What is a Christian?

@moonbus said
The two questions are intimately related, how Christianity propagated itself for 2,000 years, and what is a Christian. The answer to the first one determines the answer to the second one.

This is just your opinion.
Again.

@fmf said
I told you, look it up on the internet. And use what you find to address the thread's topic if you want to.

What is your answer to the OP? What is your definition of "a Christian"? What minimum core beliefs do you think are held by people who can ~ in your view ~ legitimately call themselves Christians.

As for my view, I have been upfront and crystal clear.

I don't need to look it up on the Internet. I already know the answer (from long and careful study of original texts as well as scholarly sources, not from a superficial Wikipedia synopsis).

Some seemingly simple questions do not have simple answers. Your OP question is one of them.

While the answer you have given to the OP is upfront and clear, it has the disadvantage of being simplistic and uninformed. I am trying to engage you to enrich your understanding of the matter by pointing you in the right direction to uncover its deeper dimensions. You have until now struck me as someone with a genuinely open, agile, and inquiring mind, but if you're not interested in enriching your view of this matter, just say so and I will stop contributing to this thread.

@divegeester said
This is just your opinion.
Again.

An opinion which has the enormous advantage in this particular discourse of being informed by and in congruence with historical facts. Yours is not.

@moonbus said
While the answer you have given to the OP is upfront and clear, it has the disadvantage of being simplistic and uninformed.

This is my view. A Christian is defined by his or her beliefs with regard to the life, death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A Christian believes that God sent his son Jesus, the messiah, to save the world. A Christian believes that Jesus was crucified and died in order to offer the forgiveness of sins and the opportunity for "salvation". A Christian believes that Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended to heaven. A Christian believes these things and endeavours to obey God's commandments, including those that Jesus is believed to have stipulated while he was alive, and demonstrate, by doing good works, that their faith is not dead. What is your view?

@moonbus said
I am trying to engage you to enrich your understanding of the matter by pointing you in the right direction to uncover its deeper dimensions.

Give me your own "deeper" and "enriched" answer to the OP, then.

What are - in your view - minimum core beliefs you think should be held by people who you personally think can plausibly call themselves Christians

@moonbus said
I don't need to look it up on the Internet. I already know the answer (from long and careful study of original texts as well as scholarly sources, not from a superficial Wikipedia synopsis).

Then, what is your counter-definition of "a Christian" based on your "long and careful study of original texts as well as scholarly sources"?

@moonbus said
You have until now struck me as someone with a genuinely open, agile, and inquiring mind, but if you're not interested in enriching your view of this matter, just say so and I will stop contributing to this thread.

Post as you see fit. That's what I do. I have shared my perspective but you seem to not want to reciprocate.

@moonbus said
I don't need to look it up on the Internet. I already know the answer (from long and careful study of original texts as well as scholarly sources, not from a superficial Wikipedia synopsis).

Some seemingly simple questions do not have simple answers. Your OP question is one of them.

While the answer you have given to the OP is upfront and clear, it has the disadvantage ...[text shortened]... sted in enriching your view of this matter, just say so and I will stop contributing to this thread.

If KellyJay took the Krell “brain boost” in the movie Forbidden Planet, I reckon this is exactly what he would sound like.

@moonbus said
An opinion which has the enormous advantage in this particular discourse of being informed by and in congruence with historical facts. Yours is not.

What historical facts support the claim you made which I was replying to?

What you mean is that you read some thing in a book which somebody else wrote and now you want to come into the forum and tell everyone that you know the TRUTH.

What does that sound like Mr Philosophy grad?

@fmf said
Give me your own "deeper" and "enriched" answer to the OP, then.

What are - in your view - minimum core beliefs you think should be held by people who you personally think can plausibly call themselves Christians

You're barking up the wrong tree. Jesus did not tell his disciples to compile "a list of minimum core beliefs." This is not merely what I personally think; that's what it is.

@moonbus said
You're barking up the wrong tree. Jesus did not tell his disciples to compile "a list of minimum core beliefs." This is not merely what I personally think; that's what it is.

According to the New Testament, Jesus gave one commandment to his disciples, to “...love one another, as I have loved you...” I don’t think he really cared what they called themselves...although he did call them his “friends”.

As far as being a Christian, I’ve stopped fighting calling myself one...since, as a Mormon, I had that argument since nearly the day I was born...

For myself, I see the ways that Jesus loved his friends and count myself blessed if I ever see one facet of that love coming out of myself. I think he was simply asking for that reflection without a lot of pronouncement...and then asking that his friends go about doing it.

I’m down with Jesus, and feel blessed to be called a friend, no matter what I happen to believe.

New day!

@hakima

To love one another, but to not bother with the dead.

Do not cast pearls before swine and dust yourself off and walk away if people do not accept their message.

@Eladar

I said what i said.

@hakima

Yeah, just presenting the other side of the coin.

@Eladar

Your coin not mine.

Enjoy the shopping trip.