People often ask “what do Christians really believe?” or “what does it mean to be a Christian?” As a teacher, students would ask me “Are people who are Mormons (or Jehovah’s Witness, or Amish, or etc) Christian?” I think this is an important question, and it occurred to me I better write down my answer to it before senility sets in, so my ramblings can be saved for future generations.
What do we mean when we say “Christian”? Is anyone who identifies as a Christian really Christian? How would we know? Who decides who’s in and who’s out? Does it matter?
- Last question first – Does it matter?
I would argue yes, but not for the reason people usually assume. It is not up to me who is “going to heaven” or not. It is not up to me to decide who is allowed to call themselves a Christian. However, there are certain passages in the Bible that direct Christians to deal differently with people inside the Church vs those outside the Church. There are passages that discuss Church discipline that are not appropriate for those who are not part of the Church. So, yes, I think it matters, primarily so that I do not get involved in matters that are not my responsibility. - Who decides who’s in and who’s out?
Again, this is not to save who is in or out of heaven. Who is “saved” is up to God, not to me. I try not to make judgements about that, and if I’m totally honest, I really hope I’m wrong about this and everybody gets to heaven. (no, I’m not a universalist. I just hope I’m wrong.) That said, we can make judgements about who is in the Church or not. We are told multiple times in the Bible to “put that person” out of fellowship – that is, don’t associate with them at a spiritual level – for people who claim to be Christian but are not serving Christ. So…who decides? We do – the Church. - How would we know?
This is actually a multipart question, and I’m looking at only answering part of it here. The main ways we can tell who is a “Christian” or not comes down to a) what they believe/teach, and b) what they do. Ultimately, if these two things are not in harmony, we would say that person is not serving Christ. So any discussion of “who is a Christian” should include both of those.
However, I’m not going to do that. Partly because I can’t get into all the behavioral issues in a systematic way, and partly because I’m too lazy to take on a project that large. But I do intend to go through what Christians believe/teach, and that’s what this little series is about. - The beliefs
Throughout history, the Church as a whole has worked to find a common set of beliefs that bind us together. These are called the Creeds, and there have been many through the 2000-ish years of Church history. Usually a new creed pops up when there’s a new teaching, and the Church has to decide if it lines up with what Jesus and the apostles taught. I’m not going to go through all of them, because they’re long and somewhat tedious, but I do think looking at some of the earliest ones give us an idea about what the Church has consistently said a “Christian” is.
The two “main” creeds of the Church are the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. Millions of Christians around the world recite or affirm these beliefs every week in their services, and they are the most widely accepted creeds in the Christian world. For this series, I’m going to focus primarily on the Apostle’s Creed, because it’s the oldest and the simplest, but I will reference the Nicene in a couple places.
Who is a Christian?
I would argue a Christian is someone who believes these creeds. *
And so I think it would be helpful to go through these creeds and look at each part and why it’s important. Understanding these creeds is why most Christians do not consider Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses to be Christian, even though they use the Bible and have a lot of similar beliefs. This is going to be a longish series (25 posts, according to my outline), but hopefully each section won’t be too overwhelming.
Off we go.
Final Note: I want to re-emphasize I am not saying that Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses or anyone else is not saved, or even not a Christian. What I am saying is that the expressed beliefs of those churches fall outside the scope of the historical creeds, and therefore they are not considered “orthodox” Christians. This does not mean Orthodox like “Greek Orthodox,” but “orthodox” (small o), which means “right belief.”
* For the belief part. Like mentioned above, the action part is essential too, but I’m not addressing that for right now.
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit; Born of the Virgin Mary; Suffered under Pontius Pilate; Was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into Hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven; And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; The Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body; And the life everlasting. Amen.