Is a Christian someone who follows Jesus, e.g., proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, baptizing, taking up their cross, etc.?
Or is a Christian someone who believes certain things about Jesus, e.g., he died for our sins, or that he is one of the three persons of the Trinity, etc.?
It's certainly possible to say, “both,” but it seems to me that this is a two-masters kind of thing, and people who think of themselves as Christian tend to be mostly one or mostly the other. It seems to me that the church historically has tended to focus on the second definition, e.g., we Christians believe that Jesus is both human and divine, those heretics deny his divinity.
Without denying the importance of the second alternative, I believe we need to place more emphasis on the first.
Peace
14 comments:
I think a Christian is someone who believes that Christ raised interesting questions, the most interesting questions ever, so we hover around those questions and his life like moths around a light in what seems otherwise like eternal darkness.
I think a Christian is someone who believes that Christ raised interesting questions...
I don't think this is enough, but I do think it's a good start.
What specific questions are you thinking of?
I have truly enjoyed following your blog. I wish I had time to comment at length and with some back up information.
It seems you are putting before us the question of good works versus faith.
This is an old question that precedes the divide between Luther and the Catholic Church. I would suggest this precedes even Christ, yea, all the way back to at least Job.
WW
It seems you are putting before us the question of good works versus faith.
I hope not. I'm a Lutheran, and so I believe that we're saved by faith, not works.
But I also think that a core aspect of Jesus' message was that we weren't done when we've taken care of ourselves. Individual salvation should not be where our relationship with God ends. Indeed, I think it is a mistake to focus too much time and energy on the issue of individual salvation, as this imbues it with an importance that it doesn't have.
WW & Stu,
Bringing up faith v works is a sort of cart-before-horse, strawman type of argument.
We are "saved" (whatever that means) by God. We accept that salvation (dying to the world and becoming reborn in Christ, I think. . .) through faith. We show that salvation by being a new person, a follower of Christ.
Being "good" doesn't get us saved -- because all people do "bad" things. However, if we are saved -- that is, if we have died to ourselves and been reborn in Christ, we will behave differently -- and in a more Christ-like manner.
i always associate the moment in ACTS when the christians get their name their social identity badge as it were i always read it in the context of "see how they love one another" that the christians were identified by acts of charitable service probabaly in ways that no one else was doing they were attending to the derelict in town they were attending to orphans they were working together in the joy of the holy spirit and they returned daily to the prayer of sustenance together so they appeared to people on the outside as people who care for one another and for others
can you imagine the first wave of social charity the places of refuge set up and the extensions of care given...this must've seemed like an unthinkable phenomenon to people that such places would come into existence
to me that's the spirit that is always hard to get back to that spirit that basically is willing to show love to the world the way we undersatnd jesus showing love to the world...that's why we like the bloody corpse on the cross it reminds us of the insignifcance of our suffering...or maybe it just makes it all easier to bear
what is sure is however the literary and liturgical organization that must've taken place was no doubt as impressive as the outward signs that the world was changing probably fairly rapidly before peoples' eyes...not without blood however
i wonder how the first christians partied
good post good discussion
helps me face my apathy
lord forgive
j
the question of the golden rule seems essential, to go back to your question in the second post. How should we behave? how should we pray? Are we to try to be as pure as God? Should we pay taxes to a corrupt government? At what point should we store thrones? Perhaps especially, how should we die?
I'm glad my blog commenters have found their way here. Like WW, I find your entry into the blogosphere very exciting. On most blogs ther eis pretty dumb commentary, and you can't learn anything. But here you can. I like that we can hit hard but politely. It's very important to keep an open mind. Mostly in blogland you run into closed minds.
By the way, do you think it's possible to be an abortionist like Dr. George Tiller and still be a Christian. Is he doing unto others? to the mother, yes, but what about to the babies?
He claimed to have done 60,000 abortions. I tried to do the math on that. Let's say he did ten a day for a year. That's 3,650 or thereabouts a year. Multiply that by 20 years. And let's say he never took a vacation. Is it really possible to do that many abortions in one lifetime? How long does an abortion take to accomplish? Can you do ten in a day?
If the definition of a Christian is that we follow the precept of do unto others (the golden rule) and we do it for the mothers, but not the babies, can we still call ourselves Christian?
If following the golden rule is the most important rule (it's called the GOLDEN rule), then at what point in breaking it are we no longer a Christian?
Christ asks us to be good to our neighbors. Is a baby our neighbor?
Is a worm our neighbor?
If any living thing is our neighbor, then nobody can be a Christian, because to live we must eat other living things, and nobody would want to be eaten.
Could Cyclops be a Christian?
That is, if Cyclops ate men, and never offered hospitality, but yet believed, could he still go to heaven?
I think just trying to live within these questions makes us a Christian. I'm not sure we can answer them. but Jesus set up these questions. And his questions haunt me.
Anothre question that haunts me: what are we to do with our talents?
Anothre question that haunts me: what are we to do with our talents?
I like this question.
Is a worm our neighbor?
And this one, too.
Thanks!
I can't really answer either of them definitively. But they are my central questions.
i like the way kirby can
zero in cyclops like one eyed focus on the essential issues
through the tube goes liquid solid and gas
in this world we are tubularly involved
belss ringing for prayer
gotta go
praise jesus
j
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