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The Bible is the world’s all time No.1 best-selling book, and for Christians, it’s the world’s most important book – a guide for life containing God’s words. You could spend your whole life studying it (and lots of people do) but our animation takes you from Genesis to Revelation in just ten minutes.

Component 1: The study of religions: beliefs, teaching and practices - Christianity - Introduction /pre-work Worship and festivals - Different forms of worship and their significance: • liturgical, non-liturgical and informal, including the use of the Bible • private worship.

Area of Study 1 - Christianity - The significance and importance of the various beliefs, issues and practices to Christians today should be explored throughout the sections. This should include reference to how the Bible informs a Christian’s understanding of the topics and how approaches to the issues are underpinned by philosophical arguments and ethical theory as applicable. Area of Study 3 – Catholic Christianity - The significance and importance of the various beliefs, issues and practices to Catholics today should be explored throughout the sections. This should include reference to how the Bible informs a Catholic’s understanding of the topics and how approaches to the issues are underpinned by philosophical arguments and ethical theory as applicable. Area of Study 1 – Catholic Christianity - The significance and importance of the various beliefs, issues and practices to Catholics today should be explored throughout the sections. This should include reference to how the Bible informs a Catholic’s understanding of the topics and how approaches to the issues are underpinned by philosophical arguments and ethical theory as applicable.

Component Group 1 - Christianity Belief sand teachings & Practices - Worship • The structure of church services, for example Anglican Communion service, Roman Catholic mass, Quaker meeting, Greek Orthodox service and Methodist Sunday morning worship • The concept of worship • Purposes of worship • The role and importance of liturgical worship for some Christians •The role and importance of informal/charismatic worship for some Christians • The role and importance of individual prayer, private prayeranddevotionforChristians • The role and importance of private and public worship to Christian communities and individuals •Different interpretations and emphases given to sources of wisdom and authority by different Christian denominations

2.2 Unit 2 PART A - Christianity - Core beliefs, teachings and practices Beliefs - The Bible Ø As Word of God, authority, sacred scripture (Deuteronomy 4:1-2) inspiration and revelation Ø As a collection of writings based on context, audience, society, authors' intentions Ø Uses/usefulness (2 Timothy 3:16-17); absolute law, guidance, use during worship and ceremonies (Christening, Marriage, Funerals) Ø Differing ways of interpreting biblical writings: literal, conservative, symbolic, biblical myth Ø Bible in relation to other sources of authority, e.g. conscience (Romans 2:14-15), family, reason, society, situations, civil law, circumstances

Component 2 (Route A) Study of Christianity - Salvation ➢ Law: Word of God; inspiration and revelation; differing ways of interpreting biblical writings; Bible in relation to other sources of authority.

The Bible in Ten Minutes

The Bible is the world's all-time number one bestseller. A book that has inspired great art, literature, cinema, and even comics. For Christians, it's the world's most important book. A guide for life containing God's words. You can spend your whole life studying it, and lots of people do, but we've got just ten minutes.

So the name Bible comes from the Greek word Byblos and the Latin word Biblia, which both mean books. Because the Bible is a collection of books, written by different authors at different times, over about one and a half thousand years. I'm going to be talking about the Protestant Bible, which contains 66 books. The Catholic Bible has more, but I'll come back to that. There are two main sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. A testament is a statement of belief or a contract, and the contracts in the Bible are between God and his people.

 

There are 39 books in the Old Testament, mainly written in Hebrew. The language of the Jewish people and 27 books in the New Testament, mainly written in Greek. The Old Testament kicks off with the Pentateuch, which means five books, also known as the books of the law. Genesis starts at the beginning, the beginning of everything, with God creating the world in a week. He made Adam, the first man, and Eve, the first woman, and a perfect Paradise for them to live in. But then evil reared its ugly head for the very first time. The world got so evil that God decided to scrap it all and start again. Everything was wiped out by a flood, and only good old Noah, his family and his floating zoo survived. Noah's great great great great great great great great grandson was called Abram or Abraham. And God told him that his descendants would become a whole nation of people, and promised to give them a land of their own. Abraham's grandson, Jacob, also known as Israel, had 12 sons whose families became the 12 tribes of the Israelite people, who would eventually live in the Promised Land. Joseph was Jacob's favourite son and was spoiled rotten, so his jealous brothers sold him as a slave to some passing Egyptians. But after Joseph helped out the Pharaoh with some dream analysis, he was promoted to prime minister, forgave his brothers for the selling him as a slave thing, and invited the whole family to come and live with him in Egypt.

