SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, everyone. I'm Dan.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

And I'm Julia, and welcome to the Four Friends Podcast. This is episode two. And so if you haven't seen episode one, go back and watch that. It's where we introduce our podcast, what we're doing, and ourselves. You can get to know us a little bit, hear some of our story. You'll hear a little bit more as we go through this episode because we do talk about our own personal experiences on here. We're not claiming to be experts in everything. We did not go to seminary. We are not pastors. We're just two people who love the Lord, love each other, and love spreading the word of God. And so that's what we are always aiming to do through this podcast. So take that. But today, our big question is what does it mean to be a Christian? Ooh, that's a big one. I guess, in short, the very short, sweet, wrap it with a blow answer is that if you're a Christian, you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

All right, well, that's it. I think we we covered all bases. That is the end of the episode. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. See you. No. Of course not. There's a lot of layers to that. What it does it mean to be a Christian? There's so much to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

At the end of the day, it does wrap up just to you're a follower of Jesus Christ. But there are so many different, like Dan said, there's so many different layers, so many different things. So we're gonna break that down into like smaller questions. Starting off with what is Christianity? Then we're gonna go into what is a Christian, and then finally come back to the main question of what does it mean to be a Christian. Um, and then in our next episode, we'll talk about what it takes to become a Christian or how do you become a Christian. So come back next week for that one if you get to the end of this episode and you're like, wait, that sounds like it's for me. And spoiler alert, it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

So I mean, Christianity, um, it it comes from Judaism. Uh fun fact. I mean, Jesus was born a Jew. The people that he was talking to, um, all the followers around um Jerusalem and Nazareth, and they were all Jewish people. I mean, some of them weren't even Jewish people, the the but majority of the people were Jews.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Yeah, Jesus was Jewish, as Dan said. Um, throughout all the Old Testament, right, the Jewish people were the Israelites, they were God's chosen people, and he had been prophesying through all the different scripture that he was going to send a Messiah. Even back in the Garden of Eden, when there was it was a creation, and Adam and Eve ate the apple, brought sin into the world. Jesus, I mean, God promised that he would send Jesus even way back.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Right, right. There would be um, you know, the snake would bite the heel and um the person like someone would stomp on the snake, the head of the snake, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

And that's talking about Jesus. So all throughout the Old Testament, they had been pointing to this Messiah that was going to come for the Jewish people. Um, and that was Jesus. Jesus came down from heaven, he was born um of the Virgin Mary, and he was fully God, and he was fully man, and he lived life just like us, but he was Jewish. He went to the temple, he did the different prayers, he memorized the Torah, which is the first five books of the Old Testament, and so he was Jewish, and he said several times, like he came to be the Jewish Messiah. Unfortunately, something that got a little confused or misinterpreted was that a lot of the people thought that meant that he was gonna be a political leader.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Oh, right. They thought he was going to be like this, he's going to like do all the heavy work and and stomp out like all the bad people get rid of Rome. Yeah. And no, he's like, no, I'm I'm here to serve. I'm I'm here to help everyone, and I'm not, you know, guns blazing, gonna stomp everyone and then take viol action and violence. Like, no. And um That confused a lot of people. Yeah, that confused a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Like he Jesus came and he served, he healed people, he was shunned by the religious leaders, which is like if you're thinking that he is a religious leader, he was being shunned by the religious leaders, he was calling them out on their hypocrisy, he was like, This is what the Bible says, but you're doing something entirely different. They kept trying to catch him in traps, but he kept not falling for it, obviously. And so he ended up um being killed on a cross, and he was raised to life. He came back from the dead. Um, and that's what if you're a Christian, that's what the main belief is, and we'll talk more about that in a minute.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Um, but the people of um who follow Jesus um were called, weren't even called Christians originally.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Yeah, originally, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Like they were called um the followers of the way, which is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

That's that's why were they called followers of the way?

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Well, because back then um Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Yeah, no, and that lives on till today. Like you can't get to the Father, like you gotta go through Jesus first.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah, and that was taken from John 14, verse 6. Um, and because Jesus said, I am the way, um, well, the way, the truth, and the life, um, they call themselves followers of the way because Jesus is the way, and they're trying to get to God, and so they were following Jesus. So they started off as a section of Judaism, and from there it kind of morphed into its own religion because a lot of the Jewish leaders obvious rejected Jesus, they didn't want that, and so it broke away and formed its own brand new religion called Christianity, um, which is taken from Jesus Christ, followers of Christ.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

