How do you know if you are a Christian?

[jd01]

What is the standard by which to judge?

 

[sahiri abd elkader]

smart question
i wait answer oth others lol

 

[briocht]

If you accept Jesus Christ as your personal saviour, I think that's what would make you a Christian.

 

[Spunkn]

If you accept Jesus Christ as your personal saviour, I think that's what would make you a Christian.

This.

 

[Damian Newman]

To be a Christian is to be a disciple of Christ. If you simply believe in Christ, The Word, etc. that doesn't automatically mean you are following through on that belief.

The Satan's of this world believe and know Jesus was/is the Christ, but they are not followers a.k.a. disciples of Christ a.k.a. Christians.

If you are a true disciple of Christ, you would follow His teachings - all of His commandments. I cannot say I am a true Christian for this reason.

 

[1watchman]

The following paper may be of some help.

SIMPLE THOUGHTS ON SALVATION OF THE SOUL---

HOW CAN I KNOW I AM SAVED?​

"How many children say, I'd like to go to Heaven;
Yet never think that they must have their sins forgiven,
Before they can in glory be,
Or Jesus Christ in glory see.​

"None can to glory go, or dwell with God above,
Save they who Jesus know, and taste a Savior's love;
The holy words of truth declare
No other grounds of entrance there.​

"But now this living way to all is open free;
And ruined sinners may go in and happy be---
May have their sins through Christ forgiven,
The only way to enter heaven."​

- Echoes Of Grace Hymns​

[ The question is sometimes raised by professing Christians as to how they can know they have believed in the right way, or otherwise believed to salvation and be assured of Heaven. We might do well to examine the meaning of belief, for man believes many things, which often means just allowing that something is so because it sounds logical, or without questioning it. Believing in God begins by talking to Him, not just saying a prayer statement; and not challenging God to prove Himself to one by meeting our conditions. One needs A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP in humility].

1. Has one come to accept that he is a sinner before a holy God, and therefore cannot enter Heaven? Believing in God, believing about Jesus Christ, baptism, and trying to keep the ten commandments will not put away sins.

2. Has there been a time when one has come before God alone in the secret of one's heart, and confessed that one is a sinner, and realizes the need to be saved for Heaven? If that has not been done, then today one needs to repent (turn from self to God).

3. Has one acknowledged, as the Bible declares, that God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world to save man; and that He showed us God--the Father, and Himself as God's Son; then after ordaining the twelve apostles, He delivered Himself into the hands of wicked men to be God's sacrifice for sin? He paid the price of redemption we could never pay, and offers it as a free gift apart from our works such as baptism, etc.. No man can work his way into Heaven. Does one know He then arose from the grave and returned to Heaven? Does one believe that?

4. Has there been a time when one has thanked the Lord Jesus for dying for one's sins, and declared to Him that he is now receiving Him for eternal life and hope? If not, is it now time? A soul who has trusted Jesus from childhood years, may not remember and thus be able to answer this question, but one can always come to the Lord and reaffirm this, for it is very important that one receives the Lord---not just believes about Him or follows a religion.

5. Has there been a time when one has truly believed on God's Son? For then one will have "passed from death unto life" (John 5:24) by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God says: "He that has the Son has (eternal) life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God, that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God" (see 1 John 5:10-13). Will you settle this matter by doing your part? God says: "Behold, now is the accepted time" (2 Cor. 6:2).

Salvation is not in reading this, but acting on it. It really only takes a few minutes to accomplish the work of faith; and one must not come to God with conditions or challenge Him in any way ---but believe what He said. The evidence of salvation is in the question: "What think ye of Christ"? Can one truthfully say: I have received Him, am devoted to Him, have communion with Him, and want to live for Him always? The Holy Spirit will make His "abode" in that one and seal him as a child of God forever (John 14:16-23; John 3:36).

A faithful believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will walk with Him and talk with Him all day, until that day when one can see Him and be with Him forever in the Father's house. - RLD, '04: from biblecounsel.homestead.com

 

[Asvin]

Repent. Accept Jesus as your savior. Obey his commandments, namely, love God and love your neighbors!

 

[JCFantasy23]

Well on Christian Forums anyone who identifies themselves as a Christian is to be considered one by rule. You can know too by the icons under the screen name.

