Who was the greatest Christian ever?

Originally Posted by LittleLambofJesus

Who was the greatest Christian ever?

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus the "Christ"...
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sonshine234 said:

Christ wasn't a Christian

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The apostate non-Christian Jews would agree with you. What does the biblical term "Christ" mean?



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LittleLambofJesus said:

The apostate non-Christian Jews would agree with you. What does the biblical term "Christ" mean?



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That depends on whom you ask. His followers would say "anointed one", while His opponents would have said "greasy one" or "lubed-up one", or something to that effect.

Seeing how none of us have even received an honorable mention, perhaps our time would be better spent elsewhere.

Just a thought.

Good night.

Albion said:

Historians have measured it--on the basis of the most significant or influential person, that is.

Paul was ranked in the top three with Mohammad and Christ. That was a listing of consequential religious leaders irrespective of which religion it is.

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I would disagree that most influential is synonymous with "greatest". Interesting results none the less.

Achilles6129 said:

I sort of defined how I was looking at "greatest" in my OP. Theology, miracles/signs/wonders/power, evangelism, and leadership. My first choice was Paul, my second John, and my third Peter.

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St. John the Baptist?

"Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist." - Matthew 11:11a

He was the last of the Prophets, the first beside the Lord's mother to confess Him as Christ, the Forerunner of Christ, a Nazarite, the coming of Elijah, etc.

But, of course, then we get to this again:

"Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." - Matthew 11:11b

-CryptoLutheran

Achilles6129 said:

Interesting. Who was #1? Also, do you have a link to this study perchance?

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Alas, it was a few years ago--maybe about a decade--and I'm just remembering the part that made the biggest impression on me. I know the top three, and I'm pretty sure that either Mohammad or Paul was on top with Christ at #3--which was at first startling--but that was explained in the survey results as the consequence of Paul and Christ sharing the credit for establishing the world's largest religion. It may have been that Paul was #1. Considering that nothing ever seems to expire online, it's probably out there somewhere still.

Achilles6129 said:

No. The Apostle John.

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I wasn't confused.

I was offering St. John the Baptist as a candidate, and to still reiterate a point I made before.

-CryptoLUtheran

bornofGod888 said:

Seeing how none of us have even received an honorable mention, perhaps our time would be better spent elsewhere.

Just a thought.

Good night.

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I'm going to be a "perfect Christian"; but I'm not there yet!

Achilles6129 said:

Gotcha. Unfortunately, John the Baptist died before Christ was resurrected so he can't really be considered a Christian in the NT sense of the word.

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Possibly. Though one could argue that because John believed Jesus was the Christ, he was among the very first to believe, and therefore among the first who could be called Christian. I don't know that dying before the Lord was raised disqualifies one as being Christian, it would seem that if one believed/believes that He is the Christ, one is a Christian.

-CryptoLutheran

If measured by influence on the direction that Christianity has taken for the past two thousand years, it would have to be Paul. His was a Gentile ministry, and ours is a Gentile Church, pretty much rejected by the Jews from his day until ours. The greater part of the writings of the New Testament belong to him, and it is the character of his writings that make it unequivocal that the Resurrection of Christ is not allegorical, or in any way to be taken as spiritual literature, but are to be understood as being based in an actual historic event.

It was his attention to the details that set the institutional form that the Church has taken in terms of the sacraments of Eucharist especially, but also the structure of the ecclesiastical form of leadership. The day to day workings of the church are as a result of his considerations upon the matters of the day that arose.

It is his writings that defined the role of faith and the negation of the law as having any further control on Christian behavior. Unlike any of the other apostles, it is unquestionable that the writings he left were written by his own hand, and not the legacy of the community that surrounded him, much as many suspect many of the Gospels were in relation to the apostles they are attributed to.

And maybe as important as anything else, unlike any of the other apostles, his relationship with the risen Christ was very much of the form that every Christian hence has taken. His was not a relationship with the biographical Christ of flesh and bone, but was purely a relationship with the Spirit of the Risen Christ.

Peter was the most influential of the apostles in his lifetime, and John's fully developed theology the most sophisticated, defining the divinity of the Person of Christ the most fully. But in terms of the form that Christianity has taken, the greatest influence on that would have to be Paul.

The Blessed Virgin Mother, of course.

Achilles6129 said:

OK, I searched google and honestly there are a ton of lists out there and alot of them are different. So I am not sure exactly which one you are referring to, but I'm going to bet that any such list is related to the subjectivity of the authors.

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LOL Of course it is! There is no way to prove that any one person was more significant in religious history than all the others. It is a matter of opinion by its very nature. However, the historians who were polled represent as good a selection of experts as we're likely to get--much moreso than the people on the sidewalk outside Jay Leno's studio, I'm sure.

As far as the most influential person of all time is concerned, I'm not sure how Christ could not be #1 as he is the founder of the world's largest religion.

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Because the spread, the success, the growth of the religion of Jesus Christ owes (arguably) more to Paul than to Christ who did next to nothing himself in the way of promotional efforts.

#2 I would think would be Muhammad, as the founder of the world's second largest religion

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But it's second behind Christianity and owes almost everything to Mohammad. There isn't a Paul figure in Islam to have done all the legwork after the founder was gone.

The "greatest Christian ever" is someone that none of us would recognize. It is a humble servant who faithfully serves Christ in anonymity.