Precisely. From Acts of the Apostles presumed to have been written by Luke as a sequel to his own Gospel we read of the place and time when "they began to call one another Christians." I'll leave it to better memories of the Koininea Greek from which we get the word. But I recall from Paul, "Saul of Tarsus," the author two-thirds of the New Testament, in the context of another argument that "I am resolved to know no more of a man aside from Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
They called "themselves" Christians, so it's perhaps important to remember there appears to be no revelation, personal, public or propositional, where an Angel or other messenger, or God, or the Holy Spirit, no other divine instruction laying out either the word or the definition of the word "Christian."
I call myself "Christian," above and beyond denomination or Orthodox list of dos and don'ts. I know what I mean when I use the word, though there can be no communication without some agreement as to definition of terms.
So, I take that word as self-defined. I think of it as meaning one who believe that Jesus Christ was who he is reliably reported to have said he was, the Son of the Living God, the Word of God who "struck a tent in human flesh and dwelt among us." I believe his Crucifixion was a Finished Work, clearing the path between God and the creature man, burdened as we are with the awesome responsibility that comes from knowing "Good and Evil." (Burdened with a consciousness of the choice) And vital to this definition is His rising from the dead, and where he intercedes between Man and the God of Abraham.
So it's not a list of dos and don'ts. It's already been done, and "faith" is a poor word for what we do if we are convinced of the historic certainty of this unique set of events. There is no equivalent word for the Greek translated into English both as "faith" and "belief." The Greek word is best translated as a reaction to this conclusion. ""Faith" is Action, based upon belief and sustained by confidence (or experience.)
If you believe he died for our sins, was dead, and rose to sail off into the blue, promising to return - that he lives forever to intercede on behalf of those who ask him... then you are more than likely a Christian.
The rest is mostly Orthodoxy, since Man just can't accept that he can add nothing nor take anything away from that "it is finished" work. If you have concluded and therefore act upon this confidence, that's faith. Not faith in action, because "faith" is action.
Is that a sufficient definition of what a Christian is?
Is that a sufficient definition of what a Christian is?
Twenty years ago, I think I would have said, "Yes."
What happened to me was an increasing disquiet about what constituted faith and belief. I could say that I believed this, that and whatever the church I was in at the time believed; yet there were questions, including inconvenient passages of Scripture, that would not go away.
Then there was the question of history; that is, whence the beliefs that I am embracing; what is the source?
What was going on in the Protestant Reformation? And the Anabaptists were a whole different matter. Everywhere I looked, I saw men taking what had been passed down and re-forming and sometimes attempting to re-make it.
To make a long story short, I came to the point that I needed an objective standard, outside of myself. This leaves me with one of two choices - the Roman Catholic or the Orthodox Christian Church. In both, I find legitimate claims to preservation of the faith once delivered to the saints.
The differences between those two are minor, compared to the lack of coherence and the additions/subtractions that I was seeing in other Christian traditions.
So, what is my definition of Christian? The Catholic teaching I believe, speaks of those joined "imperfectly" to the Catholic church. Many share a few, several, or many beliefs, but depart on some. There is the "imperfection." The Orthodox generally lack definitive teaching in the same manner, but, I believe are in general agreement. Both can define who they are and who are theirs. They do not judge on who are not theirs.
So, who and what are Christians? I cannot say. But, I return in my mind, to the scene related by Jesus in a parable of the Final Judgement and the surprise of both those who are and those who are not received into the Kingdom. I'll probably be surprised as well.