Does being a Christian require believing The Bible is...?

Question

the literal Word of God?

Many Catholics and mainline Protestants do not believe it is the literal word of God, but is rather many books expressing faith in God. (books, I might add, that show us the way to God/true peace)

Obviously, many Christians believe reading the Bible as God's Word is a requirement for being a "true" Christian.

What do you think?

Answer 1

The word "Christian" actually translates as meaning "Follower of the Christ". To me that means that if you follow the teachings of Jesus, you have the right to call yourself "Christian". Whether or not you believe the bible is literal, or mostly allegory and myth doesnot really matter. What matters is how you live your life. Are you following Jesus' example of charity, honesty, acceptance, forgiveness, compassion, etc? If so, you are a Christian. A true follower of Christ does not condemn others for their actions or beliefs, but is tolerant, loving, kind and giving to all, no matter what.

Answer 2

I think a bigger problem is that if people who are not christian make it known to the jury that they are not christian, it may affect the whole way the jury looks at the person who is testifying or taking the stand. The jury is common average people and most common average people are christians. Not all people are created equally and some people might become judgemental towards a witness if the witness isn't christian and a particular juror feels they should be. There's lots of christians who believe its the only religion. In fact I went to church the other day, and the preacher basically said in church that all other religions are bad and if they are not speaking the word of god they are no good. So christianity doesn't exactly teach "tolerance" towards other religions that are different and it doesn't teach christians not to be judgemental of other religions or what people choose to believe in. I could be wrong because I have never read the bible and I'm making this assumption just based on some excerpts this preacher read in the church last week. So I dont think a witnesses preference in religion should be made public to the jurors since some of the jurors may become biased. It may not be as meaningful, but I mean even christians can lie with their hand on the bible so the damages that that would cause, are not as bad as the damages that would be caused if the witnesses religion was made public. Ive been to court many times and have never seen anyone put their hand on a bible. Ive never been to a murder trial but in civil and other criminal trials they dont do that, at least not in California or Florida. Hard to explain.

Answer 3

All you need do is look to many of these churches that don't hold a high view of Scripture, and you will see that they are worldly (for the most part) and have rather public (and often embarrassing) problems.

The Episcopal Church is about to split within the US, because the liberals who've abandoned Scripture as authoritative, have ordained homosexuals as priests and bishops. The Bible believers within are leaving in droves. The Methodists and Presbyterians are also dealing with similar issues.

Those churches that do hold to an authoritative view of Scripture, deal with those issues from a biblical perspective. A recent example is Ted Haggard's fall from grace. When he sinned, he was removed from his position, he is undergoing discipline as we speak. The church reacted swiftly, and biblically. They also didn't kick him to the curb, but are lovingly restoring him to fellowship, but not leadership.

Is the Bible true, inerrant, and all sufficient for our lives today, or isn't it? Either God has made His Word completely inerrant and all sufficient, and something we can trust, or He didn't. If the Bible is not trustworthy in its details, then why bother at all?

Ultimately, either man becomes the arbiter of what is true in the Bible, or God meant what He said. As Paul says, "Let God be true, and everyone else a liar. As it is written: "You are right when you speak, and win your case when you go into court." (Romans 3:4)

Answer 4

I don't believe the bible is someting to be taken completely literaly. Yes, many of the things in the bible are matters of literal and historical fact. But much of it is abstract and has to be interpreted, I mean just look at revelations.

You also have to take into account that god didn't sit down and dictate the bible to the poeple who wrote it. It is basically a compilation of works by various authors. And the fact that you can't literaly translate from one language to another as it has been translated from the original context into english and numerous other languages means that some of the meaning in the original copies of the works has been lost.

Answer 5

I believe that the Bible is God speaking to us. The New testament is for us now in the Church age. This doesn't mean we can discard the Old, but the Law was crucified on the cross with Jesus and doesn't apply now. Jesus was the last sacrifice for sin.
Christianity and the Bible go hand and hand. When you run across something questionable you filter it through the Word and see if it lines up. It is the owners manual for this life.

Answer 6

The bible is the roadmap to which we need to live if we truly are committed christians. If we only want it to affirm our own life and choices, well we're just picking and choosing and taking it out of context. 2 Timothy 3:16 - it is the literal word of God, recorded by man and is useful for all teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness - (Christ-like living).

Answer 7

on the first place christianity itself is not a religion it is an experience.no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again.You have to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.The Bible is the inerrant,infallible,inspired Word of God.Christians not only read the Bible but to study and meditate night and day to give us wisdom.It God's breathed and is useful for teaching,rebuking,correcting and training in righteosness so that every believer may be thoroughly equipped for every good works.Through reading and studying the Bible you come to understand what God is like-His thoughts,His plans and His promises for your life.
It sad to say that many people professed tobe a christian but wander around doing their own thing and slipped away from the Truth(Word of God)
Thank you my friend for giving me this oppurtunity to answer yourquestion.Take care and May God showers you more blessings in this new year to come and reflect what God has done of your life.I pray that your faith will grow and deeply rooted.God bless you and your family

Answer 8

They think that, BUT they never read the book itself, otherwise they would have found the passage that says that the book is written by man, and consists primarily of the words of man, occasionally the words of Jesus, and rarely the actual words of God, because man is a self-centered being and is not perfect, man does his best to present things, but it is to be taken with a grain of salt, and there is a key/codex given to identify what things written were actually said by
God or Jesus - which is almost none of what is written in the Bible, except for a few lines here or there based on the criteria given.

Answer 9

No, the God's words were lost in the minds of the people, who actually wrote the Bible. They wrote, what they wanted to believe what God told them, depending upon their own conditioning. Their words were thier own interpretation of God's philosophy.

Being a christian means being true to yourself and to the society, with aboslutely no conditioning

Answer 10

Being a Christian were meant by those who were struggling with the Faith of Christ. people who were struggling about the faith in Christ were called Christians. Because it is a name who believed in the Christ. Christ is the Word of God, becareful how you should obey, because if you don't, God will not have mercy on you. Unless you turn back to God, that is when you have mery from God.