What is the CENTRAL Truth of Christianity?

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I’m curious to know what other people think is the central TRUTH of Christianity.

A better question I would like to ask is … “How do you know it is the central truth of Christianity from your own life experience?”

I will start by saying that I think the central truth of Christianity is the Resurrection of Christ. St. Paul says that if Christ did not rise from the dead, you are still in your sins and that we are the “greatest of fools.” Since we believe and know that Christ is Risen and Alive … through His love and grace He is changing people’s lives …is changing my own life for the good.

Too many people get lost in the forest because of all trees. This central truth of Christianity I believe is the center and starting point of our faith. Some people might say the central truth is knowing who Christ is as a Person … I’m just interested what others might say on this matter.

And to answer the second question about how I know this is the central truth of Christianity from my own personal life experience … that Christ is Risen … that He is Alive … I would like to think and reflect on this a little more before I respond to it.
 
The central hope taught by Christ is certainly the Resurrection. He show us by his life and death that it is true.

Another central truth taught by Christ is to love the Lord with everything in us, and to love one another. This teaching must be accepted and lived or all other truths, even the Resurrection, are of no avail.
 
I believe the central truth to be forgiveness. We are forgiven by grace, and we are to strive to be forgiving of others. We are to surrender ourselves into the hands of a forgiving God and follow the path of love, thus turning our backs on the works of Satan and turning our faces toward our Heavenly Father.
 
jkiernan56 said:
I’m curious to know what other people think is the central TRUTH of Christianity.

A better question I would like to ask is … “How do you know it is the central truth of Christianity from your own life experience?”

I will start by saying that I think the central truth of Christianity is the Resurrection of Christ. St. Paul says that if Christ did not rise from the dead, you are still in your sins and that we are the “greatest of fools.” Since we believe and know that Christ is Risen and Alive … through His love and grace He is changing people’s lives …is changing my own life for the good.

Too many people get lost in the forest because of all trees. This central truth of Christianity I believe is the center and starting point of our faith. Some people might say the central truth is knowing who Christ is as a Person … I’m just interested what others might say on this matter.

And to answer the second question about how I know this is the central truth of Christianity from my own personal life experience … that Christ is Risen … that He is Alive … I would like to think and reflect on this a little more before I respond to it.
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I think the central fact, is Christ. But other than that, 🤷​

 
Charlemagne_II said:
The central hope taught by Christ is certainly the Resurrection. He show us by his life and death that it is true.

Another central truth taught by Christ is to love the Lord with everything in us, and to love one another. This teaching must be accepted and lived or all other truths, even the Resurrection, are of no avail.
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Yes, those are the two Greatest Commandments Christ mentioned summarized the whole Law. What I am getting at, is what is the central truth that PROVES Christianity is really TRUE? Is it the truth that we are to Love God with all our heart … and our neighbor as ourselves? Or is it the truth that Christ is Risen that validates WHO He is and WHAT He accomplished through his free choice of allowing Himself to be put to death on the cross?
 
jkiernan56 said:
Yes, those are the two Greatest Commandments Christ mentioned summarized the whole Law. What I am getting at, is what is the central truth that PROVES Christianity is really TRUE? Is it the truth that we are to Love God with all our heart … and our neighbor as ourselves? Or is it the truth that Christ is Risen that validates WHO He is and WHAT He accomplished through his free choice of allowing Himself to be put to death on the cross?
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You can’t prove Christianity is true. You can only believe it yourself because you’ve been given the faith to do so.
 
The central Truth of Christianity is Christ Himself. I know that sounds ambiguous but in as far as Christ’s mission on earth was to reveal Himself, the new covenant , and in that way reveal the Father.

Jesus brought God
 
That the person of Jesus Christ fulfilled all the promises and prophecies of the old testament through his life, death, and resurrection. You can find evidence of this by studying the scriptures and realizing how on multiple levels the old and new testament tie together perfectly.
 
The old and the new covanant have always held. They are from God who is Truth. Truth is eternal. Truth is immutable. Truth is Jesus.

Know Jesus and you know all you ever need to know.
 
jkiernan56 said:
Yes, those are the two Greatest Commandments Christ mentioned summarized the whole Law. What I am getting at, is what is the central truth that PROVES Christianity is really TRUE?
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I think that those who believe something is true, really need to stop using the word Proof. Proof as the word is used today, requires empirical evidence. Otherwise it is called a hypothesis, or a belief.

