Christianity
Christianity is a religion. People who believe in Christianity are called Christians. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and that he died on a cross and that he came back to life to save people from their sins. They believe that the Bible is the word of God given to human beings.Christians believe that God created mankind, but that mankind rebelled against God by wanting to do their own thing. This is called sin. God chose the Jews by marrying them (Jeremiah 3:14 and others) and made an agreement with them, a list of 613 commandments, in essence, a moral and ethical code of conduct, contained in the Tanach ("Bible," from the Greek word "Biblos," both "book" and the name of a city) that if they followed his rules he would look after them and make them happy, and He has never divorced them. However their rebellion had made them dissobedient, and they were unable to keep the rules. God therefore sent Jesus his son (who is also himself) to teach people. By being willing to die, even though he did not deserve it, Jesus made mankind right with God again. If we accept what Jesus has done we become God's children and get to live with him forever.
Christians are divided into different denominations. The largest of these is the Roman Catholic church. Their leader is the Pope and they have their headquarters in the Vatican in Rome.
Most Christians in Eastern Europe and Russia belong to the Orthodox churches. These churches can trace their history back to nearly the time of Jesus, some say. Most history books, however, trace the origin of both the Roman Catholic to the year 324 A.C., when the sun-worshipping Emperor Constantine, professed to convert to Christianity, although in fact continued to worship the sun-god Mithra.
Many other Christians are called Protestant. Protestant churches are mainly those who broke away from the Catholic church in the sixteenth century because they believed that it had become corrupt and was no longer teaching the truth. Protestantism broke away from the worship of the Virgin and the baby god, which Protestants viewed as blaspheme, as they (the Roman Catholics) made a woman into a godess, and still do. They became denominations such as Anglican, Lutheran or Baptist, and many smaller denominations. Later disagreements caused these denominations to split again into smaller groups. There are presently over 3000 Christian denominations, each differing with the others in some minor points. Among those famous people as their founder, theologian and leaders are Martin Luther and so on.