What is a Christian?

Question

Someone of European descent? A persecutor of Jews? Someone who votes for only the most conservative Republicans?

Are Catholics, JWs and Mormans allowed into the door of Christianity? If not why? Isnt Christianity all accepting?

Answer 1

A christian is someone who preaches the bible but doesn't understand and doesn't live by it his/herself.

Answer 2

Christianity, despite some peoples claims otherwise, is not hereditary. A christian is a person with faith in the Lord Jesus Chist as their own personal saviour who died on the cross to pay the penalty for their sins.

Catholics, are sort of a sticky matter. Catholicism is Christian in that they believe in jesus and his sacrifice, but they also have redemption through works and other false teachings that have seperated them from more biblically based Christians (a.k.a protestants).

Mormans and JWs are not christians. They claim they are in order to try to make their message more palateable. JWs do not believe that Jesus was God, but instead a god. But they also believe there is only one god. It is basically a new religion created by a man who reinterpreted the original scriptures from greek, even though it was proven in a court of law that he had no knowedge of the language. Mormans got their book of mormon froma guy with a tophat on his face who claimed he saw an angel. They do not believe any of the basics of christianity. If mormons and JWs were christian, they wouldn't e Mormons and JWs anymore.

Answer 3

1. Christian means that you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God - not just that he was a good teacher, or cool guy, but that he IS divine in nature.

2. Any race or nationality can be Christian.

3. Hitler was the persecutor of Jews, many Christians who went against Hiltler also went to the gas chamber - including Ministers, Pastors, Priests, nuns, etc.

4. We are told to put God first, that may reflect in their voting tendencies.

5. Catholics are Christians - we all believe that Jesus is the Son of God and divine in nature. At least that's my understanding of JW's and Mormons that they also believe in Jesus, however differently than that he is the Son of God.

I'm a Catholic, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried, on the 3rd day he rose from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.....

:)

God bless :)

Answer 4

One who believed Jesus is the God and Saviour and will return to bring them to Heaven during Judgement.

However, wasn't it Christ himself who said not to worship him but to worship is father the LORD in Heaven?

Wasn't it Christ who preached kindness and love yet Christians go around killing and causing war just because someone didn't believe or someone did a wrong or atleast something they thought was wrong.

Wasn't it Christ who Died for our sins so what..that automatically means Christians can just go around killing people?

Christ did not have church, that was created. So The Pope has no connection to god nor does a priest and infact, Right down from the Pope and Priest are going to the Christian Hell because they do more sins in a day than a normal person does a month them ******* pedophiles and murderers!

Answer 5

I agree with the answer given by bri except that I don't consider JW and Mormons to be Christian since they don't believe in the Holy Trinity, and the Holy Trinity has always been the most basic belief of Christians from the beginning. Have you ever noticed that you don't ever see a cross on the buildings of worship of JW's or Mormons?

I'm not saying this to be mean, if you don't draw the line somewhere about what "Christian" means then being "Christian" loses it's meaning. For example, are people going to call a Buddhist a Christian? A Buddhist certainly wouldn't call a Christian a Buddhist.

Catholics were the first Christians. This can be proven by the historical writings of the early Christian leaders and martyrs of the early Church and by the unbroken line of apostolic succession. We are the only Church that has an unbroken historical list of Popes that go all the way back to Peter the Apostle, the first Pope.

Protestants or "denominations" did not exist prior to the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther in AD 1517. And before AD 1054, when the Eastern Church separated from Rome, if you were Christian that meant that you were part of the Catholic Church with the Pope in Rome. There were various rites within the Church just as there are today -Coptic, Maronite, Chaldean, etc., but all recognized the supreme authority of the Bishop of Rome.

The Church was never in early Church history called the "Christian Church". In the early days, it was simply called "The Church". The Christians were those who belonged to "The Church". Later, the word "Catholic" (which means "universal") was in use by early Christians by as early as AD 110 in response to the heresies of that time. The early Church fathers wanted it to be known by all that the revelation given to us by Christ through His Church was for everyone to know about. That's why the Church started to call herself Catholic.

I believe completely in the divinity of Jesus Christ, therefore I don't believe that He got it wrong when He founded the Church which remains today just as He promised it would.

Ignatius of Antioch (Early Christian Bishop, Martyr, and Catholic Saint)

"Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop or by one whom he ordains [i.e., a presbyter]. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church" (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110]).

The Martyrdom of Polycarp

"And of the elect, he was one indeed, the wonderful martyr Polycarp, who in our days was an apostolic and prophetic teacher, bishop of the Catholic Church in Smyrna. For every word which came forth from his mouth was fulfilled and will be fulfilled" (Martyrdom of Polycarp 16:2 [A.D. 155]).

Tertullian

"Where was [the heretic] Marcion, that shipmaster of Pontus, the zealous student of Stoicism? Where was Valentinus, the disciple of Platonism? For it is evident that those men lived not so long ago—in the reign of Antonius for the most part—and that they at first were believers in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, in the church of Rome under the episcopate of the blessed Eleutherius, until on account of their ever restless curiosity, with which they even infected the brethren, they were more than once expelled" (Demurrer Against the Heretics 30 [A.D. 200]).

