Posted on 08/10/2011 8:11:57 AM PDT by janereinheimer
How would you define "Christian?"
I've been giving this a lot of thought lately. It goes back a couple of weeks when someone made a comment that someone who's been in the news a lot lately was not a "Christian."
I take an existential view of that because I believe that anyone who has had a Christian baptism is a Christian.
Where I depart company from the pious and sanctimonious definitions of others is when their definition of Christian is really a definition of being "Christ-like."
Oh, for sure, I would hope that Christians everywhere would behave in a Christ-like manner. But there are a lot of people who have had a Christian baptism who are far from behaving like Christ did. They are corrupt sinners in need of salvation. They may or may not ever repent of their rotten, sinful lives until they are within minutes of drawing their last breath. But even at that last breath, if they truly repent and ask God for forgiveness, then I believe that our loving, forgiving God will open the gates of heaven and receive that sinner. Just as surely as he will receive the person who has tried hard to lead a Christ-like life.
For instance, C. S. Lewis wasn't exactly known for his faith in God when he got started in his writing career. In fact, he set out in his early writings to prove God didn't exist at all.
Then, voila, an experience touched him. I've not read all that's to be read about Lewis or from Lewis, but I have a deep suspicion that the Holy Spirit got ahold of him because he became one of the most profound Christian writers ever to draw breath.
And then there was that other guy of New Testament fame -remember Saul? He ran around with execution warrants in his pocket so that he could mow down any Christians he happened to come across while he was going thither and yon throughout the lands of what we call the Holy Land. Remember Damascus? Jesus went to Syria to find Saul. Struck him down blind. Then someone drug Saul off to stay at his house while Saul recuperated from that insane notion that all Christians ought to be killed.
Blindness. That's how Jesus got Saul's attention. Well, Jesus healed his blindness. Not only did Saul get his sight back but he got a new, improved name too. From then on, he was called Paul. And fortunately for Christians everywhere, we have Paul. The New Testament would be a pretty slim volume without all the writings of Paul.
He was one grand letter writer, let me tell you!
But back to this sanctimonious person who thinks it's okay to go around making judgments about whether a person is a Christian or not.
She wouldn't agree that someone I went to jail to counsel for the best part of a year and a half was a Christian.* And then one day, out of that miracle place in the universe that we call nowhere, this murderer told me he wanted to take communion.
I told him he'd have to talk with a pastor about repentance if he wanted to do that.
He said he was ready. He wanted communion before he went to trial.
Do you know that I called about ten pastors before I found one who agreed to go to the jail and talk to this person? And yes, the pastor said he'd bring communion just in case the client confessed the sins of double murder.
Where would sinners be if we were not the road back to the Lord when they took the wrong turn?
Isn't sanctimony and piety very un-Christ-like behavior in themselves?
Where would the young teenage girl be if I had refused to see her because she was dabbling in Satanism?*
Or how about the wife who had committed adultery and was afraid to confess her sin to her pastor.* Even though her husband had forgiven her, she was most hopeful that God had too.
How can any one of us ever say that just because someone got off on the wrong path that they weren't Christians anymore?
Rather, it's our job as Christians to pray for sinners that they may somehow find the way back to a loving and forgiving Lord.
We are never, ever supposed to crawl back into our sanctimonious little turtle of a shell and declare a sinner a non-Christian. God does not like that.
*used with permission
P.S. It's discouraging that a very small percentage of pastors, priests and other spiritual leaders shed such a dim shadow across the field of spiritual shepherds who are very compassionate and loving and Christ-like. I thank God that these pastors outnumber those who focus on negativity and unforgiveness with sinners who seek their counsel; with sinners who need most of all to know that their sins are forgiven. There are a great many pastors who do not withhold the Means of Grace to repentant sinners.
People like to talk about love and forgiveness, but holiness is often ignored.
Thanks. Per Hebrews: “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
“Repentance is such a bloodless, weak word in English”
I dare say the vigor, or lack of, with which repentance is practiced imbues the word with it’s meaning. When the concept of sin or failing to meet our Maker’s requirements is so insipid and hollow the idea of repentance must correspondingly be so.