 

Exodus is set about 400 years later, but by now the Israelites had all been made slaves. Oww! God told an Israelite called Moses to free his people and lead them out of Egypt to search for the Promised Land. God parted the Red sea so the Israelites could escape to the other side, where they stopped off at Mount Sinai and Moses climbed to the top to meet God, who handed over ten commandments to live by. And lots of other rules followed. God was offering the Israelites a tempting contract. If they obeyed his law, he'd look after them and everything would be lovely. The Israelites wandered about in the desert looking for their promised land until 40 years later, they found it. Moses gave a big speech about the importance of keeping God's law, and then he died. The next 12 books describe life in the Promised Land and the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Israel. God chose Joshua to lead the Israelites into their new home, where they fought off the nasty neighbours and divided up the land between the 12 tribes of Israel. When some of the Israelites started to disobey God's law, it was up to 11 holy men and one holy woman, called The Judges, to sort them out. The most famous Judge was the super strong Samson, who always brought the house down.

 

This is Ruth. She wasn't an Israelite, but she married Boaz, who was. And their great-grandson is David, who's very, very important in the next book. By now a priest called Samuel was in charge. But the Israelites wanted a king, like all the nations next door. So Samuel chose Saul, but he wasn't really up to the job. Then, during a battle with some nasty neighbours known as Philistines, a local shepherd boy called David, great grandson of Ruth, volunteered to fight the Philistine champion, a giant called Goliath. He won and became a national hero. So when Saul died, David was crowned and led the Kingdom of Israel into a golden age of peace and prosperity, which you can also read about in the Books of Chronicles.

 

When David died, his son Solomon became king. He's known for his wisdom for building an impressive temple in Jerusalem and for having 700 wives, give or take. But the people began to fight amongst themselves, and the kingdom split in two. Israel in the north and Judah in the south. God's messengers Elijah and Elisha warned everyone that worse was to come if they didn't obey God, but no one was listening. Then disaster, Israel and Judah were invaded by foreign powers. Solomon's beautiful temple was destroyed and the people were dragged away to become slaves. The exile, as this period is called, lasted about 70 years. And then the Jews, the people from Judah, were allowed to return home. In Jerusalem, the temple was restored and Nehemiah got the city walls rebuilt. Back in Persia, a clever young Jew called Esther had won a beauty contest to become queen and used her influence over the king to foil a plot that would have wiped out all the Jews in the empire.

 

Next, there's a section of poetry and philosophy. This is Jobe, who remains faithful to God despite lots of horrible things happening to him, so he's rewarded for his loyalty. Psalms is a book of poems and songs, many written by King David, which were used in worship, and still are. Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings, and Ecclesiastes is all about the meaning of life, or the lack of it. The Song of Solomon or the Song of Songs is a steamy love poem, possibly written by King Solomon about his wife, one of his wives. Now we come to the prophets, the people who brought messages from God, teachings, warnings or even visions of the future. Isaiah is mainly about God's judgment on people who don't follow his law, but it also predicts the birth of a new Jewish king. Remember that. Jeremiah warns everyone that unless they obey God, they are going to be made slaves. And then in Lamentations, the writers are talking about the fall of Jerusalem and how terrible it all is. But Ezekiel gives all the people in exile hope that one day they will return to Jerusalem. Daniel gets thrown to the lions when he refuses to worship a foreign king. He survives thanks to God's protection, and the second half of the book imagines all the weird punishments that evil kings will face for enslaving God's people. The 12 final prophets continue with encouraging people to follow God's law, and predictions about what will happen if they don't. For example, Jonah is told by God to warn the city of Nineveh that, unless they shape up, they'll be punished for their wickedness. Jonah doesn't want the job and tries to escape in a boat, but he's thrown overboard, swallowed by a fish, spewed up on a beach, finally goes to warn the people of Nineveh and then gets grumpy when God forgives them all.

