Originally Posted by
SarahC
I know someone who is defending Romanian Unitarian Christians saying they are Christians even though they deny the Trinity and Resurrection. I'm a Christian and know that the resurrection is foundational to our beliefs. What do I tell her?
Tricky question. I know that the first place many would go is 1 Corinthians 15:
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
One thing that makes this tricky is that this is the same scripture that says, "Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?" Being that it's notoriously hard to interpret, I would certainly err on the side of caution when it comes to deciding who's in and who's out.
In any case, your post made me think of this quote from the philosopher/theologian Peter Rollins:
One is not called to believe in the death and resurrection of Christ but rather to
be the site where that death and resurrection is made manifest, not to believe in the miracles of Jesus but to
be the place where a miracle takes place. In short belief in the Messiah is one that is affirmed only in the life that emanates love, sacrifice, forgiveness, mercy and joy.
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source I think that the emphasis on the way that faith is put into practice is a helpful counterbalance to a type of 'faith' that is solely concerned with believing a set of facts. For instance, some who ostensibly claim to be saved 'by grace through faith' actually act as though they think they are saved by believing that they are saved 'by grace through faith'. I recently read this characterized as 'not Calvinism, but Calvinism-ism'.