CHRIST, CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE
Not that these terms have been mistakenly interchangeably used, it must be clearly understood that they are three different theological, religious and social terms. You can read all the dictionaries, commentaries, concordances and posting on the internet, and each one of them will try to explain, in almost related manner.
I am not here to exhaustively define and explore for you the terms, but pray that the Lord will give me the grace to do so. I must say, I have been doing a little reading and research on these topics, and whatever definition I will give, should be taken and referenced from different sources, and I can’t be held reliable for that!
Let’s start by first examining CHRIST:
According to Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, the term Christ means the anointed one- a name for Jesus which showed that He was the long-awaited king and deliverer. For centuries the Jewish people had looked for a prophesied Messiah, a deliverer who would usher in a kingdom of peace and prosperity (Ps 110; Isa 32:1-8; Amos 9:13). Jesus was clearly identified as this Messiah in Peter's great confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt 16:16).
Just as Nelson’ s dictionary has put it, it is a term exclusively reserved to Jesus CHRIST, the one anointed.
However, Jesus made an interesting point: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.(Mark 13:22,KJV).This means that actually there are others who claim to be Christs and thus Jesus refers to them as false Christs!
CHRISTIANITY on the other hand is the Christian religion, based on Jesus Christ, the only Savior and Mediator between God the Father and sinful man. Christianity is unique among all the religions of the world. Most of them emphasize the life of the founder, but Christianity is based on the death of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus is unique for it was prophesied in the opening pages of the Bible (Gen 3:15) and came to pass in the New Testament age thousands of years later.
Christianity has what we call denominations, e.g. Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Pentecostal. Often times, people confuse Christianity with Religion. The examples of Religion include, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism etc. Mathematically, Christianity is a subset of Religion.
AND the Mystery term, CULTURE, I must admit Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate") is difficult to define. According to Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn there is a compiled list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: However, the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:
- excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities
- an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
- the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.
In the nineteenth century, it came to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-nineteenth century, some scientists used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity.
POSTED BY JAKECH ROBERT a.k.a the Big Bob!
WATCH OUT FOR SERIES 2: HOW WE CAN INTEGRATE THE CONCEPT OF CHRIST, CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE!