[open]What Makes a Christian a Christian?

brightmorningstar said:

Dear Uberlutheran,
I believe that each of the world religions is a path to God, and that people of other faiths do go to Heaven,
I am not disputing anyone can or cant go to heaven, I think thats up to Jesus.
But as to a path to God, Jesus says that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28), that He will judge the nations (Matt 25), that He is the truth the way and the life and that no-one comes to the Father except through Him.
I am baffled. As other religions dont believe Jesus is the only path to God, surely you as Christian should?

Click to expand...

God is God; I'm not God.

God alone gets to make the decision as to who gets into Heaven and who doesn't.

I think there's going to be a lot more people in Heaven than we realize.

(People wouldn't like it if I made the decision as to who gets into Heaven and who doesn't: people who drive 40 mph on the expressway in the fast lane -- BOOM! They land in Hell. People who empty two big grocery carts of groceries in the "10 Items Or Less" lane of the supermarket -- BOOM! They land in Hell. There is a reason why God gets to make the final decision and I don't. )

I believe a person that reads The New Testament and follows the teachings in there can be defined as a christian. A person who follows Christ and tries to live like he did, is a christian. A person who loves God with all his heart, mind, body and spirit and loves his fellow human being, regardless of his/her, sex, colour, sexuality, ethnic background or religion , are in my view christian, even though they themselves may not call themselves a christian.

I used to be a Mormon and although i dont believe in it anymore. I still feel hurt, when i read things that are negative about them. And these things are wrighten by people who claim to be christians.

Being i christian, is a way of life, not a religion.

Dear GenestealerBroodlord,
I fully agree with that

Dear Uberlutheran,
Where did you get the idea that God makes the decision of who gets to heaven, if not from the Bible which says all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus to make this judgemnet?

There is a difference between "All who are allowed into heaven, are allowed by Jesus," and "All who are allowed into heaven are allowed by belief in Jesus."

The first allows for the posibility that Jesus would save a person who does not consciously believe in him.

Mling said:

The first allows for the posibility that Jesus would save a person who does not consciously believe in him.

Click to expand...

If you think about it, resting the whole thing on belief kind of implies that we ourselves, rather than Christ, have the power to judge our souls. If it all comes down to what we choose in our lifetime, then we are the ones saving or condemning ourselves, rather than Christ, because Jesus then could not save anyone who did not wish to be saved. And such a view would obviously contradict Scripture. Frankly, I'm perfectly content to leave all of these matters in Christ's hands, for I have a great deal of trust in the justice and love that our Lord has for us, and very little trust in the judgment of men.

DailyBlessings said:

If you think about it, resting the whole thing on belief kind of implies that we ourselves, rather than Christ, have the power to judge our souls. If it all comes down to what we choose in our lifetime, then we are the ones saving or condemning ourselves, rather than Christ, because Jesus then could not save anyone who did not wish to be saved. And such a view would obviously contradict Scripture. Frankly, I'm perfectly content to leave all of these matters in Christ's hands, for I have a great deal of trust in the justice and love that our Lord has for us, and very little trust in the judgment of men.

Click to expand...

Excellently put.

If a thing works only when you believe in it, we call that thing a "placebo", and we know that, in fact, it does nothing.

seebs said:

If a thing works only when you believe in it, we call that thing a "placebo", and we know that, in fact, it does nothing.

Click to expand...

Just to be very correct and smartiepantish, the placebo effect is actually real, medically. A person who's made to believe he's being given opiates, will actually produce natural opiates in his own body. So it's not really an illusion, it's an actual effect.

Don't know if that applies to this discussion, but I felt like being smart.

I will not articulate this very well, but I get what Holo is saying, and sometimes think it applies to faith. We believe that this "God pill" we have swallowed is doing "X" so we feel the affects of the pill. Nice, not knocking it, but it does not change the fact that the "God pill" itself didn't work.

If you can give someone something called a "God pill" and it works for whatever is ailing them, then why take the real pill and deal with all of its possible complicated side effects?

Dear Mling,
There is a difference between "All who are allowed into heaven, are allowed by Jesus," and "All who are allowed into heaven are allowed by belief in Jesus."
Yes there is a difference except the NT makes it clear the latter is the case. But I would be surprised if someone who wants to go to heaven is bothered about this if they dont believe in Jesus.
The first allows for the posibility that Jesus would save a person who does not consciously believe in him.
That is true but I believe those who have never heard do get the chance to hear on the day of judgement..as in Matthew 25. But that is more an assumption as we know if we believe and trust in Jesus we are saved. The subsequent question is what does it mean to believe in Jesus.

brightmorningstar said:

Dear Uberlutheran,
Where did you get the idea that God makes the decision of who gets to heaven, if not from the Bible which says all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus to make this judgemnet?

Click to expand...

Because God is God, and only God knows people's hearts.

God does not answer to the Bible, or else the Bible would be God.

Finally, logically: assuming there are 100,000,000,000 galaxies, each having 100,000,000,000 solar systems, and each solar system has 10 planets: there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 places where life as we know it could occur.

If only one billionth of one percent of those places could actually produce life as we know it, that's still 1,000,000,000 places where life could occur.

So — God is going to pick one sect of one religion on one planet, pronounce them "the chosen ones", and damn all the rest to Hell for the horrendous sin of not living on the right planet and belonging to the right sect of the right religion?

I wonder sometimes why I never see this question posed to other religions. No one ever said (That I know of) "What makes a Muslim a Muslim?"


If you believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, you are a Christian. I don't care what denomination, orientation, or shoe size you are. If you live a good positive and generous life and try to love your fellow earthlings, you are an asset to this planet and should be commended. But, that doesn't make you a Christian.

I wonder sometimes why I never see this question posed to other religions. No one ever said (That I know of) "What makes a Muslim a Muslim?"

Click to expand...

I suspect that's a more "in-house" kind of question. As in a Christian will start discussing amongst themselves. Also there are several types of Muslims and I'm sure there are people who believe their "beliefs" are the only right ones.
tulc(an all to common aspect of being human)

I would say that the distinguishing marks of a Christian are a combination of: a belief in God, a conscious decision to try and emulate Jesus' life and values in our own context, a love for God and for neighbour, knowledge and experience of grace and forgiveness offered by God (and in turn offered to others), participation in some form of communal worship, and (usually) water baptism at some point.

holo said:

Just to be very correct and smartiepantish, the placebo effect is actually real, medically. A person who's made to believe he's being given opiates, will actually produce natural opiates in his own body. So it's not really an illusion, it's an actual effect.

Don't know if that applies to this discussion, but I felt like being smart.

Click to expand...

Of course it's an actual effect!

It's just not an effect caused by the thing in discussion; you could replace it with other things and get the same results.

seebs said:

Of course it's an actual effect!

It's just not an effect caused by the thing in discussion; you could replace it with other things and get the same results.

Click to expand...

such as chocolate!

brightmorningstar said:

Dear Uberlutheran,
Where did you get the idea that God makes the decision of who gets to heaven, if not from the Bible which says all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus to make this judgemnet?

Click to expand...

LAst time I looked, Jesus was God.

Abiel-Areli said:

LAst time I looked, Jesus was God.

Click to expand...

I kind of wanted to make a comment along those lines.