And even then it branches off even further. You have the three big branches that are like you see today, which is Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah, and so with Catholicism, one of the things, like their main thing is that their source of authority over the church comes from the Pope. And Peter, one of the Jesus' disciples, was actually the first pope. If you look at Catholic tradition, um, or Roman Catholic, which is like their official term, um, their first pope was Peter.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Peter, aka the rock, because that's what his name means.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yes, Peter means the rock, and that's because his original name was Simon, and Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter, because Peter was the first one. Jesus asked, um, and you can read it about this in Matthew, Jesus asked his followers, Who do you say I am? First, he asked who the people said that he was. And they're like, Oh, they think you're a prophet, like maybe you're um like Elijah, come back from the dead, maybe, I don't know, whatever. And so then Jesus asked them, Who do you say that I am? And Peter answers, Well, you're the Messiah. And so then Jesus says to him, he blesses him, and he says, Well, Simon, your name is now going to be Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. And so he built the church on Peter, and you'll learn, like if you read Acts and what happens then in the early church, you see that a lot, and we'll talk about that in in later episodes. But Peter really did start the Christian faith, and so that's why the Catholics. Yeah, right. Yeah, um, he gets a lot of crap, I would say, because I feel like a lot of times we'll talk about him. He was the disciple that wasn't like sitting quietly, wasn't nicely. He would like, you know, ask him. He rebuked Jesus a couple times, and Jesus was like, Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. But like Jesus said he was gonna die, and he's like, I will never let that happen. And Jesus is like, get behind me, Satan. And it's like, I I like to say, I mean, we're from New Jersey, I would like to say that Peter was the Jersey disciple because he like said it, what he was feeling. And I I really appreciate Peter. Yeah, I feel like a lot of people look look at him like, oh, how could you be so rash? Don't you trust Jesus? Whatever. And it's like, yes, of course he trusted Jesus. But like a lot of the things that we know, or a lot of the things that are explained in the Bible, it literally will say, like, Peter didn't write one of the gospels, which is the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. He didn't write one of those.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

But a lot of times they'll cite, oh, and then Peter asked, So Peter did all the action, like he was he he was there, he was physically there, and everyone else was like in the sidelines, just recording it down.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

And he Peter was the disciple that Jesus talked to the most. It's like recorded like in there. He talked to Jesus the most, or Jesus talked to him the most and like answered a lot of his questions. I mean, he was the disciple that walked on water.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

That's right, yeah. In in the um the Sea of Galilee, yeah. You know, they find they're in the storm, all of the disciples. Jesus is not there. Um, but they see this figure in the water, they're like, oh my gosh, it's a ghost. No, spoiler alert, it's Jesus, and they're like, oh my gosh, Jesus is like, hey, go like f like follow me, like like walk on the water, and they're like, No, no, no, no, no, no. Peter is the only one that actually gets in the water, starts walking, but then gets scared. Obviously, I mean I'd be scared too. It's like roaring winds, and starts slipping a little bit. And I but he but he's the only one. He's the only one.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

And I feel like we look at him today and we're like, oh Peter, you had like because Jesus says, Oh, like you had such little faith, and that's why you started sinking. And I'm like, but he was the only one who got out of the boat. I mean, like some credits where credits do. Anyway, he was side tangent, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Big side tangent.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Um, but Peter was the first pope of the Catholic Church, and so that's where they they Catholics believe that the authority of the church comes from the Pope. So what the Pope says goes, yeah. The Pope is the one who will talk to God and then pass the message on to the fellow Catholics.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Right, and it's like through how he and other figures, you know, see like the scripture. Like scripture is is second in command. That's completely different from Protestant, which is like the opposite, where you know, the true authority of the church goes like goes to the scripture.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

And we'll talk about that in a second, but we'll talk about Orthodox first. Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

I was gonna talk about all of them. They're kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Here's the thing, like why I would say to talk about Orthodox first is because first it was first it was one group of Christians, right? The followers of the way. Then it broke off. Catholic and Orthodox separated from each other. So I'm like, Orthodox came before Protestant historically. So I was like, that's why we should talk about that. Okay. That's my inner history teacher coming out.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

So timeline, we have Catholics. We have the first Pope, Peter. This is after Jesus ascended into heaven, um, left. Um, and so now we're at Eastern Orthodox branches out. Yeah, because of the schism. The schism, the great schism is what happened.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Love that word.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

And yeah, it is a funny word.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Everyone ready? Schism.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

So the Orthodox, the great the great, oh my gosh, now I can't even speak. The Eastern Orthodox religion basically um instead of having the Pope, one person being in charge of everything, it's self-govern governed. So you have independent, um, small, as in like big nations, um, having their own independent, um governed like religions. Like they they they're all say, okay, we're all Eastern Orthodox, but you do your thing, I'm gonna do my thing, you do your thing. We all believe God is real, we all like follow, um, but we're gonna do things slightly differently.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

The authority is like separated, separated, yeah. Yeah, and everyone kind of runs independently, the different bishops and all that. But besides that, it's very similar similar to Catholicism. Yeah, like they have a lot of the same traditions, the same like beliefs, the same like doing with the Eucharist and all that stuff. It's basically the same except for the way that the authority is separated.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