 

[AndrewK9]

What is the Gospel? (Dr. Alan Cairns) - YouTube

 

[jd01]

Thanks all. Great discussion. It is interesting in all the responses except JCs use terms such as 'Christ', 'saviour/Saviour', 'saved' and 'gospel', meaning there is additional 'stuff' needs to be defined. Also interesting that no one mentioned the Nicene Creed which (I assume) is the Christian yardstick used by the forum. Does determining whether you are 'Christian' or not involve considering many things? I like Asvin's definition, is it minimal but sufficient? even though he does not define small-S saviour. His definition would seem to fit the 12 well and they certainly were Christians (I'll be bad and speculate on whether the 12 would have accepted the Nicene Creed).

 

[Spunkn]

Of course there's more to the Christian life than just accepting Christ as your Savior, but even God in the bible made it clear.

Believe in Christ and you will be saved.

Once you've done that, then you will go on to learn a great many things more about what being a Christian really is....

but just to become a Christian? Believing in Christ as your Savior is all that's needed, it's that simple

 

[Asvin]

Repentance and acceptance of Jesus is REQUIRED to be saved. After that, we can tell if someone else who has done both of these are saved by looking at their actions and behavior. REPENT + ACCEPT = SAVED. Memorization of the Nicene Creed or Bible verses is not REQUIRED for salvation, although it can be helpful!

 

[Harry3142]

jd01-

There is a world of difference between believing that Jesus' sacrifice is our means of salvation, and believing in Jesus' sacrifice as the means of our salvation. Several years ago I heard a Baptist minister put it this way:

A famous tightrope walker announced that on a certain day he would walk across a tightrope that had been stretched over a deep canyon. He invited all who wanted to witness this feat to come to a certain place where they would be able to see it.

The day arrived. There were 2,000 people there to see the tightrope walker. He walked across the cable easily, and at the end of his walk was standing directly in front of those people.

"Who here believes that I can carry him back across this canyon on my back? Raise your right hand if you do." was his announcement to them. instantly 2,000 hands went up into the air. But then he asked, "Who here volunteers to be the first person I carry across this canyon on my back?" Instantly 1,999 hands went down. 2,000 people believed that the tightrope walker could carry them across, but only one believed in the tightropewalker's ability to carry him across.

 

[Emmy]

Dear Asvin. I agree with you: " Repent. Accept Jesus as your saviour. Obey his commandments, namely, love God and love your neighbours as yourself." I say this with love. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[Mediaeval]

Baptism into God's Triune Name is a mark by which we may recognize ourselves and others as Christians. Sometimes we may doubt our own faith and faithfulness, but our baptism remains a constant witness that God has clothed us with Christ (Gal. 3:27).

 

[Bible2]

jd01 said in post 1:

How do you know if you are a Christian?

You can you that you are a Christian if you believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ and the human/divine Son of God (John 20:31, John 3:36; 1 John 2:23), and that he died on the Cross for our sins and rose from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Luke 24:46-47, Matthew 20:19, Matthew 26:28).

Once we know that we are Christians, to help develop and keep up our relationship with God, we should pray to him every day, such as with the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), praising and worshipping him, confessing our sins to him, asking him for what we need today, and thanking him for all that he has given us (Philippians 4:6). And throughout the day we should immediately bring to him in prayer anything that we become worried about at anytime (Philippians 4:6-7).

We should also fellowship with other Christians every day (Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 10:25), at least in some fashion (Matthew 18:20), such as on this forum, being exhorted by them and exhorting them in turn (Hebrews 3:13).

We also need to examine ourselves to make sure that we are truly in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5, Proverbs 28:26, Proverbs 14:12). The way to do this is to read every word of the Bible (Hebrews 4:12, Matthew 4:4) and see if we accept everything it teaches as having come from God (John 8:47; 2 Timothy 3:16). For just as a true faith will initially come from reading (or hearing) what the Bible teaches (Romans 10:17; 2 Timothy 3:15), so we can know that we are remaining in the true faith if we continue to believe everything that the Bible teaches came from God (John 8:31b; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; 1 Timothy 4:1, Mark 8:35-38).

In order to have any real relationship with Jesus, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), most importantly we must believe the right things about Jesus (John 14:6-7): that he is God the Word made flesh (John 1:1,14), that he is the Christ (1 John 5:1; 1 John 2:22), and that he is the only begotten (only born) Son of God (John 3:16,36; 1 John 2:23), meaning that he is the only person ever born without any human father (Luke 1:34-35). And we must believe that Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21) and so he could die on the Cross for our sins and rise from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). He rose and will remain forever in an immortal flesh and bones human body (Luke 24:39; 2 John 1:7) as our eternally-human high priest/mediator (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:16-17, Hebrews 7:24-26).

