What is a christian?

[ybbor]

but bieng a Chrictian isn't about bieng good or doing good things. That's what seperates Christians from almost every other religon. Just about every major religon says you have to be a good person, or follow it's leaders teachings to get into heaven. Christianity only says to believe that Jesus died for your sins. You could be the worst person in the world and get into heaven of you believe Jesus Christ died for you. You could be the mots charitable, self-sacrificing, good-natured person in thw rold, and you still wouldn't go to heaven if you weren't a christian

 

[Iggy]

Originally posted by ybbor
You could be the worst person in the world and get into heaven of you believe Jesus Christ died for you.

Well you learn something every day. You can act against Christ's teachings, but as long as you beleive he died for you thats ok? You may convert some agnostics with that line. Interesting take on being a Christian.

 

[Fagus Sylvatica]

I lost my faith when I lost my virginity...

 

[ybbor]

well, yes. Christ loves you, and me, and all of us. He loves us, and His #1 concern is getting us into heaven. but by choice, not by force. we've all sinned, to say you can sin 489times and get into heaven, but not 490 times is just not right. i could owe the government $12,000 for tax evasion and you could owe them $10,000 for tax evasion. but we're both going to jail. But if the president Pardons us, we're both set free. now people who follow God more will get better rewards in heaven (not mention having a better conscience for all of eternity), but still if after we've been pardoned i get a speeding ticket, it doesn't mean i'm going to jail. Christ loves us. and Hewould certainly like us to follow very word he says, but assuming we stay human, that's next to impossible. God loves us, and he saw that the only way he get humanity into heaven was by sending his son to be torured to death, and allowing others to use His death as thier ticket to eternal bliss

 

[Iggy]

ybbor. You can understand why people in this day and age question the whole religion issue. Even Christains of other factions would question your statement. If God is so keen on us to go to heaven why does he not do something to make us all beleive that he exists beyond any doubt, rather than rely on handed down interpretations of what he requires of us?

 

[ybbor]

again it goes to choice vs. force

 

[Mojotronica]

Faith is central to Christianity -- and really to every religion. Without faith, God is nothing -- implies that God IS faith (for our purposes) and something that we accept on faith cannot be proven. Faith in God is (if nothing else) a metaphor for positive thinking.

Think about it -- we are obviously all doomed to die. And while we may feel connected to others through our lives, we truly take this journey alone. Good things happen to us, bad things happen to us... But EVERYONE'S life story is inevitably a tragedy. Having faith in something that transcends the material world means that we needn't think of our lives in purely nihilistic terms. It can provide a sense of hope even in the most hopeless of situations.

And that hope is the universal idea that ties each of us together. We may be independent organisms, but if we imagine the hope that each of us feel as extending from the same source, that is a powerful uniting principle.

The ideal of Christianity (and all major religions) is the suppression of vanity (or pride, or ego) that aspect of ourselves that seeks self-aggrandizement. Because after all, in a few decades we will each be food for worms like our ancestors before us.

Jesus exemplified that lack of vanity. By defining himself as a "child of God" he placed God will AHEAD of his own ego, and by emulating Jesus Christians can hope to attain redemption. By surrendering one's ego, one can hope for salvation. We are all children of God.

Jesus is important for an additional reason -- he extended the promise of Judaic salvation to all people, regardless of their birthright (previously salvation was limited to the Jewish people.) This makes Chriistianity a truly Universal faith, on par with Buddhism or Islam in it's accessability.

Accepting Jesus is the equivalent to surrendering one's ego to God's will. It's supposed to be the very first step on the path to enlightenment. Christianity is supposed to be a process whereby it's adherents focus on what is truly important in the material sense and turn the rest of one's energies to spiritual matters. The material world is important -- we are entrusted to be stewards of it, to raise the next generations better than we were raised. But the spiritual world is supreme.

 

[WillJ]

What is a Christian?

Someone who practices Christianity.

Originally posted by Fagus Sylvatica
I lost my faith when I lost my virginity...

That bad, huh?

 

[Iggy]

Originally posted by ybbor
again it goes to choice vs. force

with respect that does not answer my question.

If Gods wants us to have belief in him in the year 2004 why does he not communicate with us directly?

@mojotronica. Why leave it to faith? To me it is not logical to have faith in extremely old religious texts which have been interpreted and reinterpreted by man. What good comes out of having so many none believers when it is in his power to make people beleive?

I realise these are very simplistic questions. Does the New Testament give any reasons for God not communicating directly with us?

 

[gorn]

"To me it is not logical to have faith in extremely old religious texts which have been interpreted and reinterpreted by man."

Don't discount something just because it's old. There's a lot of wisdom and knowledge to be found in old things. Why else bother with history, philosophy, or literature?

I would argue that, logically, any philosophy that people continue to debate and talk about even after 2000 years must be worth looking in to, if only to discover why.

 

[Iggy]

@ gorn. Yes I agree with you, but the word was FAITH. I would discount nothing but to have FAITH in something I would need more recent input. If I did not find this topic interesting I would not be posting, so yes again I agree with you.

The topic is called "What is a Christian?" The answers to this would probably be differnt to one degree or another every 100 years. The point I was making was that in this case it need not be history. If God exists why does he not sort out the debate once and for all him / her self today?