And traditions, they they all have separate traditions, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

But that just probably came after, I would say. True. Like, I think that came after the separation because obviously, once you separate, you have your own like tradition.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

And hundreds of years, I mean things go by and you're like, okay, let's do this, let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yeah, but there's not an east Eastern Orthodox Pope.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

True. Like we like the Catholics have a lot of people, but it's more of like symbolic.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the Catholics have like a one person and the Orthodox have like the different groups that govern it. And then that brings us historically to Protestant.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Yes, Protestant. So basically, this is the opposite of Catholicism.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

I don't want to say opposite.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Okay, true. Okay. I don't wanna I don't I don't wanna yeah, it's not the opposite, they're all different and they're all cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

But it also is broken from Catholicism.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Yes, I will say Catholicism is the OG. All right, we wouldn't be any we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Catholicism. Absolutely. If it wasn't for Peter. Can I have a side tangent on that? It wasn't for Jesus, sure. What's up?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Like, okay, so with Catholicism, like none of us being here without that, like I love that thought because also, again, I was a history teacher, and this is like I'm geeking out a little bit here. Um, but throughout the Middle Ages, the Bible would have totally been lost.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Oh, why?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Except because no one could read or write. And so at that point it was like people were like passing down tradition or whatever, um, and people were would have forgotten about the Bible and like all that stuff, except for that there was um monks who would spend their entire life, their entire days just copying word for word down the Bible making extra pages. And because of that, we are able to have manuscripts of the Bible today. Otherwise, it would have gotten lost.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

And so, like you don't we don't hear anything about that.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Like that's like that's like a big shout out to Catholicism in that way.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Oh my gosh. Yeah. No, I love that. Totally sub heroes that we don't get to hear in history.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Like, there was no printing press up at that point, so it was just literally the scribes, the monks writing it over and over and over and over again. And it's funny too, again, geeking out a little bit of this. Um, if you look at some of like the original like ones that were written, they would like doodle on the sides. Oh, yeah, if they would get like tired or whatever, they would just do a little doodle on the sides.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

I want to see some monk doodles. Like, what do they what do they do? The Middle Ages. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Okay. Anyway, so Protestant. After go for it, go for it.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

I gotcha. Um, after the Middle Ages, obviously, we come out of that. We're um in the Renaissance, um, and then we go into the Reformation, and it's called that because it's the Protestant Reformation, which is when um a young man at the time named Martin Luther basically, and he wasn't he didn't intend to break away from the Catholic Church, but he ended up breaking away from the Catholic Church and starting the Protestant section of Christianity. And before you ask, no, this is not Martin Luther King. Um, this is Martin Luther, and Martin Luther King was named, yeah, it was named.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

True, not even not even the father or the son.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

It's it's was named after this Martin Luther who started the Protestant Reformation. Um, and his backstory is really cool too, because growing up, he got sick, um, and he prayed and prayed, and he was like, God, if you heal me, I will devote my entire life to following you, I will become a priest, all those different things. He gets healed and or God heals him, and he does, in fact, go to become a priest. And so at that time, people didn't have access to the Bible the way they do now. Like, you couldn't just go to literally any store, like Barnes and Oval, they have them at the dollar store, you can get them on Amazon. Like, yeah, there was we take advantage of the fact that we have so many Bibles readily accessible to us today. And so when he was going to school to become a priest, he was actually reading the words of the Bible for the first time, and he was starting to look at it and be like, Okay, well, the Bible says this, but the priest is saying this.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Oh, the well, the Bible says this, but they're saying, saying that, and so like there was an there was a lot of corruption in the church at that time, with like because people didn't have the Bible, they couldn't fact check, and so they were oh, so it was just like immediate power to whoever like held withheld the Bible.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

And it wasn't intentional, like it happened over time. I don't think there was like a malicious intent, yeah, of like, oh, let's just it just kind of snowballed. It just kind of like started going like penance and like paying, like, oh, your loved one died, like if you pay whatever, blah blah blah, but it'll get them into heaven. And it's like that's not in the Bible, um, obviously. And so Martin Luther, what he did was he wrote a list of a lot of these discrepancies, and he ended up writing 95 of them. And instead of going privately to the church and being like, Hey, so I noticed this, like, let's talk about it, whatever, he literally took it and nailed it to the door of the church. Oh, and yeah, yeah, literally, and so and his point was hey, because okay, at a little context, at the time they would do that to get like discussion things, like they would post flyers or like oh, so it was like uh like a discussion board that you see like at a supermarket or any place because every the whole community can can see it.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

