"What does it mean to be a Christian?"

[Okami]

A good friend of mine recently brought this question to a myspace bulletin and since I thought it was interesting, I'm deciding to ask you guys!

So what does this life mean to you guys? How would you define it?

What does it mean to be a Christian?

[Nate]

That's a question that could literally take pages to answer. Heck, people have written entire books on that question...C.S. Lewis comes to mind.

SHORT AND INACCURATE ANSWER:

A Christian is anyone who believes Jesus died for their sins.

I say that's inaccurate because under that definition religions such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons would be classified as Christians, and they clearly are not. It's really a lot more complicated than that.

The other problem is that depending on which denomination you ask, you'll get a different answer as to what Christianity entails. For Catholics, of course, you have the Nicene Creed, and they're all about doctrine and ritual. For Protestants you have altar calls or calls to baptism, or whatever other thing they do these days, and are not so heavily steeped in ceremonies.

This is actually a question that could start some heavy theological debate. I still leave my answer as I phrased it earlier, though as I said, it is inaccurate and a bit more involved than that (because a person can believe Jesus died for sins and yet continue to live in sin, which is wrong). Still, it seems the best answer for this question that won't result in people flinging Bible verses and beginning flame wars.

[termyt]

Different answers for different people, I'm sure. I'm also afraid many people will not be able to answer this question at all, though all Christian should be able to with a little bit of thought.

To me, the answer is rather simple, but the implications are very complex. To live the Christian lifestyle is to live in the manner God desires me to. That is summed up by Jesus as "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"*

If your life is based on these commandments, then you are living a Christian lifestyle.


* Check out Luke 10 for the Parable of the Good Samaritan to see Jesus’s definition of “neighbor” and keep in mind the Samaritans and Jews had been bitter enemies for hundreds of years at the time of the telling of the story. When reading the story, substitute “Christian” for “Jew” and “White Supremist” or “Jew” or “Islamimc Terrorist” for “Samaritan.”

[K. Ayato]

To me a Christian is anyone who believes God loved them so much He sent Jesus to die for their sins, admits that they are sinners, puts their trust in Jesus and asks Him to save them, and now have a personal relationship with Him.

[Raiden no Kishi]

By my understanding, being a Christian is simply following Christ's teachings.

.rai//

[ChristianKitsune]

Well, like many people here I would say a Christian is a person who believes and trusts that Jesus died for their sins, once for all. And that Jesus is LORD.

The word "lord" is a very curious thing...and I think many Christians take advantage and leave that word out all together, I am sure I have been guilty of this. There are times where I just simply am "too busy" to focus on God...and then my whole day just seems off. :/

So...to be a Christian, I think one has to realize that we always need Jesus, we can't do much, if anything worthwhile without him. IMHO.

We need to be totally dependant on Christ. For without him...what is there to live for but outselves?

XD I totally just rambled, sorry.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

I actually have a question about the context of this question: is it asking "What makes an individual person a believer in Christ?" or is it "What makes up a consistently Christian lifestyle?" Most of the answers so far seem to address both but, while they're obviously conected, I don't think they're the really same thing.

[K. Ayato]

That's a good question to ask, Blitzkrieg, and I'm glad you brought it up. The two issues are connected and to a degree dependent on each other, but as you hinted, they are not one and the same.

[Nate]

By my understanding, being a Christian is simply following Christ's teachings.

.rai//

I disagree; the reason I disagree is that Thomas Jefferson followed Christ's teachings. However, he also believed Jesus was a moral teacher and not the Son of God. In believing Jesus was a mere human...well, I'll get the quote.

I, too, have made a wee-little book from the same materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw. They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to return on earth, would not recognize one feature. - Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Charles Thomson

As you can see, by believing Jesus was a human and not the Son of God, yet following His moral teachings, Jefferson believed he was a real Christian, and believed everyone that admitted Christ's divinity is not.

Keep in mind that believing Jesus is a human would not prevent anyone from following His teachings...in fact, those who believe Jesus was a human would, in their mind, be following His teachings better than we are, for by their logic Christ is not God, therefore to worship Him as such would be breaking His teachings.

