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Why are so many Christians unwilling to say they are Christians?

paarsurrey

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
Alien826 said:
For a while, I was a member of the United Methodist church. I had an experience that made me believe that something that could loosely be described as "God" existed. I decided that it would be a good thing to join a community of other "theists", but which one? I read something that suggested the dominant religion of my own culture was a good choice, because then I didn't have to become familiar with the cultural aspects of other religions. I shopped around a bit and found that the local Methodists weren't too fussy about what I believed, within reason, and so I joined them.

I must say though that I was never totally comfortable describing myself as "Christian" as I couldn't get to a belief in so many of the basics, like resurrection, virgin birth, the Trinity, and so on. Nevertheless I did so for convenience, and the Church didn't seem too worried about it. I decided that the "many roads to heaven" idea was likely correct, though my own version was "one road, many vehicles".

Eventually it all faded away, though I'm still not (quite) an atheist.
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One has come out of the Pauline-Hellenist Christianity which was never founded by Jesus- the Jewish Messiah, one must say. Right?
Now one should focus on the truthful acts and teachings of Jesus that is possible by sincere search/research, I gather, under the Religious Method, which is that the claims must be supported by the reasonable arguments that satisfy one heart and soul. Right?
The West is under hold of a temporary influence of the "religion- "none"s in counter-reaction to the Pauline-Hellenistic-Christianity. Right?
Rest assured they ("none"s) don't have any reasonable argument to support their own ism/ianity/whatever, I understand, please. Right?

Regards
 
paarsurrey

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
Wildswanderer said:
Don't the Methodist quote the Nicene Creed every Sunday? How could you participate if you didn't believe most of it?
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"Nicene Creed"
Nothing of it is from Jesus- the Jewish Messiah, as he claimed to be, one gathers, please. Right?

Regards
____________
"Matthew 26:63-64, the High Priest directly confronted Yeshua, saying to Him, “I charge You under oath by the living God, tell us if You are Messiah Ben-Elohim!” (the Messiah Son of God). Yeshua responded: “as you have said,” thus affirming under oath that He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God."
Messianic Jewish Ministry Spreading the Good News of Yeshua | Jewish Voice
 
W

Wildswanderer

Veteran Member
paarsurrey said:
"Nicene Creed"
Nothing of it is from Jesus- the Jewish Messiah, as he claimed to be, one gathers, please. Right?

Regards
____________
"Matthew 26:63-64, the High Priest directly confronted Yeshua, saying to Him, “I charge You under oath by the living God, tell us if You are Messiah Ben-Elohim!” (the Messiah Son of God). Yeshua responded: “as you have said,” thus affirming under oath that He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God."
Messianic Jewish Ministry Spreading the Good News of Yeshua | Jewish Voice
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Wrong. And of course he's the Messiah.
 
Sand Dancer

Sand Dancer

Currently catless
Wildswanderer said:
Seems dishonest to me to be a member of a church and not believe what is essential to that church.
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Supposedly, a good number of pastors don't even believe anymore, but it's the only job they are trained for. There are so many ways to be part of a religion anymore, even the dogmatic ones. It's not a one-size-fits-all thing. People are individuals.
 
W

Wildswanderer

Veteran Member
Thirza Fallen said:
Supposedly, a good number of pastors don't even believe anymore, but it's the only job they are trained for. There are so many ways to be part of a religion anymore, even the dogmatic ones. It's not a one-size-fits-all thing. People are individuals.
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Again if you don't agree with the basic doctrine of the church you are basically lying to others by becoming a member. If you were just attending to learn, that's a different thing.
If you are a pastor who doesn't believe you are the worst kind of liar.
 
Sand Dancer

Sand Dancer

Currently catless
Wildswanderer said:
Again if you don't agree with the basic doctrine of the church you are basically lying to others by becoming a member. If you were just attending to learn, that's a different thing.
If you are a pastor who doesn't believe you are the worst kind of liar.
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just saying with all of the differences, denominations, etc, it shouldn't be an all or nothing thing. I have read books by these pastors, and as soon as they could, they left the church to pursue other careers. No one wants to be in a job they don't believe in.
 
W

Wildswanderer

Veteran Member
Thirza Fallen said:
just saying with all of the differences, denominations, etc, it shouldn't be an all or nothing thing. I have read books by these pastors, and as soon as they could, they left the church to pursue other careers. No one wants to be in a job they don't believe in.
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Unless they are there to deliberately decieve people. False teachers are far too common.
 
LuisDantas

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Not a race I have a horse on, but my sincere impression is that the word "Christian", used alone with no complement or qualification, has become just too vague. At this point in history it is perhaps more useful as a (very rough) quick and dirty way of describing whole cultural perspectives than as an indicator of faith, belief and adherence.

Even many people who rarely ever think of Jesus or of Christianity are often called by that name, perhaps without even being asked about it. It is only fair, and to be expected, that many people who value their faith and beliefs will want to use more descriptive terminology to actually communicate something.

On the other hand, the groups that currently actually make a point of declaring themselves Christians and do not feel any great urge to qualify or comment on that tend to have some specific traits that often make other, more discrete yet probably sincere Christians a bit unconfortable, which motivates them to present themselves in contrasting ways in order to distance themselves from those more outspoken groups.

That, too, is only fair. There is really very little to conclude from learning that a given person is a Christian from, say, a multiple choice question in a formulary without any other context. You can assume that said person would not call himself or herself an atheist and that at some point it learned at least a bit about Jesus. And that is pretty much all.

The situation may well be considerably different in more specific environments. But not here in these forums.
 
John57

John57

New Member
"It's better to be called a Christian then to call yourself one". Because, a Christian is a follower of Christ, a disciple. If you want to see what Jesus requires of one to be a disciple of His, look up these scriptures. Luke 6:46-49, Luke 14:26, 27 & 33, John 8:31-34, John 13:34 & 35, John 15:8.

If you are going to call yourself a Christian, then be one. Don’t mock people or call them names or be hateful towards your fellowman. A true Christian loves one another.

We really need to be cautious about how we represent ourselves and express our Christian beliefs. If you want to be humble and someone asks you if you are a Christian, just tell them that your faith is in Jesus Christ, that He is our Savior and that you try to follow Him as best as you can, but you are not without fault. Then when you do mess up, no one gets hurt.
 
PearlSeeker

PearlSeeker

Well-Known Member
paarsurrey said:
Kindly quote from Jesus about the "Nicene creed", please. Right?
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Maybe the first line is also what Jesus supposed to teach:

"I beleeve in one God the Father Almighty... "

And the last lines:

"And I look for the Resurrection of the dead,
And the life of the world to come."
 
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