But he like nails it to the door of the church, um, and this becomes known as the 95 Theses. So these are 95 things that he sees wrong with the church and how what they're doing right now. Um, and instead of the church being like, Oh yeah, let's talk about this, they excommunicate him.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Oh, that's that's kind of mean, but okay. Well, you see where they're coming from. They're like, wait, what? You can't do that, and then yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

But because of the Protestant Reformation um and Martin Luther, he came up with what became known as the five solas, and that's Latin. Um, so it's like five only's, um, five like solas, like solo, like five things. Um, and so that the five solas of the Protestant Reformation and now the Protestant church um in general is that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, and scripture alone is our highest authority. And so basically, right? Snaps, like you can tell we're Protestant. Um, but what that is saying is that salvation is by grace alone. That means you can't earn it, you can't deserve it, it's not like something that you can work for, you can't pay for it. Um, that's how you get salvation. It's only by grace, and that grace comes only through faith. And that faith is can only be placed in Jesus Christ. And all of that, the reason why you can put your faith in Jesus Christ and that will give you the grace and that will have you have the faith, the only reason is because of the glory of God. Um, and so that's like the big like mission statement of belief of the Protestants, and then of course, the authority uh over Christians is um the scripture alone.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

But even then, like that's Protestant, great, but like I don't like I I hear Protestant, I used to hear Protestant in like the history books of like the Quakers or the pilgrims that came to um America long, long time ago. But there's so many other like like I think pilgrim is like a type of Protestant and and like there's so many I feel like there's so many other s like types of Christianity within Protestant, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Yeah, so like I would say pro like Protestant is the biggest like umbrella because I mean Catholic, if you say Catholic, that's still Roman Catholic. Um if you say Orthodox, that's still like the Eastern Orthodox. Um if you say Protestant, like you don't see like you don't on the corner see a Protestant church. You just see like you like a sign that says Protestant. Um but the different denominations or like sections under Protestantism is like um Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

So they're like um different flavors, basically. Yeah, they're like okay, here we have ice cream, we got like Italian ice soft serve or the hard ice cream that you get, like, I don't know, a Ben and Jerry's or whatever. And so within those, is you have different flavors of like like strawberry fruity flavors for Italian ice and like dairy flavors and chocolate chip and whatever, and but they're all ice cream, they're all amazing, they're all delicious, and they all all believe in the same thing that Jesus is real, he died for our sins, he's a son of God. And that's kind of cool. That's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

There are like smaller differences and nuances between the two. Obviously, talking about the authority, like Catholicism saying that the authority comes from the Pope, um, Orthodox having like the smaller groups, and then the Protestants being like scripture only. Um, those are the main like differences, but besides that a lot of the beliefs are the same of what the the root of the faith is. Um, and then I I think we're ready to go on to the next uh question.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so what is a Christian? I mean the beliefs, like what do Christians believe in? I mean, for me, and I think like and I think I know, um, it's it's basically just like you believe in the Holy Trinity, which is the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father being the Almighty God, um, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, which is actually the presence of God here on earth. Um, fun fact that the Holy Spirit actually came once Jesus ascended to heaven after he came back from the dead. So Jesus died for our sins, came back from the dead, was here for a bit, said hi to everyone, like 500 people.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

He was here for forty days.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Forty days. So he was here for a while. Came back, came, went up to heaven. Was like, I'm going to bring forth the Holy Spirit. I'm going to send a helper. Yeah, helper. And that's what we are here now. That's the modern age. From like Jesus send it to heaven to now.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Like the Holy Spirit is still here.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

And so that's Holy Trinity. What else? It's I would the one.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

I'm just gonna interrupt you a little bit. The one metaphor that I heard um that the Holy Trinity is like that I love. This is actually from Veggie Tales, their story of St. Patrick. They just have 10-minute St. Patrick's Day like little snippet. So good, 10 out of 10. If you haven't watched it, go watch it. Um or wait till St. Patrick's Day. I try to show it every year just because it's really good. Um, but the way that they describe it, or the way that they describe St. Patrick describing it, yeah, is that Jesus is like a shamrock. Um not Jesus, God is like a shamrock.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Um there that's the Trinity. Like you have the three leaves of the shamrock, but it's all one shamrock. There's the three persons of the Godhead, but it's just one God. Um so yeah, what else do Christians believe?