This is why Christianity is not, and cannot be centered around morality or Jesus' teachings, but rather His death and resurrection.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

Amen, Nate. That's why I asked my question. There are a great many people who, to some extent, follow the teachings of Jesus to the extent that they act like good people yet lack that personal relationship that comes through accepting Him as their Lord and savior.

And, if we're going to be honest about it, most true Christians are still going to make mistakes, making it dangerous to judge the state of their hearts simply by the actions we see. Not that our actions SHOULDN'T clearly point to Christ, but just because they sometimes don't doesn't mean that we don't believe in him (That's a lot of negatives, huh?)

[termyt]

That's a bit of semantics, really. To say you follow Christ's teachings is to affirm you believe Him when He said He was the messiah. The one thing Christ can't be is simply a good moral teacher.

He claimed to be the Son of God. He is either who he said he is or he is the worst kind of person. He can't be both non-divine and a good moral teacher.

Jefferson or anyone else can try to dance around that issue all they like to try to claim the title Christian, but they are the ones confusing things and not the believer who simply states they follow Christ.

And I believe the original question was what it is like to be a Christian, not what it takes to be one.

[Slater]

Look at the criminal on the cross...

In the face of sin, pain, emenant death, and hopelessness...

That's what being a Christian is.

[mitsuki lover]

Catholics though are not the only ones who believe in the Creeds.Many Protestants do as well.I would say if you want to define a person who is
orthodox in their Christian beliefs it would be someone who accepts the
Apostles',Nicene and Athanasian Creeds.
Of course there are many others who do not accept the creeds but still have an orthodox faith.
But central to being an orthodox Christian would be the following:
1.Belief in God as Trinity.
2.Belief as Jesus as both fully God and Fully Man
3.Belief in the Holy Spirit as a Real Person
4.Belief in Jesus' literal incarnation,i.e.He was really God Incarnate in the flesh
5.Belief in the atoning death on the Cross of Jesus
6.Belief in the bodily,actual,real resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
7.Belief in the bodily,actual,real second coming of Jesus Christ to judge all of mankind
8.Belief in the actual real bodily resurrection of both believers and nonbelievers
9.Belief in an actual heaven and actual hell
10.Belief in the Communion of Saints
These ten are what I would say are the ten most important parts of
Christian belief.

[Mave]

I suppose there are two aspects to this (having faith and acting it out):

To me, what it means is 1) to believe that...

Heaven is a free gift, it cannot be earned nor deserved.

I'm a sinner and cannot save myself.

God is merciful (does not want to punish us - loves us) and yet, God is just (He must punish sin).

He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross and rose again.

He paid the penalty of my sins and purchased a place in Heaven.

Having faith means trusting in Christ alone for eternal life in Heaven

*Actually this is the Gospel outline of the Evangelism course I'm going through but I sincerely believe that. I'm not going into the whole Creed thingy. So far, I've seen a few versions and I'm still in agreement with them. ^^

2) to change the way I act....

The difference is I'm doing good NOT to earn my way to Heaven but rather, in gratitude for what Jesus has done (e.g save my behind, really)

Resist the earthly urges of the flesh (e.g. curse, think evil thoughts, lie, indulge in sexual immorality)

Do the things I should do (e.g. show mercy, act humbly, provide for those in need)

It's human nature to complicate things (thus the denominations) but I also do think that God is greater than those things and He has already taken that into consideration for the final Judgement. I will not discuss the faiths and actions of *cough*other cults/religions/denominations*cough* since that's not the original purpose of the thread. Whatever I've shared is what I personally think and experience.

Is it easy to be Christian? Of course not! Following the Perfect Christ cannot be easy. But we have the Father's providence, Jesus's Assurance of salvation and the Holy Spirit's assistance, as long as we open ourselves to them.

Am I happy being a Christian? You bet. Growing as a Christian requires some pruning (ouch!), lots of humbling (argh) and obstacles (oof!). But there is always hope, peace and joy despite the circumstances. XD No, I do not mean this in a cliche kind of way. I mean it in its truest sense and it's awesome.

[Sheol777]

As you can see, by believing Jesus was a human and not the Son of God, yet following His moral teachings, Jefferson believed he was a real Christian, and believed everyone that admitted Christ's divinity is not.

The historical jury is still out on Jefferson's religious affiliation, but he was certainly not a christian dispite what he said. However he thought everone in the U.S. would be a unitarian eventually.