 

[RoddyVR]

give any reasons for God not communicating directly with us?

ye, he's used up his cell phone minutes.

before christ, god talked to people left and right. then after christ he's been quiet for over 2k years.
lets see anyone find 2k years in the bible without a single prophet/guy with a direct line to god.
that "be evil, but believe christ died for you and go to heaven" thing can only be summarized as:
SCARY

 

[Mojotronica]

Originally posted by Iggy
@mojotronica. Why leave it to faith? To me it is not logical to have faith in extremely old religious texts which have been interpreted and reinterpreted by man. What good comes out of having so many none believers when it is in his power to make people beleive?

Pessimism is logical, because all physical evidence indicates that we die and that death is oblivion. Faith is optimism, or positive thinking in the face of our apparent impending physical deterioration and deaths. Some people say that if we have hope, why do we need faith? But I think that they are one and the same. Hope IS faith, so when I wake up cheerful despite the increasing number of wrinkles on my face and the growing pain in my joints, that is (on a subconscious level) an acknowledgement of my faith in God.

I realise these are very simplistic questions. Does the New Testament give any reasons for God not communicating directly with us?

The New Testament differs to the Old Testament. The Old Testament says that the reason God does not speak to us directly is that we (represented by Adam and Eve) rejected God by eating of the fruit of the tree of KoG&E.

I see this as a metaphor. We don't communicate with God because we refuse to, and this is because we put our ego's need to be supreme master of our lives ahead of God's desire to lead us in a more positive direction. It's a function of our limited perspective that we do this. The horror of the knowledge of good and evil is that it only makes us realize how little we know.

Think of God as the best possible choice you could make in any situation. The choice where everybody wins, rather than there being a loser as well as a winner. God choice may not result in the greatest possible pay-off for you as an individual, but you will get enough. And since it is not at anyone else's expense, the world is a better place for everyone.

 

[Iggy]

@ Mojotronica. Again I stick to the simple question I have asked in my previous 2 posts (in response to your full and detailed reply )

Many religious people speak as if their faith is in fact knowlegde. (You may say that faith is knowledge to oneself). God could give everyone the knowledge of his / her existance today, regardless of past rejections by Adam and Eve, (I gather forgiveness is part of his son's preachings). If God did this then it would benefit all and none believers like me would be forced to rethink to the extreame.

 

[Mojotronica]

Originally posted by Iggy
@ Mojotronica. Again I stick to the simple question I have asked in my previous 2 posts (in response to your full and detailed reply )

Many religious people speak as if their faith is in fact knowlegde. (You may say that faith is knowledge to oneself). God could give everyone the knowledge of his / her existance today, regardless of past rejections by Adam and Eve, (I gather forgiveness is part of his son's preachings). If God did this then it would benefit all and none believers like me would be forced to rethink to the extreame.

Does hope exist?

I don't think of God as a dude as much as a shared perception. You may as well ask for hope to provide knowledge of it's existence. Hope is something we have to accept on faith. So is God.

To a Christian God is the source of hope.

 

[Speedo]

Anyone who has done the following:

For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed. " Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They all have the same Lord, who generously gives his riches to all who ask for them. For "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Romans 10:9-13

You can act against Christ's teachings, but as long as you beleive he died for you thats ok?

No. One who is has truly been saved will have the desire to live a Christ-like life. Obviously we're going to screw up in one way or another- we're human. That's the reason Jesus died for our sins.

Just saying "I believe in Jesus and that He rose from the dead" doesn't cut it. You have to mean it.

I'm sure there are catholics who truly believe. My opinion is that many of their teachings/beliefs hinder a person from developing a relationship with Christ.

 

[Smidlee]

a true christian is someone who's IN Christ. Or another words used before christian : Saint . I'm a saint ( either you are a saint or ain't)

 

[Souron]

Someone who believes Jesus is The Lord Almighty, that he was born died and reborn again.

Or

Anyone who is baptised under the christian religion.

 

[Shadylookin]

Originally posted by ybbor
it can't go both ways. he claimed he was the son of God. he was either right or wrong about that. He claimed that he died to forgive all of us. He was either right or wrong about that. He said that he was the only way to eternal life. he was either right or wrong about that. He was either the son of God or a lunatic. you can't pick part of both

mathew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. a direct quote from jesus I demand that you go and worship the members of the UN right now or you will rot in hell.

here is an exert from a musslim that makes good points

Bible texts are produced to show that Jesus used the terms "son of man", "son of God", "Messiah", and "savior". But each of these terms is applied to other individuals in the Bible. Ezekiel was addressed as "son of man" (Ezekiel chapter 3). Jesus himself speaks of the peacemakers as "sons of God" (Matthew 5:9). Cyrus the Persian is called "messiah" at Isaiah 45:1. The duplicity of translators is manifested here, for they inevitably render only the meaning of the word "Messiah" which is "anointed". Where other Bible verses seem to refer to Jesus, they prefer to transliterate "Messiah" or the Greek equivalent "Christ". In this way they hope to give the impression that there is only one Messiah. As for "savior", the word is applied to other than Jesus (2 Kings 13:5).

to answer to begining question I believe all those that believe in God use the bible as their holy book and believe jesus existed as a prophet or part of the trinity. This allows the unitarians who don't follow a polytheistic like trinity to be included.

 

[Achinz]

Originally posted by bholed
Still unsure what your point is caller?
As far I understand things Catholic are Christians the same as
Protestant's no more or less.
Both believe in JC as being the Son of God.

Caller?

I repeat: the criterion emphasised by the posters here is the primacy of the position of Jesus. Catholicism places others like Mary, saints and the Pope in almost equal importance.

I'm not saying that Catholics themselves don't think they're Christians, just that in the context of this particular thread and the special criterion stated here it doesn't fit.