A Young Person’s Guide to Christianity

A Young Person’s Guide to Christianity

R. Douglas Wardrop

Copyright © 2014 R. Douglas Wardrop. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, of the publisher.

Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co.12620 FM 1960, Suite A4-507Houston, TX 77065www.sbpra.com

Grammatical rules are that the first letter of a person’s name should be shown as a capital. But I choose not to acknowledge the devil in any way, and so will not capitalize this or any of his names (these names shown in this book are “beelzebub,” “lucifer,” and “satan”).

The King James Version Bible is in the public domain and is therefore not subject to copyright restrictions.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used with permission.

The New International Version Bible allows up to 500 Scripture to be used in their copyright restriction.

All pictures used in the diagrams throughout this book were purchased from Fotolia—www.fotolia.com.

Bill Johnson quote from his book “When Heaven Invades Earth” included by kind permission of Destiny Image publishers.

ISBN: 978-1-63135-581-3

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=Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Definitions 4

3 What Does the Bible Teach? 7

4 Why Should I Care What the Bible Teaches? 9

5 Core Christian Beliefs 11

5.1 The Holy Trinity (God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) 11

5.2 Jesus Died For Our Sins 12

5.3 The Bible Is God-Given and Is Without Error 13

5.4 The Virgin Birth of Jesus 14

5.5 The Second Coming of Jesus 14

6 Questions and Answers 16

6.1 How Can We Know That God Exists? 16

6.2 If God Made Everything, Who Made God? 18

6.3 Hasn’t Science Disproven God’s Creation of the World and Other Parts of the Bible? 19

6.4 Is the Bible Accurate and True? 21

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6.5 Is There an Actual Place Called Hell? 25

6.6 What is Heaven? 30

6.7 Where is Heaven? 30

6.8 What is Heaven Like? 31

6.9 How Do You Get to Heaven? 32

7 Greatness of God 33

8 God’s Promises to You 36

9 A Definition of Salvation 45

10 Beginning Your Christian Life 47

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Introduction

It is so important that people learn about Christianity at the youngest possible age and that the source of this

learning is as accurate (reflecting what God says in His Word the Bible) and complete as possible. This is important as we at a younger age have greater faith and can accept the information more easily—the cares of this world have not become so great that they diminish God’s truths. Even if this does not result in the young person becoming a Christian, God’s truth gets into people’s hearts and minds and can be of great benefit in later life.

The challenge is to present the information in a form which makes an impact on young people while also providing enough information to demonstrate as complete a representation of Christianity as possible.

All of the Christian information contained within this book is biblically accurate.

The information is also provided in a summarised way, often in a strikingly graphical manner. It is also very colorful. The main purpose is to provide information in the most “young people-oriented” way possible to help in taking in and understanding this information (often called the “assimilation” of information).

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The aim is to ensure accuracy whilst also making the information assimilation experience as pleasant and memorable as possible. It is hoped that young people will enjoy reading this book and not feel that this is just a “boring old description” of Christianity.

Young people having read this book will have been introduced to the most important beliefs of Christianity, and will have all of the information they need to become Christians and advice on how to begin their Christian life.

The book itself is very short and so can be quickly read through. It is hoped that this will also appeal to young people who will not be put off by the amount of reading required and so cater to today’s shorter attention spans.

Any text in bold is a direct quote from the Bible. Following from that bold text will be some further words defining where the text can be found in the Bible—the text in brackets is the particular translation version of the Bible from which the Scripture is taken. For example:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16 (New King James Version)

This is a famous Bible verse. The text in bold-italic is the book of the Bible (in this case, the New Testament book “John”) and the chapter (in this case “3”) and verse (in this case “16”) showing where the text appears in the book. The Bible translation in this case is the “New King James Version.”

There are sixty-six books in a standard Protestant Bible. At the front of the Bible are what is called the “Old

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Testament” books. These are the oldest books and describe the time from the creation of the world until over a hundred years before Jesus was born. There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, from a book called “Genesis” to a book called “Malachi.” At the back of the Bible are what is called the “New Testament” books. These are the newest books and describe the time from just before the birth of Jesus until the end of the world and the creation of a new Heaven and earth. There are twenty-seven books in the New Testament, from a book called “Matthew” to a book called “Revelation.”

Each book is split into numbered chapters and each chapter is split into numbered verses.

The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek but has been translated into many English versions—the “New King James Version” mentioned above is one of those versions.

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Defi nitio ns

The following provides definitions of many of the terms used in this book that may not be readily familiar.

Where a word or phrase is defined here, it appears in bold-italic within this book.

Term Definition

Destiny The events, beyond human control, that will happen to a person in the future.

Eternal / Eternity

Lasting or existing forever (for all time); without end or beginning.

HolyGod’s nature of moral pureness, which is so far above our standards of goodness that we cannot possibly understand it.

Moral The standards of right and wrong behaviour and what behaviour is acceptable.

Perspective The meaning here is of a person’s outlook and attitude—a point of view—such that she/he has a true understanding of the relative importance of things.

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Term Definition

An example of the “relative importance” of things would be: somebody dying is important; losing a toy does not compare to someone dying and is not important.

Reconciled Restoration of friendly relations—in this case between God and His people.

Repent / Repentance

Bill Johnson in his excellent book When Heaven Invades Earth gives a good description of “repentance” (pages 37-38)—“Repentance means much more than weeping over sin, or even turning from those sins to follow God. In fact, turning from sin to God is more the result of true repentance than it is the actual act. Repentance means you change your way of thinking—until the presence of His kingdom fills our consciousness. ”

Resurrection Meaning here Jesus Christ’s rising to life after being dead.

Reverential Fear

It doesn’t mean “to be afraid.” It is rather to be aware of how powerful and holy God is and to treat Him accordingly. You shouldn’t be afraid of your mum and dad but you should have a reverential fear of them, which results in you doing what they say.

Salvation Deliverance from sin and the penalty of spiritual death which is the result of sin.

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Term Definition

Savior Meaning here Jesus Christ paying the price for our sin, which means He died for you to enable you to be reconciled to God.

Sin /Sinned /Sinner /Sins

What a person does in disobedience to what God has said that a person should do.God hates sin and has said that the penalty for sin (punishment for doing) is death (see Romans 6:23).

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