Who is classified as a Christian, are Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and Catholics Christian?

Question

Many Christians argue they are not while they seem to believe they are, who is right? And why is there so much focus on who to exclude?

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses are true Christians. It seems pointless to argue that a self-described "Christian" is not a Christian when the only opinion that matters is that of God and Christ.

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 three 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/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050422/article_02.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/pr/index.htm?article=article_04.htm

Answer 2

Well, I will let Mormons and Catholics explain for themselves. I will tell you that we Witnesses are Christians. A Christian is a follower of the teachings of Christ. Does anyone do this perfectly? No. But we do put forth a considerable effort. One point people seem to have a problem with is that we don't agree that Jesus is God, but rather the SON of God.

Just to clear up to misconceptions from above we don't "hate Catholics" also we do not view Christ as God, we view him as the son of God.

Answer 3

As far as Jehovah Witnesses are concerned-Jesus Christ is not God as written in their New World Translation-John 1:1"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was withGod and the Word was"a god".KJV lists the verse basically the same except the real difference being at the end where it says and the Word was God(Word in Greek being Logos).They have more in common with Muslims in that neither groupaccepts the triune God-just the Father.In order to be a Christ-one(as in the days of Antioch -early days of Christianity`s birth)it meant follower of Christ.Since the J.W.`s deny His deity an His being God`s Son,they cannot justifiably be Christians

Answer 4

The LDS and JW don't suppose, adhere to, or receive BASIC tenets of the Christian religion. Also,they don't suppose the Bible is the only real authority. Even probably the most informal assessment of the faiths will exhibit foremost (!!!!!!) issues. Rather like announcing cricket and baseball are the equal recreation. I haven't any challenge with Catholics different then I discover my denomination extra pleasant.

Answer 5

"God can in no way be described." -- Plato
(Father of the pagan Trinity)

In the preface to Edward Gibbon's History of Christianity, we read: "If Paganism was conquered by Christianity, it is equally true that Christianity was corrupted by Paganism. The pure Deism of the first Christians . . . was changed, by the Church of Rome, into the incomprehensible dogma of the trinity. Many of the pagan tenets, invented by the Egyptians and idealized by Plato, were retained as being worthy of belief."

"Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it" (Soren Kierkegaard, cited in Time magazine, Dec. 16, 1946, p. 64).


As Suzanne points out came from the Nicene Creed: "The three-in-one/one-in-three mystery of Father, Son and Holy Ghost made Tritheism official. The subsequent almost-deification of the Virgin Mary made it Quatrotheism . . . Finally, cart-loads of saints raised to quarter-deification turned Christianity into plain old-fashioned polytheism. By the time of the Crusades, it was the most polytheistic religion to ever have existed, with the possible exception of Hinduism.

In Alexandria, Egypt, allegorical (mystical) interpretation was taught and Alexandrians could then spiritualize the text so they could explain away (make excuses, reject reason) any unwanted literal reference by claiming it was allegorical. They both relied on the Gnostic John 1:1 written by a Greek around 100 CE. Much of their philosophy was based mainly on Plato and Egyptian paganism.

The Egyptians before Christianity had always been a deeply religious people, and many readily embraced the young religion, having had their old beliefs effectively destroyed by the coming of the Roman Empire and the final dethroning of the god-king Pharaohs.

Many of the concepts of Christianity were already familiar to the Egyptians from their ancient religion, such as the death and resurrection of a god, the idea of the judgment of souls and a paradisiacal afterlife for the faithful.

The ankh too, the Egyptian symbol for eternal life, is very similar to that of the cross revered by Christians (especially in the form of the Coptic cross), itself also a symbol for eternal life. Furthermore, the belief that God had chosen Egypt as a safe place for His infant son to hide him from Herod was a great source of pride to the Egyptian Christians. It was through Christianity that the Egyptian culture survived the Roman Dominion.


That is why in the Book of Revelations the Harlot (false Christians and other false religions) are sitting on Rome.

Only the few that worship God as Abraham did will get into the kingdom and can be called "Christians".

"Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it." - Matt 7:13,14

Answer 6

Christians are not people who belong to a certain sect but those who individuals who have accept Yahshua Messiah as their saviour and lives accordingly.

I personally believe there are christians in all the above groups but I do not believe the vast majority are in any group. Only God knows the heart however we can see the fruits. Don't look that their belief system that usually stems from a manmade religion but instead look at the fruit of their lives.

Answer 7

Depends on your definition of Christian.

Most non-Catholic Christian denominations accept Catholics as Christians. A very few do not.

A dictionary would say that a Christian is someone professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

Catholics would fit this definition.

In the Nicene creed, from 325 A.D., Catholics profess:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father.

Through Him all things were made.

For us and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried.

On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are baptized as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

We truly are spiritually "born again," we just don't usually use those words.

With love in Christ.

Answer 8

Christian is a title nicked from Catholics by Protestants. In fact all first Protestants (which includes today's Baptists and non-denoms) all saw and taught they were the real Catholics hence the title they coined for the original Catholic Christians of Roman Catholic.

Catholics are the first Christians they are both Catholic and Orthodox. Catholics are truly the only "non-denominational Church" as Catholicism has never claimed to be just one more denomination something that drives Protestants crazy. JW's and Mormons are denominations of Protestantism created by former Protestants.

If Christianity is symbolised by a tree, than the Catholics form the roots and trunk, all other groups claiming to be Christian are either branches or dead limbs.

Answer 9

Out of ignorance, many people feel that Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian because they reject the trinity doctrine. To anyone who holds that belief about us, I would challenge them to show me where in Scripture does it teach that? Where did Jesus tell his followers that God was triune, and that he was God the Son, the Second person of the trinity? The answere is: NOWHERE! How then can the trinity be a Christian teaching?

Can all those who call themselves Christians be telling the truth? How can they be when they:

participate in bloody wars, although Jesus told his followers to "love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you"? Matt. 5:44

celebrate pagan holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween?

venerate the cross, a pagan symbol that predates Christianity by thousands of years"

refuse to take up the preaching work that Jesus gave to his disciples at Matt. 28:19, 20?

Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian in every sense of the word.

Answer 10

Since the Catholic Church was founded by Christ -- they certainly qualify. Catholicism is the orthodox Christian religion (yes -- Orthodox also claims to be but with the exception of recognizing the Pope as their leader, the religions are very similar). All other Christian sects are created by men and take their belief systems either directly from Catholicism in most cases or as a rejection of traditional Catholic beliefs in others. Over one half of the Christians in the world are Catholic.

As for JW and Mormons -- they believe that Jesus is God -- so will insist that they are also Christians. However, their beliefs differ from traditional Christian beliefs in many ways. For example, Mormons reject the idea of the Trinity and believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate beings working together for a single purpose.

It might sound like the rejection of the Trinity means they can't be considered Christians. However, most Protestants reject Transubstantiation -- does their rejection of this long-standing Christian doctrine make them any less Christian?