List of Early Popes of the Holy Catholic Church

1. St. Peter (32-67)
2. St. Linus (67-76)
3. St. Anacletus (Cletus) (76-88)
4. St. Clement I (88-97)
5. St. Evaristus (97-105)
6. St. Alexander I (105-115)
7. St. Sixtus I (115-125) -- also called Xystus I
8. St. Telesphorus (125-136)
9. St. Hyginus (136-140)
10. St. Pius I (140-155)
11. St. Anicetus (155-166)
12. St. Soter (166-175)
13. St. Eleutherius (175-189)
and so on up to our current Pope.

The Complete List of Popes:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm

P.S.
As much as I hate that we have to be at war, the bible doesn't say that it's against us ever being involved in war. In fact, there were many wars fought in the bible were God was on their side. I vote based on morality, not based on a political party. Kerry basically said that he voted for the war with Iraq and would do the same thing that Bush was doing when it comes to Iraq, so the war was a non-issue to me. Some issues are non-negotiable and are intrinsically evil such as abortion, promotion of homosexuality (especially when taught to children), doctor assisted suicide, human cloning and fetal farming, embryonic destruction, etc.

Answer 6

A Christian is a disciple of Jesus, the Christ, the only Son of God, and the Lord of the Creation, and Savior of the world.

Paul, in writing about Christians enjoined, as to behavior and heart attitude,for Christians to be : of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
He said, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God...emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men...He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death...on a cross.

Christianity was born in the East, not the West, and the literature of the New Testament is of Eastern thinking. A persecutor of Jews who calls himself a Christian does not understand Christianity or Christ's love for the Jewish people. Christianity may cause a person to hold certain political views over others, but they are not equations for each other. The door to the Christianity is the same for all--the cross of Christ.
"If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you sahll be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation...there is no distinction between Jew and Geek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

I hope that helps a bit.

Answer 7

catholics are christion. catholics ASK Mary to PRAY for us just like you would ask your friend to pray for you. We don't ever put Mary above God because God is the center of our life. If saying Holy Ghost is so important why dont you say it in Aramaic? As long as you know WHO you r worshipping it does not matter. And we DO NOT worship Mary. Jesus told Peter that whatever he bound on earth would be bound in heaven and everything he loosened on it would be loosened in heaven. Peter made the Church on earth and therfore in heaven. So the Catholic Church is the original Church of Jesus Christ and anyone who says otherwise needs to read what Jesus said to Peter in the Bible. Since the pope is the legitimate heir to Peter then whatever he "binds on earth will be bound in heaven" and vice versa.

And besides how would the Protestants even know who Jesus was if not for the Catholic Church?

Answer 8

A true Christian is any person from any part of the world who has come to realize that there is a God who sent His Son to save the world, and furthermore have seen that he or she is a sinful being, worthy to be instantly destroyed and thus in need of God's forgiveness and grace. Furthermore, this person must believe that God's Son is Jesus and that He came to Earth to suffer for our sins and pay the penalty (death) for those sins, and he or she gives control of his or her life to God. Anything less, and there is no point in calling yourself such.

Answer 9

Despite the rantings of anti-Witnesses, in fact the Jehovah's Witness religion is a Christian faith.

Sadly, Trinitarians repeatedly pretend that Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian. Trinitarians use an artificial, trinity-specific definition of the term "Christian" which excludes anyone who does not believe that Jesus is God Himself, rather than the Son of God. Interestingly, pagans in the first century pretended that Christ's followers were Atheists(!) because the Christians had a somewhat different idea from the pagans about the nature of God.

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that no salvation occurs without Christ, that accepting Christ's sacrifice is a requirement for true worship, that every prayer must acknowledge Christ, that Christ is the King of God's Kingdom, that Christ is the head of the Christian congregation, that Christ is immortal and above every creature, even that Christ was the 'master worker' in creating the universe! Both secular dictionaries and disinterested theologians acknowledge that Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian religion.

The Trinitarian arguments are intended to insult and demean Jehovah's Witnesses, rather than to give a Scripturally accurate understanding of the term "Christian".

In fact, the bible most closely associates being "Christian" with preaching about Christ and Christ's teachings. Review all the times the bible uses the term "Christian" and note that the context connects the term with:
"declaring the good news"
'teaching quite a crowd'
'open eyes, turn from dark to light'
"uttering sayings of truth"
"persuade"
"keep on glorifying"

(Acts 11:20-26) [The early disciples of Jesus] began talking to the Greek-speaking people, declaring the good news of the Lord Jesus... and taught quite a crowd, and it was first in Antioch that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians.

(Acts 26:17-28) [Jesus said to Paul] I am sending you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God... Paul said: “I am not going mad, Your Excellency Festus, but I am uttering sayings of truth and of soundness of mind. ...Do you, King Agrippa, believe the Prophets? I know you believe.” But Agrippa said to Paul: “In a short time you would persuade me to become a Christian.”

