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What is Christianity, and what makes a Christian a Christian?

pwfaith

pwfaith

Active Member
Gjallarhorn said:
What is Christianity and what makes a Christian a Christian
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This is the absolute best description I have ever read to answer that question "The Bible's Answer to the Question: What is a Christian?" by Wayne Mack

Aside from that I would say a Christian is someone who has placed their eternal fate in the hands of Jesus - meaning they have confessed/repented, and believed in his life, death and resurrection for their sin. I would say Christianity is a family of people who follow Jesus, love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind and soul and love their neighbors as themselves - or are at least trying to do that :)
 
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G

Gaura Priya

IRL
pwfaith said:
This is the absolute best description I have ever read to answer that question "The Bible's Answer to the Question: What is a Christian?" by Wayne Mack

Aside from that I would say a Christian is someone who has placed their eternal fate in the hands of Jesus - meaning they have confessed/repented, and believed in his life, death and resurrection for their sin. I would say Christianity is a family of people who follow Jesus, love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind and soul and love their neighbors as themselves - or are at least trying to do that :)
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All hundreds and hundreds of denominations of them. :D

I like the position of the Disciples of Christ. Anyone who believes in Christ and the Bible, is a Christian, regardless of creed or denomination.
 
Pegg

Pegg

Jehovah our God is One
Gjallarhorn said:
It's come up several times in discussions and debates on this forum. People will be arguing about Christianity without having a set definition. I have seen people claim that Christianity is accepting the entire Bible as fact, only the New Testament, only the Gospels, and some strip it down even less than that.

What I want to know is, what is the bare-bones definition of Christianity? The definition that if you do not adhere to it you cannot legitimately call yourself a Christian. Must you believe Jesus existed? That he still exists? That the Bible is true? Must you believe in God? Does the story of the virgin birth matter? Etc.

Anyone who answers, please check your answer for any hidden suppositions and add them to your answer. I'm tired of people posting oversimplified definitions.
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Christianity, from the latinized Greek term Khri‧sti‧a‧nos′, refers to followers of Christ Jesus.

“It was first in Antioch [Syria] that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians.” (Ac 11:26) The term was current around 58 C.E., for King Herod Agrippa II reportedly said to the Apostle Paul: “In a short time you would persuade me to become a Christian.”—Ac 26:28.

Christianity is 'technically' a Messianic Judaic religion. Thats how it began. They were jews who believed the promised Messiah (as prophesied in the hebrew scriptures) had arrived. They put their faith in him as the one sent by God to save mankind from sin and death. They were all followers of the Mosaic law, they were all jews to begin with and the New Testament writings are their way of explaining how the prophecies of the hebrew scriptures & promises concerning the Messiah were fulfilled by Jesus, or were soon to be fulfilled (not everything was fulifilled at that time - more was to come in the future). It was only later that gentiles were invited into the congregations and that was because God has poured his holy spirit on a gentile for the first time and spoke to the Apostle Peter about bringing in the gentiles.

To be a Christian one must accept that Jesus is God’s specially Anointed One and only-begotten Son, the Promised Seed who sacrificed his human life as a ransom, was resurrected and exalted to the right hand of Jehovah, and received authority to subdue his enemies and vindicate Jehovah’s name. (Mt 20:28; Lu 24:46; Joh 3:16; Ga 3:16; Php 2:9-11; Heb 10:12, 13)

They also have to view the Bible as the inspired Word of God, absolute truth, and the only authoritative explanation of spiritual truth as Jesus did.
They must dedicate their lives to Jehovah, to worship and serve him, and then submit to water baptism as Jesus did. (Mt 28:19; Ac 2:38; 3:19)

Christians must be firmly resolved to uphold Gods moral standards as Jesus did. And one of the most important commands for a christian is to show 'love of neighbor' in every regard. These are the basics of being a christian...there is also performing the same work that Jesus and his apostles performed...that of preaching the good new of the kingdom. Christians must be preachers in keeping with Jesus command to 'Go and make disciples of people of all the nations'
 
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Pegg

Pegg

Jehovah our God is One
Gaura Priya said:
All hundreds and hundreds of denominations of them. :D

I like the position of the Disciples of Christ. Anyone who believes in Christ and the Bible, is a Christian, regardless of creed or denomination.
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yes this is true Gaura

The problem is that not every christian is a 'good' christian. Not all christians meet Gods standards and requirements as laid out by Christ and his apostles.

That is why Jesus himself said about Christians:
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. 22 Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ 23 And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew YOU! Get away from me, YOU workers of lawlessness

As christians, we have to be sure we are following Jesus correctly. There is a right and wrong way to be a christian. if we stick closely to the writings of the greek scriptures, we will be on the right path.
 
waitasec

waitasec

Veteran Member
whoever wants to be jesus disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow him...




whatever that means
 
Pegg

Pegg

Jehovah our God is One
waitasec said:
whoever wants to be jesus disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow him...


whatever that means
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it means a christian must be willing to sacrifice some things in order to follow Christ.
 
Falvlun

Falvlun

Earthbending Lemur
Premium Member
sojourner said:
I agree with you with the following caveat:
Is not reconciliation with God captured in ordering one's life such that Jesus is the impetus for one's living? if Jesus is reconciliation, then living one's life wherein Jesus is the impetus means living into a paradigm of reconciliation, yes?
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I'm down with that. It makes sense.

My only quibble, then, is that "living one's life wherein Jesus is the impetus" is still pretty ambiguous. The fact we can and do reject completely oddball ways in which people claim to be following Jesus, it means that we still are drawing a line somewhere, where this is "legitimate" Jesus following, and therefore, legitimate Christianity, and this is not legitimate.
 
idav

idav

Being
Premium Member
Falvlun said:
I'm down with that. It makes sense.

My only quibble, then, is that "living one's life wherein Jesus is the impetus" is still pretty ambiguous. The fact we can and do reject completely oddball ways in which people claim to be following Jesus, it means that we still are drawing a line somewhere, where this is "legitimate" Jesus following, and therefore, legitimate Christianity, and this is not legitimate.
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It isn't ambiguos to follow Jesus except for the fact that nobody really knows who Jesus is/was. If you think Jesus is the way then that is enough. Interpretation of Jesus may be different but Christ is the only common factor necessary.

A person could spend their whole life searching for the golden chalase or evidence of Jesus being married all on completely different theological ideologies. They would both be christian.
 
Alceste

Alceste

Vagabond
Gjallarhorn said:
It's come up several times in discussions and debates on this forum. People will be arguing about Christianity without having a set definition. I have seen people claim that Christianity is accepting the entire Bible as fact, only the New Testament, only the Gospels, and some strip it down even less than that.

What I want to know is, what is the bare-bones definition of Christianity? The definition that if you do not adhere to it you cannot legitimately call yourself a Christian. Must you believe Jesus existed? That he still exists? That the Bible is true? Must you believe in God? Does the story of the virgin birth matter? Etc.

Anyone who answers, please check your answer for any hidden suppositions and add them to your answer. I'm tired of people posting oversimplified definitions.
Click to expand...

To be a Christian, one must only believe that one is a Christian.
 
blackout

blackout

Violet.
Whatever said christian SAYS makes them a christian.

Let people be what they want.
What is it to everyone else?
 
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