You guessed it.  This is the first in a series of “Words Christians Use,” or simply, the first section of a Christian dictionary/desktop encyclopedia.  Short phrases may occasionally be included due to an associated controversy.  It seemed appropriate to begin with “A,” so let’s just dive in.

(c) Vicki Priest

Acts, Book of.  The Book of “Acts” doesn’t refer to a play.  “Acts” is the word used instead of “activities” or “doings” that we might more ordinarily use today, in reference to what the earliest Christians did.  That section of the New Testament covers the time from immediately after Christ’s death, probably in AD/CE 30, to  AD/CE 60 or 61.

Adam.  Adam is widely known as the first human made by God, but there’s more to understand about “Adam” than that.  First, God said He made man in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27), but “man” is the term for “human,” since man includes both “male and female” (see verse 27).  Second, it is very basic and very important to Christianity to understand that Adam was the cause of the Fall of Man, and not Eve.  God had instructed Adam to not do something (eat of the Tree of Life), and he disobeyed God by following Eve’s lead after being deceived by Satan.  Eve had been mistaken and Adam could have corrected her, but instead, he purposely defied God.  Because of Adam’s action, the entirety of humankind fell from God’s grace.  Third, Jesus Christ is referred to as the new Adam in the New Testament.  Jesus came to take away the sins of all those humans who would accept him and his obedient work in God.   Jesus’ complete obedience was, and is, the [only] corrective to Adam’s (and thus humanity’s) disobedience.

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