Here from gracethrufaith's website are two very interesting questions and answers to me...and the survey results that really shocked me as a Christian. Question: In several lessons you have referred to a “Christian world view.” I’m don’t understand the concept as you use it. If you have written a lesson that explains the concept, please direct me to it. If there is no lesson that specifically defines, explains, and provides instructions for achieving it, I would greatly appreciate that information. Answer: The Barna Group, a leading Christian pollster, conducted the survey to which I referred and defined the Christian worldview like this;... https://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher/christian-world-view-defined/ Question: In many of your articles I have seen you speak of a “Christian World View” and how few Christians hold such a view. Could you please define it for us? I feel that it is looking at the world through the Bible and it’s prophecies, looking at what is happening in the world news and relating it to prophecy and living in anticipation of what Jesus said would happen in the end times in which we are living. Am I close? Answer: First of all, recent polls show that over 90% of professing Christians have a secular world view. That means they view the world the same way unbelievers do. They act as if this life is all there is. We who have a Christian world view know this life is only temporary and it’s the next one that’s permanent so that’s what we focus on (2 Cor. 4:4). We know our citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20)... https://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher/whats-a-christian-world-view/ If you consider yourself Christian, do you agree with the definitions given by Jack Kelley defining a Christian or Biblical World view and Secular World view? And what did you think about the survey results?
For one thing I think Christian has become very generic and almost everyone calls themselves a Christian unless they're an atheist. I put Christian on all forms that ask but I don't really know if I am. I'm not an atheist but that's as far as I'll go. Maybe an ex Catholic although I'm always drawn to the catholic view for some reason..probably because that's how I was raised.
According to the survey results @Chrissy Cross it seems there may be alot of truth to your statement above. And while the survey results are shocking to me personally, it does explain to me why many people can't tell the different between those who are Christians and those who are not and that makes me very sad.
It doesn't make me sad...I know what I believe in my heart and that's all that really matters. I'm sure there are many people like that. There are many different religions encompassed by the word "Christian". Also, most religions believe in some sort of heaven and their followers believe they will go to heaven...even muslims....so then who's religion is right? There is no one universal religion or belief so nobody can say with 100% certainty that they are the ones that are right.
Here is the definition of Christian. I was baptized so by the definition I am Christian....no? Chris·tian ˈkrisCHən/ adjective adjective: Christian 1. relating to or professing Christianity or its teachings. "the Christian Church" informal having or showing qualities associated with Christians, especially those of decency, kindness, and fairness. noun noun: Christian; plural noun: Christians 1. a person who has received Christian baptism or is a believer in Jesus Christ and his teachings. Origin late Middle English: from Latin Christianus, from Greek Christianos (see Christ).
Sorry, that turned into a mess above and I don't know why. By the formal and informal definition of Christian above.....I fit the bill!
In God's Word There's more to being a Christian than that formal and informal definition you posted Chrissy and what I have shared below is the rest of the definition of a Biblical Christian. How can I become a Christian? Subscribe to our Question of the Week: Question: "How can I become a Christian?" Answer: The first step to become a Christian is to understand what the term “Christian” means. The origin of the term “Christian” was in the city of Antioch in the first century A.D. (see Acts 11:26). It is possible that, at first, the term “Christian” was intended to be an insult. The word essentially means “little Christ.” However, over the centuries, believers in Christ have adopted the term “Christian” and use it to identify themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. A simple definition of a Christian is a person who follows Jesus Christ. Why should I become a Christian? Jesus Christ declared that He “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The question then arises – why did we need to be ransomed? The idea of a ransom is a payment that must be made in exchange for the release of a person. The idea of a ransom is most frequently used in instances of kidnapping, when someone is kidnapped and held prisoner until a ransom is paid for the person’s release. Jesus paid our ransom to free us from bondage! Bondage from what? Bondage to sin and its consequences, physical death followed by eternal separation from God. Why did Jesus need to pay this ransom? Because we are all infected with sin (Romans 3:23), and are therefore worthy of judgment from God (Romans 6:23). How did Jesus pay our ransom? By dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21). How could Jesus’ death sufficiently pay for all of our sins? Jesus was God in human form, God come to earth to become one of us so He could identify with us and die for our sins (John 1:1,14). As God, Jesus’ death was infinite in value, sufficient to pay for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2). Jesus’ resurrection after His death demonstrated that His death was the sufficient sacrifice, that He had truly conquered sin and death. How can I become a Christian? This is the best part. Because of His love for us, God has made it exceedingly simple to become a Christian. All you have to do is receive Jesus as your Savior, fully accepting His death as the sufficient sacrifice for your sins (John 3:16), fully trusting Him alone as your Savior (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). Becoming a Christian is not all about rituals, going to church, or doing certain things while refraining from other things. Becoming a Christian is all about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A personal relationship with Jesus Christ, through faith, is what makes a person a Christian. Are you ready to become a Christian? If you are ready to become a Christian by receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior, all you have to do is believe. Do you understand and believe that you have sinned and are worthy of judgment from God? Do you understand and believe that Jesus took your punishment upon Himself, dying in your place? Do you understand and believe that His death was the sufficient sacrifice to pay for your sins? If your answers to these three questions are yes, then simply place your trust in Jesus as your Savior. Receive Him, by faith, fully trusting in Him alone. That is all it takes to become a Christian!
But that's just one point of view @Babs Hunt. So, a person who believes in God but not Jesus is not a Christian? My beliefs are more centered around a God.
The first time the word Christian was used was in the Bible Chrissy...and those who were Christians were called that because they had made Jesus their Lord and Savior (or Messiah) and were now His followers. They believed what God said...that Christ was God's Son, was sent by Him to deliver them from their sins and give them eternal life. So even if the world has changed the definition of Christian to mean anything it wants it to mean... this does not mean any other definition is true.
Believing in God is a good start, especially if the God you believe in is the one in the Bible. If you believe in this God then you should also believe that what He says is true too. And He says that the only way you can be delivered from your sins and have eternal life is through believing that God sent His Son Jesus Christ to deliver you from them.
you won't get into heaven just by being saved....you have to continue being a good person. I will also continue to put Christian on forms because I was baptized and I'm not an atheist. I guess I could put "other" if the choice is there.
God created each one of us, but the way we become His children and spend eternity with Him is through the redemptive blood shed for us by You, I, nor anyone else can ever be a good enough person to save ourselves Chrissy....Jesus is the only one who can be good enough to get you to heaven, that's why God sent Him to save us. Goodness is not a requirement for salvation but it is a fruit of being saved that Christians who truly follow Christ will show in their lives.
Yes, goodness is a requirement, being saved is not a free pass as I learned it. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/are-you-saved-if-only
I know that is what you were taught by the Catholic Church (so was I) but that is not what God says in the Bible. In fact God says just the opposite. And you are right being saved is not a free pass...it is a free gift offered by God to everyone who believes and receives Jesus Christ as their Savior.
But what I say is in the Bible. Look at my link. "Are You Saved?" If Only! Tim Staples August 26, 2011 SHARE 1618 "Do you know you’re saved so that if you were to die right now, heaven would be absolutely certain for you?" This "all-important" question is designed to bait Catholics into an ambush. When I speak at conferences around the country, I often ask the attendees how many have been asked that question by a Fundamentalist or Evangelical: Usually, over half of my Catholic audience raises a hand. If the Catholic responds as any good Catholic would by declaring he cannot—apart from a special revelation from God—have metaphysical (or absolute) certainty concerning his salvation, the Protestant then springs his biblical trap, 1 John 5:13: "I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." Next he tells the Catholic that if he will but "confess with [his] lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in [his] heart that God raised him from the dead, [he] will be saved" (Rom 10:9-10). All we need do is confess Jesus as Lord, and salvation is assured. We can know it with certainty. Salvation is guaranteed regardless of anything we may do or not do in the future. What a deal! The Catholic Two-Step Response Step One: The Greek word for knowledge (Gk. eideitei) in 1 John 5:13 does not necessarily equate to absolute certainty. We use the verb know the same way in English. For example, I may say I know I am going to get an A on my Greek exam tomorrow. Does that mean I have metaphysical certainty of this? Not at all. What I mean and what the verb know can be used to indicate is that I have confidence that I will get an A on my test tomorrow because I have studied the material thoroughly and I know it well. The context of 1 John makes it abundantly clear that this is how "knowledge" is being used in 1 John 5:13. In the next two verses, John draws a parallel between the certainty we have concerning our salvation and the certainty we have when we petition God in prayer: "And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him." Does this mean we have absolute certainty we will receive what we ask for when we make requests of God in prayer? Obviously not! John says we can have "confidence," but not absolute certainty. We cannot always know with strict certainty that our request is truly "according to his will." Moreover, Psalm 66:18 informs us: "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." And 1 John 3:22 says, ". . . we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him." Can we always be certain we have not "cherished iniquity" in our hearts, or that we have not done anything that may have displeased the Lord? Step Two: Our salvation is contingent upon many things according to the Bible. This indicates the certainty of our salvation is not absolute. Just a few examples include 1 John 1:8-9: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The text says we will be forgiven if. Thus, the sobering truth is: Unconfessed sin will not be forgiven. And the Bible is very clear that no sin can enter into heaven (see Hb 1:13; Rv 21:8-9, 27). I have heard it said that if is "the biggest little word" in the English dictionary. Well, Scripture has lots of ifs. John, for example, also says: "Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life" (1 Jn 2:24-25). This passage is plain. Our eternal life is contingent upon our choosing to abide in God. Can we choose the opposite? Absolutely! John goes on to explain: "No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as he is righteous. He who commits sin is of the devil . . . No one born of God commits sin . . ." (1 Jn 3:6-9). On the surface, this text seems odd. We have already heard John say that everyone who is born of God does sin. Indeed, "all" sin. Yet, here he says those who are born of God do not sin. Is John contradicting himself? No: John makes a distinction between mortal and venial sins in this same epistle. In 1 John 5:16-17, John gives us remarkably plain definitions of both mortal and venial sins. "If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal . . . All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal." In this context, we can reasonably conclude the one who is born of God does not commit mortal sin. If he were to do so, he would be "cut off" from the body of Christ and would need to be restored via confession to a state of grace (Cf. Gal 5:4, Eph 3:3-6, Jn 20:21-23). Three more texts about the contingency of salvation bolster the argument: 1 Corinthians 15:1-2: Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain. (See also Matthew 24:44-51; Luke 12:41-46; Romans 11:22; Hebrews 3:6;14; Revelation 2:10; 25-26; 3:1-5; 22:18-19, for many more "ifs" and contingency clauses.) Colossians 1:21-23: And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard . . . 2 Peter 2:20-22: For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first . . . It has happened to them according to the true proverb, the dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire. The Evangelical Counter In response, the Protestant apologist will sometimes say these texts do not indicate one who was truly saved could actually lose his salvation. The one who, in the end, did not continue with the Lord, never really knew the Lord in the first place. He only knew about the Lord. But this line of reasoning does not hold up under scrutiny. In 2 Peter 2, the Greek word used for knowledge is epignosei. This word means "knowledge," but it denotes an experiential knowledge. This text is very clear that the persons referred to have "escaped the pollutions of the world" through this "experiential knowledge" of Jesus. Only a personal relationship with Jesus can have this effect. Merely knowing about Jesus cannot do that. Moreover, the image Peter uses in verse 22 is of the sow having been washed in water. Water is the symbol Peter uses for baptism in 1 Peter 3:20-21. The connection seems obvious. The sow—female pig—which had been cleansed represents a person cleansed from sin; the sow returning to the mud represents the Christian returning to sin. When seen in the fuller context of 2 Peter, this point becomes unmistakable. In 2 Peter 1:2-4, Peter begins with a description of Christians: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge [epignosei, experiential knowledge once again] of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge [epignosei] of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. One cannot help but see the parallels between these two texts. The same Greek words, epignosei, apophugentes, "having escaped from," and a form of kosmos or "world," are used to describe what Christians have been freed from, as well as to describe the one who then goes back to his old ways and ends up worse than he was before he ever knew Jesus. These are just a few texts among the scores we could examine, but the bottom line is Scripture is crystal-clear on this point: Once saved does notmean always saved. In Matthew 6:15, Jesus tells us that "if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." It does not matter how "born again" one may be or how many experiences one has had, if he does not forgive others, he will not be forgiven, according to the text. And remember—as we have seen—no sin can enter into heaven (cf. Hb 1:13, Rv 21:27). Further, the Bible says we can "fall from grace" (Gal 5:1-5, Heb 12:14-16), be "cut off" from the vine from which we receive divine life (Jn 15:1-6, Rom 11:18-22), have our names removed from the Lamb’s book of life (Rv 22:19), and it assures us over and over again that if we commit certain sins and we do not repent of them, we will not go to heaven (cf. 1 Cor 6:9-11, Gal 5:19, Eph 5:3-5, Rv 21:6-8). Not Once, But Many Times But what about Romans 10:9-10? Doesn’t the Bible say if you believe in your heart and confess Jesus with your mouth you shall be saved? Yes it does, but that doesn’t mean we need only confess faith in Christ one time. The Bible uses the same Greek word for confess, homologeitai, in multiple places and emphasizes we must continue to confess Christ if we are going to be finally saved. For example, in Matthew 10:22, 32 Jesus says, "You will be hated by all because of my name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.. . . Therefore everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven. . . ." (NAB). The context here is one of holding fast to our confession until death (see also 2 Tm 2:12 and Heb 4:14; 10:23-26). Finally, confessing Christ is done not only in word, but also in deed: "If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Tm 5:8). Notice, the man who neglects his family for selfish pursuits denies Christ in his actions. And as we have seen, the Bible records in many places extensive lists of sins whereby we can deny Christ, such as 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." Scripture never says the saved can do these things and still go to heaven. I didn't want to copy the whole link just the last paragraph...sorry. Also, the reason I have my doubts is all the religions that quote the Bible yet say different things. I was just fine believing my Catholic teachings until I got older and read about other religions and saw that they strayed or had different meanings from the same bible...how can that be?? Man has twisted the Bible to suit whatever religion their advertising.