Originally Posted by teroblacknight

I'm a theology maj and a Christian, so let's see if I can give you some insight...

Christ comes from the greek word kristos, it's a title, and as you guys have pointed out, it means something along the lines of savior...the term itself is basically interchangeable with the hebrew word Mashiach, which means messiah, and as ya'll have pointed out earlier, "anointed one"

As to the meaning of "anointed one," Judaism has a completely different meaning than Christianity. Since Judaism is the context in which the whole Jesus thing went down, it's helpful to think about it from a Judaic viewpoint. They thought their messiah would be some sort of mighty military king; someone who would reclaim the throne of King David and secure Israel's kingdom forever. The basic difference between what Christians then believe is that God did send a messiah to Israel (and the rest of the world, but Israel first), but didn't do it in the way the Jews all expected it would. Jesus came as a non-violent messiah, one who was outright denied by many Jews, and for the purpose of securing a new covenant with humanity. This was really nuts because the Christ was exactly the opposite of what the Jews thought he would be...instead of leading them to military victory, he was killed in a graphic, public, shameful way.

In doing so, Christ did not secure Israel as a nation. In fact, it got wiped completely off the map in 70 AD through Roman destruction. He did however (and here's where the religious aspects of Christ come into play) die in order to create a new covenant between man and God; that is, as I'm sure you've all heard a million times before, the forgiveness of sins. Essentially the death of death in the death of Christ.