the Creedal Christian plus the moral code
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GateKeeper
My view is that a Christian is one who understands the nature of God's Word (Love). One who follows Christ, or His example. One who lives to serve God, and/or His purpose for humanity. One who walks the walk, as opposed to giving mere lip service.
Faith, hope, and love are the products (Fruits) of God's Word/Spirit. Christ manifested this Spirit, and lived accordingly. This is what defines a Christian. [imo] We can claim to be Christian until we are blue in the face, but until we begin to walk the walk, and live accordingly, we are not [true] Christians. I believe this is a process. God develops us as individuals [if] we are willing to embrace His hand. It is not only through reading scripture, but also through much hardship, and tribulation that we grow.
Our actions not only define who we are, but also how effective we are as sowers of God's Word. In short, a Christian is one who has the light of life in them, and walks accordingly: "Love"
Gk
Of course there are two aspects that a Christian must be identified with to meet the requirement of being a Christian. Correct Doctrine and correct morals. To be a mere Christian is to hold to the sum of the Apostle's Creed and to the Nicene Creed, forgetting for a moment of the filique clause. One must have the right Jesus and not another Jesus. So the Jesus of the Mormans, the Jesus of the Muslims, the Jesus of the JWs, and other such cults have been addressed by the heresies of which the Nicene Creed corrects.
The morals goes without saying, but it is hard to identify a Christian just by their following a moral code. They should first recognize what the moral code is and by the power of God fighting their own fleshly desires should adher to such a code as much as possible. I have come to the conclusion that the Episcopalians who support Gene Robinson's being a bishop are not Christians, regardless of how pious they adher to the moral code in their own life or the good works which they may produce nor how orthodox their Christology or theology be when they are unrepentant of their support for abortion, ****sexuality, and even euthenasia--as perhaps seen more clearly by Terri Schiavo's death in Florida.
I know many Baptists who would rather say "affirmation" rather than "creed," and other such denominations object to it for their distrust of more organized religious ins***utions or for the appearance of "tradition" and all the negative connotations they attach to it... but when you get down to it, they adher to the Nicene and Apostle's Creed just the same.
My Definition of a Christian
I define a Christian as someone who believes that Jesus Christ is the One God of heaven and earth. A Christian believes that the old and new testaments are the Word of God. A Christian strives to abide by the Ten Commandments and the Two Great Commandments (love the Lord and your neighbor). A Christian strives to live a life of faith and charity in the process of regeneration so that he/she can abide in heaven to eternity after departing from this world.
