What does it mean to be a Christian?

Possibly, but that doesn't account for people born thousands and thousands of years ago, before the bible even began, who lived decent, compassionate lives.

 

Hard to answer that. In my strange liberal/conservative world view I believe Christ's suffering on the cross applies to and redeems all living beings at any point in history.

I don't really know how long there were people on the earth before he came along. I believe the earth took millions of years to create but I don't know exactly what point in time humans appeared. I believe we need to take whatever knowledge we can gather about history and accept it for what it is unless and until more accurate information comes along.

 

I believe in the inherent goodness of humanity. IMO, Jesus death was not about 'paying the price for our sin' or anything like that, but about love.

Uh, it's hard to explain what I think, but I'll try. The point of Jesus coming to earth was for God to show us human beans that (1) he exists and (2) he loves us. And he really showed us the full extent of what truly loving someone really means - the willingness to lay down everything - including your very life. As he put it 'there is no greater love, than a man who would lay down his life for his friends'.

Some people say "it's all very well to love your fellow man, but what about when they commit evil acts against you?" Jesus surrended to the absolute worst human kind could offer, purely to prove how deep God's love really was.

Being a Christian is about following that example, to the furthest extent we can. Of course, I don't think many people are strong enough to go as far as he did in the name of love, certainly not me, but it's about doing your best.

I've never gone in for this 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth, the wages of sin is death, so Jesus must die for you' version of Christianity. In fact, I'd never even heard of that theology until a few years ago, despite having been raised in the church. To some people, this makes me 'misguided' or 'not a true christian', but I stand by my beliefs.

In answer to the original question, I would say 'one who believes in Christ's message'. That's really the only theological point which unites all Christians.

 

Literally translated, "Christian" means "Little Christ." Although the term was originally used by Romans to mock the early believers, "Little Christ" is what it means to be a Christian. As Kitt327 said, we do need to follow His example. However, to be able to initiate that relationship with God, we need to be cleansed of our sins, because God cannot be associated with sin in any way. Hence the need for Jesus.

 

I'd love to get into this discussion, because I am a Christian.
Now, I'm not perfect, but I'm going tory and put my best definition on Christianity.
Being a Christian means that you have recognized your sinful nature, that you accept that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, that He is the One and Only way into heaven, that he entered the world as a baby, that he suffered and died on a cross to save you and the whole world from your sins; you have sincerely asked Him to forgive your sins and to come in and rule your life, you recognize Him as your personal Savior and Lord. You have a personal relationship with Jesus. Now, this relationship generates love and a desire to obey him. But it's not just about obeying laws. It's not a legalistic faith.
Do I believe that humans are inheritently evil? Yes. (Nobody has to teach me how to lie. Nobody has to teach me how to steal. Nobody has to teach me how to exert my anger by taking it out on other people. I have to be taught that I need to tell the truth. I need to be taught that stealing is wrong. I need to be taught to control my temper and be nice. I don't inherit these good traits.) Do I believe that Christianity is the only way to heaven? Yes. (Jesus said: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except throught Me.") Do I believe that good people can die and go to hell? Yes. (The only way anyone can get to heaven on their own accord is to be perfect-always. No, i don't know about you, but I am NOT perfect. I sin probably a thousand times a day. But even if you sin once, just once, you're not perfect and you can't go to heaven. Jesus was the only perfect human because He is God, and that's why he could die for our sins and save us from hell. But on our own, we can't be perfect)
I'd love to answer any questions, though I am not a theologan. But I'll do my best. I hope that helps any of you out there.
Eirtae

 

Kitt327

IMO, Jesus death was not about 'paying the price for our sin' or anything like that, but about love.

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life."

I've never gone in for this 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth, the wages of sin is death, so Jesus must die for you' version of Christianity.

John 14:6
"Jesus told him, 'I am the way , the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father execpt through me.'"

 

Iella - God cannot be associated with sin in any way.

I guess I'd have to respectfully disagree with you there. Jesus dined with tax collectors, was rumored to be friends with prostitutes and generally 'associated with sinners'. To me, God isn't someone who after witnessing someone sin, would say 'ARG! Sin! Get your slimy, corrupted soul away from me!' But instead would associate himself even more with the person, in the form of love and forgiveness.

Eirtae - But even if you sin once, just once, you're not perfect and you can't go to heaven.

I tend to see God as willing to accept anyone into his 'home'. It's people themselves who refuse his invitation, not God who refuses to let them.
The best illustration of this I could think of would be the story of the prodigal son. The guy's son went off, thinking he was doing what would make him ultimately happy, but instead he was left empty and unfulfilled. He came back expecting his father to not want anything to do with him, but instead his father wept with joy and embraced him. His father didn't demand innocent blood be spilt to make his son 'acceptable' to him, or anything like that.

Let the discussion begin ...