And that's the Old Testament. Or is it because there's also the Apocrypha? Greek for hidden, a collection of seven books that weren't included in the Protestant Bible. But you'll find them all in the Old Testament of a Catholic Bible. And Bibles used by Eastern Orthodox churches can have over a dozen more books.

 

The New Testament begins with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, known as the Gospels, which means good news. Each Gospel tells a story of Jesus's life from a slightly different viewpoint, and there's a lot of overlap, especially between Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which are known as the Synoptic Gospels, a word which means that they all have pretty much the same idea about what happened. John has a different take on events and spends more time explaining what he thinks it all means.

The story is told by all the Gospels goes like this. A young Jewish virgin by the name of Mary has a miracle baby called Jesus, and is visited by wise men from the east and some local shepherds, who are all convinced that the baby is a new king of the Jews. But when Jesus grows up, he becomes a carpenter. Then, when he's about 30, he's baptized by his cousin John, a different John, and becomes a traveling preacher with a radical message of love and forgiveness. As well as giving straight down the line teaching like The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also told a good story, and parables, as they're called, were stories with a point. Then there were the miracles. Jesus changed water into wine, calmed storms, raised the dead, and those are just the highlights. You might have heard of the disciples, which means pupils or followers. Jesus chose these 12 men to help spread his teaching, and they eventually became leaders of the first churches, apart from Judas. The gospel writers all described Jesus using the Hebrew word Messiah or Christ in Greek, which means anointed one, or a person who has had perfume poured all over his head. This was a ceremony performed for people like Saul and David when they were chosen to be kings hundreds of years before, but by the time Jesus was born, the word Messiah had come to mean a hero like King David, who would begin a new kingdom of God. Bits of the Old Testament had foretold the coming of this Messiah, and the writer of Matthew is careful to point out how he thinks Jesus fits the bill. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus isn't just the Messiah, he's God in human form. Jesus's death and resurrection, which means to come back to life, is the most important bit for Christians because they believe it shows God's power over evil and the promise of life after death. The Gospel of Luke ends with Jesus rising up to heaven, promising that one day he will return.

 

Acts or, The Acts of the Apostles, picks up the story and describes how Christianity began to grow thanks to people called the apostles, which means messengers. Men like Peter, who was one of Jesus's disciples, and Paul, who wasn't. Paul's job had been to wipe out Christianity, but after seeing a blinding light and hearing Jesus speaking to him from heaven, he started to spread Christianity instead. The rest of the New Testament is full of letters, many of them written by Paul to friends or to groups of Christians. They were full of advice and teaching, so they were kept and copied and passed around.

The very last book in the Bible is called Revelation or Revelations or the apocalypse. The author John, yet another John, describes his scary visions of a terrible future. Then Jesus returns to Earth as promised. Evil is destroyed once and for all, and the world becomes a Paradise again, which is how God always wanted it to be, right from the very start, all the way back in Genesis.

 

The Bible in Ten Minutes

Video length - 10.13
Published date - Oct 2023
Keystage(s) - 2 and 3
Downloadable resources

Alien Abduction: Christianity – Orbiting Earth at this very moment, the alien survey ship “Pantheon” is abducting people to collect data about their belief systems. Reverend Harry is beamed into the interrogation chamber to answer questions about Christianity.

Alien Abduction: Christianity

Robot      Survey ship Pantheon orbiting planet: Earth. Dominant life form: Human. Belief system: Various. More information required. Scanning for samples. Welcome to survey ship Pantheon. Our mission is to investigate the culture of your planet, and you have been selected to represent your belief system. Please state your name.

