Can I be Christian and Not Believe the Bible?

[Givemeareason]

If you reject the Word of God, you will believe any old thing. Many people make up their own rules of Christianity, so you may as well do the same. Don't be surprised, however, if you do not repent and are born again, Jesus does not receive you into His kingdom. He wasn't just a cool guy, He is God Incarnate.

And as I tried to say before, I love Jesus not expecting anything in return. My love for Jesus is not about myself.

 

[Kirsten]

And as I tried to say before, I love Jesus not expecting anything in return. My love for Jesus is not about myself.

I'm not sure why you would love a man who told you that you are a sinner in need of a savior and that if you are not born again you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

 

[Givemeareason]

I'm not sure why you would love a man who told you that you are a sinner in need of a savior and that if you are not born again you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Because my love for Jesus is based on the idea that he never sinned. To me, Jesus represents moral perfection. I doubt anyone would be condemned for pursuing that.

 

[Kirsten]

Because my love for Jesus is based on the idea that he never sinned. To me, Jesus represents moral perfection. I doubt anyone would be condemned for pursuing that.

You will fail in your pursuits. No human is capable of not sinning. Hence, the need for Jesus. A Christian is someone who is covered by the blood of Jesus. Christians are forgiven. Christians know the Lord, literally. They are adopted children into God's family through repentance and being born again. They have a relationship with Him. If that is not something you desire, then you are not a Christian, you are just someone who admires Jesus the man.

 

[GrimKingGrim]

You sure called it right over here though. This is a very pleasant place to encounter people.

Yes, it is. It's calmer but can also try my patience to no end.

This seems more your style, nobody's gonna really punish for asking even looney questions (as you generally tend to lol) so I'm happy for ya bud

 

[Givemeareason]

You will fail in your pursuits. No human is capable of not sinning. Hence, the need for Jesus. A Christian is someone who is covered by the blood of Jesus. Christians are forgiven. Christians know the Lord, literally. They are adopted children into God's family through repentance and being born again. They have a relationship with Him. If that is not something you desire, then you are not a Christian, you are just someone who admires Jesus the man.

Why would you predict my failure? Don't you think the hard path is sometimes better than the easy path. I don't expect to succeed. But every failure is yet another opportunity.

 

[Givemeareason]

Yes, it is. It's calmer but can also try my patience to no end.

This seems more your style, nobody's gonna really punish for asking even looney questions (as you generally tend to lol) so I'm happy for ya bud

Yes, I should fit right in. Thanks, dude.

 

[justlookinla]

Since I love Jesus and would like to follow him, I will decide how I want to do so amongst all the denominational choices I have. Look at the mormons, they even have another book. And look at other protestants who have taken nine books back out of the original bible. I am not interested in disagreements amongst denominations. I cannot see why I cannot be a Christian just as I am.

John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

 

[Kirsten]

Why would you predict my failure? Don't you think the hard path is sometimes better than the easy path. I don't expect to succeed. But every failure is yet another opportunity.

God predicts your failure because He declares that all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I'm just telling you what He, JESUS, proclaims. The dude you like.

 

[Kirsten]

John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Why would you predict my failure? Don't you think the hard path is sometimes better than the easy path. I don't expect to succeed. But every failure is yet another opportunity.

Jesus decides what makes someone a Christian, not us. You can't just decide you are a Christian because you admire Jesus and want to live a good life. That isn't what a Christian is.

 

[Givemeareason]

It would seem to me, that if you want to know Jesus, and understand Jesus more than ever before, so long as Jesus exists and can communicate with you, you can do such a thing. Arguably, believing or disbelieving the Bible would have little to nothing to do with this. Unless Jesus brought up the Bible, and wanted to use it with you. Also, arguably, being a "Christian" might have little to nothing to do with whether or not you personally know Jesus and could become like one of Jesus' disciples.

If you are going to rely on what was written about Jesus, or what others say about Jesus, and not on Jesus directly ... then I'm not sure what that would be called. Probably some form of Christian or Christianity, although other religious traditions include Jesus in their tradition as well obviously. I don't see how you could really know about Jesus otherwise apart from someone telling you in such a context. This may involve referencing books, obviously. I would think if you wanted to know as much about Jesus as possible from this method, you would probably reference as much material as you could. Which opens up a LOT of reading, obviously even outside of a "Christian umbrella".

If you wanted to combine all of it ... if you were able to know Jesus personally as well as reference others and other materials, I would think Jesus Himself may be able to tell you what is what concerning what to believe or disbelieve about what was said in books. However I suppose you could still choose to believe a variety of things, even if told otherwise.

The problem I would have with communicating directly with Jesus is that I would be unable to discern what was coming from Jesus and what was coming from myself. Does that make sense?

 

[Givemeareason]

Jesus decides what makes someone a Christian, not us. You can't just decide you are a Christian because you admire Jesus and want to live a good life. That isn't what a Christian is.

Jesus did not know any Christians and everything we know about Jesus was written by somebody else. So why would Jesus care how we chose to follow him as long as we made our best effort. Are you forgetting his message of forgiveness?

 

[Saricharity]

Since the bible is Gods holy word and gives us a way to get to know him personally, how can you live your life as a Christian if you don't believe the bible. How would you know you are a Christian?

Scripture teaches that the moment we turn from sin and trust in Jesus to be forgiven of sin, we are saved (Acts 2:37-41). Therefore we have passed from spiritual death to spiritual life (John 5:24) and has been declared not guilty in God's court of law (Rom 3:21-26). From God's perspective, our salvation is an objective reality that cannot be changed (Rom 8:28-30).

If you don't believe in scripture, how will you know you are a follower of Jesus.
What exactly does it mean to you to be a Christian?
Do you Wish to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus? Or do you just want to learn about him on earth as a historical person you admire.
To be a Christian requires a decision.
I just don't see how you can be a believer in Christ yet not believe the bible. The bible is the book that tells about the life, death, resurrection, ascension of Christ. It tells us how we can have eternal life so that we can be with Jesus one day. It tells us how to fulfill the great commission and lead others to Christ as well.
What does it mean to be a Christian to you without scripture?

 

[RDKirk]

As of right now, I have decided to become Christian. The reason I can be this is because I believe the message of Jesus was a wondrous and beautiful message indeed. And I would like to follow it. So as a Christian, my first goal is to understand Jesus more than ever before. Is that not what all the disciples did? I would like to become more like them. And so to better understand Jesus I would like to see things more from his point of view. Now the new testament offers a pretty good view of this. So when I hear that Jesus said that the old laws are still in effect I see who he was talking to. He was talking primarily to Jews and not me. And that is good for me to know so I can now forget about the old testament and focus on the new. The old is just there to be viewed from an historical perspective. So am I not now a Christian but perhaps of a different denomination? Now I am beginning to wonder if this denomination already exists?

You should make a distinction between what the bible says and what people say the bible says.

A reference was made earlier to the Marcion heresy of about 140 AD. Marcion was a bishop who proposed to do away with the Old Testament entirely, and even some of the New Testament writings that in his opinion were too tied to the Old Testament (like the gospel of Matthew). But that proposal was went with an overall theology that was really really way out there--a dual-god theology that was unacceptable and truly heretical.

But the Church's response to getting rid of the OT was tepid at best, essentially saying "If we get rid of the Judaic scriptures, we won't have a history of how we came to be." IOW, the Church at that time same thing you said: The old is just there to be viewed from an historical perspective.

If the Christians in the second century had been actively using the OT as guidance in their daily lives, Marcion's proposal would never have gained traction. But it did gain traction, so much the Church had to deal with him directly, and that was actually the first time the Church even began to consider officially identifying a "canon" of scripture.

 

[Kirsten]

The bible itself is God's revelation about Jesus to His creation. If you reject the bible, you are literally rejecting Jesus. Trying to live a sinless life is religion. It is about works. Christianity is a relationship. Christianity in fact is a state of being, not just a label.

