How do you know your a Christian and not a follower of self-righteous religion?

[Raggedy Anne]

Hi Sadie,

Does a true Christian love his/her enemies?  Did God love us while we were yet enemies (by nature children of wrath).   Why do you suppose God loved a world full of rebellious sinners?

Anne

[Cardinal]

There are 3 different kinds people calling themselves Christians.
1) Verbal professors: say and don't do
2) Intellectual Knowledge: Hearers and don't do
3) True Born Again Knowledge: The ones who do. The ones that does the Fathers will.

4] The twisters of the word. The socalled scriptual bombers.

  

[Paul Hazelwood]

gang,

Do you live in total obedience to the word of God, and when you disobey it, is there a sense of remorse and conviction that drives you to confess it with God, and if that isn't there, it is fair to say that your not a Christian at all.

There are 3 different kinds people calling themselves Christians.
1) Verbal professors: say and don't do
2) Intellectual Knowledge: Hearers and don't do
3) True Born Again Knowledge: The ones who do. The ones that does the Fathers will.

Which one are you? Are you truly Saved or Self-deceived. The body of Christ are jammed packed with false converts. ( Matthew 7:21-23 ; Matthew 25)

What exactly is your agenda, are you coming on here implying that most of the people on here are not christians, in my case its true I dont identify as christian, as I don't want to wear a label that for the most part is worn by a bunch of 2 faced lying hypocrites, like those that are quite content with the thought that the vast majority of mankind by default, just for being born is headed for a literal eternal hell (in their own eyes), and are totally unbothered by the concept

How totally arrogant of you to assume that the vast majority of people on here are false converts and that you are the only true convert on here (which is what you are getting at, isn't it)

It is more fallacy.  Come to a place and make inflammatory statements then when they get critisized for being ridiculous they can claim that we are bothered by the truth.   

[Sadie]

gang,

Wait a minute. I'm not implying that people on this site our not Christians.. I said the body of Christ is packed with false converts.. True Christians are not hypocrites only the religious non-born again ones that are Christian in name only. I'm not saying that true Christians don't make mistakes..they do and I have made my share ,but they continually are growing in God's grace and maturing spiritually to not become hypocrites.

[Paul Hazelwood]

gang,

Wait a minute. I'm not implying that people on this site our not Christians.. I said the body of Christ is packed with false converts.. True Christians are not hypocrites only the religious non-born again ones that are Christian in name only. I'm not saying that true Christians don't make mistakes..they do and I have made my share ,but they continually are growing in God's grace and maturing spiritually to not become hypocrites.

That's good because the greatest evidence of a hypocrite is someone who implies that what they believe makes them not one and so many others are.

[Raggedy Anne]

4] The twisters of the word. The socalled scriptual bombers.

Back in the olden days they were just called 'Bible Thumpers'.    Never heard that one before.  It's about time we got some new terminology though 

I bet you've heard this before: 'The reason you don't see it my way is because you are DECEIVED and if you knew you were DECEIVED then Satan could not deceive you, cuz you'd know it.'   Yeah, right.  Be afraid - be very afraid - that is what faith requires.

[Seth]

Hey Seth,

I respect your view but believe it is your own interperation and not what God originally meant that scripture to mean.

.....nuh uh!!!  lol...just kidding. 

[sparrow]

I don't know if I'm a "christian" or not...
but I do know that God loves me.
And really...that's all I care about.
That's the only thing that is important.
God doesn't see labels.
He sees the heart.
peace.

[WhiteWings]

If your heart is a peacemaker you are on safe ground 

[Sadie]

hi Sparrow,

I't saddens me to hear say " I don't know if I'm a Christian". Do you know how you can know Sparrow? When you disobey God's word.. do you feel remorseful and convicted by the Holy Spirit? When you sin against God do you confess it? Do you have desire to meditate on God's word... or do you have difficulty finding your bible and when you find it..does it have an inch of dust on it?.. Do you make time to spend with God in worship and prayer? Are you still living a sinful lifestyle with no conviction? You see Sparrow when you are truly regenerated..God replaces your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh to give you these disires to please Him..and not only that the Holy Spirit makes your spirit alive and dwells there... the Holy Spirit testifies to your spirit that you are a child of God by which you cry out Abba Father. 

