Since man became rational, he began to look for answers to questions about who created everything, about the meaning of his life, and whether he is alone in the universe. Finding no answer, the people of antiquity came up with gods, each of whom knew his own part of life. Someone was responsible for the creation of the Earth and Sky, someone obeyed the sea, someone was the main in the underworld.
With the knowledge of the surrounding world of the gods, it became more and more, but people still could not find an answer to the question about the meaning of life. Therefore, many old gods were replaced by one God the Father.
Concept of god
Before Christianity appeared, people lived for several thousand years with faith in the Creator, who created everything that surrounds them. This was not a single god, since the consciousness of people of antiquity could not accept that all things are the work of one creator. Therefore, in every civilization, regardless of when and on which continent it originated, there was God the Father, who had assistants - his children and grandchildren.
In those days, it was customary to humanize the gods, "rewarding" them with traits characteristic of people. So it was easier to explain the natural phenomena and events that took place in the world. A significant difference and a clear advantage of the ancient pagan faith was that God manifests himself in the surrounding nature, in connection with which she was worshiped. At that time, man considered himself one of the many creations created by the gods. In many religions, there was the principle of appropriating the earthly hypostases of the gods as animals or birds.
For example, in Ancient Egypt, Anubis was portrayed as a man with the head of a jackal, and Ra - with the head of a falcon. In India, the gods were given images of animals living in this country, for example, Ganesha was depicted as an elephant. All religions of antiquity were characterized by one feature: regardless of the number of gods and the difference in their names, they were created by the Creator, standing above all, which is the beginning of everything and has no end.
The concept of one God
The fact that there is one God the Father was known long before the birth of Christ. For example, in the Indian Upanishads, created 1500 years BC. e., it is said that in the beginning there was nothing but the Great Brahman.
Among the Yoruba people living in West Africa, the creation myth says that at first everything was water Chaos, which Olorun turned into Earth and Heaven, and on the 5th day he created people by fashioning them from the earth.
If we turn to the sources of all ancient cultures, then in each of them there is an image of God the Father, who created everything that exists together with man. So in this concept, Christianity would not give anything to the new world, if it were not for one significant difference - God is one, and there are no other gods besides him.
To consolidate this knowledge in the minds of people who professed faith in many gods from generation to generation was difficult, which is probably why the Creator has three parts in Christianity: God the Father, God the Son (his Word), and Spirit (the power of His Mouth )
“The Father is the primary cause of everything that exists” and “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were created, and by the Spirit of His mouth is all their strength” (Ps. 32: 6), as the Christian religion states.
Religion
Religion is a form of thinking based on belief in the supernatural, having a set of rules that determine the norm of human behavior and its rituals that help to understand the world.
Regardless of the historical period and its inherent religion, there are organizations uniting people of the same faith. In ancient times, these were temples with priests, in our time - churches with priests.
Religion implies the presence of a subjective-personal perception of the world, that is, a personal faith and an objectively common one, uniting people of the same faith in a denomination. Christianity is a religion consisting of three faiths: Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism.
God the Father in Christianity, regardless of confession, is the only creator of all things, Light and Love, who created people in his own image. The Christian religion reveals to believers the knowledge of God alone, recorded in holy texts. Each denomination is represented by its clergy, and the unifying organizations are churches and temples.
History of Christianity before Christ
The history of this religion is closely connected with the Jewish people, the founder of which is the chosen one of God - Abraham. The choice fell precisely on this Aramaic man for a reason, since he independently came to the knowledge that the idols worshiped by his entourage had nothing to do with holiness.
Through reflection and observation, Abraham realized that there is a true and only God the Father who created everything both on earth and in heaven. He found like-minded people who left him from Babylon and became the chosen people, called Israel. Thus, an eternal contract was concluded between the Creator and people, the violation of which entailed punishment for Jews in the form of persecution and wanderings.
Belief in one God by the 1st century AD was an exception, since most of the peoples of that time were pagans. The Jewish holy books on the creation of the world spoke of the Word, with the help of which the Creator created everything, and that the Messiah would come and save the chosen people from persecution.
History of Christianity with the advent of the Messiah
The origin of Christianity occurred in the 1st century BC. e. in Palestine, which was then ruled by the Romans. Another connection with the people of Israel is the upbringing that Jesus Christ received in childhood. He lived according to the laws of the Torah and observed all Jewish holidays.
