What REALLY is a Christian according to the Bible?

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Whathell

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The term Christianity is thrown around a lot… when relating to Christian things. So what then really is a Christian according to the Bible scriptures?

Does saying “I am a Christian” make you a Christian in the sight of God?

Does belonging to a religious organization make you a Christian in the sight of God?

How does God define a Christian in Bible scriptures?

Do you have to wait and see if you will be Christian in the sight of God or is it something you can know now?
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You are a Christian if you are a member of Christ’s Church, and faithful to His teachings, which are preserved in His Church for our benefit. We have a living relationship with Christ through the Sacraments and through prayer.

Think of the Church as a kind of “telephone connection” with Heaven.

If you throw away the telephone, thinking that it is a barrier to communications (because it sometimes has static on the line) you will not actually communicate with God any better; in fact, you will be worse off than when you had to put up with a bit of static now and then.
 
wasnt jesus supposed to be the telephone? maybe the church is the telephone company. 😃
 
A Christian is a follower of Christ and His teachings. There is intellectual assent needed as well as physical adherance to his rules and laws. There is more needed than saying that you are Christian to be Christian.

I cannot answer for any of the “sight of God” as I am not God, cannot think like God, and will not try to. I can say that we have to try to follow Jesus here, and when we fail, we have to get back right with God before we die.
 
Whathell said:
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The term Christianity is thrown around a lot… when relating to Christian things. So what then really is a Christian according to the Bible scriptures?**

A Christian is a believer in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. He not only believe, but trust and be obedient to all the teachings of Christ.
Does saying “I am a Christian” make you a Christian in the sight of God?
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You don’t wait. You must be baptized by water and spirit, repent. You must obey all the commandments of God. You obey because you do it out of love for God. It would be wrong to make the commandment too legalistic.

God judges everyone by their deed and if he is righteous, he will gain heaven. If he is disobedient, the Christian will be damned to hell if he is unrepentent.
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Whathell said:
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The term Christianity is thrown around a lot… when relating to Christian things. So what then really is a Christian according to the Bible scriptures?

Does saying “I am a Christian” make you a Christian in the sight of God?

Does belonging to a religious organization make you a Christian in the sight of God?

How does God define a Christian in Bible scriptures?

Do you have to wait and see if you will be Christian in the sight of God or is it something you can know now?
**
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Well historically, this is a problem that dates all the way back to the earliest days of the church. Just what exactly constitutes a Christian? Between 100-300 AD, Docetists, Gnostics, Arians, and a few other groups all considered themselves to be Christians, although most groups that call themselves Christian today would NOT consider them to be so. This issue was so thorny that a general council was called to consider the issue. Just what EXACTLY were the minimum requirements necessary for one to believe in order to be considered a Christian? That council, of course, was the Council of Nicaea, and it resulted in the Nicene Creed, which was formulated for exactly this purpose.

So the answer, in the opinion of the Early Church, at least, would be that you have to believe in the statements included within the Nicene Creed to be considered Christian. This would include Catholics, Orthodox, and most Protestant groups. It would rule out Unitarians, Universalists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Anti-Trinitarians, and a few other groups.
 
whathell,

So when someone tells you they will say a prayer for you or pray for you you should say hell no!! Right???
 
Whathell said:
Exactly right… Jesus is the phone. You do not have to go through anyone else.
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In your analogy, if Jesus is the phone, then the saints are the people on the other end of the line, both talking together ON the phone. (Note that the saint is NOT the phone.)

Or possibly the saints are 411, or the operator, helping you to use the phone…either way the analogy still works.

I tend to agree with jmcrae though, I think that the Church is the phone. Jesus is who you’re calling.
 
hahaha…the Saints are the operator…finally something to laugh about on here…
 
jmcrae said:
You are a Christian if you are a member of Christ’s Church, and faithful to His teachings, which are preserved in His Church for our benefit. We have a living relationship with Christ through the Sacraments and through prayer.
Think of the Church as a kind of “telephone connection” with Heaven.
If you throw away the telephone, thinking that it is a barrier to communications (because it sometimes has static on the line) you will not actually communicate with God any better; in fact, you will be worse off than when you had to put up with a bit of static now and then.
Click to expand...
Hi

I think the OP suggests a quotation from NTBible or OTBible or from the Word of Jesus- in a straightforward way, not a roundabout way. The key sentence is “How does God define a Christian in Bible scriptures?”

Please

Thanks
 
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