"Not a true Christian"

[HeyBurke]

I've been hearing this phrase a lot, recently. Can someone tell me what it means to be a 'true Christian'? Also, how do you judge if someone is a 'true Christian' without knowing them very intimately?

[Husker_x]

Prepare yourself for the mother of all contradictory and irresolvable dumping ground of opinions.

 

Companion thread: Who's a true Scotsman?

[HeyBurke]

Prepare yourself for the mother of all contradictory and irresolvable dumping ground of opinions.

 

Companion thread: Who's a true Scotsman?

 

A true Scotsman is someone would never murder another person.

[Sub-Husker]

I've been hearing this phrase a lot, recently. Can someone tell me what it means to be a 'true Christian'? Also, how do you judge if someone is a 'true Christian' without knowing them very intimately?

 

Here are two very different definitions of what one might use to describe what a Christian should believe. I'm going to leave out behavior, because that is subjective and subject to judgement by people who still have a "plank in their eye".

 

1) From their Faith, a Christian believes in the creed (which is a version of the Nicene Creed) as professed by their denonination/congregation.

 

2) They have read the three Synoptic Gospels, and strive to live their lives per the teachings of Jesus.

 

Those two definitions are very different, but not mutually exclusive.

 

I follow one of those two and not the other... anyone care to guess which one?

[Sub-Husker]

Companion thread: Who's a true Scotsman?

 

Q) Why are all the churches in Scotland round?

 

A) So you can't hide in the corner when the collection plate is passed around.

[Hingle McCringleberry]

I've been hearing this phrase a lot, recently. Can someone tell me what it means to be a 'true Christian'? Also, how do you judge if someone is a 'true Christian' without knowing them very intimately?

 

It's along the same lines as the other 500 threads on here about being a true fan... We have pages and pages of what a true fan is... Lo and behold everyone on here is one but no ones else, is because they cheer louder, stand longer, wear more red, never mention blackouts... etc... just pull one of those up, copy and paste 50 pages into this topic, because there is no right answer....

[GM_Tood]

True Christians kill for what they believe in?

[Calla]

True Christians have the decoder ring and know the secret handshake.

 

The serious answer is - when ever you hear someone use the words "True Christian" it is someone looking to impose their view and silence others by marginalizing them.

[Tulsa-Husker]

I've been hearing this phrase a lot, recently. Can someone tell me what it means to be a 'true Christian'? Also, how do you judge if someone is a 'true Christian' without knowing them very intimately?

 

Here are two very different definitions of what one might use to describe what a Christian should believe. I'm going to leave out behavior, because that is subjective and subject to judgement by people who still have a "plank in their eye".

 

1) From their Faith, a Christian believes in the creed (which is a version of the Nicene Creed) as professed by their denonination/congregation.

 

2) They have read the three Synoptic Gospels, and strive to live their lives per the teachings of Jesus.

 

Those two definitions are very different, but not mutually exclusive.

 

I follow one of those two and not the other... anyone care to guess which one?

Hey Sub, why do you leave out the Gospel of John?

A Christian is a follower of Christ and his teachings (Including the Gospel of John.)

We aren't perfect but we are forgiven and are called to live out that forgiveness by serving others in a humble manner.

 

There is nothing wrong wt a 'creed' - which is just a statement of faith or belief. Everyone has a creed (believer or non-believer) in the same way that everyone has a world view that helps them to make sense of the world and helps them to navigate it. A creed is just a 'codification' of your belief system. I think were some don't like creeds is because many of us may profess a creed but we don't live it - it doesn't affect our life.- and we make the false assumption that professing this creed in and of itself makes us a Christian.

[Excel]

Actually there's only one true Chrisitian on Earth...it works kind of like Highlander

[Sub-Husker]

Hey Sub, why do you leave out the Gospel of John?

A Christian is a follower of Christ and his teachings (Including the Gospel of John.)

We aren't perfect but we are forgiven and are called to live out that forgiveness by serving others in a humble manner.

 

In my very humble opinion... the three Synoptics and John tell the story of a different Jesus, not of the same Jesus for a different audience.

 

How many time in the Synoptics does Jesus claim to be God?

 

John was the most polically interested of the apostles, and preferred the Pharasital philosophy, and was heavily interested in Greek culture.

 

Read some Socrates, then read John chapter 3.

 

There is nothing wrong wt a 'creed' - which is just a statement of faith or belief. Everyone has a creed (believer or non-believer) in the same way that everyone has a world view that helps them to make sense of the world and helps them to navigate it. A creed is just a 'codification' of your belief system. I think were some don't like creeds is because many of us may profess a creed but we don't live it - it doesn't affect our life.- and we make the false assumption that professing this creed in and of itself makes us a Christian.

 

I agree with what you have said about creeds, that everyone has their own. Yet we are called to profess our faith out loud every week at church.

 

How many people have actually put the time in to define their faith rather than to have a rather amorphous belief that there is a god, and just attend church when convenient and profess in unison with the others who are doing likewise?

[Sub-Husker]

Actually there's only one true Chrisitian on Earth...it works kind of like Highlander.

 

That leaves John the Baptist out...

[Landlord]

A Christian is a person who has acknowledged Jesus as their savior and subsequently has been supernaturally made clean by the Holy Spirit, "born again" into salvation from our sins, through grace (unearned favor), by faith (love, belief and trust that Jesus is who He and others have claimed He is), to do good works.

 

Saved by Him.

Grace from Him.

Faith in Him.

 

 

 

I feel that these two videos demonstrate this pretty well:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U3117iU1HE

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp0b360Y7fE

[epocSoN]

I had this discussion with my wife a few days ago, and how the phrase "that's very christian of you" always annoys me. It appears that Christians are under the impression that the bible teaches of peace and acceptance, when if you read it objectively is really a very different story.

 

More blood was shed during the crusades than any other period in time, and the bible is filled with horrendous acts by those that christian's peg as honorable Christians.

 

I think if many Christians sat down and actually read through the bible, they would have a very different view about the origins of their belief system.

[HeyBurke]

A Christian is a person who has acknowledged Jesus as their savior and subsequently has been supernaturally made clean by the Holy Spirit, "born again" into salvation from our sins, through grace (unearned favor), by faith (love, belief and trust that Jesus is who He and others have claimed He is), to do good works.

 

Saved by Him.

Grace from Him.

Faith in Him.

 

 

 

I feel that these two videos demonstrate this pretty well:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U3117iU1HE

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp0b360Y7fE

 

Well, you answered my first question rather well, but can you answer my second one? In another thread, you said most Catholics aren't really Catholics. You might have just been saying that in jest, but could you explain that one?