What makes Christians Christian??

noni1974 13 years ago

Besides a belief in Jesus. What is your definition??

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LouBelle 13 years ago

If you are going to take on the name of Christ aka christian you better be christ - like.

( the run of the mill definition doesn't cut it - I do not believe in the christian doctrine, yet I am christ like)

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still thinking 13 years ago

Thats a very good question...shame none of the christians have seen this thread to answer it. They are probably the ones who should. And it would be interesting to see if they have the same ideas on what makes Christians Christian.

What is the run of the mill definition Lou Belle?

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cofty 13 years ago

If christian means "christ-like" what was special about Jesus as opposed to many other moral teachers?

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Phizzy 13 years ago

Being a member of a religion that worships Jesus would get you the label "Chrisitan", but religions that do not actually worship him still claim to be christian.

Some people claim to be christian without being part of any particular church, I presume then they would be striving to live by the Golden Rule, but as Cofty says, why label yourself christian, that Rule and Jesus' other teachings that can actually be followed today are all found in older and other teachings.

They will then claim that they are proclaiming that the only way to get "saved" is via Jesus, and it all gets terribly bogged down,

We need the various shades of "Christian" to answer don't we?

If you were to literally follow him, to be a real Christian, you would piss off the authorities so much that they would kill you, he said as much himself, several times.

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still thinking 13 years ago

Yes, and desert your father and your mother and children to follow him phizzy.

Mark 10:29 "Yes," Jesus replied, "and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News,

And curse fig tress....

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Phizzy 13 years ago

I was also thinking of "Pick up your cross and follow me" , "a student is not greater than the Teacher" etc all intimating that true followers would martyr themselves.

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LouBelle 13 years ago

crofty - In my personal outlook I don't see a difference in Jesus, Buddha, Mohammend, *insert whoever else made their path / their truth and lived it* For the benefit of this topic - being about christians - I chose Christ as the example. If it was about muslims I would have chosen Mohammend etc.

As for the run of the mill christain definition - those that believe in jesus as their god and saviour or the belief in a god in heaven or follow the 10 commandments, literal interpretations (for me this would pretty much mean all religions that believe in jesus / god / jehovah)

edited to add in: this is *MY* personal take on it. We can get pedantic about the dictionary definition but it really does come down to how we view it. Thus the above is purely my opinion on that.

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