There appear to be two different kinds of believers within each faith, but you asked about christianity. For christians the centre of their faith is usually defined in 1 of 2 way’s:
  1. There are those that believe in an actual “fall” of man and that God incarnated in the human form of Jesus Christ who then died for all mankind(there are variations on the actual reason for the death, protestants leaning more toward an actual required blood sacrifice than catholics). However, through beleiving in christ as God and with faith of the physical ressurection(as proof that he was God) humans can be saved and brought back to God and no longer need to suffer eternally.
  2. There are other christians that will say that through the life of Jesus christ we have been taught how to live , how to love and how to become fully human. Christ had the eminent indwelling of the holy spirit(God) which was recognized in awe by those who knew him. Jesus christ taught us how to be what we were alway’s meant to be, and as such has saved us from our former state of being if we choose to follow him.
The first belongs to the majority of church goers from what I can tell.

Cheers
 
You don’t actually think that Christianity can be reduced to just one proposition, do you?
 
Dameedna said:
I think that those who believe something is true, really need to stop using the word Proof. Proof as the word is used today, requires empirical evidence. Otherwise it is called a hypothesis, or a belief.
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Dameedna, the Empiricle evidence that you speak of was a Historic Event that happened almost 2000 years ago and was Evidenced by those who lived with Christ on a daily basis … the Apostles … they Witnessed the Resurrection of Christ … saw Him after He rose from the dead …

Now like I said before … I have never been to the Grand Canyon … and even though I personally have NOT experienced it firsthand by a visit … I DO KNOW that the Grand Canyon exists based on the Witness and Testimony of those that are reliable and now because of the digital age … we are able to see it through pixels on our computer screen or TV … but people still knew that the Grand Canyon existed even before the digital age … when there was NO evidence other than the Witness and Testimony of Others. I believe and TRUST the Witness and Testimony of the Apostles who lived with Christ, saw Him perform miracles, saw Him loving sinners, forgiving sins, healing broken hearts and wounded souls, spoke out about the hypocracy of the religious leaders, he reached out to the poor … and the poor and outcast and marginalized flocked to Him … He had a special love for the poor, they came to know Christ in a very personal way … came to KNOW Him … and most of all … came to LOVE Him … and then saw Him crucified on a cross … and 3 days later were eye witnesses of seeing Him again in Person … alive again … with the wounds of His crucifixtion still visible in His body … His feet, hands … I truly do BELIEVE the Testimony of these Apostles … and that the Testimorny the give Witness to is the Testimorny of Actual Observance of the Risen Christ after His death … and not only do I believe the Resurrection is a Historical Event witnessed by others … I have experienced Jesus Christ alive in my own life … and how His Love and Grace have changed my life … I know He is alive and risen from the dead because of my own Personal Experience … which is my own Witness and Testimony … that I in turn am able to hand on to others 🙂

I stand on the Rock of the Resurrected Christ … that He is Alive and Risen from the dead … that is a TRUTH that can never change … the reason it will never change is because … IT REALLY IS TRUE !!! LOL
 
jkiernan56 said:
Dameedna, the Empiricle evidence that you speak of was a Historic Event that happened almost 2000 years ago and was Evidenced by those who lived with Christ on a daily basis … the Apostles … they Witnessed the Resurrection of Christ … saw Him after He rose from the dead …
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Empirical evidence does not include claims made by humans long ago. If it was, then we would consider the Pharoahs of Egypt to be actual Gods by your version of proof alone. Because they claimed it was so. Many witnessed their God like powers and they also claimed they were Gods.

Empirical, means physical evidence that can be shown through repeated experiments, therefore verifying that it is a real phenomenon and not one that is believed or imagined.

Proof, requires empirical evidence. For that word to hold any meaning it can only be used in one way. Proof, is something that can be verified by something outside of human thought and belief alone.

If you want to use it in another way, ie not through empirical evidence, then any person who wants to claim they have a cure for cancer can do so, on the witness of another. Even if their cure includes a chicken leg and a vial of blood. Be thankful, that certain humans…require empirical evidence…before they call it proof and hence sell you their results.

You may not like their unbelieving ways, but they have and will continue to save your life. They have given up, an unverifiable(and hence unprovable) concept including a hope of an eternal life to deliver to you physical means and proof required to save you. Athiests give up more than you can ever imagine, for the sake of truth and love.

Cheers
 
Dameedna said:
Empirical evidence does not include claims made by humans long ago. If it was, then we would consider the Pharoahs of Egypt to be actual Gods by your version of empirical evidence alone. Many witnessed their God like powers and they claimed they were Gods.