I suppose there are two aspects to this (having faith and acting it out):

To me, what it means is 1) to believe that...

• Heaven is a free gift, it cannot be earned nor deserved.

• I'm a sinner and cannot save myself.

• God is merciful (does not want to punish us - loves us) and yet, God is just (He must punish sin).

• He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross and rose again.

• He paid the penalty of my sins and purchased a place in Heaven.

• Having faith means trusting in Christ alone for eternal life in Heaven

*Actually this is the Gospel outline of the Evangelism course I'm going through but I sincerely believe that. I'm not going into the whole Creed thingy. So far, I've seen a few versions and I'm still in agreement with them. ^^

2) to change the way I act....

The difference is I'm doing good NOT to earn my way to Heaven but rather, in gratitude for what Jesus has done (e.g save my behind, really)

I would agree with this assessment of this thread.

The only 2 times the word 'Christian' is mentioned in the bible (Acts 26:28,1 Peter 4:16) and they imply a lifestyle. The book of James is all about living the 'christian' lifestyle if you wish to delve further.

I do however believe you can be a 'christian' in name only. Meaning Jesus is your saviour but not the Lord of your life. He has saved you from hell, but you have not allowed him to transform you. This is indeed wrong, but it is possible.

Jesus died for my sins as full payment for them--this is what makes you saved. Adding more (works, creeds, baptism, etc..) is not salvation.....Christ only.

[ADXC]

Yeah, I pretty much go along with what K.Ayato, Nate, and Mave have said about the subject. Mainly to believe in Jesus and all that entails as Mave said, and to walk out the christian life by Jesus for example, and the best example ever. No man can do what Jesus did, no one can live a sinless life except Jesus, and NO one has the right to heaven. Really y'all, you don't want what you deserve! We all deserve to go to hell, but because God loves us so much, through His grace, and the blood of Jesus Christ we may be saved. Right now I think its a huge honor to be loved so very much by such a great God. He can do anything He wishes, but He cares deeply for His creations and wishes to save them from the fiery pits of hell. But again He must punish sin and so if we are dirty with sin because we didn't take God up on His offer to go to heaven then we are to blame. And we are dirty each and everyday, you can't just get saved and say thats the end of it. No its a daily process through which we MUST clean ourselves with Christ's blood every single day. Doesn't matter who you are, you are dirty each day. In God's eyes sin is sin, no one person has any more sin than another. We are all equal in God's eyes. But once we get Christ He will wash our dirty ugly sins away and hopefully we will be able to enter heaven to be with the Holy Creator of the Universe.

@ Sheol777-Yeah you can get through heaven just through name only, but God wants us to do more. And we should honor Him and do so. Do you really just want to get to heaven by the skin of your teeth? I really want to get to heave and have God tell me "You've done well, good and faithful servant." Thats what Id like to have anyways. So we should do His will here on Earth.

[beau99]

The historical jury is still out on Jefferson's religious affiliation, but he was certainly not a christian dispite what he said.

That's why Jefferson never claimed to be a Christian.

[Nate]

That's why Jefferson never claimed to be a Christian.

You uh...missed the quote I posted where he claimed that, huh? I'll repost the quote again, then.

A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen]I am a real Christian[/b], that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. . .

Emphasis added by me, to show the part where he claimed to be a Christian. But as Sheol already said, he certainly was not.

He is either who he said he is or he is the worst kind of person. He can't be both non-divine and a good moral teacher.

Actually, He could, given that the "three L's" argument, as it's been dubbed, has one fatal flaw.

Let's say we have a girl named Jane. Jane says that she was born in New York City. She shows pictures of her as a baby in New York City. She takes a lie detector test and it verifies her claim.

There's one small problem. Jane was born in Albany; her parents moved to New York City shortly after her birth. She has grown up there and assumes herself to have been born there, but this is not the case.

Now. Is Jane lying? No, she fully believes she was born in New York City. The pictures of her living there as a baby serve to further convince herself of its truth. Lying implies a purposeful intent to deceive or mislead on the part of the liar; since she fully believes it to be true, she is not lying.

Is she crazy? No, she isn't. She's perfectly sane, and her believing herself to be born in New York City in no way indicates mental illness whether she was or not.