Harry       Harry.

Robot      Religion.

Harry       Christian.

Robot      Holy book.

Harry       The Bible.

Robot      Holy building.

Harry       The church.

Robot      Symbol.

Harry       Um, that would be the cross or a crucifix.

Robot      You will now be asked a series of questions from the categories on screen. You have 30 of your Earth seconds to provide a satisfactory answer to each one. Failure to comply will result in matter dispersal. Are you ready?

Harry       Yep.

Robot      Stand by. Choose the first category.

Harry       God.

Robot      What do you believe about God?

Harry       I believe that God created the whole world, the universe and everything in it. That God created humanity for a purpose and a reason, and that God wants to know us and wants us to know him. God revealed himself to us through the Trinity. There is one God, but there are three parts of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and God lives through us through the Holy Spirit, he's with us in the power of the spirit always.

Harry       Life after death.

Robot      What do you believe will happen to humans after death?

Harry       Um, Christians believe that death is really the beginning, not the end, so when we die, we can go to be with God in heaven. The Bible teaches that there's some kind of judgement, God wants to judge sin and remove sin from his ultimate creation, so all of us will stand before God and will be judged. The good news is, is that Jesus takes that judgement for us, so the Bible says that if we turn to Jesus, then he will bear that judgement for us. So that's what I believe.

Harry       Beginnings.

Robot      How did your religion begin?

Harry       The beginnings of Christianity are in Judaism. Jesus, the founder of Christianity, was a Jew, he lived as a Jew, but he developed Judaism and taught his own message. So Jesus lived his life in a in a provocative way, he performed miracles, he taught different teachings. But ultimately the beginnings of Christianity, certainly the beginnings of the church, are in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that's when our religion began and broke away from Judaism, and that's where we are today.

Harry       Everyday life.

Robot      How does your religion affect everyday life?

Harry       Um, as a Christian, I try and read my Bible and pray every day, but also as a Christian we have to try and live the teachings of Jesus. So everything that Jesus taught, we have to put into action. That means we need to love people, we need to show justice, we need to seek to change the wrongs that are in the world and really demonstrate the love of God to everyone we meet. That's not always easy, but every day we need to be trying to do that, to demonstrate the love of God for his creation. Festivals.

Robot      What is the most important festival in your religion?

Harry       The biggest festival in our religion is probably Christmas, that's the one that most people know, but I don't think it's the most important. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus and Jesus had to be born, but the central message of what Christians believe is that Jesus died and rose again, and we celebrate that at Easter. At Easter we remember that Jesus died, he was crucified, nailed to a cross, but he rose again three days later. The festival of Easter celebrates that, his death, his coming back to life, his rising again.

Harry       Rites of passage.

Robot      What is a baptism?

Harry       Oh, good question, baptism. There's two kinds of baptism. Sometimes we baptise babies, and often that's with a sprinkling of water, sometimes when we baptise adults, it's by a full immersion, fully underwater. Baptism marks a new life, so the sprinkling of water is washing away our old life and our old sins, or even in a full immersion, we're kind of buried under the water, and then we come back out into new life. It's a symbol of new life, new beginnings and starting again.

Harry       Random.

Robot      Why are there so many different types of Christian?

Harry       Oh gosh, good question. There are different kinds of Christians, like, there are Roman Catholics, Church of England, Pentecostals, Baptists, Methodists. Not because they believe different things, largely we believe the same thing, but because people express themselves in different ways. So we all like different types of music or different food or things like that, and so the different types of Christians emerged, because we want to talk to God in different ways, and we hear from God in different ways, and that's why different types of Christians emerged today.

Robot      Thank you. Your answers are satisfactory. Matter dispersal beams powering down. You will now be returned to Earth, human. Goodbye.

Alien Abduction: Christianity

Video length - 6.05
Published date - Jun 2013
Keystage(s) - 3