Good thread.
My husband and I attend a United Methodist Church. However, that's just our local congregation - the circle of friends and acquaintances and church leadership locally which we feel most comfortable worshipping with.
If asked, neither of us would identify our faith as "Methodist." We would say we are "Christians."
Many, many sects of Christianity, including Roman Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, Church of England, Methodist, Presbyterians, Reformed (and who knows how many others) believe in the basic tenets of the Apostles Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
Now - I am not saying that those churches and individuals who have some differences with those tenets are NOT Christian - that's really between them and God - I'm just saying that those churches which do stand on those tenets in my opinion are in accord (on those basics) with the teachings of Christianity as outlined in the New Testament.
In the end, we do the best we can. When we stand before our Maker, we won't be standing with our church -we will stand alone. God is just and holy, and I trust Him to be able to discern and judge our hearts and motives. I do not think that He is legalistic.
