Richard Wagner is publisher of [...], a Web-based Christian discipleship magazine. He has more than a decade's broad experience in church leadership and teaching roles.

Foreword: xxiii

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

What You're Not to Read 4

Foolish Assumptions 4

How This Book Is Organized 4

Part I: Uncovering What Christianity's All About 5

Part II: Exploring the Basic Principles of the Christian Faith 5

Part III: Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple: Peeking into the Christian Church 5

Part IV: Christian Living in a Postmodern World 5

Part V: The Part of Tens 6

Icons Used in This Book 6

Where to Go from Here 7

Part I: Uncovering What Christianity's All About 9

Chapter 1: Good News in a Bad News World 11

Packing Christianity into a Nutshell 12

Going back to the beginning: People choosing, God responding 12

Understanding how Christians define their faith 13

Being forewarned of stereotypes: What Christianity is not 16

Making Sense of Christian Paradoxes 20

Understanding How the Branches of the Church Came About 21

Putting It into Perspective: Christianity in the World Today 22

Focusing on facts about the faith 22

Relating Christianity to other world faiths 23

Chapter 2: Christianity: But Is It True? 27

Defending the Faith Through Apologetics 28

Exploring Whether God Exists 28

The world appears to be intelligently designed 28

People (most, anyway) can think and reason 29

People instinctively sense right and wrong 30

Demonstrating Christianity as a Livable Faith 31

Retracing Christianity as a Historical Faith 33

Examining artifacts 33

Documenting history in the Bible 34

Chapter 3: That Amazing Stuff Called Grace 41

Defining Grace 42

Grace is a costly gift 42

Grace is undeserved 43

Grace is an unexpected surprise 45

Grace in a nutshell 46

Receiving God's Gift of Grace: Salvation 47

Principle #1: God loves 48

Principle #2: People sin 48

Principle #3: God responds 50

Principle #4: People must choose 51

Understanding Salvation by Faith 52

Being "Born Again" 54

Dealing with Hopeless Cases 55

Last gasps for a thief 56

Within a stone's throw of judgment 56

The original "wretch like me" 56

Part II: Exploring the Basic Principles of the Christian Faith 59

Chapter 4: Sin: Why "Do's and Don'ts" Miss the Bigger Picture 61

Desiring to Be Different: The Original Ego Trip 61

Revisiting the Fall 62

Considering how the Fall changed everything 63

Grappling with the Definition of Sin 65

Categorizing two types of sin 65

Weighing different sins 67

Misunderstanding sin 67

Empathizing with God's View of Sin 69

Tying in Humans' Relation to the Fall 70

Warring with Satan (And Knowing Who You're Fighting Against) 71

Experiencing Temptation 74

Recognizing temptation 74

Responding to tempting situations 76

Sinning After You're "Saved" 77

Chapter 5: Jesus Christ: His Life, Ministry, and Radical Claims 79

In Brief: Introducing Jesus 79

Accounting for the early years 80

Stepping into the spotlight 82

Fulfilling his purpose 82

Looking at How Jesus Lived 83

Jesus pointed people toward himself 84

Jesus healed and cared for the down and out 85

Jesus taught his followers how to live 85

Jesus provided the ultimate example of how to live 87

Jesus changed the perspective of one's relationship to God 88

Jesus prepared his disciples to be leaders of his Church 89

Jesus voluntarily died on the cross 90

Considering Who Jesus Claimed to Be 90

Saving People: God's Game Plan from the Get-Go 92

Seeing sacrifices as prototypes of the real deal 93

Uncovering others' prophecies about the Messiah 93

Considering Jesus' prophecies for his own life and death 95

Questioning Why Jesus Was Crucified 96

Expecting the Messiah to be different 96

Feeling threatened by Jesus 97

Manipulating authority to get rid of the troublemaker 98

Peering into an Empty Tomb: Revisiting the Resurrection 99

Reviewing biblical facts 100

Explaining it away 101

Coming to a Conclusion: Was Jesus a Good Teacher or the Son of God? 103

Chapter 6: Peeking Inside God's Diary: The Bible 105

Retracing the Bible's Formation 106

Stage 1: Hebrews first recognized writings as sacred 108

Stage 2: Jesus and the early Church treated Old Testament writings as scripture 109

