Christian views
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Though Christian views of Jesus vary, it is possible to describe a general majority Christian view by examining the similarities between Catholic, Orthodox, and certain Protestant doctrines found in their catechetical or confessional texts.[36] This view, given below as the Principal view, does not encompass all groups which describe themselves as Christian, with other views immediately following.
Principal view
Christians predominately profess that Jesus is the Messiah (Greek: Christos; English: Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament,[37] who, through his life, death, and resurrection, restored man's communion with God in the blood of the New Covenant. His death on a cross is understood as the redemptive sacrifice: the source of mankind's salvation and the atonement for sin,[38] which had entered human history through the sin of Adam.[39]
They profess Jesus to be the only Son of God, the Lord, [40] and the eternal Word,[41] who became man in the incarnation,[42] so that those who believe in him might have eternal life.[43] They further hold that he was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit in an event described as the miraculous virgin birth.[44] In his life Jesus proclaimed the "good news" (Middle English: gospel; Greek: euangelion) that the coming Kingdom of Heaven was at hand,[45] and established the Christian Church, which is the seed of the kingdom, into which Christ calls the poor in spirit.[46] Jesus' actions at the Last Supper, where he instituted the Eucharist, are understood as central to worship and communion with God.[47]
These groups profess Jesus suffered death by crucifixion,[48] descended into Hell,[49] and rose bodily from the dead in the definitive miracle that foreshadows the resurrection of mankind at the end of time,[50] when Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead, resulting in election to Heaven or damnation to Hell.[51]
The nature of Jesus was theologically articulated and refined by a series of seven ecumenical councils, between 325 and 681 (see Christology). These councils described Jesus as one of the three divine hypostases or persons of the Holy Trinity: the Son is defined as constituting, together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, the single substance of the One God.[52] Furthermore, Jesus is defined to be one person with a fully human and a fully divine nature, a doctrine known as the Hypostatic union[53] (an articulation not accepted by Oriental Orthodoxy, see Nestorianism, Monophysitism and Miaphysitism). In defense of Jesus' divinity, some apologists argue that there is a trilemma, or three possibilities, resulting from Jesus' reported claims that he is the one God of Israel:[54] either he is truly God, a liar, or a lunatic — the latter two dismissed on the basis of Jesus's coherence.[55]
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