What Makes Someone a Christian?

Jesus' followers insisted that God raised Jesus from the dead and that his death-resurrection had decisively changed the nature of human relationships with God. The creeds, the books of scripture (including ancient Jewish texts, the Gospels, and the early church writings by the apostles), and key leaders/writers/thinkers shaped Christian communities called the Church. In thinking about who Jesus was and how he talked about his relationship with God, Christians began to teach that the One God had three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They called this the Trinity.