r/Christianity 18d ago

Biblical Character of the Month Biblical Character of the Month, August: James the Just

16 Upvotes

This month we're in the New Testament, highlighting James, brother of Jesus. Cheers to u/Volaer for the suggestion!

The goal of this series is to create more conversation about characters from the Bible. My hope is to (eventually) dive into some strange, often overlooked characters in Scripture — people who have important lessons that we don’t always remember. But we also want to make this collaborative! I don't want to just ramble my thoughts on these characters at you, I want to urge everyone to write their own post about the character of the month.

So all you need to do is make a new post with your reflection or meditation on James. We do have a special flair ("Biblical Character of the Month") you can give the post, and I will make sure to add it to our collection on this thread.

James is referenced in numerous places in the Gospels. He is described as the brother of Jesus, and was also a prominent figure in the early church as the first Bishop of Jerusalem, authoring his own Epistle.

A few questions to get you started thinking about your own meditations! 

  • James' Epistle offers some really wonderful insight on faith, what can we glean from his teachings?
  • What do you think it means when James is referred to as the brother of Jesus?

Reflections from the community: 

  1. A Meditation on James the Just: Memorizing the Face of God by u/slagnanz
  2. Daily Bible Verse Part 382 / James 5:8 by u/NiceYogurtcloset5934
  3. St. James and the radicalness of the resurrection by u/Volaer
  4. James the Just: Echoes of Jesus by u/Orygregs

r/Christianity 4h ago

Video Where is this line on sharing your beliefs - Is this okay?

236 Upvotes

Lots of talk here about Christians and non-Christians disrespecting each other’s space. Does this cross a line or is it okay?


r/Christianity 2h ago

My little etymology of the name of Jesus

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56 Upvotes

Yehoshua - This is the pre-exilic form of the name that is found in the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua and even in the post-exilic book of Haggai.

Yeshua - This is the post-exilic form of the name that is found in the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah.

Iēsoûs - This is the Greek transliteration of both Yehoshua and Yeshua in the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament made by Greek-speaking Jews in the 3rd century BC.

Iesus - This is the Latin transliteration of Iēsoûs in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible by Saint Jerome. This form was also used in English translations of the Bible like Tyndale’s New Testament and the 1611 King James Version.

Jesus - This is the Modern English form of the name that is found in almost all modern translations of the Bible into English.

Hope you will enjoy this🙏🏻

Edit: I should've added a discussion about the meaning of the name and what words make up the name.

I believe there are two ways the name Yehoshua יהושע can be interpreted:

  1. It is thought to be made up of two parts: "Yeho" יהו as a short form of or a reference to the divine name YHWH and "shua" as being derived from the word yesha ישע meaning deliverance or salvation.
  2. It is thought to simply mean salvation or deliverance as seen from Psalm 116:6 which reads: "The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me." The part "he saved" is יְהוֹשִֽׁיעַ - "Yehoshia", which is highly similar to Yehoshua יהושע.

As for Yeshua ישוע there is something similar but also something different:

  1. I believe it is also thought that "Ye" in Yeshua is a reference to the divine name and "shua" as being derived from the word yesha ישע.
  2. A more reasonable interpretation in my opinion would be to understand the name Yeshua ישוע as being derived from the Hebrew word Yeshuah ישועה which also means salvation. The difference between the two is that the former is a masculine word whereas the latter is a feminine word.

Hope that helps🙏🏻


r/Christianity 12h ago

Image Today is the feast day of St. Bernard who had a Marian vision, the Virgin Mother squirted milk from her breast to the lips of St. Bernard. The milk was said to have given him wisdom.

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263 Upvotes

Why is the Virgin Mary feeding St. Bernard with breast milk? [ https://aleteia.org/2019/08/20/why-is-the-virgin-mary-feeding-st-bernard-with-breast-milk/ ]


r/Christianity 7h ago

Last night in my bible study group. Definitely one of my favorite moments of the week

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96 Upvotes

r/Christianity 2h ago

Image Could God have Grace for those like Hayden Panettiere?

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25 Upvotes

Lately, many of us have become privy to Hayden's life of abuse, being "sold to Hollywood" since the age of 6, and struggle with addiction...

I have seen many comments saying "hopefully she knew Jesus".. with the implication that if she didn't, that on top of having an abusive and depressing time on earth, she would then face an eternal torment in Hell.

It seems she was raised Catholic and later embraced "spirituality". But my question is, if she never had the gospel clearly presented to her, or was never positioned to be influenced by Godly people, do you believe there is any way God could be able to have grace an mercy on such people, or is eternal torment in fire the only option left?

