What's a "Bible-believing Christian"?

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I have no idea what this term actually means, but the Catholics here have heard this term used by Protestants to imply that Catholics are not “Bible-believing Christians”. How prevalent is the phenomenon of Protestants promoting themselves as “Bible-believing Christians”.

Here is an example of this term used to put down transubstantiation:

creationontheweb.com/content/view/3855/
Darwin’s obvious anti-Christianity doesn’t stop Kenneth Miller claiming to be ‘an orthodox Catholic and an orthodox Darwinist’. He wrote a book, Finding Darwin’s God (2000), an anti-creationist polemic, to try to reconcile God and evolution. Miller has had a long history of joining forces with leading humanists against Creation, and his book is full of straw-man arguments, misinformation and outright deception.1 The last sentences in his book are revealing: ‘What kind of God do I believe in? … I believe in Darwin’s God.’ Since Darwin was anti-Christian as shown above, this is not the God any Christian can believe in. But the episode shows Miller attending Mass and taking communion, hoping that this show of outward religiosity will convince people who prefer outward appearances to inward convictions (cf. Matthew 23:25–28). Hopefully Bible-believing Christians will also realize that the Mass/transubstantiation contradicts the clear teaching that Christ was sacrificed once for all (Hebrews 9:26–28, 10:12–14).
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Well, I do not expect him to represent the tenets of Roman Catholicism correctly, but he misrepresented some ribozyme directed-evolution research here:

creationontheweb.com/content/view/4537

Too bad I didn’t listen to Gerald Joyce’s warning to me about not engaging creationists. Well, sending that letter did not accomplish anything. So I know these misrepresentations personally.

Now back to the OP, how does one distinguish whether the Catholic teachings are consistent with Scripture. How do you people answers Sarfati’s objections if he argues that Papal authority, purgatory, saints, sacraments, etc. are all unbiblical.
 
I’m not sure that the term “bible believing” is a protestant term. I was a prot most of my life and this term was never used in a serious way. I think it is sort of synonymous with serious or devout usualy. For example a Catholic who supports abortion would not be a bible believing Catholic. A Catholic who lives in support of all Church doctrine and law could be called a bible believing Catholic/Christian. Of course Protestants may wish to apply the term more towards themselves since they believe the bible is the authority, but it still gets it’s majority of use in describing the devout. Thats always been my opinion of the term, maybe others feel the term has other meanings.

-D
 
Darrel said:
I’m not sure that the term “bible believing” is a protestant term. I was a prot most of my life and this term was never used in a serious way. I think it is sort of synonymous with serious or devout usualy. For example a Catholic who supports abortion would not be a bible believing Catholic. A Catholic who lives in support of all Church doctrine and law could be called a bible believing Catholic/Christian. Of course Protestants may wish to apply the term more towards themselves since they believe the bible is the authority, but it still gets it’s majority of use in describing the devout. Thats always been my opinion of the term, maybe others feel the term has other meanings.

-D
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I think it is related to “Sola scriptora”
 
Darrel said:
I’m not sure that the term “bible believing” is a protestant term. I was a prot most of my life and this term was never used in a serious way. I think it is sort of synonymous with serious or devout usualy. For example a Catholic who supports abortion would not be a bible believing Catholic. A Catholic who lives in support of all Church doctrine and law could be called a bible believing Catholic/Christian. Of course Protestants may wish to apply the term more towards themselves since they believe the bible is the authority, but it still gets it’s majority of use in describing the devout. Thats always been my opinion of the term, maybe others feel the term has other meanings.

-D
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Actually, I’ve often heard people who claim they are “Bible-believing Christians”, especially among evangelical Protestants when they are “witnessing” to Catholics, or when they are being interviewed on television and honestly, I’ve often found their use of this term as amusing at best. “Bible-believing Christian” is only an indirect way of saying they are Sola Scripturalists, meaning all spiritual truth is found in the Bible and ONLY in the Bible, an indirect swipe at the Catholic position of sacred tradition side by side with scripture.

I’ve never heard of Catholics refer to themselves as “Bible-believing” Catholics, simply because it is redundant and unnecessary, as Catholics likewise believe in the Bible, just as we don’t refer to politicians as “politics-believing” politicians, since politicians are in fact practitioners of politics.
 
ribozyme said:
I have no idea what this term actually means, but the Catholics here have heard this term used by Protestants to imply that Catholics are not “Bible-believing Christians”. How prevalent is the phenomenon of Protestants promoting themselves as “Bible-believing Christians”.

Here is an example of this term used to put down transubstantiation:

creationontheweb.com/content/view/3855/

Well, I do not expect him to represent the tenets of Roman Catholicism correctly, but he misrepresented some ribozyme directed-evolution research here:

creationontheweb.com/content/view/4537

Too bad I didn’t listen to Gerald Joyce’s warning to me about not engaging creationists. Well, sending that letter did not accomplish anything. So I know these misrepresentations personally.

Now back to the OP, how does one distinguish whether the Catholic teachings are consistent with Scripture. How do you people answers Sarfati’s objections if he argues that Papal authority, purgatory, saints, sacraments, etc. are all unbiblical.
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“Bible-believing” refers to believing the doctrines contained within Scripture. Similarly, the term “biblical Christianity” is used by orthodox Protestants to counter the Liberal Protestant movement, not Catholicism.

