Victorious Christian vs Defeated/Failed Christian

[seeker2122]

Is "Failed Christian" an oxymoron?

Scriptures and other Christian sources always speak of how Christians are "victorious" because it is Christ in us who makes
us victorious over the power of sins, death, and judgment for them. Christians are victorious because Christ is victorious.

Therefore, if one is a true Christian, with Christ living in them and they living their life out for Christ, isn't it impossible
to say "failed Christian / defeated Christian"?

Is it possible for one to be a true Christian, but live your life not as a victorious Christian but a failed and defeated Christian?
Being constantly unhappy, depressed, frustrated, angry, and you never get what you want but you still believe in God
and therefore are saved and will go to heaven but you'll have a miserable time on earth.

 

[Hvizsgyak]

Sounds a little like how I feel in life.

unhappy, depressed, frustrated, angry, and you never get what you want

I am unhappy because I see society pushing God out of the public scene. I see many many Christians accepting the "socially correct" sides of many of today's moral issues. And these Christians are in complete opposition to what the Church teaches on the moral issue. Abortion, "LGBT... rights", social justice, worker's rights, economic fairness are some of the most important issues of the day and as Christians many are on the wrong side of the issue.

I am frustrated because the people who shape our policies in this country are on one side of the issue or the other. There are better alternatives but none of these policy people can even think of them.

I am depressed because millions of students in our country are not learning anything in school these days. We have given children way too much freedom (to supposedly explore their personalities and to let them grow) that they now rule over parents, teachers, and people in authority. And they all just want to be singers, actors, sports stars, and rich. They have no desire to help society unless they can become rich and famous.

I am not so much angry than I am saddened and disappointed in our religious leaders who continue to fight amongst themselves over spiritual doctrines and do not engage us Christians and those who are looking for something or someone to lead them out of this despair of the world.

Finally, I have to say even though I usually don't get my way in alot of situations, that's okay, as long as God is better know and loved by all His people. There is a Heaven people and we can all get there if we ask God to show us the way.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Is "Failed Christian" an oxymoron?

Scriptures and other Christian sources always speak of how Christians are "victorious" because it is Christ in us who makes
us victorious over the power of sins, death, and judgment for them. Christians are victorious because Christ is victorious.

Therefore, if one is a true Christian, with Christ living in them and they living their life out for Christ, isn't it impossible
to say "failed Christian / defeated Christian"?

Is it possible for one to be a true Christian, but live your life not as a victorious Christian but a failed and defeated Christian?
Being constantly unhappy, depressed, frustrated, angry, and you never get what you want but you still believe in God
and therefore are saved and will go to heaven but you'll have a miserable time on earth.

Of course we struggle--with sin, with doubt, with depression, anxiety, mental illness, physical illness, feelings of unhappiness, frustration, anger, sadness. Christians still sin, Christians still get sick, Christians still have fears, doubts, and all manner of emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual struggles.

That's not being a "failed Christian", that's being a human being living in a fallen world.

Victory is not "your best life now" nonsense, it isn't prosperity, it isn't being perfect, it isn't "health and wealth" or any such things. It's Jesus Christ risen from the dead and our hope of life with God.

Those teachers who profiteer by exploiting the Faithful by teaching things like "victorious living" or who teach that one can live as a "defeated Christian" are not teaching true Christian teaching, but false doctrines which only lead to pain and despair and which chokes out faith. Set our attention to Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith, He has won the victory, and ours the gifts and promises of God which are in Him. So come every agony of this mortal life, come every fiery dart of devil, we are kept safe in the refuge of Christ.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[d taylor]

-​

A failed born again believer (a person who has trusted in Jesus for Eternal Life) is a possibility and there are quite a few examples and a few areas in The New Testament that address this.

But one of the main points a believer should understand is a fail believer does not lose their born again Eternal Life. They are a secure believer that God promises has crossed over from death to life never to cross back over to death (spiritual). Now God make take their earthly life, especially if they are living a worldly sinful life and putting forth a bad example of a believer and giving a bad witness to mankind and the angelic realm

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Is "Failed Christian" an oxymoron?

Scriptures and other Christian sources always speak of how Christians are "victorious" because it is Christ in us who makes
us victorious over the power of sins, death, and judgment for them. Christians are victorious because Christ is victorious.

Therefore, if one is a true Christian, with Christ living in them and they living their life out for Christ, isn't it impossible
to say "failed Christian / defeated Christian"?

Is it possible for one to be a true Christian, but live your life not as a victorious Christian but a failed and defeated Christian?
Being constantly unhappy, depressed, frustrated, angry, and you never get what you want but you still believe in God
and therefore are saved and will go to heaven but you'll have a miserable time on earth.

I have never heard of a failed Christian. This has typically been known as one who has apostisized from the faith. Failed Christian sounds more like a form of sophistry , leaving the assumption that one is still saved yet living in sin with no repentance. Blessings.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I have never heard of a failed Christian. This has typically been known as one who has apostisized from the faith. Failed Christian sounds more like a form of sophistry , leaving the assumption that one is still saved yet living in sin with no repentance. Blessings.