Once we come into faith in Jesus, we must obey him, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, by repenting from all of our sins and getting water-immersion (burial) baptized into Jesus (Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-5, Galatians 3:27). And we must partake of the divine flesh and blood of the bread and wine of communion (John 6:53, Matthew 26:26-28; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 1 Corinthians 11:27-30). And we can get hands laid on us to receive Holy Spirit baptism (Acts 8:17) and one or more of the Holy Spirit's wonderful Spiritual gifts (Acts 19:6; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10). Then, washed from our sins by water baptism (Acts 22:16) and empowered by the Holy Spirit within us (Acts 1:8, Ephesians 3:16), we must each and every day for the rest of our lives deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23; 2 Corinthians 5:15), by continuing in the faith to the end (Hebrews 3:6,12,14, Hebrews 6:4-8, John 15:6; 2 Timothy 2:12), by repenting from every sin we might commit to the end (Hebrews 10:26-29; 1 Corinthians 9:27, Luke 12:45-46), and by doing the particular spiritual works which he has given us as individuals to do to the end (Mark 13:34, Romans 12:6-8, Titus 3:8).

But if we as believers wrongly employ our free will to refuse to do these things, we cannot expect to have any continued real relationship with Jesus, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. For a continued real relationship with them requires that we not only continue to believe in them but also continue to obey them (John 15:10, John 14:21,23). Faith without works is dead (James 2:20) and cannot ultimately save us (James 2:14-26, Romans 2:6-8, Matthew 7:21, Hebrews 5:9).

 

[theophilus40]

One book in the Bible, 1 John, was written to answer this question.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
(1 John 5:13 ESV)
​

When we are born physically we are born with a nature that finds it easier to do what is wrong rather than what is right. When we repent of our sins and put our faith in Christ we are born again spiritually. We then receive a new nature that wants to do what is right and we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. We now have both the desire and the ability to live in a way that pleases God.

We still have our old nature so we can still be tempted to sin and we can give in to temptation. No Christian has ever lives a life completely free of sin. But our new nature and the Holy Spirit living in us won't allow us to go on in sin the way we did before and it will produce changes in our life. First John describes what some of these changes are.

Simply believing the doctrines taught in the Bible and accepting certain creeds doesn't make someone a Christian. You must genuinely repent of your sins and put your faith in Christ.

 

[Emmy]

Dear jd01. To follow Jesus and to live His Commandments. In Matthew Jesus gives us two Commandments, and we are told: " On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." 1) Love God with all our hearts with all our souls, and with all our minds. 2) Love our neighbour as ourselves. God wants our Love, freely given and No conditions tagged on.
Everything we say or do, everything we advice or stand up for, should be from Love and Care for God and neighbour.
Jesus will give us His Love and Joy, and the Holy Spirit will empower us with His Love, also. Jesus told us to " ask and ye will receive," then we thank God and share all Love and Joy with all around us. We keep asking God and thanking God, and sharing all Love and Joy with our neighbour. People around us will notice, and some might even want to join us. Love is a Christian`s weapon to overcome all adversity. We might stumble and forget at times, but then we get up, ask God to forgive us and carry on Loving and Caring. I say this with love, jd.
Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[Peripatetic]

My definition would be: someone who worships God in a way that pleases Him. Only God knows exactly where those boundaries are. We can try to draw lines based on our imperfect Biblical interpretations and understanding of doctrines, but I suspect that God is not pleased by the worship (and heart) of some professing Christians, and IS pleased by some about whom we'd be surprised.

My personal belief is that Jesus is the only way to salvation, but He may intercede on behalf of some who aren't familiar with the Bible or worship differently, but have our God in their hearts. But we'll never know for sure as long as we're in this world.

 

[OldStudent]

What is the standard by which to judge?

A good question - short and stout .

First, you have responded favorably to His invitation. Your response includes time in prayer, study, fellowship with other people of faith, and service any where you may be.

THE key sign is that you want to have the favor of Jesus, desire better fellowship with Him and service to Him.

Read carefully this passage: “…And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” Acts 11:26. The citizens of Antioch called the disciples Christians. Why? Could it be that whenever you got into a conversation with them the conversation usually spun to Christ? Listen to where your conversation goes and how easily Jesus pops up in your conversation. If you don’t like what you hear, bring it up to Jesus in prayer. Don’t grade yourself too hard. Be aware, keep up with your prayer, study, service, fellowship and watch what happens.

Be aware there will be dull moments, silent moments, troubled moments and some excited, delighted ones. Insist on not letting go. Overall contentment, fulfillment will shine.