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http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_Become_a_ Christian" title="http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_Become_a_ Christian" target="_blank"http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/...
The term "Christian" is a name given to those that follow after Jesus Christ, the first disciples of Jesus Christ in the first century being first ''called'' Christians at Antioch, as accounted in the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 11, Verse 26, and remains a wholely worldly title, being called friend by the Son of God Jesus Christ and children by the Father. Someone who receives and believes in the name of Jesus Christ is both a follower and disciple of Him.
== To follow Christ: ==
1. Believe in Jesus Christ's sacrifice and have one's sins forgiven. After this crucial step, and at the moment believing begins, the Holy Spirit is sent for the regeneration and renewal of their spirit to be quickened, as a member of the body of Christ and a citizen of the kingdom of God. This includes trusting in God, and believing that you do indeed have eternal life through Christ Jesus' sacrifice, as He promised, and are under the new testament that He instituted with His disciples, one of being freed from the bondage of slavery to the world under Him just like the model of being freed from slavery to Egypt under Moses. All sins, by Christ's sacrifice, will be '''expunged and erased''' from where they're written in heaven, as Christ promised, forgiving by God's great compassion and love which is the freely given gift of grace.
2. Follow and live by what Jesus Christ taught. This is critical to following after Jesus Christ and a much passed-by step, because Christ Himself said, "He that hath my [[commandments]] and keeps them, it is he who loves me and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him." John Chapter 14, Verse 21. He takes care of those who love Him and those who love Him do what He taught them to do.
Whoever does these things is born a second time, by the Holy Spirit rather than by the water of the embryonic sack under the first birth, the natural birth, and is born into the collective body of Jesus Christ. It is the 'being born from above' mentioned in the [[Gospel of John]], Chapter 3. Salvation in Jesus Christ was brought about by God's great love, dispensed in the form of Christ's grace in dying for those He loves, and is given freely to anyone that should repent and believe. The natural-born person, under the first birth, cannot receive the things of God, according to what's written in First Corinthians Chapter 2, Verse 14. And the second birth is spiritual and until the second birth, one can only attain a carnal understanding of what Christ taught.
== Jesus's Good News ==
What He taught is mentioned in the [[Gospels]]. Gospel means ''good news,'' and contains what the first disciples wrote by the Holy Spirit as their account of when Christ walked and taught among them, the House of Israel, and opened up salvation from the world to anyone that would believe on Him, under a second birth. His commandments are renewals of the 10 written in stone, summarizing the first 5 under His commandment - Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, body, and spirit - and the second 5 under His commandment - Love your neighbour as I have loved you. He gives detail in His teachings and expounds on things such as who your "neighbour" is in the Gospels, questions that burned in the disciple's hearts to ask. The second half is contained in the Epistles of the disciples that put into practice what He taught them, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and the first disciples taught out of the Torah, or Old Testament, not having had written yet the New Testament, which contains consealed what the new testament now reveals. Since Christ's life was written down in prophecy some 700 years before His first coming, they worked to convince the hearts of the house of Israel first that the coming King and Son of God had indeed come. The written Word contains the works and authorships of the Holy Spirit under the several accounts of those that the Lord chose as witnesses. And today, is taught around the world, which is also in the prophecy of the written scriptures.
He is the Living Word. And what He taught can be found in the written Word, but those that follow Him get to know Him and know what He taught intimately by the works of the Holy Spirit, bringing to life everything Jesus Christ taught for those that follow and believe in Him. One that accepts Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit residing upon them and within them.
One who receives the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ has eternal life without end, a place in and citizenship of God's holy kingdom prepared by Jesus Christ, a crown of victory awaiting them, a place of judgement over the angels, a high calling of the hope of glory, and so many reserved treatments, authorities, and promises that are detailed in the Gospels and across Revelations. For example, a white robe made of light will be given according to righteous acts. What's almost important mention is that disciples gain salvation from the world and the evil contained within, uncertainty of life (eternal life), and a greater hope.
Jesus Christ knew, before and on the cross of His crucifixion and sacrifice, everyone that would accept Him personally, and the sins He would bear and forgive, as mentioned in John Chapter 10, Verses 7 to 26, and John Chapter 4.
== Sonship ==
The Lord God, simply calls those that accept the Son 'children,' having a reserved name for each one that is called to accept Christ, as in Revelations Chapter 2, Verse 17. Receiving Jesus Christ, one is adopted into the sonship that the sacrifice Jesus Christ made in crucifixion allowed for, an adoption into the Kingdom of God, creating a way for the Lord God to love us as He loves Jesus Christ, which is why those that follow Christ call Him Father. Therefore, anything that one asks in Christ's name, believing in Him and doing what He says, the following scripture upholds as true:
"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." John Chapter 14, Verse 13.
== Citizenship and reserved inheritance ==
Jesus Christ taught and preached the Kingdom of Heaven. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are different:
The kingdom of God consists of God's great love and grace, by which we are saved. It includes Jesus Christ's words, He being the Living Word. It includes the sonship of the Holy Spirit's regeneration and renewal. Entering into the kingdom of God is done only by Jesus Christ, who abides in the Father's house forever, and so it is permanent.
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 24, Verse 35. Heaven and earth may pass, but discipleship with Christ makes one a forever-standing pillar in God's kingdom never to die off. The kingdom of God can never be done away with, ensuring eternal life.
The kingdom of heaven is the physical kingdom of God, the house and land promised to Abraham in the Book of Genesis. By accepting Christ, one has permanent access to the eternal resting place and bliss it is promised to be. Jesus Christ taught the kingdom of heaven, and though indescribable, made several comparisons to it in Matthew Chapter 13. Once learned, one has the foundation to understand all of scripture through these parables.
For example, the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl inside a clam's mouth. When the clam gets a fleck of dirt in its mouth, it begins a process of rolling the dirt into what we call a pearl over a long period of time in order to get rid of it. So what was once something despised (Christians) becomes a fine object of adornment.
One is only given access to the inheritance reserved in the kingdom of heaven by Jesus Christ, being a member of the kingdom of God. Prayers and righteous acts are stored in heaven. God's throne sits in heaven. The Father sits in heaven, being worshipped and praised by an inumerable number of angels.
Being a disciple one is entitled to the inheritance reserved for Jesus Christ, who freely shares it, mentioned in First Epistle of Peter Chapter 1, Verse 4, and John Chapter 14, Verse 2.
Jesus Christ will return a second time to judge and end the world, as mentioned in Revelations and the entirety of written scripture. There is more written about His second coming than His first. The Holy Spirit is hard at work fulfilling the scripture "...Not willing that any should, perish but that all should come to repentance..." in Second Peter Chapter 3, Verse 9, until that day.
--[[User:24.96.122.170|24.96.122.170]] 12:09, 19 August 2005 (UTC) Isaac D., http://isaac.tblog.com/, charnon3000@yahoo.com
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