The language of "victorious" and "defeated" are terms rather specific to a particular tradition within Charismaticism that tends toward the Word of Faith school of thought. It's related to "name it and claim it"; effectively a "victorious" Christian is one living fully empowered by the Holy Spirit and by their faith can declare their victory over areas of their life--health, wealth, success, etc. A "defeated" Christian is one who is not living that way, is unaware of the "power" that is available to them, and so stuffers sickness, being poor, distress, and hasn't overcome sin in their lives. A "victorious" Christian, as an example, is a Christian that no longer struggles with a particular sin they used to struggle with because they overcame it; but a "defeated" Christian still struggles with that sin.

This way of thinking tends to dividing Christians into two classes. This tends to be amplified by the way "baptism with the Holy Spirit" is then interpreted from Scripture in a specifically Charismaticist way: Namely, contrary to standard Christian teaching where baptism with the Holy Spirit is understood as universal filling of the Spirit which happens when we are brought into the fold of the Church, such as through Baptism and/or Chrismation, adult conversion, etc it is comprehended as a distinct and special experience that is subsequential, an "empowering" with the Spirit, usually (but not always, it depends on the denomination or church's specific teaching) evidenced by the speaking of tongues; and ultimately other special signs-gifts, like healings, working miracles, seeing signs and wonders in one's life, that sort of thing. Thus there are Christians who have a deeper fullness of the Spirit or "more" of the Spirit than others; and there are Christians who are lacking. There are Christians who have a "full gospel" experience, rather than just a "partial" gospel experience. There are Christians who are walking in a state of Spirit-empowered victory over sin, disease, financial problems, and other worldly struggles; and there are Christians who are living in a state of defeat because they aren't overcoming their struggles.

And, as one may expect, those who stand up front or on television or on the internet and teach these things always are in the position of being a more and "fuller" Christian, they have a victorious living which other Christians aren't accessing. "Victorious living" doctrines are usually, at best, just slightly watered down expressions of Word of Faith, espoused by false teachers and huxters like Joel Osteen.

In more extreme forms it essentially becomes a form of new agey occultism with a Jesus fish decal attached to it. Indeed, the very origins of Word of Faith are in 19th century occult teachings and practices, such as New Thought.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[timothyu]

Is it possible for one to be a true Christian, but live your life not as a victorious Christian but a failed and defeated Christian?

Depends on whether you are in favour of man governing over mankind or God governing over mankind. Two opposing systems. We can't have it both ways.

 

[ZephBonkerer]

Is it possible for one to be a true Christian, but live your life not as a victorious Christian but a failed and defeated Christian?
Being constantly unhappy, depressed, frustrated, angry, and you never get what you want but you still believe in God
and therefore are saved and will go to heaven but you'll have a miserable time on earth.

I would consider the story of Jonah. He was called to bring a call to repentance to a people he despised. While he desired retribution, God desired mercy and restoration. God had the last word.

Jonah may have had all of the characteristics of a defeated Christian, but no one doubts that Jonah was a prophet of God.

 

[biblelesson]

Is "Failed Christian" an oxymoron?

Scriptures and other Christian sources always speak of how Christians are "victorious" because it is Christ in us who makes
us victorious over the power of sins, death, and judgment for them. Christians are victorious because Christ is victorious.

Therefore, if one is a true Christian, with Christ living in them and they living their life out for Christ, isn't it impossible
to say "failed Christian / defeated Christian"?

Is it possible for one to be a true Christian, but live your life not as a victorious Christian but a failed and defeated Christian?
Being constantly unhappy, depressed, frustrated, angry, and you never get what you want but you still believe in God
and therefore are saved and will go to heaven but you'll have a miserable time on earth.

All of the issues you have listed have been addressed in the gospel. Opinions about these issues take away from the true work of the Holy Spirit.

According to the Bible and the purpose of salvation and what Jesus Has done:

We have been crucified with Christ, and it is Christ that lives in us, Galatians 2:20. So we are to live by the power of Christ who has all power, Matthew 28:18-20.

We are told God has not given us the spirit of fear, but power, and of love, and of a sound mind, 2 Timothy 1:7.

So to see this power that we have been given manifest in our life, we are told to recon ourselves dead, Romans 6:11, which is the same meaning as put off the old man, Ephesians 4:22. Be renewed in the spirit of our minds and put on the new man, Ephesians 4:23-24.

God said He will never leave us or forsake us and that’s true, but the problem is we don’t understand the work of salvation, and it’s not being taught properly in church.

In Christ, God has already given us power to overcome. He has already given us His Sprit to walk in newness of life as commanded and all the work of salvation, to include being the children of God was finished at the cross. Jesus said it is finished, John 19:30.

We are not to remain in the situations you listed:
“but live your life not as a victorious Christian but a failed and defeated Christian?
Being constantly unhappy, depressed, frustrated, angry, and you never get what you want but you still believe in God.”

These are not scriptural. There is a power to overcome given by God to the Christian through God’s powerful Spirit, the Holy Spirit that tears down everything that opposes the work of God to bring the Christian out of darkness into the light.

Now how does the power we already have (it is finished said Christ) manifest as true in our lives? Faith. Believe God. Do as Apostle Paul says, follow him, 1 Corinthians 11:1.

The Gospel, from Romans to Revelations have the answer for the Christian to be strengthened in Christ. We must pray for revelation and understanding and for our inner man to be strengthened, Ephesians 3:16-19.

We are not to look at this world’s trouble and become depressed because God has directed us on those issues as well, Jude 1:8-19.

God by His Spirit is our guide.