(1 Peter 4:14-16) If you are being reproached for the name of Christ, you are happy... But if he suffers as a Christian, let him not feel shame, but let him keep on glorifying God in this name


So why do anti-Witnesses try to hijack the term "Christian" and hide its Scriptural implications? Because anti-Witnesses recognize that it is the preaching work that makes it clear that the relatively small religion of Jehovah's Witnesses are by far the most prominent followers of Christ:

(Matthew 28:19,20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded


Learn more!
http://watchtower.org
http://watchtower.org/library/ti/index.htm

Answer 10

A christian is a person who follows Christ, get it, christ-ian. And if your human and created by God, than you can be a christian. Some people such as yourself believe only jews or of european descent can only be christians, is because their the main majority of people who except Christ, while others except budda, idols, mary, etc. And the europeans that excepts Christ country is the most prosperous, while the other countries who don't except Christ but idols is not. (Mary) Jesus's mother who's worshipped by catholics only did for Jesus by giving him birth, not for us, Jesus did for us, so I rather not worship mary, but Jesus (Christ). Say for example, I built an house on the lake for you and gave you a million dollars, your going to thank me and praise me, not my mother because she gave birth to me. You will treat her respectfully as a mother, but not thank and praise her, because she's done nothing for you, I did. Well that's how it is with Christ (Jesus) and his mother mary. And no,catholics can't be christians cause mary is thier first priorty, who they worship. Remember a christ-ian is a person who follows Christ, not mary,and is the first priorty. I'm not trying to be funny or mean, but I don't understand why catholics call themselfs catholics, since they worship mary and Christ, and mary is the first priorty, they should call themselfs marians, but I guess they worship mary and Christ (Jesus), but Mary is above Jesus in thier belief, so thier called catholics. Everytime a person is a catholic, they have a mary picture hanging in their window, rather it's church, a car, etc. Don't be decieved a christian can only be a christian only if he worships Christ . God said we should have no other God before us, and the cathoics has mary as their God above Jesus or equal to Jesus (Christ), thats a no no. Yes, they believe in the trinity, the Father (God) the son (Jesus (Christ), and the( Holy Ghost) second comforter, but Mary too. I noticed that cathlics like to say Holy Spirit, which is ok, but the bible always indicates the word Holy Ghost, hardly never Holy Spirit. The word of the Holy Spirit seems to me in my opinion a shamed of the word Holy Ghost. God said if you be a shamed of me I will be a shame of you on judgement day. I beleive it is a spiritual thing why people say the Holy Spirit and not Holy Ghost, well dealing with God period is a spiritual thing. Anyways the Holy Ghost has a lot of power. Everytime power is mentioned in the bible, it's Holy Gohst power. That's the only power God deals with is Holy Ghost power, because thats what he have, not Holy Spirit power. And we can't go to heaven without it, and if your not in tuned with God, you won't even be able handle his name cause theres power in it. To me it's a dead give away that your not a christian, when never use the word Holy Ghost, because the thrid of the trinity is always called the Holy Ghost in the bible, always, but yet it's not used, something is wrong with that picture. Also the bible says in the book of revelations, the last book of the bible, that anyone who adds or take away from this book should not enter the kingdom of heaven, and thats just what the catholics did. First people were taking certain scriptures out of the bible and only preaching that part thats approval to them and leaving the rest alone, now it's gotten a little bolder with approving the bible the way they want it to be, and added more books to the bible. The bible warns us about these things. Thats why you have to be careful. Mormans are also not allowed into the door of christianity, because in the book of revelations, the last book of the bible said, if anyone who adds or take away from this book will not enter the kingdom of heaven, but rather the lake of fire, (hell), and the mormans did just that, just like the catholics and many other non-christians who claim to be christians. I noticed that when a certain non-christian explains his or her own religion, they always mention the pentecostants, why not baptist or budda or seventh day adventist, etc., to me is because they know that the pntecostal way is right. Anyways it teaches in the bible not to believe every doctrine, because it will decieve you, and cause you to go under. Plus JW's can't be christians if there not folowing the bible way. If something taught to you is not in the bible or refer to something in the bible don't join in. What I mean by if it refers to something in the bible, for example: don't smoke is not in the bible, but don't fill your body with deadly substances is in the bible, which refers to smoking. God was'nt being pacific, he made a long story short, if it's deadly don't put it in your body. Hope this helped you some. My advise to you is to ask God himself about this matter. If your serious, God will literally speak through someone when you least expect it and have your question answered. Or he will show you on t.v., radio, or even in a dream. God bless you, be encouraged.

Answer 11

CHRISTian, someone who accepts Jesus CHRIST as their Lord and Savior, and follows his teachings.

Mainstream teachings typically follow one or all of the three Chrisitan creeds, Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian.

Other denominations, blended-beliefs, or cults, such as Jehovah's Witness and Morons I mean Mormons do not support the entire words od the creed. Specifically they believe in one god, one divine person, or three gods, three divine persons