So as you can see, the three L's argument leaves out one possibility. That Jesus was not divine, yet was mistaken in His identity. That He was unsure of who He was, yet when strange things began to happen in his midst, and claims from his parents that He was special, He began to convince Himself in His mind, "Hey, maybe I am the Son of God..." and started to call Himself that.

Now, obviously, I believe that's a total load of crap. Jesus is who He said He was, God in human form. What I'm saying is, you CAN believe Jesus was a great moral teacher, purely human, who was just a little confused as to His identity, thus making Him not Lord, not a liar, and not a lunatic.

Now, did Jefferson believe this? Well, no, Jefferson was one of those people who believed that Jesus never actually claimed divinity, as evidenced by the quote I posted earlier, where he said, "from what its author never said nor saw." I have heard a lot of the arguments for this, that Jesus never said He was God or divine, and I've heard the counterarguments. Obviously I believe He did claim divinity and to be the Son of God. So there you go. Again, I just wanted to point out that it IS possible to believe that Jesus was a normal human and a great moral teacher without believing Him to be a liar or crazy.

[Alexander]

While being a Christian by the basics includes accepting the Lord, following Him, and having full faith in Him. I believe that a person becomes a Christian when they've formed a intimate relationship with God. When they not only believe in God, but are also with God.

I believe there are three basic parts to it.

1. Accepting the word as truth.

2. Forming a relationship with God.

And 3. To show your faith in God and to try to live by Him, even though we make mistakes constantly.

That's my basic viewpoint of it.

[termyt]

Let's say we have a girl named Jane. Jane says that she was born in New York City. She shows pictures of her as a baby in New York City. She takes a lie detector test and it verifies her claim.

There's one small problem. Jane was born in Albany; her parents moved to New York City shortly after her birth. She has grown up there and assumes herself to have been born there, but this is not the case.

Now. Is Jane lying? No, she fully believes she was born in New York City. The pictures of her living there as a baby serve to further convince herself of its truth. Lying implies a purposeful intent to deceive or mislead on the part of the liar; since she fully believes it to be true, she is not lying.

Is she crazy? No, she isn't. She's perfectly sane, and her believing herself to be born in New York City in no way indicates mental illness whether she was or not.

In this case, I would not deem Jane a trustworthy source for how to determine one's nationality just as I would not trust one who claims divinity to instruct me in morality. Whether he be a liar, insane, or simply mistaken doesn't matter. If it is not true then he is not a trustworthy source for moral teaching.

[mitsuki lover]

Jefferson never claimed to be an orthodox Christian.Like most Americans of the day he did attend church and like many in Virginia belonged to the Episcopalian church.However because he did not believe in Christ's deity there were certain aspects of communal church life he
voluntarily refused.That did not keep him from belonging to his local church vestry though.

As far as it goes the one doctrine essential to being an orthodox Christian above all others is belief in the literal and bodily resurrection of
Jesus Christ.This is the one doctrine central to Biblical Christianity.

As far as lifestyle Christianity goes,this simply flows from correct belief.
If one believes correct doctrine than one will live a correct lifestyle.

[Raiden no Kishi]

I disagree; the reason I disagree is that Thomas Jefferson followed Christ's teachings. However, he also believed Jesus was a moral teacher and not the Son of God. In believing Jesus was a mere human...well, I'll get the quote.

I, too, have made a wee-little book from the same materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw. They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to return on earth, would not recognize one feature. - Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Charles Thomson

As you can see, by believing Jesus was a human and not the Son of God, yet following His moral teachings, Jefferson believed he was a real Christian, and believed everyone that admitted Christ's divinity is not.

Keep in mind that believing Jesus is a human would not prevent anyone from following His teachings...in fact, those who believe Jesus was a human would, in their mind, be following His teachings better than we are, for by their logic Christ is not God, therefore to worship Him as such would be breaking His teachings.

This is why Christianity is not, and cannot be centered around morality or Jesus' teachings, but rather His death and resurrection.

Except for the fact that He taught that He was divine . . . "I and the Father are one". In fact, He taught everything you list ~ last I checked. I should have known this would happen ~ count it as my fault for bottom-lining it in a way that wasn't entirely clear. My bad. We really do agree.

.rai//