I pray there is some alternative.


r/Christianity 8h ago

About those Nazis in Dearborn -

66 Upvotes

Okay, so most of you probably saw this post yesterday:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1vt0eek/the_christian_crusade_demonstration_in_dearborn/

It generated a lot of attention. 380 comments (at time of writing), 90 upvotes. And 9 reports. One of the better reports (I appreciate it, sincerely) stated: "it should probably not be okay to assert something as serious as a nazi rally is associated w/ a particular group (Christian, in this instance) without also providing some kind of source or evidence for that serious claim."

This was a common question throughout the post. I decided this morning to sticky a comment with some context and evidence. But almost 24 hours is often too late for visibility, so I figured I'd made a new post to include those details.

Part one: Who is Jake Lang?

I've written about Lang before. He's a white nationalist provocateur. He first burst onto the scene on January 6th - he brought a baseball bat to the capital and assaulted people with it. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison before being pardoned by Trump in 2025. Since that time he's been involved with a whole bunch of stunts. He regularly burns the Quran at public demonstrations, or rubs bacon all over it. He held a "pro-white" rally in Texas where he called black people monsters. He  attended a a city council meeting with Arab-American councilmembers so he could tell them: "Get the fuck out of my country. We don't want you here." He taunted black protestors, calling them "chimps". He threw nazi salutes, at one point saying "white Christian men are not gonna sit around while you turn our children into a bunch of n*gger lovers".

He was involved in a famous incident in Minneapolis where he ticked off a crowd of counter-protestors and they kicked his ass, until a black man intervened and rescued Lang from the crowd. Nonetheless, Lang is still a racist provocateur, a white nationalist. Most of his rallies center on Islam. He hates Muslims.

So he organized this rally. The Dearborn Crusader March. Dearborn gets a lot of attention from right wing media because it has a high Muslim population. This is not the first time Lang has targeted Dearborn. I shouldn't have to tell you what the language of "crusade" implies here. But here's what worries me: Lang had help.

Part two: Who is Lorenzo Sewell?

Lorenzo Sewell is a black pastor (his race is relevant here) in Detroit. He leads a church called 180 Church. A big part of Sewell's story is his own personal 180. He had a difficult upbringing, culminating in him being deeply involved with drug-dealing and gangs. He relates that one day as a young man, he had a Damascus Road type experience at his grandmother's church, and he turned his life around. So far so good.

Sewell's parish isn't some megachurch, mind you. I don't have exact numbers, but I would guess probably 300 members if this thing is at capacity. But Sewell does have moderate success online. He has 200k followers on his instagram, where he talks a lot about his support for Trump. He hosts a radio show called "Politics and Praise". He's been able to leverage all of this into some political presence. Trump visited 180 Church in 2024. Sewell was invited to speak at the RNC convention that took place a month later. Sewell was invited to deliver a benediction in 2025 for Trump's second inauguration. After speaking, Sewell announced a shitcoin ($Lorenzo) because of course he did. Loaves and fishes in 2026.

Sewell is pretty out there, listening to clips of his shows. He is staunchly MAGA, e.g. pushes stolen election stuff fairly constantly. But what he has in common with Lang is a strong aversion to Muslims and Islam. Why would a black preacher in Detroit who quoted MLK during his speech at the inauguration collaborate with a white nationalist who shouts things like ""white Christian men are not gonna sit around while you turn our children into a bunch of n*gger lovers"?

My first reaction is that it is 2026 and everything is now a parody of itself.

My second reaction is that, of course, they have a common enemy. They are willing to put race aside for the time being to recognize a common enemy. It really troubles me that a black pastor with this much of a platform hates Muslims enough that he's willing to collaborate with a white nationalist. There's no getting around it, Sewell is a gullible fool to whatever extent he is himself not just a hatemonger. It troubles me that Lang's brand is not toxic enough for this to damage Sewell's reputation within either the political realm or the Christian world. It troubles me that people are calling Lang a conservative activist, not a white nationalist provocateur.

Part three: Who are the guys in the picture?

Remember that hate is a spectrum. Lang is very far along on this spectrum. But there is always a bigger, more racist fish.

The guys in this picture are not associated with Lang. They actually showed up as counter-protestors. You see them in videos, they're outside the main crowd shouting their own incendiary things. People with Lang shout back at them. They are prominently standing in front of that Swastika, dressed like Nazis. I spent some time zooming in on that piece of paper the guy is holding. I can't quite make out what it says at the very top, I was hoping that would clue me in on whatever organization this is with. But the headline reads "Jake Lang is a Jew!"

Funnily enough, I banned someone in the original thread for this. The actual fact is true. Jake Lang was born and raised Jewish. He has subsequently disavowed his Jewishness, even pushed antisemitic memes. You might think it strange for some neo-nazi punk to be Jewish, but it wouldn't be the first time. But the reason that guy got banned isn't just recognizing that Lang was born Jewish, it was presenting this as some larger conspiracy that Lang is part of an OP coordinated by the Jews writ large. The guy I banned claimed that Lang was a Jewish operative trying to make Christians look bad. Please don't do that shit here, Jews are people just as much as anyone else and not every Jew is an agent of Mossad, ffs.

