use, translated
- 06 What believing would involve
- 07 Where to go next
What Christians actually believe, briefly
Read 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; John 3:16
The shortest version the New Testament gives: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised. Christians hold that God made the world, that people are estranged from him, that Jesus came to deal with that, and that he is alive. Everything else is detail hanging off those.
Who Jesus was and what he claimed
Read Mark 1:1-11; Mark 8:27-30
A Jewish teacher from Nazareth, active for perhaps three years, executed by Rome around AD 30 — that much is ordinary history. What is not ordinary is what he said about himself and what his followers said after his death. Mark’s gospel is the shortest and the best place to meet him.
What the Bible is and how it is arranged
Read 2 Timothy 3:16; Luke 1:1-4
Sixty-six documents in two collections: the Old Testament, which is Israel’s scriptures, and the New Testament, written after Jesus. It is a library, not a single book, and the numbers in references are addresses — John 3:16 means the book of John, chapter 3, verse 16. Nobody is expected to start at page one.
What happens in a church service
Read Colossians 3:16; Acts 2:42
At Mt. Pleasant: singing, prayer, and a message from the Bible, for about an hour. You will not be asked to stand, introduce yourself, speak, or give money. Sitting near the back and just watching is a perfectly normal thing to do, and more people are doing it than you would think.
The words people use, translated
Grace: a gift you did not earn. Sin: the ways people fall short of and turn from God. Repentance: turning around. Gospel: announcement, literally good news. Saved: rescued, and put right with God. Christians use these words as shorthand and often forget they need translating.
What believing would involve
The New Testament’s answer is unglamorous: turn, and trust Christ — not achieve a standard first. There is no form, no qualification, and no required feeling. If you wanted to, you could do it in your own words, right now, and then tell somebody.
Where to go next
Read Acts 17:11; Hebrews 10:24-25
Read a gospel — Mark or John. Come to a service. Ask somebody your actual questions; the Bereans are commended precisely for checking things. Faith in the New Testament is learned among people, not alone, and nobody here started out knowing any of this.
Questions to sit with
- What is the question you have been embarrassed to ask?
- Would you read one gospel, start to finish, this month?
- Is there one person you could ask your questions to?
Every passage in this study
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Where this connects
This study sits inside a larger story. Read the passages above in their own books, and follow the thread back through Scripture as a whole.