[Shadow]

Ahem!!!, I think your post was directed at sparrow and not Shadow, as Shadow does not consider herself a christian, whereas sparrow is not sure whether she is a christian

Shadow uses the label that mainstream christians would see her and perhaps label her as, an agnostic theist or deist (or if the christian is feeling particularly unkind and not so charitable - an apostate or heretic) as Shadow abhors and detests the eternal torture doctrine with every fibre of her being, and that by default excludes her as being classified as a true christian

[Sadie]

Hi shadow,

Thanks..changed it. Not believing in ET or believing in UR does not exclude sparrow or any other person of being a Christian. You can be  truly saved and believe in false doctrine but that does not exclude you from being a Christian. What does exclude you of being a Christian is not repenting and believing on Jesus Christ for His payment for  the penalty of your sin God's way...by grace through faith and not by your works or your own self-righteous way.

[Shadow]

Hi shadow,

Thanks..changed it. Not believing in ET or believing in UR does not exclude sparrow or any other person of being a Christian. You can be  truly saved and believe in false doctrine but that does not exclude you from being a Christian. What does exclude you of being a Christian is not repenting and believing on Jesus Christ for His payment for  the penalty of your sin God's way...by grace through faith and not by your works or your own self-righteous way.

Thanks for that clarification

I think most of us have repented and believe in salvation through Christ alone and realize that he has taken the penalty for our sins, I don't think you will find anyone on here that will dispute or argue with you there

It's just that on most other forums and churches, people that embrace this larger hope for mankind are ostracized and not considered as true christians

[Sadie]

Hi shadow,

As long as your foundation is the True Jesus of the bible and you build upon that solid rock of Jesus.. other essential christian doctrine..such as the Diety of Jesus and the trinity. if you are truly born again, believing in false doctrine will not prevent you on going to heaven as long as you have the proper foundation under you. Make sense? 

[Molly]

I consider myself a Christian because I am a follower of Jesus.

[WhiteWings]

if you are truly born again, believing in false doctrine will not prevent you on going to heaven as long as you have the proper foundation under you.

But can you be born again if you believe in a false doctrine?
Isn't a false doctrine just as bad as no doctrine at all?
An atheist isn't born again because he doesn't believe in Father/Son/HS
But does someone that follows a false doctrine believe in the true Father/Son/HS?
Believing in a doctrine means believing God does certain things in a certain way. And that shows the personality of God.
But what if your idea of Gods personallity is totally wrong don't you just believe in a false image/god.
Meaning believing in something that doesn't exit. Because there is only one God you believe in that one true God or basicly you are the as any pagan.

[Sadie]

Hi Whitewing,

absolutely people can be truly be born again and believe in false doctrine. like i said before as long as you have the proper foundation under you ( Biblical Jesus, Jesus' Deity, the Trinity, grace through faith salvation meaning Jesus plus nothing, grace alone) you will go to heaven. Jesus even said the elect might be fooled by the AntiChrist with his counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. 

[Sadie]

Hi molly,

one becomes a Christian not by following Him, but by repenting and believing on Jesus for the payment of the penalty of your sin.

[Seth]

Hi shadow,

As long as your foundation is the True Jesus of the bible and you build upon that solid rock of Jesus.. other essential christian doctrine..such as the Diety of Jesus and the trinity. if you are truly born again, believing in false doctrine will not prevent you on going to heaven as long as you have the proper foundation under you. Make sense? 

I have looked up all occurrences of the word "Christian" in the New Testament, and I find no official Biblical definition meaning anything approaching "A Christian is..." So I find no mention of a necessity to believe in the trinity, or anything close to the statement "one becomes a Christian not by following Him..."

So I am left to conclude that the definition of who is a Christian provided above to be one of your own making. I am therefore not subject to your own interpretations.