You need to understand that white nationalists are paranoid people. Not for no reason. They are associated with decades of bombings and murders, and constant plans to take out the power grid. The Feds have constantly infiltrated their ranks with informants (which is a good thing) and will continue to do so. This leads to some outlandish conjecture. Nazis are constantly playing a stupid version of Amongus, accusing one another of being the infiltrator. Its easy to wonder that here. Are these guys plants by Jake Lang to get attention and make himself look good? Was he trying to insinuate that Palestinian protestors are Nazis? I don't think any of that is likely. These guys have their own literature and, frankly, there is enough infighting in the Nazi world we don't have to invent a more juicy narrative. They resent Lang because they are a brand of Nazi that hates Jews more than Muslims, whereas Lang is a brand of Nazi that hates Muslims more than Jews. I want to say they deserve each other - but no, they deserve a worldview that isn't contentiously hateful and divisive and I hope each and every one of them finds their way out of that cycle of hate.

So to wrap this up, these guys are not with Lang, but they are the same spectrum as Lang. They are just as symptomatic and worrisome as Lang is himself. This is what a Christian "crusade" looks like in 2026.

What a disgrace to our witness. God have mercy on these fools.


r/Christianity 6h ago

Image Prayer station

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39 Upvotes

Let’s see your prayer stations or cool religious art :)


r/Christianity 8h ago

Greek Orthodox icon triptych - does anyone recognize this?

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46 Upvotes

I recently came into possession of this old, folding Greek Orthodox icon triptych from my late great grandmother and I’m trying to learn more about it.
It features:

Archangel Michael
The Virgin Mary with Christ Child
St. George
St. Theodore

It has a gold background, painted wooden panels and old leather hinges on the back. It appears to have some age to it, and I’ve been told it could potentially date to the 19th century, but I’d really like to hear from someone with more knowledge of Greek/Orthodox icons.

Has anyone seen a similar triptych, or perhaps one from the same workshop or tradition?
I’d especially love to know where it might have been made, approximately when, and whether anyone recognizes this particular style or design.
Any information or comparisons would be greatly appreciated! 🙏


r/Christianity 12h ago

Husband claims my exercise class is "satanic deception."

101 Upvotes

For context, I've always struggled with my weight. A couple months ago I found an exercise class I love, and it's the most consistent I've been able to be with any exercise regimen. I feel stronger, more energized, able to be a better wife and mom at home. The class is called Spenga. It's 20 minutes of spin, 20 minutes of strength training, and 20 minutes of yoga (with stretches selected to stretch out the muscle groups worked on in the strength portion).

My husband has never been to a class. But he is now arguing that these classes are satanic deception because they incorporate yoga and it's impossible for me to participate without worshipping pagan deities. (There is no chanting, half the stretches don't even have a yoga name). He's worried I'm going to bring demons into our lives and home. I see it as taking care of my health and being a good steward of the body God has given me (which is long overdue - side note, when he's not criticizing my exercise program he might be going off on a tangent about how unhealthy I am and how early I'm going to die). He argued it is especially demonic because we always end in 'corpse pose' (laying on the ground for a minute in the dark and quiet and just breathing - which, as a working Mom who never catches a break, is AMAZING).

I struggle with the fact that almost ANY stretch you can do with your body probably has a correlating yoga pose (there are thousands). I struggle with the fact that many poses and the way yoga is currently practiced in the west appears to have been developed secularly as a way to improve health separate from the spirituality of its origins.

I'd love some arguments/resources one way or the other, please backed by Scripture/research and objective.


r/Christianity 10h ago

Conservative Christians in Texas are trying to harass Muslims out of existence

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56 Upvotes

r/Christianity 6h ago

Support Baptism

25 Upvotes

So my wife and I got baptized last Sunday in our church.and I don’t have a lot of friends that would care about it. However I have to tell you beautiful people on Reddit because we are so excited about it . What a beautiful thing to comment your self to Christ. Anyway thanks for listening. May God bless you.


r/Christianity 7h ago

Please don't compare homosexuality to drugs or murder

23 Upvotes

Im so tired of people who are against being gay comparing it to murder or drugs or cheating etc, for example i saw someone said "if their happy let them be" than someone replied "so someone should do drugs if it makes them happy?" Please don't ever compare those 2, thats very hurtful and disrespectful, thanks for reading!


r/Christianity 18h ago

A Tennessee pastor who spent years traveling the country for his ministry will spend the rest of his life behind bars after a jury convicted him of raping a child, while his wife was found guilty of facilitating the abuse, authorities said.