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Well, obviously the resurrection Jesus existed in Christian Jesus Christ. You believe you believe in Jesus. You can't believe in Jesus and not be a Christian like it hand in hand. But um, yeah, they believe he died for our sins, he was nailed to the cross, he was a real guy in history. Some people don't believe that. And um that he went back into heaven.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Also, that the Bible is the word of God, it is written, it's so many stories, but it is scripture, it is God's message to us all, and something that we use every day and that we should live by, definitely live by it. Um, the last thing I think is that Jesus is um full human, hundred percent human, but also a hundred percent God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Yeah. And so, in order to be a Christian and like what is Christianity? Basically, um, the way that Jesus described it when he was here on earth and people were asking him, um, basically they were asking him, like, they were they were trying to catch him in a trap. They were always trying to catch Jesus in a trap. And one of the things that they asked them were like, okay, well then what is the most important commandment? And I think this verse is or this section of verses is a great way to describe what like what it means to be a Christian.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

What are your beliefs? Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

And b and that's in Matthew 20, verses 37 through 39, and it says, love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your heart. And this is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. And that is like the most important thing if you are being a Christian, is that you love God with all your heart, soul, your mind, strength, um, and then love your neighbor as yourself. I but I think that kind of does get twisted a little bit. I think people look at Christians and they're like, okay, well, if that's what followers of Christ are like, I don't want to be a Christian sometimes. Do you want to talk on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

I mean, like we'll touch on that more in the next episode.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

But like just a little snippet. Um, it's kind of like love your neighbor as yourself. You're like, oh, yeah, like they think the hypocrisy and the like judgment of like, oh, um, I'm going to I don't know, I don't know. It's like experiences I had in my life when when I wasn't a Christian, it was like you would see Christians and how they act, and you're like, oh, I don't want to be like them. They they they I know I know Jesus. I I heard of Jesus. He's he's everywhere and he's a lovely guy, great guy. Um, but the people that believe in Jesus not a great guy, not a great guy. I saw like I like that oh yeah, his his my friend uh the guy I know who believes in in Jesus uh lies and cheats and swears or or or like manipulates and stuff, and I'm like, if that's a Christian, I don't want to be a Christian. But something that I learned growing up um and through my life is that like not all Christians are Christ-like are Christ-like, are the model of what Christians are, like and I'm seeing it like you have the model, Jesus, but you're focusing on what like Christianity is on the follower, but not on on the model. The actual model is Jesus Christ, he like lived a sinless life, which is super hard to do.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

No one has done it.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Baby sin every day when they cry, fake cry for mom's attention. This this guy was silent as a limb. Like like imagine I I I want I would love to see baby Jesus, like how he grew up, but also he was fully human. Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

So he did cry. He did cry, but it wasn't like and like there was there was still I people like I I believe that there was still like pain and childbirth for Mary because he was still fully God. I mean still fully man. Human, yeah. Like that's a human experience of like that that's what he was he was a person.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Right. Yeah. Um, but like that's a thing that I've learned of like I shouldn't focus on Christians and Jesus. Like I shouldn't like assume. Combine the two. Yeah, combine the two. Assume like all Christians are are what Jesus is like or what Christianity is like. And that's not the case. Like, humans sin all the time. Humans are meant, like, not meant to sin, but like we'll sin.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

We all will.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

Like, we all will. There's there's no doubt about it. Like you can't you can't get into heaven without Jesus because you will sin in your life.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Yeah, absolutely. And you already have.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

And you already have.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

If you're old enough to watch this and listen to this, you have sinned. Congratulations. You've now ruined your purpose and you need Jesus. Yeah. Um, but I guess like a way to summarize what you're saying is like what is a Christian is a Christian is someone trying to be like Christ. And so no one is gonna do that exactly perfectly. We'll talk about that in our next episode um where we talk about how to be a Christian. Um, but basically, in terms of what Christians do and what they believe, is that you're a person who has a relationship with Jesus. You're trying to be more like Jesus every day every day.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Like it's not like a flip of a switch, like, oh, I mess up and then it's oh I'm done. Like, uh, that's it, I'm going to hell. Like, no. Like every day you're working on that.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

You always want to be asking for forgiveness too, because like it's it's not just like, oh, well, now I can do whatever I want. And we'll talk a lot more about this in a minute. We're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. Um, but basically, if you are a Christian, you put your faith in God, you put your trust in God, you follow him. Um, and then congratulations, you are a disciple. And disciple is uh not a word that we use very often now, um, but the word disciple was very common back in Jesus' day. And a disciple is basically just a student, and so Jesus had his disciples. We already talked about Peter.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Um the twelve disciples.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

We've also mentioned Matthew a lot. That's like one of the books in the Bible that's was written by Matthew. He was one of Jesus' disciples. Um, but a disciple is just a student following a teacher. And what disciples would do in Bible times is they would follow around a teacher. They would live with them, they would go wherever they went and follow them and learn from them. And so if when you become a Christian, you become a disciple of Jesus, just like Peter, just like Matthew, just like John.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

And I mean, even those disciples, they messed up, they had their doubts.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Peter denied Jesus three times.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Yeah, like the the night he was like taken away by like authorities, because he was like, Oh, I'm not a part of him, like uh you're you must be mistaken. I'm not that guy that always walked around with him. No, yeah, like he messed up, like, and that's that's such a bad friend move.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yeah, like seriously, I mean And yet he was the first Pope and he was the one that Jesus used to build the church. Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

