Someone who begins to understand that there must be more to them than this life.
They then realize that there is a God, and that this God is prepared to grant them eternal life...the catch being that they must be completely without sin in the eyes of God to gain life.
They then realize they are a sinner...in other words, someone who realizes that the 10 commandments are the "letter of the law" and that they have fallen far short of it.
The person than realizes that they can't possibly hope not to violate the law on their own. They eventually come to the realization that they need to acknowledge that Christ died so he could act as a high priest for us in the sight of God.
The person than gets baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, has hands laid on him by a minister of God, and then receives the gift of God's holy spirit.
God's spirit then leads the person to find and eliminate sin in their life.
When the person dies, they sleep until the return of Christ, at which time they are "born again" with a new spiritual body.
That is a Christian.
Someone who begins to understand that there must be more to them than this life.
They then realize that there is a God, and that this God is prepared to grant them eternal life...the catch being that they must be completely without sin in the eyes of God to gain life.
They then realize they are a sinner...in other words, someone who realizes that the 10 commandments are the "letter of the law" and that they have fallen far short of it.
The person than realizes that they can't possibly hope not to violate the law on their own. They eventually come to the realization that they need to acknowledge that Christ died so he could act as a high priest for us in the sight of God.
The person than gets baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, has hands laid on him by a minister of God, and then receives the gift of God's holy spirit.
God's spirit then leads the person to find and eliminate sin in their life.
When the person dies, they sleep until the return of Christ, at which time they are "born again" with a new spiritual body.
That is a Christian.
I would need to see some evidence of how the person lives their life and conducts themselves towards God. Even then, I couldn't be 100% sure since only God can truly judge someone's heart, but I could be reasonably certain, which is probably the best that one can do.
Being an Orthodox Christian, I would have to set much higher requirements for someone claiming to be a fellow Orthodox, of course.