[Sadie]

Hi Seth,

if you want to know who a real follower of Christ is or Christian ,look no further to 1 JOHN. Read that book and the Apostle John teaches who the true child of God is ( or Christian). If you don't believe in the God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit, that is the Godhead..this is who God is..one God..3 persons. if you have that wrong..God knows how much more false doctrine you believe in. I hope for your sake you believe in the trinity or the Godhead. If you do not..you would be like the Pharisee...they did not believe in the Godhead either.. look what happened to them..Read Matthew 23..God bless.

[Paul Hazelwood]

Hi Whitewing,

absolutely people can be truly be born again and believe in false doctrine. like i said before as long as you have the proper foundation under you ( Biblical Jesus, Jesus' Deity, the Trinity, grace through faith salvation meaning Jesus plus nothing, grace alone) you will go to heaven. Jesus even said the elect might be fooled by the AntiChrist with his counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. 

Hi Sadie, after writing this, on what grounds is your objection to God saving all mankind?

[Seth]

Hi Seth,

if you want to know who a real follower of Christ is or Christian ,look no further to 1 JOHN. Read that book and the Apostle John teaches who the true child of God is ( or Christian). If you don't believe in the God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit, that is the Godhead..this is who God is..one God..3 persons. if you have that wrong..God knows how much more false doctrine you believe in. I hope for your sake you believe in the trinity or the Godhead. If you do not..you would be like the Pharisee...they did not believe in the Godhead either.. look what happened to them..Read Matthew 23..God bless.

If 1 John is the definition of Christian then it confirms Molly's statements: I am a Christian because I follow Christ. Have YOU really read 1 John?

There is no mention of the phrases "God the Son" "God the Holy Spirit" in 1 John and therefore there is no reason I must believe that adopting those terms is necessary for a Christian. Sorry, if you want to talk scripture, then how about using scriptural terms rather than Christianese?


I forgot to add, no I don't believe in "the trinity."

[gregoryfl]

From what I understand, everything concerning the title given to early believers by outsiders as a slanderous term, and that the term was not used by believers themselves until much later in history, I do not refer to myself as a Christian, nor would I refer to any of you as such either. We are no mere followers of Christ, we are as he is. (That's in 1John, since that book came up recently in the discussion) I consider you all as you truly are, as holy ones, believers, chosen ones. I do not wish to define these, for what they are is so much more than a mere human definition. They speak of the miraculous, that miracle that each and every one of you are in Christ.
 

Ron

[Paul Hazelwood]

Hi molly,

one becomes a Christian not by following Him, but by repenting and believing on Jesus for the payment of the penalty of your sin.

Sadie, repentance and believing on Jesus is a fully spiritual thing rather than what a person can physically observe.

For instance, if a person just "says" they have repented and "says" they believe on Jesus could be a ploy depending upon the situation. The act of repentance is soley and exclusively a nameless spiritual event.   We do have the word of God to act as a guide so that we can discuss these things in our language, but I know that I knew what Christ was before I was ever old enough to understand an english name to place to what I knew.

If indeed there is only one truth then repentance can only have one true source.

So nothing actually prevents someone who has the spirit of repentance, but believes a false doctrine such as "atheism" from being truly saved.

[Cardinal]

From what I understand, everything concerning the title given to early believers by outsiders as a slanderous term, and that the term was not used by believers themselves until much later in history, I do not refer to myself as a Christian, nor would I refer to any of you as such either. We are no mere followers of Christ, we are as he is. (That's in 1John, since that book came up recently in the discussion) I consider you all as you truly are, as holy ones, believers, chosen ones. I do not wish to define these, for what they are is so much more than a mere human definition. They speak of the miraculous, that miracle that each and every one of you are in Christ.
 

Ron

  Thank you Ron........that hit me powerfully what you wrote and explained to me why that term has set my teeth on edge a little for a few years now. What just hit me when I read what you wrote, is if you're a follower, it means you're not "where" He is standing NOW, but where He WAS!

Father, make us so one with You that there is NO GAP.......Blessings....