And he still, like, even if he made mistakes, he still models his life after him and had has done so much and spread so much of the word to so many people, which is But you're not saved by your words. That's true, that's true. That's that's also a very important point that we have to make a whole episode on.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

It's one of those things where it's very easy to say, oh, but they did this and they did that, and oh, hopefully they did enough good things to get into heaven. But if you're a Christian, the only way to know if you're getting into heaven or not is if you have it done the ABCs of salvation. If you've you admit that you are a sinner and that you need a savior, that you believe in Jesus, and that you confess that Jesus is Lord, because beside if you do that and you know that, then yes, I could die right now and I can say with full confidence that I will be going to heaven because I know I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus loves me and Jesus died for me, and I'm gonna confess that to the day that I die. And that's what gives you the power, and that's what gives you the key to go into heaven, not oh, but I told so many people about she says, Oh, but I tried really hard to be good, and that's one of the things that separates Christianity from other religions, is in a lot of other religions it's about cleaning up your life and doing what you can to earn the favor of God or earn like higher power or earn, you know, your way to heaven, or try to get out of hell to escape hell by doing this, by doing that, if you do enough of this, if you do whatever, or like you your sin, the weight of your sin is so heavy that nothing that you do could outweigh that.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

Like, there's no way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

The Bible says very clearly the wages of sin is death, but the gift of Jesus is eternal life. And so, I mean, we talk about that all the time, like around Easter and all that, but like we all deserved to die because of our sin. We were not perfect, we messed up, and the wages of that sin, like humans were never made to sin, like we're never supposed to, right? That happened in the Garden of Eden, but we brought sin into the world on ourselves, we choose to sin, and so the consequences of that is that we're separated from God forever, that we have that's death. But Jesus came and Jesus lived a perfect life that we could never live, yeah, so that we could be reunited to the Father. Um, and that's like a main thing of like believing the beliefs of Christians, yeah, um, so that you can be a Christian. And then the next part of that too is like, you know, you're a disciple of Jesus, and then the Great Commission, when Jesus told his followers before he had set it into heaven, he was like, Okay, now go and make disciples of all nations.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

Oh, this is how Christianity spread like everywhere. Great commission meaning like go and make more disciples, go and talk about me and then spread my word and help those who've never even heard of me, like be that person in their life that changes their perspective, and now they can go to heaven because you talk to them about me. And that's what they did. Like the 12 the 12 disciples. Um, well, 11.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

But um they run in a new one.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

Oh, that's true, that's true, that's true. But um, yeah, they they spread to like all corners of the world slowly and move to different continents.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

But when you become a Christian, that's your message too. Like you are now called into that purpose of like now your job is to go and make disciples. That's that's what I say.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

You said disciples, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

I'm sorry, disciples. Um, and that's what the Great Commission is. And then finally getting to the final overview question that we're all talking about. Like, we talked about like what is Christianity, what do Christians believe? And then what does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Like, like application, like in your life. Uh I can talk about me. That's all I'll that's all I can talk about is my life, my experiences. But um when it comes to being a Christian, I mean there was a point in my life where I wasn't a Christian. Um, and the difference I would say was that I was like, okay, Jesus I'm modeling my life after Jesus. You know, that's the main point. I'm putting him first, putting God first. Um and I'm trying to be good in the sense of like I'm have integrity. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna cheat, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna do the right thing even when no one's watching, which I will admit was a little hard. Um but you know, that sense of I'm doing the right thing, I'm I'm modeling my life after God is so good. Not only that, I had so much anxiety and pressure and like stress and worry about my life. I'm like, I would think about life of like, oh yeah, life is just randomness, chaotic, everything happens randomly. Um sometimes you'll get a coincidence of like, oh crazy, that happened, and that's it. And like it's that's life, you know, everything's just bouncing around. And I have to worry about what's gonna happen next. If if I don't do the things that I have to do now, and like I'm gonna mess up, like but when you believe in God and you believe that you know the creator of the universe has a plan for your life, has made you, has knows knows you more than you know yourself. You're like, why do I have to worry about my life, about tomorrow? When the literal creator of the universe has created like a pathway of my life, knows me more than myself, like I'm gonna be fine. Like, even if and things are gonna happen, things happen in our lives, and no matter who you are, like it can still be like a really bad situation in your life. But I'm like, even if I die, God's got me. Like, I'm gonna go to heaven, like it's gonna be okay. And so it's that trust, which is really hard, that trust of like I'm putting my life to God, I'm giving my life to God. No matter like I'm like I'm putting him as my compass, putting him first, um, you're gonna be okay, and you have that sense of peace. That's that's all I can describe is peace. Like, you feel love and you feel like no matter what's gonna happen, I can still keep going.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