Empirical, means physical evidence that can be shown through repeated experiments, therefore verifying that it is a real phenomenon and not one that is believed or imagined.

Proof, requires empirical evidence, therefore the word to hold any meaning can only be used in one way.

Cheers
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Would you say that the Apostles at the time of Jesus … if they truly DID see and witness Christ after His Resurrection … .that for them … the act of seeing Christ … was EMPIRICAL evidence FOR THE APOSTLES? For instance, just suppose I was born and lived in the time of Jesus … and I FIRSTHAND saw and witnessed Christ being alive after His crucifixion … wouldn’t you at least say … in that situation it was EMPIRICAL evidence for ME … if I actually saw Christ FIRSTHAND? Like in a court, heresy is not allowed. In this case, if I told someone that I saw Christ alive, it would not be hersy … it would be firsthand experience.
 
jkiernan56 said:
Would you say that the Apostles at the time of Jesus … if they truly DID see and witness Christ after His Resurrection … .that for them … the act of seeing Christ … was EMPIRICAL evidence FOR THE APOSTLES?
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No it would not. Empirical evidence is not something you simply see 1 time nor something an individual claims they saw, 2000 years ago. If that was the case, then we would all worship the sun as a God.

It’s actually a ball of Gas which is why we do not worship it.

Proof is decided as a result of something you observe, over and over again through a very controlled environment where the conditions do not vary within that environment. When there is sufficient observation(witnessing) of this event , which will occur many many times under the same conditions, we consider it proof.

A 2000 year old book, that say’s “People saw THIS”…means absolute nothing to the individual who is interested in proof. Proof…has nothing to do with what peole claimed they saw, many, many years ago. 🙂 It has only to do with what we can verify today.

Cheers
 
God exists and is perfect in every way, he created us be loved by him, to love him and to be with him forever, he will give us the grace to be saved but will not force himself on us.

Or just go with “God is Love”.
 
Dameedna said:
No it would not. Empirical evidence is not something you simply see 1 time nor something an individual claims they saw, 2000 years ago. If that was the case, then we would all worship the sun as a God.

It’s actually a ball of Gas which is why we do not worship it.

Proof is decided as a result of something you observe, over and over again through a very controlled environment where the conditions do not vary within that environment. When there is sufficient observation(witnessing) of this event , which will occur many many times under the same conditions, we consider it proof.

A 2000 year old book, that say’s “People saw THIS”…means absolute nothing to the individual who is interested in proof. Proof…has nothing to do with what peole claimed they saw, many, many years ago. 🙂 It has only to do with what we can verify today.

Cheers
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I don’t think you understand the meaning of Empirical evidence then. … here is a definition for you … and I will show you why seeing someone directly in front of you is Empirical evidence according to the definition:

“The word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment[1], as opposed to theoretical. A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses. It is usually differentiated from the philosophic usage of empiricism by the use of the adjective “empirical” or the adverb “empirically.” “Empirical” as an adjective or adverb is used in conjunction with both the natural and social sciences, and refers to the use of working hypotheses that are testable using observation or experiment. In this sense of the word, scientific statements are subject to and derived from our experiences or observations. Empirical data are data that are produced by experiment or observation.”

Now if you will OBSERVE please - in the definition of Empirical, experiment is only ONE way of gathering Empirical information. In the definition you will also see that it applies to information gained by OBSERVATION and EXPERIENCE. So if there was someone standing right next to me as I wrote these words, and I could see them visually right next to me right now, and I reached out and touched them, that OBSERVATION and EXPERIENCE would be Empirical information.

The Apostles had EMPIRICAL evidence of the Resurrection of Christ.

I wonder how you are going to try to squirm out of this one … are you going to do a Bill Clinton on me and start asking me what is the meaning of the word “IS”???
 
jkiernan56 said:
I don’t think you understand the meaning of Empirical evidence then. … here is a definition for you … and I will show you why seeing someone directly in front of you is Empirical evidence according to the definition:

"The word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment[1], as opposed to theoretical.
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Have you seen Jesus get up and walk around after he died? And not only did you see it, but are you able to replicate it with the same conditions and observations over and over again?

Or did you “read a book” that made a claim that humans witnessed an event.

I know what empirical evidence is. If some-one tells me eating a pig foot cured cancer, and that THEY SAW this, I wouldn’t believe it anymore than I believe a 2000 year old book that claims a human incarnated as a god and got up and walked around.

Unless it could be verified. A book, cannot verify itself.

IE…I do not believe everything I am told 🙂
 
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