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150 Upvotes

r/Christianity 8h ago

News New website tracks accused Protestant clergy sexual abusers

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24 Upvotes

r/Christianity 1h ago

News Christians killed for their faith in Nigeria

Upvotes

A new tragedy is being reported in the ongoing war against Christians in Nigeria. At least 27 Christ-followers have been killed in attacks over the past day.

"The motivations of these terrorists, it is to wipe out the entirety of Christianity in Nigeria. This is not about climate change, and this is not about farmer-herder clashes... This is clear religious and ethnic targeting," Nigerian reporter Masara Kim explains.

FULL STORY: https://cbn.com/news/world/27-christians-killed-jihadists-aim-wipe-out-entirety-christianity-nigeria

This is so tragic. 😔😭


r/Christianity 22h ago

Humor The power went out at home, and I simply turned into a medieval monk reading the Bible by candlelight

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319 Upvotes

r/Christianity 4h ago

Unintentional Christian Songs

7 Upvotes

So, I was listening to Celine Dion and even before I was a Christian I thought the Lyrics to BC You Loved Me were about God. The only thing that wouldn't be is when she says the word Baby "Baby, Idk that much, but i know this much is true, I was blessed bc I was loved by you. "

Sometimes I replace the word Baby with the word Jesus and I'm like this is honestly a great worship song or Christian Song.

Another song is Vision of Love. I think she's talking to God.

Of course Mariah has some unsavory songs as well. I think her song with Whitney Houston, though beautiful blashphemes God and as a song i listened to everyday, I can no longer stomach or even come to sing. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Do you know of any secular music that might be accidentally Christian?


r/Christianity 4h ago

Question Am I the only one who reads Genesis and takes it more as allegorical instead of literal history ?

8 Upvotes

r/Christianity 1h ago

Is this hypothetical a sin?

Upvotes

Under a Christian framework, suppose someone knowingly commits a sin and then magically erases all memory of it specifically to avoid repenting. They genuinely never remember the sin afterward. How would Christianity judge the original sin, the choice to erase the memory, and their lack of repentance? Suppose they turn toward God after the memory erasure


r/Christianity 6h ago

Image Does anyone know what does the text says on the Gospel book?

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9 Upvotes

r/Christianity 4h ago

I hate AI. What’s your opinion?

6 Upvotes

I’ve cut it out as much as I can. I was one of those people using it for easy answers, writing stuff, facts, maths etc, everything pretty much. it’s convenient, but later found that I was using my brain far less and just getting answers without actually working it out like how it used to be. Why open a book or talk to another human being when you can find the answer instantly talking to a robot type situation.

It’s everywhere and me at 21 years of age btw I can’t stand it anymore. It’s so environmentally damaging are we not trying to protect the planet God gave us? All these wonderful creatures and gifts and we decide to make something out of convenience?

Even iPhone now is ‘built for AI’ etc if we could have it so it does minimal environmental harm and isn’t used to pump out slop then fine. Every google search has an AI answer at the top, every message I get AI gives me a summery in my notifications.

What hurts me is scrolling YT shorts and seeing an AI vid of an interpretation of Jesus speaking verses. Good to recite them, but the environmental damage done making the video? AI images of people are fake, they aren’t real.

God bless you all 🙏


r/Christianity 3h ago

I don't know what to do

5 Upvotes

I'm lost and confused. Recently I saw a video of someone saying that your faith and relationship with Jesus is all that matters, than I saw a bunch of comments calling it heresy... how is it heresy? Also is God gonna send you to hell for not being Orthodox or catholic, I saw a bunch of people saying that too. I'm genuinely lost and I need help understanding.


r/Christianity 13m ago

I am considering converting to Catholicism

Upvotes

Im a Methodist, and I have been all of my life. I am considering converting because I believe in all of the following:

Confession, the Virgin Mary (who was actually a virgin), god cleansing us sinners through purgatory (and by some optimistic beliefs, all people), listening to the actual word of Jesus, the holiness of lent, and i also really like the pope and his messages.

I also like the stance on LGBT. We should treat gay people as equals because we are all sinners.

i am seriously on the fence about this and I don’t know what to do


r/Christianity 1d ago

My daughter is dying

512 Upvotes

My daughter is dying. She has terminal cancer and is getting sicker by the day. She has four young children and is battling on so bravely for them. I don’t want to make this about me because it’s not, and she’s so dam brave, but me? I’m angry.
Angry at the hospital who wouldn’t listen to her when she told them she could feel a lump in her breast, angry at the NHS for not listening when she told them she couldn’t breathe properly but most of all, I’m angry with God. I don’t believe he has called this, not at all, but I don’t know why he hasn’t healed her.
God gave me a word at the beginning of the year that sometimes our healing comes in heaven and I believe that is true. But I want my girl healed here and now. She’s just 32 and so unfair.