Define what it means to be a Christian?

Question

There are so many people out there today that say they are Christians. What makes you a Christian? How do you define Christianity? What do you think, based on your standards and definitions of being a Christian, will happen to you when you die?

I'm asking this question for personal reasons and for research. I've never denied anyone's right to believe or not believe in God. Everyone is welcome to respond all I ask is that you can back up what you have to say with either scripture or secular resources.

These answers may appear on my website at some point and I'm really looking for the best. Feel free to email me anytime to continue discussions.
So help me out here and perhaps later on I can help you.

God Bless, Rebecca

Answer 1

Someone who is born of God, not by human will, but by the will of God.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Jesus said to see the Kingdom of God one must be born again. The first person is born flesh and the second is born spiritually. The old man dies, and the sins are washed away (in His redeeming blood) and the new man in Christ alive forevermore.

Answer 2

So many interesting statements about being a christian. To be a christian is the be a new form of man, That has been born into the Kingdom of Christ by a spiritual birth. All people are spiritually dead due to sin, Christians are the only people on the earth that are spiritually alive. That is because of being grafted into the Kingdom by Holy Spirit who seals you with the spirit of Christ. Thus it is writen you are a new creature in Christ Jesus and it is writen if you have the Son you have the Father and if you have not the Father you have not the Son. So the spirit of Christ lives in the heart heart of a christian and his spirit is filled with Christ. So our dead spirits became alive again in Christ who is our redeemer and our salvaion and our Lord and our God. The holy spirit sealed us into the kingdom and he teachs us the word of God and he reveals the power of God to us. And we recieve him when we are called into service just like we did christ into our hearts at the asking. So what is a christian, we are a extenson of Christ, know as his body of Christ. The reason that term is used is that we are infact only small versions of Christ to a dieing world. We are a GOD race of people. We are born into a new kingdom and our father is God. People really have not come to terms with what that mean to be a God race. That is why you see some poeple with power and they can actually deminstrate that power they have made the mentel leap and have put on the mind of Christ. Others not so much.
Christian are the most powerful people on the planet we can destory nations with a single prayer and we can infact even command storms to stop and to even be still. But you have to learn to live by faith first. Just like Jesus did. I can back up all i say in the bible, as you are the researcher you really need to seek it out yourself for wisdom and understanding.

Answer 3

To be a Christian means to be Christ-like e.g. love your enemies, bless those who curse you, turn the other cheek, etc. Unfortunately, there are so few "true christians"in this world coz most Christians are just superficial.

My definition of a Christian would be someone who can abide in the two main commandments of the Lord i.e.
1) Love God with all your heart, mind, soul & all your
might & have no false gos before Him for He is a
Jealous God; (which means to put Him above
everyone & everything else eg. your family, loved
ones, wealth, status, power & all materialistic things
that you covet.

2) Love one another as I loved you. (Jesus died for us
on the Cross so that we may be saved. Can we do
that for another person, be it a friend or a foe?) If we
can't, then we have not fully been a Christian.

Answer 4

No, all Christians at the prompt are not standard. The Fundamentalist takes the bible to be literal actuality; no symbolism, no interpretation, no allegory. no longer all Christians view it this type. Taking the bible in its entirety as "the note of God" is a demanding job for some, because the e book has been by ability of such rather some translations and modifying jobs. some bibles comprise the e book of Amos. some do not. The e book of Ruth, music of Songs, the Gospel of Thomas...those are purely a number of what's categorised as apocryphal writings. a in a lot of cases stated celebration of translation situation is the note "love". The bible we've become once translated from Greek; a language with 4 distinct words with 4 distinct meanings that we placed lower than the only note "love". what percentage different words follow this trend? there is even a discrepancy on the translation of the Hebrew note for "virgin" in connection with Mary. All of this promises as a lot as create branch upon branch interior of Christianity, and those that do no longer project any of this (or the literalness thereof) are the basics.

Answer 5

I Beileve along with my Church beleives ( Fundemental Independant Baptist) that you personally cant really call your self a christian for a christian means to be well Chrsit Like We beleive that when you ask jesus into your heart and he forgives your sins and you are on your way to heaven instead of becomign "christian" you are merely saved. What makes you a Christian is what other people say about you. when you leave work what do people say " wow their goes a chrsitian" or do people not even know about your beleif or even do they just think of you as a pretender. When You die and at your funeral will they say their lies a christian They were Christ like. or will people have no idea. That My friend is what a Christian is, a man/woman walking on this earth trying with all his might to be Chrsit Like. but in the mean time I, as well as other are just saved, until somone else labels me as CHRISTIAN.

Answer 6

Popular belief = a follower of Christ
However, let the bible interpret itself.
A few passages to get you started...(sorry I don't have a bible in front of me to give you the exact words or location, so try an on-line bible phrase search):
"No man can come to me [Christ] unless the Father draws him first"
"The sons of God [True Christians] are led by the Spirit of God"
"Not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord,' will be saved."

Consider the "christian" religions across the world with the repeated prophecies that tell us, "the devil deceived the WHOLE world," and Christ's own words which ask, "scarcely, will I find even one with faith." It is a harder path than most realise.

Answer 7

To be a true christian, you must believe that Jesus is your savior. That God is your almighty father and live your life in the manner that you know is right and treat everyone the same no matter what. Love everyone and believe that you will be with our father when you leave this world. God bless you and be with you throughout your entire life.

Answer 8

All Christians claim to be followers of Jesus.
Jesus said, "Love one another." He was talking about tolerance and acceptance. Yet, how many self-proclaimed "Christian" organizations practice tolerance and acceptance? All I have to do is say the word "homosexuality" to eliminate a vast number from being "true" Christians.
Sadly, there are very few. Generally the ones talking about being Christians are furthest from grace. "True" Christians -- and I have met a few -- don't need to talk dogma. They live lives of tolerance and acceptance. I know they are True Christians without ever being told.

Answer 9

A person that follows the teachings of jesus. The only people I have ever found that actually were close to following the teachings of jesus were athiests. And liberals who most supposed christians despise. For voting for things like equality for gays. These people are not christian. They preach love but never show it.

Answer 10

In Europe, while remaining open to other religions and their cultural contributions, we must unite our efforts to preserve Christian roots, traditions and values, to ensure respect for history, and thus to contribute to the European culture of the future and to the quality of human relations at every level," the two Christian leaders said.

When the two men appeared together on the balcony of the Phanar, linking arms and offering a sort of victory salute to the crowd, one could forgive a casual observer for perceiving a pan-Christian alliance designed, at least in part, to preserve Europe as a "Christians first" zone.

"He can't have it both ways," one colleague in the press corps said to me.

Grasping how these two points -- fraternal relations with Muslims and the preservation of Europe's Christian identity -- are not opposed, at least as far as Benedict XVI is concerned, requires understanding what he means by "Christian tradition."

He is not talking about a return to Christendom, meaning collapsing the distinction between church and state. In a meeting with the president of Italy in June 2005, for example, Benedict endorsed "a healthy secularity of the state," meaning separation between civil and religious spheres, "without excluding those ethical references that find their ultimate basis in religion."