According to Christian scriptures, Jesus is the embodiment of the Word of the Lord in a human body. He was conceived immaculately in order to enter the world of people without sin, and after that God the Father appeared through him. Jesus Christ was called the consubstantial son of God, who came to atone for human sins.
The most important dogma of the Christian church is the posthumous resurrection of Christ and his subsequent ascension to heaven.
This was predicted by many Jewish prophets centuries before the birth of the Messiah. The resurrection of Jesus after death is a confirmation of the promise of eternal life and incorruptibility of the human soul that God the Father gave to people. In Christianity, his son has many names in holy texts:
- Alpha and Omega - means that he was the beginning of everything and is its end.
- The Light of the world means that it is the same Light that emanates from its Father.
- Resurrection and life, which should be understood as salvation and eternal life for those who profess the true faith.
Many names were given to Jesus by both the prophets and his disciples and the people around him. All of them corresponded either to his deeds, or to the mission for which he ended up in the human body.
The development of Christianity after the execution of the Messiah
After Jesus was crucified, his disciples and followers began to spread the doctrine of him at first in Palestine, but as the number of believers increased, they went far beyond its borders.
The very concept of "Christian" began to be applied 20 years after the death of the Messiah and came from the inhabitants of Antioch, who were so called followers of Christ. The apostle Paul played a major role in disseminating the teachings of Jesus . It was his sermons that led many adherents to the new faith from pagan peoples.
If before the V century BC. e. the deeds and teachings of the apostles and their disciples spread throughout the borders of the Roman Empire, then they went further - to Germanic, Slavic and other peoples.
Prayer
Appeal to the gods is a ritual characteristic of believers at all times and regardless of religion.
One of the significant acts of Christ during his life was that he taught people how to pray correctly, and revealed the secret that the Creator is triune and represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - the essence of God alone and indivisible. Due to the limited consciousness, people, although they speak of the one God, still divide him into 3 separate personalities, which is what their prayers say. There are those who are turned only to God the Father, there are God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Praying to God the Father “Our Father” sounds like a request directed directly to the Creator. By this, people seemed to highlight its primordiality and significance in the Trinity. However, even manifesting in three persons, God is one, and this must be recognized and accepted.
Orthodoxy is the only Christian denomination that has kept the faith and teaching of Christ unchanged. This also applies to the appeal to the Creator. A prayer to the Lord God the Father in Orthodoxy speaks of the Trinity as its sole hypostasis: "I confess to the Lord my God and Creator, in the Holy Trinity the One, glorified and worshiped of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all my sins ...".
Holy Spirit
In the Old Testament, the concept of the Holy Spirit is not common, but the attitude towards it is completely different. In Judaism, he is considered the "breath" of God, and in Christianity - one of his indivisible three hypostases. Thanks to him, the Creator created everything and communicates with people.
The concept of the nature and origin of the Holy Spirit was considered and adopted at one of the councils in the 4th century, but long before that, Clement of Rome (1st century) united all 3 forms in a single whole: “God lives, and Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit , faith and hope of the elect. ” So God the Father in Christianity officially gained trinity.
It is through him that the Creator acts in man and in the Temple, and in the days of creation he actively participated in them, helping to create worlds visible and invisible: “First, God created heaven and earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. ”
Names of God
As paganism was replaced by a religion glorifying the one God, people became interested in the name of the Creator in order to be able to appeal to him in prayer.
Based on the information indicated in the Bible, God personally named his name to Moses, who wrote it in Hebrew. Due to the fact that this language subsequently became dead, and only consonants were written in the names, it is not known exactly how the name of the Creator is pronounced.
The four consonants YHVH denote the name of God the Father and are the verb form ha-wah meaning "to become." In different Bible translations, different vowels are substituted for these consonants, which gives completely different meanings.
In some sources he is referred to as the Almighty, in others - Yahweh, in the third - the Sabaoth, and in the fourth - Jehovah. All names denote the Creator who created all the worlds, but at the same time they have different meanings. For example, Sabaoth means “Lord of the Hosts”, although he is not a god of war.
There is still debate about the name of Heavenly Father, but most theologians and linguists are inclined to believe that the correct pronunciation sounds like Yahweh.
Yahweh
This name literally means "Lord" as well as "to be." In some sources, Yahweh is associated with the concept of "God Almighty."
In Christianity, they use either this name or replace it with the word "Lord."
God in Christianity today
Christ and God the Father, as well as the Holy Spirit in the modern Christian religion, are the basis of the trinity of the indivisible Creator. Adherents of this faith are more than 2 billion people, which makes it the most widespread in the world.