The Christian Faith
This section of the website provides more extended teaching on larger content areas, such as the Creed and the Sacraments. It begins with Introduction·to the Christian Faith. More content will be added in due course.
The section entitled Short Talks comprises stand-alone talks and articles on different aspects of the Christian Faith, including the teaching of Jesus, the seasons of the Church’s Year and Feasts and Festivals.·
Third: God's Word
The Bible
In ancient time paper was made from the papyrus or Egyptian paper reed. The Greeks called it “byblos”, from which we get the word Bible which means The Books. In fact, the Bible is not one book, but a small library of books. As you know, if you go into a library you will find books on different subjects, written by different authors at different times. So it is with the books of the Bible. If you look at the list of them at the beginning of your Bible, you will see that there are 80 altogether, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. In between the Old and New Testaments are the 14 books of what is called the Apocrypha. The best known of these are the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and the two Books of the Maccabees.
Fourth: Keeping Sunday
The Sabbath
You will remember that the Ten Commandments were given by God to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai after they had escaped from Egypt. The Fourth Commandment taught them that they must keep the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, as a day on which no work, whether by people or animals, was to be done. Some people make the mistake of thinking that the Sabbath is the same day as Sunday, but of course the seventh day is not Sunday but Saturday, and the Jews to this day still keep Saturday, the Sabbath, as a day of rest.
Fourth: Feasts and Festivals
Holy Days
Last week we saw that we should be present at the Eucharist every Sunday and keep it as a day of worship in honour of God and of Our Risen Lord. But, of course, the Christian religion is not a matter of one day in the week but of every day. As George Hebert’s famous hymn reminds us:
“Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise thee…” (1)