Yeah, yeah, that's so good.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

For me, it's a little bit different because I grew up in the church. I had been a follower of Jesus for as long as I can remember. So I didn't really have to struggle with that whole like, oh, I have to give my life, like I have to lay down my own like agenda and all that stuff. Because I always felt like, okay, I'm following Jesus, this is what I'm gonna do. Um, for me, what that looks like though, in a practical sense, is putting Colossians 2.23 into action in real life. Um, and what Colossians 2.23 says in like a paraphrasing type type of way, is that we're supposed to work as if we are working for the Lord, not for humans. So, like when I was in school, I was doing everything with excellence, I was aiming for a hundred, like, yes, I am an imperfect human on an imperfect earth with other imperfect humans. And so, yeah, was I always perfect? Absolutely not, but I'm gonna do everything that I can with excellence to work well, as if I am working for God, because being a Christian, I believe we should be more motivated, more energetic than our non-Christian counterparts. We should be more ambitious. I feel like a lot of Christians look at it as like, oh, like God's gonna do what God has a plan, oh, whatever, and then they use that as an excuse to not push themselves to try harder, to do more to be motivated. But I'm like, I look at Colossians 2.23, and that's such a big motivator for my life, is like, no, I'm gonna do with excellence, like what you were saying, I'm gonna do the right thing even when nobody's looking. Why? Because God is watching, because God is with me, and so it's not about like, oh, if my manager catches me doing it the wrong way, or like what is my friend gonna say if they hear that I'm doing this, or like, like, no, like Jesus is my authority, and I am working for him because if I knew everything that I was doing was for the Lord, I would be doing it a little bit differently. Right, right. And I am because I am a Christian, like that's what that's what it means is that your your life doesn't just become about you anymore, it becomes about God and spreading the gospel to other people.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

Right, and that's what it means to like giving your life to God. It doesn't mean like any sacrifice or anything, it's like I'm doing everything that I can to be closer and to be a helper to God, like use me, like like how Peter and all the disciples spread Christianity, they were used um by the Holy Spirit to help others, like that's that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

And one of the things that Jesus said that's recorded in Matthew chapter 16, verse 24, is he says, if you're gonna be my follower, this is also paraphrasing, but if you're gonna be my follower, take up your cross and follow me. And so what that means is that your life is not gonna be perfect. Being a Christian does not mean that everything's gonna go great and you're gonna only have sunny days, and like God's favor is gonna be fully on you all the time. Like, yes, God's favor is on you, but like you're still gonna hit traffic and you're still gonna fail a test, and you're still gonna like all these different things of life are still gonna happen. Your phone is still gonna run out of storage for the five millionth time. Is that just me? Um, but like that's us taking up our cross, that's us picking up, like dying to ourselves to follow Jesus because life isn't gonna be perfect, and we have to push through that to follow Jesus because when you fall just like Jesus, if you're following the picture of Jesus, Jesus laid down his life for us so that we could live. Yeah, and so we have to then lay down our life, our preferences, our things like our desires are like earthly desires too, temptations like if I'm sitting in a seat and there's only a couple of seats left, like I'll offer my seat to the next person because that's what Jesus would do.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Oh, yeah, love thy neighbor as you love yourself, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Like we already talked about that, but like it just points right back to that's you know, the first commandment, the greatest commandment is love, Lord your God, and second is love your neighbor. And if you're being a Christian, like what it means to be a Christian is to live that out in your everyday life and put that into action, and part of that is spreading the gospel, yeah. And what the gospel means, like the word gospel means the good news. And what is the good news?

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Oh, the good news is that Jesus rose back from the dead, Jesus is alive and real, and he's coming back, yeah, which is the most important part, but yeah, we we haven't talked about yet, but we will, we will most definitely. There's a lot of things we gotta tell. There's a list, we've we've there's a mental list that has been going on in this episode, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

And part of it too is if you are a Christian and your life has been so changed by Jesus, why would you not tell other people? Like, think about it. I tell people all the time about like Taylor Swift or like other things that I like. Oh, this is this is the book that I read. Like, I love this book. Like, you should read it. Go read the Hunger Games or like all these things.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

Like a movie or or TV show is not gonna like revolutionize your life.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

It's not gonna save you, save you.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

You're not gonna go to heaven because you watched a movie, you're gonna go to heaven because you follow God, and so you want your friends, you want your mom, you want your brother or your sister to follow God.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

And that's what the Great Commission is, yeah, and that's what spreading the gospel is, spreading the good news. Salvation is God's gift to us. There's nothing that we can do to earn it, there's nothing we can do to deserve it, there's nothing you could do to be good enough. All you can do is accept it, and that's what you have to do if you want to be a Christian, is just accept Jesus for who he is, the savior of the world, of the universe. And um, we all have a hole in our heart that can only be filled by God, and we can run after all kinds of different things trying to fill that hole. Oh, let me try to work really hard at school, and that's where my purpose will come from. Let me try to try all these things. Let me see, oh all my friends are doing this, so I'm gonna try to do that because I don't want to lose my friends, but your friends aren't gonna fill that hole. The only person who can fill that hole in your heart, in your life, what you're missing, is Jesus.

unknown 42:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Oh, that is so well said.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Wow. Okay. I mean that wraps up this episode.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Well, actually.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

Oh, there's more.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

I was gonna actually, I thought you were gonna say it.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Oh no, I'm I'm I'm drawn blank to what were you gonna say?

