The Scriptures are clear. Those whom the Father gave to Jesus (the elect).
But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.
Believing in Christ and living out one’s life FOR Christ are two aspects of the life that is being sanctified. I think it comes back to the wisdom in James. What kind of faith do I have if there is little or nothing that shows that faith? And if I am a true believer and baptized, and show nothing of that belief, do I REALLY believe?
I am so thankful that God can see the insides of people. There are people who look squeaky clean on the outside but inside are deader than dead. And, Jesus talked about just such a thing to the religious leaders of his time.
In the meantime, I have met many people who will tell you they are a Christian but it is more of a cultural thing and they know little of the man whose name they walk under.
And this is the purpose of your post? Or what? That sinner can repent? Or to advertise your counseling skills?
Therefore, anyone who has had a cult baptism is a what? cultist? That said, recognizing that a person who is part of a cult is not a Christian has nothing to do with reaching to the unsaved or to backsliding Christians. Yes, even to the cultists themselves! "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" .
I just re-read this post and there is a flaw in the statements made. Neither Saul NOR Lewis were believers in Jesus Christ when they did the wrong they did (e.g., Saul persecuting believers). Therefore, these are not good examples to use.
And just because a person goes through the outward rituals of faith and fools the crowd means nothing. Like I said, God knows the heart. God sees whether circumcision of the heart has taken place or not.
As for that fellow Saul of Tarsus / Paul of the New Testament — IMO ,and this goes for CS Lewis— or the guy who wrote Ben Hur— or Josh McDowell— or any other — a Christian ought Not be judged for what he was when a sinner. But for what he became when he became a new Creation. The dif
between the Christian— and the unbeliever is the one who believes in Jesus -if they repent of their sins —and confess their sins— and seek the face of the LORD and His Mercy the Christian is forgiven. And has eternal life. If one professes to be a Christian but advocates and seeks to advance what Christ did NOT They may be a lot of things —but IMO they are not “in Christ” and in that moment act more like a child of darkness than as a Christian/Christ man.
Many of the individuals I see are Christian but have bought into the great “LIE” of Satan. The lie being that we can server the Lord while living like the culture. You asked what makes a person a Christian. The scriptures make it clear that the individual that confesses with his mouth and believes in his heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9-10.
We need to make ourselves available to any and all that we run into because we never know when the Holy Spirit will use us as a conduit for God's love.
While one might be able to define what makes a person a Christian, I think proving the converse might be impossible. No one knows the heart of another perfectly.
That certainly opens up the playing field. Any definition of the faith that omits, uh, faith is sorely lacking. Per the scripture (Romans 10:9) there is a requirement for actual faith: "For if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. " But per the posited definition, an atheist can be a Christian.
I wonder if the author of this piece really believes in sin? They certainly don't seem to think that it separates a soul from God. The Church has a mission to rescue people, not make excuses for them. To refuse to confront sin is to surrender the sinner to Judgement and eternal fire. We do no one any favors by coddling them.
“The world has never followed the simple ethics of Jesus, yet it is loud in its proclamation that it is Christian.” — Ernest Holmes
Baptism is good but that alone will not save you.
His examples don’t support his thesis (which as far as I can tell you shouldn’t try to judge if someone is a christian ever).
Until his conversion Saul was NOT a Christian. Before he saw the light Lewis was NOT a Christian. How is it sanctimony to recognize that?
You are a Christian if you confess that you believe in the Trinity, that you are born a sinner and can only be saved through the sacred blood of Jesus.
He seems to take the view that baptism is magic. I believe that every human ever born has the opportunity to be saved.
His examples don’t support his thesis (which as far as I can tell you shouldn’t try to judge if someone is a christian ever).
Until his conversion Saul was NOT a Christian. Before he saw the light Lewis was NOT a Christian. How is it sanctimony to recognize that?
You are a Christian if you confess that you believe in the Trinity, that you are born a sinner and can only be saved through the sacred blood of Jesus.
He seems to take the view that baptism is magic. I believe that every human ever born has the opportunity to be saved.
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.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” - Matt 7
It was God's CHOICE and Christ Jesus's CHOICE to raise up the Apostle Paul, who is the only Apostle for us today, to all the Gentiles/heathen, not Jews. Peter was the Apostle to the Jewish people in the Gospels and throughout Acts. Read 2 Peter as he extols Paul's grace knowledge. Read also Galatians carefully to learn when Paul corrects Peter for Peter's own hypocrisy of trying to live unto the Law and encourage the Gentile believer-saints to live under the Law: Paul correctly pointed out Peter's hypocrisy.
Galatians 2:14: But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
Galatians 2:15: We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Galatians 2:16: Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Galatians 2:17: But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Galatians 2:18: For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Galatians 2:19: For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Galatians 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:21: I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Here the Apostle Paul clearly teaches us from the revelation given him BY Christ Jesus, regarding WHO is the Apostle for the Gentiles:
Galatians 2:6: But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:
Galatians 2:7: But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;
Galatians 2:8: For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:
Galatians 2:9: And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
If you can read carefully, otherwise..., you can clearly see Christ giving words, via the Holy Spirit, to Paul to indicate accurately that Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles/heathen, and that Peter is the Apostle to the circumcision (Jews).
Now read 2 Peter, if you can understand it, otherwise...unlearned and unstable...Peter here gives primacy and authority to the value that the brother Paul writes, according to the wisdom given unto him (those doctrines were not given unto Peter, but Paul alone, regarding the mystery of the Body of Christ and the headship of Christ over the Church).
2 Peter 3:15: And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2 Peter 3:16: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
If you fail to observer 2 Peter 3:15-16, then you "are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction".