Your definition of a Christian is?
 

What is your definition of a Christian?

Me and the four I will name shortly.

A person who devotes their life to following Christ.

So, from your definition, would someone that has repented, but has not yet obeyed Acts 2:38 be considered a Christian?

How would you derive that from my definition? :coffee2

Has someone that has repented not turned from their sins, and devoted their life to following Jesus??

Somebody that looks like me, talks like me, and agrees with me.


ME! ME! ME! :ranting











:poloroid
:winkgrin
:D
:hypercoffee

You are correct. Somebody that looks like me, talks like me, and agrees with me.


ME! ME! ME! :ranting

Christian is just "Christ-like". :hypercoffee

But theriouthly, folkth! :rolleyes2

My definition of a Christian is a person that:

a) Believes the bible is the inspired unchangeable word of God
b) Believes that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and died for their sins
c) Has accepted God's call to repentance
d) Believes that their soul's salvation is found only through accepting Jesus' Blood as the covering for their sins.
e) Makes a discernable effort to emulate the Lord and His Apostles in life and conversation.

You'll notice that a great deal of protestant trinnies qualify for my definition. They are sincerely Christians, but are sincerely deceived or sincerely living beneath their privileges.

Roman Catholics, in my opinion, are not Christians. On the rare occasion when a Catholic has elucidated this viewpoint from my lips, the ensuing conversations could only be termed, 'interesting.' Yikes.

So to be a Christian is to be like Jesus? How many here can truthfully call themselves a Christian?


*Did Jesus accept false doctrine
*Did Jesus strive for his own
*Was Jesus "puffed up"
*Was Jesus hateful and full of bitterness and gall

You are taking something waaaaaaay too seriously.

It's either this forum, or yourself.

Rarely are people brought to conviction by what they read on the internet.

Joseph, what pieces you believe should be incorporated into the puzzle of following Christ, and the things I believe should fit...well...I'm sure we won't agree on the specifics. However, my definition stands as is. I call anyone who is following Christ, a "Christian."

Just idly wondering, though...wasn't it Jesus who instructed the disciples to wait in the upper room for the promise? I was also under the impression that Jesus was God, and therefore scripture being the Word of God, it is effectively the words of Jesus, even when not printed in red :D ...and following God's Word is following Christ.

Was Paul a Christian? Didn't he pray for some "disciples" to receive the Holy Ghost and baptize them?

From an evangelism perspective, I would never stop with repentance and say, "Okay, that's it, that's all you have to do, you're saved!" Repentance is the beginning of following Christ. Not the final event.

I honestly don't know many people who do the above things...on this forum or elsewhere. Do you?

None of us are perfect, but if we are following after Christ, then we can truthfully say we are Christians.

The meaning of "Christian" in the Bible is a "follower of Christ." Jesus' disciples were FAR from perfect...yet they were still "His" disciples.

Ahh... part of the Us Four and No More group?

Acts 11:26
26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
KJV

Notice, they were called, not self proclaimed. So a Christian is something someone else reconizes.

I do agree with what you are saying.

From a biblical definition, anyone who turns from their own path, and begins following Jesus' path would be a Christian. This is according to the biblical definition of "Christian".

I am just probing a little in an attempt to stir a little discussion.

Someone who is a follower of Jesus Christ

1Pe 4:15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
1Pe 4:16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.


International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Christian
The word Christian occurs only three times in the New Testament (Act_11:26; Act_26:28; and 1Pe_4:16). The first passage, Act_11:26, gives the origin of the term, “The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” The older generation of critical scholars disputed the historicity of this statement. It was argued that, had the term originated so early, it must have been found far more frequently in the records of early Christianity; sometimes also that the termination -ianus points to a Latin origin. But there is general agreement now that these objections are groundless. The historicity of the Lukan account is upheld not only by Harnack, but by the more radical Knopf in Die Schriften des New Testament, edited by Johannes Weiss. In early imperial times, the adjectival termination -ianos was widely diffused throughout the whole empire. Originally applied to the slaves belonging to the great households, it had passed into regular use to denote the adherents of an individual or a party. A Christian is Thus simply an adherent of Christ. The name belongs, as Ramsay says, to the popular slang, as indeed sect and party names generally do. It is only after a considerable interval, and very often under protest, that such names are accepted as self-designations.

Ditto

You asked what it meant, not if anyone was achieving it. :)

Good answer, MB.

Who wore the label "Christian" in the early church? There's your definition. :)

Perfect! It's so easy, why do we insist on complicating it?

My definition?


My wife.

Awwwwww. That's so sweet!! :)

Because there is much difference of opinion on what "following Christ" means. :)

If we didn't complicate it, there wouldn't be so many differences of opinions!

LOL! Well, the differences of opinion existed in the early church and have all down through church history. I don't expect it will ever change.

I was thinking last week ....... when did everything get SO difficult!?!!

I remember when I first got born again and how simple and easy everything seemed then. Then things started getting more complicated.

But then again, what do we consider simple and complicated? What one person might consider complicated someone else would define as simple and the least one should expect.

I think many make it much more complicated than it should be, but then again, they'd disagree with me probably. :) ;)

Strongs agree with you... A follower of Christ.