SPEAKER_00 43:02

I was gonna just talk about John um chapter one, verse 12, too, where it says to all who believe in him, meaning Jesus, and accept him, he gave the right to become children of God. And so when you decide to become a Christian and you accept Jesus into your heart, then you get the gift not only of salvation, but you get to call God father, and you get to be a child of God. And that's like one of the things that separates Christianity from all the other religions. Right.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

Jesus came down to earth, like he met us where we are, broken, uh like full of desires and and selfishness, and he helped us at that point. We didn't have to work and be the pristine best versions of ourselves to finally have the permission, the the authority to actually just look at God. Like, no, no, he came down when we were broken. And yeah, that's that's the difference.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Yeah, other religions you have to work, you have to push, you have to do this 12-step program to go and earn favor and earn your way to God, and what class are you in, and what are you doing about this? And like that's gonna determine your position in heaven. Whereas Christianity is so different because it's the only one where Jesus says the first will be last and the last will be first. The ones who are best on earth aren't necessarily gonna be the best in heaven, the ones who are first in line here on earth aren't necessarily gonna be the first in line in heaven. And if you want to be great in heaven, you have to be the lowest and serve others the way that Jesus served. And that's like so different than other religions because God came into the world to live in our world, he wasn't waiting for us to be good enough to earn his world, he came down and laid down his life for us so that we could enter his world and then he sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper and not just live and stay in our world, but live and stay in us and change us from the inside out. And so if you want to be a Christian, you should because God is calling you specifically by name, he created you with such a purpose and intention to follow Him. You have that hole in your heart that only God can fill. Nothing else that you could ever try will ever fill that hole. And so all you have to do is this thing basic ABCs of salvation. Right. And salvation just means you're being saved, saved from something that's devastating. You could be, or destruction, like you could be heading to hell, you could be heading in the wrong direction, and you're being saved from that and turned around. And all you have to do is first admit that, yeah, you've messed up. You are not perfect. I mean, I know I'm not. I sin every single day, but I know that I need a savior, and then believe that Jesus is that savior, believe who that Jesus is, who he said he was, that he came down to this earth, that he lived a perfect life and died on a cross, but then rose from the dead just to save us. He suffered such a cruel and horrible death just to allow us to be close to God, and then finally just confess that Jesus is Lord, confess that he is Lord of your life, give your life to him, and that's all you have to do, and that's what it means to be a Christian. And then from there, you just learn more about him, and we'll talk about that in our next episode. But if you want to make that decision now to be a Christian, you absolutely should. I know that it will change your life, and so we just want to pray with you and pray for you as you make that decision. Did you want to pray?

SPEAKER_02 46:50

Yeah, sure. Let's do it, Lord. Thank you for this day. Thank you that we're here with you, Lord, able to learn more about you, to learn about your history and all the different types of Christianity there are in this world. But we pray we pray for for your love and your peace, and that you're able to open doors and and we're able to learn more about you and get closer to you so that we can can just feel your presence and and see the amazing life that you have in store for all of us.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

Lord, I just pray right now too for our brothers and sisters who are accepting you into their heart for the first time, God. I just ask that you come and speak to them, give them peace, give them security, Lord, and just guide their life, God. I just ask that you watch over them and protect them and guide them in everything that they do and help them to know you and make you known, God, as they start this new life in you. Amen. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 47:50

I thought you were gonna say amen yet.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

I was just thinking if you had anything else to add.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

Wow.

unknown 47:54

All right.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

No, that was you, that was that was great. That was great. That was great.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

If you just made that decision to follow Jesus for the first time, congratulations. I know the angels of heaven are celebrating you and some of the things.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

I mean they do that every time.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

And we'll talk about that next episode. So come back next week if you just made that decision, or if you're still not sure, need a little bit more convincing, come back next week and we'll talk more about um Jesus and about how to be a Christian, what it means to walk out that life. But thank you so much for watching. Um, if you made that decision, comment below so we can be praying for you. Um, we love you guys.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

And um, comment if you have any questions. We'd love to answer them, make more videos, and just um help everyone, help you guys. Hope you have a great day. Hope you have an amazing rest of your week, and we'll see you on the next one.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

See you next week. Bye guys.