 

It's hard to talk about complext religious topics in a forum like this. God does love all of his children, saints and sinners and inbetweeners alike. To me, one definiton of sin could be "not respecting the rights of others," and there is certainly a good deal of that going on and there needs to be way to make up for that and for each individual to repent. But I'm sure God does want to focus more on the gift of his infinite love offered to us by the coming of his Son.

 

kitt, no response to my post?

 

i think that the only statement that can be made about all christians is that they believed that Christ was sent to us by God and died for our sins.

anything more than that and you get into specific faiths. i don't think that there are any (or many) more statements that can be made that work for ALL christians.

 

GreedoCMZ -
You're right, it is a difficult place to discuss religious topics.

I tend to think of sin as 'damaging yourself' in the spiritual sense, with 'damaging others' as the secondary effect. It's because God wants us to be happy, in the truest sense of the word, that he doesn't like sin, not because it 'goes against his rules' or anything like that.

People tend to think of God as taking all the fun out of life. But when you think about it, which way really leads to the most happiness? 'Greed, hatred, envy, prejudice, anger' or 'love, kindness and forgiveness'.

yodaboy - ah, I think I missed what you were trying to say. I cannot see any conflict between the well-known bible verses you posted, and my opinion.
However, there are many bible verses that do conflict with my opinion, in fact most of the old testament , however I'm not a biblical fundamentalist, so it doesn't have much effect my opinion.

MaidenLumpe - actually, there are many Christians who do not believe that Jesus died specifically 'for our sins'. Including C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity. That's why I tend to say that belief in Jesus philosophy is really the only thing which unites all Christians.

 

did not know that... thanks for the heads up

learn something new every day!

 

kitt: i put explinations after the verses, i hope that helps

IMO, Jesus death was not about 'paying the price for our sin' or anything like that, but about love.

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life."

god loved the world, so he sent his son to save us, not to prove his love.



I've never gone in for this 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth, the wages of sin is death, so Jesus must die for you' version of Christianity.

John 14:6
"Jesus told him, 'I am the way , the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father execpt through me.'"

the only way to heaven is through jesus, therefore, he had to come and die for us.

 

I am a Christian, I posted on the first page our essential beliefs.

You may have heard people say things when referring to Christianity as "mysteries." Much of our belief is based on "faith." The real meaning of this word, no not straight out from the dictionary, is, believing without seeing. It seems that we are following blindly, and that is why it's hard to become a Christian after not beliving in a "God" for years. Our religion is surrounded by faith, we can not physically see God in this big glowing image. We believe that everyone, believer or non, has God in them.

I have started a list of things I am going to ask God when I go to Heaven. Things that I believed on Earth solely by faith. It's a very hard religion and is confusing. The religion takes work, and faith in God.

 

MaidenLumpé was heading in the right direction when she said "
"i think that the only statement that can be made about all christians is that they believed that Christ was sent to us by God and died for our sins.

anything more than that and you get into specific faiths. i don't think that there are any (or many) more statements that can be made that work for ALL christians."

The unifying "force" between Christians is their belief that Jesus was the Son of God/God, died for us, and rose again so that we might also go to heaven.

The reason why there are thousands of different religions is because they disagree on most everything else.

The Creed you saw earlier was the stated beliefs of the Catholic Church, the original "denomination" and the largest.

P.S.
One comment on the nature of sin. Sin can be defined as a break or something that causes a break in the relationship between a person and God. Therefore, according to me and the Catholic Church, humans are basically evil because they do not have a perfect relationship with God.

 

I don't think i'm basically evil. I'm a nice guy.

 

actually, the creed also works for many protestant religions. the difference between them is that the Catholic church capitalizes Catholic, and the other churches don't, and in their case it means universal.

 

I don't think i'm basically evil. I'm a nice guy.


Yes you are. Remember when you called me Bender because of the tin plate in my head?

 

Ah, memories.

 

Evil ones of course.

 

To be a Christian?

I suppose that "Christian" would be synonomous with one who is ultimately entering heaven, so I'd say the best definition I can give is Romans 10:9,

"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is the Lord' and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved"

 

yodaboy, I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree, because still I cannot see how John 3:16 contradicts the statement that Jesus died to show us how much us he loved us. Call me slow

I really don't like all this 'we're all evil, we were born evil, we sin a thousand times a day' talk. It's psychologically damaging in the utmost. You can't have any self-esteem if it's constantly drummed into you that you're evil and there's nothing you can do about it.

 

I don't like the "we're all evil people" talk either. My psycho Sunday School teacher was trying to convince us that even babies are evil, sinful creatures. uh...yah. Except that part where Jesus says "let the children come to me, for they are like the kingdom of heaven".

 

i don't like you guys either, therefore, you don't exist.

 

Very interesting thread.

However, aside from the immensely powerful moral issues, "justification by faith" is immensely damaging in all sorts of ways and this has been proven by history. I don't really want to go further into this because it would be insensitive for me to use a Christianity appreciation thread as a way to criticise it. However, I felt the need to mention that point.

Once again - extremely interesting thread.