Stage 3: Jesus indicated that more scripture would come 110

Stage 4: New Testament writers recognized their writings as inspired by God 111

Stage 5: Early Church recognized New Testament writings as scripture 111

Stage 6: The Church closed the book 113

To Be or Not to Be: The Apocrypha 114

Reasons for including the Apocrypha 115

Reasons against including the Apocrypha 116

Reading the Bible Appropriately 116

Believing the Bible is inspired 117

Dealing with inconsistencies 118

Confronting contextual issues 119

Finding No Expiration Date for the Bible 121

Chapter 7: The Trinity: How 1+1+1 Equals 1 123

Introducing the Trinity 124

Considering God as a Whole 125

Qualities of God that'll make your head spin 125

Qualities of God that humans resemble 126

Qualities of God that express his personal nature 128

Examining the Three Parts of God Individually 129

God the Father 129

God the Son 130

God the Holy Spirit 131

Understanding the Significance of the Trinity 131

The Trinity made Jesus' sacrifice worthwhile 132

The Trinity justifies worshiping Jesus 133

Digging Up the Biblical Foundation of the Trinity 133

Picking up on hints in the Old Testament 134

Putting the pieces together in the New Testament 136

Chapter 8: The Rite Stuff: Sacraments, Ordinances, and the Christian Faith 139

Understanding the Role of Sacraments and Ordinances 140

Grasping four keys to understanding the sacraments 141

Viewing sacraments through different lenses 142

Baptizing Christians into the Faith 146

Considering the nature of baptism 147

Exploring the relationship between baptism and salvation 148

Deciding who should be baptized 149

Add one part water (But how?): Choosing a method of baptism 151

Exploring the Lord's Supper 153

Deciphering Jesus' explanation of the elements 154

Timing the observance of Communion 155

Being earnest regarding the Eucharist 156

Maintaining a Christlike Balance 156

Chapter 9: Heading for Home: The End Game 159

Enjoying Heaven for Eternity 159

Exploring seven ideas about a place called heaven 160

Speculating on heavenly bods 162

Being Purged of Sin in Purgatory 166

Catholics: Purgatory is part of God's plan 166

Protestants and Orthodox Christians: Purgatory is a Colorado destination 167

Going to Hell: Considering the Underworld 168

Eternal suffering 169

Extinction of the unsaved 170

Awaiting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ 171

Enduring Tribulation 172

Being taken up in the Rapture 172

Celebrating Jesus' triumphant return 173

Resurrecting the dead 173

Enjoying the Millennium: Peace on earth 174

Facing final judgment 175

Frolicking around the new heaven and new earth 175

Part III: Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple: Peeking into the Christian Church 177

Chapter 10: Tradition, Tradition: The Catholic and Orthodox Churches 179

Transferring from a Nation to a Church 179

Following the deaths of the apostles: The apostolic Church 180

Expanding and governing as a single Christian Church 182

The Great Separation: Western and Eastern Churches go their own ways 184

Viewing the split today 187

The Catholic Church: From Rome to a Parish Near You 188

Understanding what it means to be Catholic 188

Examining the Catholic Church structure 196

The Orthodox Church: Restoring the Image of God in People 197

Understanding what it means to be Orthodox 197

Examining the Orthodox Church structure 202

Chapter 11: Back to the Basics: The Protestant Church 203

Exploring the Protestant Reformation 204

Urging the Church to reform 204

From reformation to separation 206

Examining Core Protestant Beliefs 210

Yielding to the Bible as the one and only authority 210

Seeing Christ as the one and only mediator 211

Being saved by grace alone and faith alone 211

Giving kudos to God alone 212

Considering all Christians as equal in God's eyes 212

Answering the core questions 213

Breaking It Down into Denominations 213

Looking at More Protestant Labels 217

Confronting the Challenge of Modernism 219

Looking to the Future: Trends in Contemporary Protestantism 220

Chapter 12: Making Sense of Worship 223

I Worship, You Worship, We All Worship: Defining the Christian Tradition 224

Examining the Worship Service as a Whole 226

Worshiping together: Why Christians believe it's essential 227

Deciding when to worship 228

Exploring Ways to Worship: Liturgical Versus Free Worship 229

Taking the high road with liturgy 230

Worshiping freely along the low road 231

Incorporating Music: A Call to Musical Arms 232

Leaving out the band 233

Tooting a few horns 233