As a Lutheran we practice public confession in our worship services. It puts us all in the same boat as sinners, therefore, no one has a right to piety; rather, humbleness when we approach the content of our worship because it is all through God’s grace that we even have the right, as heir to His Kingdom, to even aproach God.
Jane R.
Right on! When I used to teach Sunday School I found that the concept of sin carried so little weight with my students that even the very word "sin" seemed to be a silly, flaccid, pious anachronism. Someone even suggested I use a different word. I can only imagine what silky euphemism they wanted me to substitute, but instead of "sin", I began saying "damnable treason". The class sat up straight and listened after that.
While I don’t disagree that we are all sinners before God, that we can do nothing of ourselves and must rely on His grace for all things, since when did Piety become a bad thing? Is sanctification not the goal of the Christian? Should we not be encouraging our brothers and sisters to commit themselves to holiness and piety? Yes, holiness and sanctification make sinners uncomfortable, but isn’t that the point? Indeed, Paul tells us that to the sinner “...we are the smell of death; to the [believer], the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?” Weak and frail though we are, God has chosen us to point the way to His Son. If we be not holy like He is, who will heed us?
I can see how you’d think that, but its not a checklist. Its so simple its incredibly difficult. :-)
Think of it this way.
Your daughter or son gets married. At the ceremony, your heart swells. You tear up., You cry. You are joyous and sorrowful all at once.
You have a child. Your heart swells. Your brain quickens. You feel a dramatic life changing moment where you know nothing is the same as it was before the event. You start focusing on different priorities. You go into an intense period of study of your own moral convictions, the type of person you are, and who you SHOULD be for that child.
No checklist. These are natural things that happen as an outshoot of your joy and life changing moments.- same with salvation, but its the BIGGEST life changing moment one can have if you truly understand who Christ is and what he means to you and all of creation.- Once one believes, these are things we tend to do, but there is no biblical List that gets you salvation. We are saved by grace through faith. Ephesians 2:8
As for a few scriptural references, heres an easy link -http://www.bible-truth.org/baptism.htm
I just did a quick google search on baptism in the bible- give it a once over. Remember- If it seems to difficult to understand or someone tries to confuse you with things you need to “Do” to be saved, test What Christ said against that-
John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And Matthew 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
AGAPE friend :-)
And an even better question: can a true christian also be a liberal/progressive?
According to all the definitions I have heard about what is a Christian, no one is a Christian. One persons say if you do not talk in tongues, one person says if you were not baptized in a river, one says...see, no one.
The Greek word you are looking for is “Metanoia”, and it means “to change one’s mind”. To change from the sinful deadly path, and be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
In effect, to AGREE with the Almighty about the nature of our sinful selves, and do a 180 degree turn away from the path of sin and death.
Thanks, will read link.
Amen !shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
where was anyone ever told to be baptized “to be obedient to the Lord”?
not in the Bible.
a Christian is someone who is baptized and believes the Catholic Faith as expressed in the Nicene Creed. This Creed summarizes the teaching received from the Apostles.
The Church from the time Peter preached on Pentecost, has taught and believed baptism is for the remission of sins and receiving the Holy Spirit.
2,000 years this has been the Universal Faith.
the link provided teaches a 16th century heresy that denies this Faith.
let the reader beware!
I’ve always thought that to be a Christian, you had to believe that Jesus Christ was the very son of God, who came to earth and died for our sins, and then overcame death through the resurrection, and then to live your life in a way that demonstrates that you do indeed believe it.
read the Nicene Creed and you will see it covers your theological requirements.
i presumed that someone who really believes the Faith will live a life that demostrates they do, so your point is well taken!!
15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.j 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate* to be with you always,k 17the Spirit of truth,* which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.l 18I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.* 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.m 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.n 21Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”o
Jesus gave us a bunch of commands directly, indirectly (the Sermon on the Mount / Plain) and in parables. An illustration of who is a Christian might be someone who loves Jesus and is in turn loved by Jesus and the Father...
Not to the point where piety becomes your idol.
Jane R.
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