 

[Albion]

I like that point of view but I have not read where Jesus said that.

Maybe then it comes down whether one believes the Bible to be divine revelation...or just the words that Jesus spoke himself.

So if the old testament is simply not our primary source of guidance why do so many Christians seem to be using it that way?

I could imagine saying that of the Seventh Day Adventists and the various splinters from what used to be Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God. I'm not sure, even then, that it would be correct to say that these consider the OT to be the "primary source of guidance." But in any case, there aren't any other churches that are even in the running. I guess, therefore, that I'm going to have to say that I don't think "so many Christians" do think of it that way.

 

[Givemeareason]

Since the bible is Gods holy word and gives us a way to get to know him personally, how can you live your life as a Christian if you don't believe the bible. How would you know you are a Christian?

Scripture teaches that the moment we turn from sin and trust in Jesus to be forgiven of sin, we are saved (Acts 2:37-41). Therefore we have passed from spiritual death to spiritual life (John 5:24) and has been declared not guilty in God's court of law (Rom 3:21-26). From God's perspective, our salvation is an objective reality that cannot be changed (Rom 8:28-30).

If you don't believe in scripture, how will you know you are a follower of Jesus.
What exactly does it mean to you to be a Christian?
Do you Wish to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus? Or do you just want to learn about him on earth as a historical person you admire.
To be a Christian requires a decision.
I just don't see how you can be a believer in Christ yet not believe the bible. The bible is the book that tells about the life, death, resurrection, ascension of Christ. It tells us how we can have eternal life so that we can be with Jesus one day. It tells us how to fulfill the great commission and lead others to Christ as well.
What does it mean to be a Christian to you without scripture?

I can believe in the writings about Jesus within the bible. The entire bible is not about Jesus. And the old testament is pretty evident it is not intended for us.

 

[hedrick]

Look at Matthew 5. This is the most explicit treatment of OT Law by Jesus. He says the laws are still in effect. But he then goes on to see the 10 commandments as mandating certain attitudes towards others rather than being things we can obey as laws.

Also look at Acts 15, where the early Church dealt with the question of whether Gentile Christians had to be circumcized and keep kosher. The answer was no. Jesus was preaching to Jews, so that question didn't really come up for him. But Jews in the 1st Cent as now saw the OT laws as part of a covenant between God and Israel. Not all the details applied to Gentiles. Acts 15 is consistent with the typical Jewish understanding of what did apply to everyone. While Jesus didn't explicitly speak on the topic, I'd assume that he would have accepted the position shown in Acts 15.

 

[justlookinla]

I can believe in the writings about Jesus within the bible. The entire bible is not about Jesus. And the old testament is pretty evident it is not intended for us.

Jesus thought the OT was intended for us, He quoted from it several times.

And again....John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

 

[Givemeareason]

You should make a distinction between what the bible says and what people say the bible says.

A reference was made earlier to the Marcion heresy of about 140 AD. Marcion was a bishop who proposed to do away with the Old Testament entirely, and even some of the New Testament writings that in his opinion were too tied to the Old Testament (like the gospel of Matthew). But that proposal was went with an overall theology that was really really way out there--a dual-god theology that was unacceptable and truly heretical.

But the Church's response to getting rid of the OT was tepid at best, essentially saying "If we get rid of the Judaic scriptures, we won't have a history of how we came to be." IOW, the Church at that time same thing you said: The old is just there to be viewed from an historical perspective.

If the Christians in the second century had been actively using the OT as guidance in their daily lives, Marcion's proposal would never have gained traction. But it did gain traction, so much the Church had to deal with him directly, and that was actually the first time the Church even began to consider officially identifying a "canon" of scripture.

Exactly... that's what I just said somewhere. The old testament should only be viewed from an historical perspective. Clearly the moral guidance offered there is not intended for us. So why can't we realize that and stop trying to apply it that way?