Who is a Christian?? !!

[oldbadger]

Before Covid I used to cycle around my local area and would visit chapels and churches which held tea'n'chat meetings. On one occasion I passed a Christian hall and saw a poster which read something like 'soup and chat', and I walked inside just as the event was commencing. A long table was set and many mid-aged and elderly folks sat around; I was guided to a place.

A very stern lady across the table fixed me in her gaze and an interrogation began:-
Who are you?
Hello I'm oldbadger.
Why have you come here?
I wanted to meet you, and the soup is interesting.
How did you know about this meeting?
I saw a big poster outside.
Do you walk in to any place because of posters?
Yes..... I often do.
Where else have you just walked in to?
Oh, lots of places. The Methodist church holds tea/biscuit meets on Saturday mornings.
She grunted what sounded like disapproval. I mentioned a few other meetings and then the room erupted.
I said....
Oh, and the Christian Spiritualists in T--------- offering healing and tea on Mondays at 1.30pm.

This stern lady exploded.
They are not Christians! They worship the Devil! All these evil people who pretend to be Christians...... Jesus warned us about you all! And that disgusting Halloween...... ............ well this carried on for minutes until she could be calmed down.

This has happened many times....... I once mentioned that we have JW Christian friends and we are pleased to let them park on our driveway when visiting homes in the area, and several Christians immediately pointed out that JWs are different, or not proper Christians......

There are many many differing churches and creeds, and so I wonder....... who is a proper Christian?

[JehovahsWitness]

Yes!

Accepting the entire canon of "holy writings" as the bible puts it, is one way we can identify "a man or women of God". Which is why (unless a Christian doesnt have to be a man of God) so many that self-identify as Christians, disqualify themselves right off the bat. They freely admit they reject certain parts of holy scripture while also claiming to be Christian; biblically an impossibility.

Thank you for your post.
Do you think that only the Jehovah's Witnesses could be identified as Christians, or are there any other churches that you know of that follow the same list of characteristics?

The list I posted is not complete but in my opinion there's enough on it to eliminate all the major Christian denominations. If I didn't believe Jehovahs Witnesses were the ONLY people that represented the True God today I wouldn't be one.



JW

[oldbadger]

The list I posted is not complete but in my opinion there's enough on it to eliminate all the major Christian denominations. If I didn't believe Jehovahs Witnesses were the ONLY people that represented the True God today I wouldn't be one.
JW

OK. Thank you for your answers.

[2timothy316]

Religion:a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion

So according to the dictionary, a religion can be just one person.

Can it? I've always thought that Belief, Faith and Religion have quite different meanings.

Good old IT:-
Main Difference – Faith vs Religion
The main difference between faith and religion is that faith is the complete trust and confidence in someone or something whereas religion is a specific system of belief and/or worship, often involving a code of ethics and philosophy.

Can you see the difference?

Good line of thought you're going down here I hope enjoy this post.

Indeed there are different meanings. What though should define these concepts? Well, since the Bible is supposed to be the core of Christianity then shouldn't we use the Bible to define these concepts?

Lets start with faith.

Faith is defined in the Bible as, "Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen." - Hebrews 11:1

We have faith that tomorrow the Sun will rise and gravity will still work though we can't see tomorrow. Why? Because we have an 'evident demonstration of realities'. We have have seen the pattern of the Earth rotating around the Sun all of our lives and have a record that even before we were alive, the Earth did the same thing.

Faith is not based on belief that something does exist or something will happen. Faith is based on evidence of past and/or current evidence that something exists or will happen.

Now let think of what a religion is and consider the Bible. Let's assume that Adam and Eve never rebelled in the Garden of Eden and followed God's instructions. Their children did the same and lets say everyone did what God told them to do all the way down to us today. Would the concept of religion even be needed? There would never be a plural form of the word at least if such a concept was needed. The first religion came into being when A&E decided to do their own thing.

[2timothy316]

I would think that the Bible would be the source to tell who is a Christian. Many say it's the Word of God, so shouldn't the One that gave the name also shape the critreria for who is truly Christian?

Hello again.... are you saying that a Christian must accept all that is in the bible? Is it all the word of God?

If a Christian is supposed to be a follower of Christ and there is no Record of Christ denying the Bible but actually living by it's principles and even quoting from it to teach, then yes.

[William]

I would think that the Bible would be the source to tell who is a Christian. Many say it's the Word of God, so shouldn't the One that gave the name also shape the critreria for who is truly Christian?

Hello again.... are you saying that a Christian must accept all that is in the bible? Is it all the word of God?

If a Christian is supposed to be a follower of Christ and there is no Record of Christ denying the Bible but actually living by it's principles and even quoting from it to teach, then yes.

There is no record of Jesus Christ denying the Bible because the Christian Bible did not exist and would not exist for many decades after his departure.

[2timothy316]

I would think that the Bible would be the source to tell who is a Christian. Many say it's the Word of God, so shouldn't the One that gave the name also shape the critreria for who is truly Christian?

Hello again.... are you saying that a Christian must accept all that is in the bible? Is it all the word of God?

If a Christian is supposed to be a follower of Christ and there is no Record of Christ denying the Bible but actually living by it's principles and even quoting from it to teach, then yes.

There is no record of Jesus Christ denying the Bible because the Christian Bible did not exist and would not exist for many decades after his departure.

The Bible of Jesus time would be what you'd know of as the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures. This makes up the majority of the Bible we know today.
The New Testament or Christian Greek Scriptures are for Christians.

Jesus is recorded quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures, "“It is written: ‘Man must live, not on bread alone, but on every word that comes from Jehovah’s mouth.’” That would include the Hebrew Scriptures as well as Greek Scriptures.

So yes, for a Christian, following all of the holy scriptures is important for life.

[William]

[Replying to 2timothy316 in post #56]

So yes, for a Christian, following all of the holy scriptures is important for life.

So in that, are you suggesting that "who is a Christian" is "Who is following all of the holy scriptures"?

[2timothy316]

[Replying to 2timothy316 in post #56]

So yes, for a Christian, following all of the holy scriptures is important for life.

So in that, are you suggesting that "who is a Christian" is "Who is following all of the holy scriptures"?

No Christ is. Matthew 4:4. “It is written: ‘Man must live, not on bread alone, but on every word that comes from Jehovah’s mouth.’”

[William]

[Replying to 2timothy316 in post #56]

So yes, for a Christian, following all of the holy scriptures is important for life.

So in that, are you suggesting that "who is a Christian" is "Who is following all of the holy scriptures"?

No Christ is. Matthew 4:4. “It is written: ‘Man must live, not on bread alone, but on every word that comes from Jehovah’s mouth.’”

Is every word which comes from YHWH's 'mouth' contained in scripture?

[tam]

Peace to you,

Tam.... if you had to define what a Christian is, how would you do that so that any person could easily understand?

I'm not sure I know what I could say other than what I said in the first post:

A Christian is a disciple of Christ who is also anointed with holy spirit.

viewtopic.php?p=1080756#p1080756

As for the disciple part: a disciple (of Christ) is someone who listens to, learns from, follows, and obeys Christ. Christ comes first. He Himself, His words, His commands, His example.


As for being anointed (which makes a person an anointed one; a christian): that anointing is not up to us. Christ is the One who chooses. As an example of receiving holy spirit, this is what Christ gave when He breathed holy spirit (not a person, but rather the breath/blood/seed of JAH) upon the apostles. But anointed or not, if we love Him - as He has said - we will obey HIS commands and remain in HIS word.



Peace again to you!
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy