Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Christ at the Campfire What makes one a Christian?

Thank you guys for your replies. You have helped me greatly.

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth , and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me" St. John 14:4

Thanks again and have a wonderful Easter.

Sanlen,

I am looking foward to "that day" of complete peace, joy, and unity when we are all one with Christ.
Sometimes I am hurt and saddened by the bickering I see amongst brothers and it is the reason I don't post often.
Maybe we should spend more time glorifying the Lord, praying for one another, giving thanks for all that He has done.

Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria!
To God Alone Be The Glory!

The week after I was saved, I was baptized. Not because I had any knowledge of it but only because it was commanded of me in the scriptures.

In reflection, have you considered the thief on the cross? Was he baptised? No of couse not, but he was promised to be in paradice with Christ that very day. Baptism was a symbol of repentence, therofore, I must conclude that without repentance a man cannot see the kingdom of God.

I agree, Qtip. I'm often saddened by how vicious we can sometimes be, all in the name of "Christian love". It is one reason I have often asked people to just agree to disagree and then go on with the things they can agree on. There comes a point where it serves no good purpose, often sooner than later.

Blackwolf,



Soon after I accepted Christ I was baptized because I read Jesus was. No one told me the significants of baptism for at least ten years.



The thief on the cross did a couple of things. He apparently humbled himself before Jesus and the crowd. He exercised faith in the Only One Who can save. There is a fun little thing I noticed which goes along with Romans 10:9-10. He worked out his salvation by believeing Jesus would rise from the dead before He died and preached to the other thief; and most likely the crowd. Jesus hadn't died yet so He was not buried yet so there was no "buried with Him in baptism" yet. Besides that Jesus is the Boss and whatever He says goes. No matter how much the thief believed and preached, he was saved by grace. He deserved to go to hell even after he preached and believed. But God forgave him and that was that.

Gee whiz...

No you all have me thinking about my own baptism...

Let's review: I am a Eveangelical Lutheran pastor, hold M.Div and ThD degrees, serve three parishes, have faith in Christ's saving death, try and live a godly life, etc., etc...

But, because I do not hold the dogmatic (Baptist) position of the formulaic need to "be born again" and then undergo a "believer's baptism", I am not saved.

Is this true? Tell it to me striaght you wise proof texters.

Is baptism a gift of God, or is it a work that we do? It would appear that many here would like to turn God's gracious gift into a human work.

Dr. Saskabush,

Not to be disrespectful of your Thd, but I am an evangelical Baptist pastor, hold no theological degrees of any kind, and I do NOT believe that you need to undergo believer's baptism to be saved. That was the point of my first post to ak_700. I believe that a man is saved by placing his faith and trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism has nothing to do with it. And I am about as dogmatic as they come.

Someone has misrepresented what a real dogmatic baptist believes. Primarily, I am a Bible Believing Christian. I don't count the baptist name as a title of any kind. My doctrine is primarily baptistic, but where they depart from the scriptures, I drop 'em.

I serve the Lord God Almighty, not some denomination. I got ordained and enabled by God to preach the gospel long before a man ever ordained me. I am reminded that Peter and John were ignorant and unlearned men, but they took notice of them because they had been with Jesus. I hope that is my badge. That is my goal in my ministry, like Paul said in Philippians 3:8-10 I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ . . . . . That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, being made conformable to his death . . .

Salvation is not about semantics. It is about faith and trust in the shed blood of Christ.

Hope that was straight enough, Doc.

Paul said that God sent him not to baptize but to preach the gospel. Me too! I've baptized some folks, but my calling is as a preacher of the gospel.

So are all who are baptised saved or do some come up wet sinners?

I am a strong advocate of baptism, but I have never seen Scripture in context that does not more strongly advocate belief as the exclusive and mandatory prerequisite to baptism for salvation.

I also believe a person can be baptised and come up from the experience only wetter. The act does not save. Acceptance through faith of His gift of Grace is what saves men. Then they go on to be baptised because of it. If someone refuses baptism, it would raise concerns to me more about their understanding of the Gospel than their salvation. If someone goes on to the Lord before they could be baptised after accepting Jesus, I see no issues for their Spirit. It will be with the Lord.

Saskabush,



How about going through the Whole New Testament and read Every Passage on baptism. If you obey Jesus' Word does a beleiver get baptized? Consider Colosians 2 and contemplate if a male could be a Jew without circumcision.

Quote: [Consider Colosians (sic) 2 and contemplate if a male could be a Jew without circumcision.] End Quote

Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Colossians 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision [color:"blue"] made without hands [/color] , in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

the_shootist,

I thought it was a sin for you to debate. Let's take a look at The Whole Passage.

"See to it that no one takes you captive through phlosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than accordcing to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been circumcised with a circumcidion made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, Who raised Him from the dead." Colossians 2:8-12

As a Jew Jesus was circumcised. Apostle Paul is equating circumcision of the Jews, and one can not be a Jew unless circumcised, and being buried with Christ in baptism for the believers. Like I have been posting What Jesus says,

"'He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.'" Mark 16:16

Like I posted before: If you load the rifle and pull the trigger, you can shoot it. If you do not load the rifle you can not shoot it. The second part does not negate the first part, it reinforces it.

Ringman,
Debate finished.

I believe that it was St. Stephen, who made the definition in the first century: A Christian is one who gathers in His name. Pretty simple.

Darrel

Thank you, Tio.

I would like to know what "book" your reading from but it isn't the bible! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> if it is, you need to read deeper.
Luke 20:4-8
4: The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?
5: And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not?
6: But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet.
7: And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was.
8: And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

Deeply saddened here.

Huntr

Huntr,
Why? Would you like to talk about it?

Rick

Who are Christians?

Rome says Catholics. London says Anglicans. Salt Lake City says Mormons. Atlanta says Southern Baptists. Springfield says Pentecostals. Jerusalem says nuts. Mecca says devils. But what does Jesus say?

Go to the Source.

Get hold of a red-letter New Testament (with the words of Jesus printed in red), and read just the red print first � looking especially to see what
(a) Jesus Himself
(b) identifies as requisites
(c) for being loved by Him and the Father, for being saved by His laying-down of His life, for entry into and eternal life in the Kingdom of God, etc.

Since I consider His wishes to be commandments that I need to obey, my notes have these written as if He were commanding them today � all from the red print, as clarified by long study of the old terms as everybody understood them when He spoke them:

� obey (I don't think He ever says it this bluntly, but this is obviously what He means, for example, by "do whatsoever I command you" and "do the will of the Father.")

� repent ("trade-in your judgement and opinions on Mine and the Father's")

� believe ("stake your life on the notion that God is the only One Whose judgement you can trust")

� love ("earnestly desire, more than anything else, that God gets everything and everyone He wants")

� forgive ("leave all judgement of others to God")

HTH

.

Or you could look at the three places in the Bible that the word "Christians" is used, and then read the context.

Acts 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

1 Peter 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

The word Christian is not used by Jesus Christ because before the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there were no Christians. There were certainly some saved people, but they were not called Christians until Antioch in Acts 11:26.

Old Testament Jews under the law, were not called Christians, because they were not Christians.

A Christian is one who has received the atonement of Jesus Christ by grace through faith. (Eph 2:8-9) Without the works of the law.

Ken,

Thanks for the insite. Excelent post. If you are ever down in the Grants Pass area and want to teach a single fanatical student...well, when the teacher is ready the student will appear.

the_shootist,

Again you choose to argue instead of thanking Ken for a very good post. You are a special case. Are all Baptists preachers like you?