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what makes a Christian?

Ella S.

Dispassionate Goth
Many early Christian sects did not believe that Christ was God, such as the Gnostics or the Adoptionists. Many also did not believe that Christ saves, such as the Ebionites.

"Christian" just means "follower of Christ." So it would apply to anyone who attempts to follow the teachings and/or example of a figure that they identify as Christ.

Interestingly, some Christian sects don't even identify Christ with Jesus, such as the Cathars who viewed the two as separate beings. And, obviously, early Christians had a wide variety of different scriptures, some of whom even demonized the God of Abraham as an evil Demiurge, so we can't even say that there's agreement on the Bible, either.
 

Ella S.

Dispassionate Goth
" what makes a Christian? "


Aren't all the basic creeds of the present day Christian denominations (45,000+ of them , including the JWs and LDS aka Mormons) later fabrications and none of these basic creeds was ever originated from Jesus- the truthful Israelite Messiah, please?

Regards
To be fair, early Christians didn't call themselves Christians, but "disciples of the Lord" or "followers of the way." So the idea of Christianity is, itself, a later fabrication
 

Zwing

Active Member
Interestingly, some Christian sects don't even identify Christ with Jesus...
Right. Christ isn’t Jesus, it’s the creation of “St. Paul”, in order to provide a worthy supernatural object for his own conception of “faith”. The real Jesus was certainly very much a flesh-and-blood man of the tribe of Judah who certainly lived more or less as an observant Jew should (a bit different from Jews today…that was the era of the Temple, oral tradition and ritual observance, now is the era of the synagogue, the Talmud and scrupulous ordinantial observance).
…such as the Cathars who viewed the two as separate beings.
Ah, yes, the Cathars and their silly “heresies”. They had a nice thing going for themselves in the French town of Béziers until the Papal legate and Cistercian abbot Arnaud Amalric, the leader of the first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade which was the assault on that heretical French town, upon being asked how his troops were to distinguish the Cathars from the non-Cathars among the town’s populace, reportedly and famously gave the order (in Latin, of course) with respect to the population of the town, “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius”/“Kill them all. The Lord knows those that are his own”, In so saying, Arnaud gave first expression to what has become a catch phrase amongst certain types of units in the American military: “Kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out.” By the way, Arnaud’s troops, in a bloody massacre, very nearly depopulated the town. One might say that the Cathars of Béziers learned the importance of correct doctrine the hard way.
 
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9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
What beliefs do you think makes someone a Christian?

I think it's all about accepting Christ as Lord:
  • Christ is God
  • Christ saves
Do you agree or disagree with this?

If so, why?

Can you think of anything else, that defines a Christian?
  1. Self-identification as Christian.
  2. Recognition by other Christians as Christian.

That's really it. Any other criteria are generally about how Christians decide #2.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
To be fair, early Christians didn't call themselves Christians, but "disciples of the Lord" or "followers of the way." So the idea of Christianity is, itself, a later fabrication
At least some theologians believe it was used sarcastically at first, but then it got adopted by them in the 2nd century as the gulf between them and Judaism became very wide.
 

Ella S.

Dispassionate Goth
At least some theologians believe it was used sarcastically at first, but then it got adopted by them in the 2nd century as the gulf between them and Judaism became very wide.

I could definitely see a good argument being made for that.
 

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
" what makes a Christian? "

paarsurrey said:
Aren't all the basic creeds of the present day Christian denominations (45,000+ of them , including the JWs and LDS aka Mormons) later fabrications and none of these basic creeds was ever originated from Jesus- the truthful Israelite Messiah, please?

To be fair, early Christians didn't call themselves Christians, but "disciples of the Lord" or "followers of the way." So the idea of Christianity is, itself, a later fabrication
Okay, please

Regards
 

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
" what makes a Christian? "

paarsurrey said:
Aren't all the basic creeds of the present day Christian denominations (45,000+ of them , including the JWs and LDS aka Mormons) later fabrications and none of these basic creeds was ever originated from Jesus- the truthful Israelite Messiah, please?

To be fair, early Christians didn't call themselves Christians, but "disciples of the Lord" or "followers of the way." So the idea of Christianity is, itself, a later fabrication
Okay, please
To be fair, early Christians didn't call themselves Christians, but "disciples of the Lord" or "followers of the way." So the idea of Christianity is, itself, a later fabrication

At least some theologians believe it was used sarcastically at first, but then it got adopted by them in the 2nd century as the gulf between them and Judaism became very wide.
Friend @metis , is right , I agree here

Regards
 
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