Unfortunately, most Protestant churches claim to be “bible-believing,” but they don’t agree on some doctrines and issues. I think the term “Reformation-believing” would be more accurate. As to your question of defending the above Catholic teachings, I will leave them for someone else to answer, as I have serious Orthodox leanings and sympathies and do not necessarily agree with the universal papal authority. I will conclude, however, by saying that Catholicism is based on Scripture, tradition, and reason; not Scripture alone…👍

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius:cool:
 
RobedWithLight said:
Actually, I’ve often heard people who claim they are “Bible-believing” Christians, especially among evangelical Protestants when they are “witnessing” to Catholics, or when they are being interviewed on television. And it is only an indirect way of saying they are Sola Scripturalists, meaning all spiritual truth is found in the Bible and ONLY in the Bible, an indirect swipe at the Catholic position of sacred tradition side by side with scripture.

I’ve never heard of Catholics refer to themselves as “Bible-believing” Catholics, simply because it is redundant and unnecessary, as Catholics likewise believe in the Bible, just as we don’t refer to politicians as “politics-believing” politicians, since politicians are in fact practitioners of politics.
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From my history of evangelicalism, evangelicals would say that Catholics do not believe in the clear teachings of Scripture, but rather that Catholics have had their church corrupted with man-made traditions, which Christ condemned. They would also say that Catholics don’t read/know/interpret the Scriptures properly…right…:rolleyes:

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius:cool:
 
ribozyme said:
Too bad I didn’t listen to Gerald Joyce’s warning to me about not engaging creationists. Well, sending that letter did not accomplish anything. So I know these misrepresentations personally.

Now back to the OP, how does one distinguish whether the Catholic teachings are consistent with Scripture. How do you people answers Sarfati’s objections if he argues that Papal authority, purgatory, saints, sacraments, etc. are all unbiblical.
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I’m not familiar with that man’s work but regarding the question, “how does one distinguish whether Catholic teaching is consistent with scripture” is to examine the premise by 1) identifying the teaching, 2)going into scripture.

Every teaching I am familiar with comes from scripture, in most every teaching document on the topic cites the scripture it draws from. Then show them scripture that supports the teaching.

When anybody disagrees with you, you show them evidence. If they refuse to believe what is right in front of their eyes then they reject reason, they reject truth.

Presentation is important. If you’re on the streetcorner raving or if you write a 30,000 word post on the internet in garbled English you’re not presenting them with the evidence.

The same process is for Catholic teaching, incorrect ideas on the origin of life, which school has the better football team.

BTW, did you write that letter in the second link Ribo?

As for the “bible-believing” term from my experience I think it is less a counter agaisnt Catholics and more against Liberal sects of Christianity.

Edit: I left out the step where you judge if its worth hassling with. Thats always important too.
 
When I was an evangelical it was just an easy way to distinguish between “us” and “them” during the necessary practice of compartmentalizing others.
 
I bleive it is generally a term used by Evangelicals who ignore 2,000 years of teachings and traditions in favor of their own personal interpertation of Scripture.
 
A bible-believing Christian is one who believes that the scriptures are God’s infallible Words.
This is not a sola scriptura claim, by the way, as I didn’t say they believed that they were the ONLY source. 😉
 
It is a term used to self authoritate, Bill is a Bible-Believing Christian who will now tell you how to live. Really, Bill the man who has had 2 wives, 3 affairs, plus 2 illegitimate children, was removed twice in a strange manner and charged with thief that Bill? Yes since Bill’s conversion he has studied scripture for 6 years. Bill will save you from the awful Catholic Church. ( you can not believe how close that is to a true story )
 
For some, the term "bible-believing’ Christians can have unpleasant associations that would sadden and surprise most Protestants. When I first became a Christian I was confused by the wide variety of practices and beliefs of those who claimed that they were ‘bible-believing.’ I was also taken aback by the judgementalism of some of those who claimed the term.

Luckily, I have come across many good Protestants who use the term, ‘bible-believing’ to merely mean that they are not liberal Christians.
 
deb1 said:
For some, the term "bible-believing’ Christians can have unpleasant associations that would sadden and surprise most Protestants. When I first became a Christian I was confused by the wide variety of practices and beliefs of those who claimed that they were ‘bible-believing.’ I was also taken aback by the judgementalism of some of those who claimed the term.

Luckily, I have come across many good Protestants who use the term, ‘bible-believing’ to merely mean that they are not liberal Christians.
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i once got myself in a lot of trouble with a client who declared he was an “Old Testament kinda Christian” Without thinking I replied “OH-whats the name of your Rabbi?”
 
Hi,

I guess Ive never thought of it before. I am a bible believing christian. What it means to me is that I believe the bible to be 100% truth from God written to us so we know how to be more Christ-like in our walk with the Lord. That probably sounds simple but I do believe it is that simple for me anyway.😃
 
ALLFORHIM said:
Hi,

I guess Ive never thought of it before. I am a bible believing christian. What it means to me is that I believe the bible to be 100% truth from God written to us so we know how to be more Christ-like in our walk with the Lord. That probably sounds simple but I do believe it is that simple for me anyway.😃
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Does anyone know Chrisitans who arent Bible Believing?
 
ALLFORHIM said:
Hi,

I guess Ive never thought of it before. I am a bible believing christian. What it means to me is that I believe the bible to be 100% truth from God written to us so we know how to be more Christ-like in our walk with the Lord. That probably sounds simple but I do believe it is that simple for me anyway.😃
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That’s how I feel about it, too! But I don’t use it, becasue there is indeed a certain segment of people that use it as a way to set themselves up as the authority.
Which, if you think about it, kinda doesn’t square with the name…

On the other hand, I would be able to name over any number of Catholics I have met here at CAF, that I would consider to be Bible believing Christians.
A Bible believeing Christian should be** any** Christian that takes the Bible seriously enough to follow it.
 
of Catholics I have met here at CAF, that I would consider to be Bible believing Christians.
A Bible believeing Christian should be** any** Christian that takes the Bible seriously enough to follow it.
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I agree:thumbsup:
 
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