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To: Grim
See what I mean? You simply declare that people who disagree with you aren't Christians and shazaam, problem solved.

Incorrect.

There is an historical record which is quite well-documented for over twenty centuries as to what Christians believe.

Up until the late 1800s all professing Christians believed in the physical resurrection of Christ, and those professing Christians who ceased to believe in the Resurrection - like the Unitarians - had the intellectual and moral honesty to declare that they were no longer Christians.

It's not what I personally think that defines Christianity - it is the unbroken witness of the Christian community since the Resurrection.

By your argument, one would not even have to believe that Jesus ever existed or that anything in the NT was valid or useful to be a Christian. Simply making the claim is enough.

That's an intellectually frivolous position.

13 posted on 05/10/2005 1:16:59 PM PDT by wideawake (God bless our brave soldiers and their Commander in Chief)
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To: wideawake
Up until the late 1800s all professing Christians believed in the physical resurrection of Christ...

1 Co 15:44: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body....
1 Co 15:46 However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, then the spiritual.
1 Co 15:47 The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven....
1 Co 15:50 Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.[2]
This passage seems to contradict your "historical record." Although I know that what you said is true, most Christians do believe in the physical resurrection. How then, to reconcile the apparent contradiction? Furthermore, since the original subject of this discussion is Christian unity, who shall be the final authority to settle the differences of opinion?
18 posted on 05/10/2005 1:34:45 PM PDT by Grim
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To: wideawake
I hesitate to stick my snout into this discussion, but there is a very important point being discussed. If you don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, you are not a Christian. These are not my words. To figure this out on your own see 1 Corinthians Chapter 15. Particularly, 1 Corinthians 15:12-18.

Paul said (NIV), "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."

Consequently, in my book, it is a simple test to separate the sheep from the goats. If you don't believe what Paul has written, you faith is futile, worthless, or useless. All you have to do is affirm Paul's statement.

35 posted on 05/10/2005 2:38:49 PM PDT by Citizen Tom Paine (A old sailor sends)
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