Becoming a Christian vs. Being a Christian

Ignorance and confusion are not helpful ingredients when talking about religion.  With that in mind, there seems to be a significant amount of both regarding the differences between what it takes to become a Christian, and what it subsequently takes to be a Christian.  Hopefully, this comparison will help.

Anyone, anytime, anywhere can become a Christian if he/she takes one fateful step: "if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10)  Race, nationality, age, gender, none of them make any difference.  What a person has done in the past, doesn't make him/her more or less capable of being saved if that person comes to God in faith.  The most innocent child among us (though still a sinner as are we all) can be saved, as can the most hardened and vile criminal, for all alike need to be forgiven, and the blood of Jesus Christ is capable of cleansing anyone.

Work is not necessary to become a Christian, in fact, trying to work to earn salvation is a sure-fire way to fail to find it.  Salvation is an act of God's grace, given to mankind through faith in Jesus.  No specific words must be spoken, no setting or place is necessary, genuine faith will be sufficient.  When one of the thieves being crucified alongside Jesus showed that he believed in him by saying, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."  Jesus responded to this man, a criminal hours away from death, by saying, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."  The thief had no chance to earn God's favor, he had no chance to make up for his past, he simply called out to God for mercy, through Jesus, and he found it.

To be a Christian requires several things, again, these things do not help anyone become a Christian, they merely confirm what God has already done for that person through grace.  If a person lacks these character traits/qualities, the Scriptures tell us that such a person may not have yet become a Christian, which would take us back to square one, the need for an act of faith.  There are people who believe themselves to be Christians erroneously (and thus extremely dangerously) but who are in actuality not Christians at all, having evidently never believed in Jesus Christ.

The Bible calls the character traits/qualities of a Christian his/her "fruit".  Jesus was quite clear in the Gospels that someone claiming to be a Christian without any evidence of "fruit" cannot be one.  "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." (John 15:1-2).  Jesus' brother James reiterated this point when he wrote, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such a faith save him?...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:14,17)

The "fruit" required of each and ever person who would be a Christian is explained in a variety of ways.  Paul utilized a list, calling it the "fruit of the Spirit": "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22)  Not that any Christian has each and every one of these perfectly, but this is the character that demonstrates the fruit that Jesus warned us we must have once we have become Christians.  We haven't mastered this list, but we sure better be working on it.

The Apostle John answered the question, "Who is a Christian?" in his first epistle by emphasizing three primary qualities and repeating them each over and over.  John explained that all Christians must: (1) believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, (2) obey the commandments of God found in Scripture, and (3) show love for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  John explained that anyone who could demonstrate these three should have no fear concerning their relationship with God for they are impossible to achieve for anyone who is not empowered by the Holy Spirit as someone who has already become a Christian.  {This should be obvious, nobody can be a Christian who did not previously become a Christian.  Faith must come first}  The converse is also true: anyone who lacks one of these three should be rightly concerned that he/she must be truly be a Christian.

If you're interested in learning much more about what John has to say about the question, "Who is a Christian?"  I wrote a 155 page book on the subject which you are more than welcome to read, it is entitled Christianity's Big Tent: The Ecumenism of I John and can be found via the link.

Let me summarize the distinction between becoming and being a Christian:

Become: anyone, by grace, through faith, in Jesus.

Be: Obey the Scriptures, believe in Jesus, love fellow Christians (i.e. "bear fruit")

To be a Christian is no easy task, Jesus likened it to each of us taking up a cross of our own and following him.  In light of the difficulty of the road ahead, anyone who desires to be a Christian ought to be doing so as part of the fellowship of a local church where the Word of God is respected and followed and people build each other up through service and prayer.  It is beyond the ability of virtually all of us to be a Christian who bears much fruit on our own.  We need to be a part of a church.  We need to be corrected when we err, we need to be supported when we stumble, we need the opportunity to grow by serving others, and lastly, but very importantly, we need to worship God with the people of God.

You don't need to be perfect to become a Christian, which is a relief since nobody is anything close to perfect.  You don't need to be perfect to be a Christian either, which is a relief since none of us are perfect either, but you do need to be making progress.  A "Christian" who bears no fruit, is no Christian at all, that's not my idea, but a very serious warning from Jesus himself.  

Is he a Christian? Are you?

Much has been made of late about whether or not someone who claims to be a Christian can be taken at his/her word as such.  Pope Francis even weighed in on this important issue, declaring that an attitude of wall building instead of the extending of love cannot reside in the mind of a Christian.  The Bible says much on this topic, from Jesus declaring that "all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35) and also, "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit." (John 15:5)  The question of who really belongs to the Church became important even in that first generation of believers, as evidenced by the primary focus on that question of the apostle John's first letter.  I John contains a threefold test of true Christian faith: (1) Belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, (2) obedience to the commands of God, (3) and lastly, display of Christian brotherly love.  In essence, John is simply repeating the instructions of Jesus himself and adding to it the need to believe in Jesus (which Jesus was assuming by addressing his comments to his disciples, men who had already chosen to follow him).
Where does this leave us, then, when faced with someone who claims to be a Christian yet shows little or no evidence of spiritual growth in terms of obeying the commands of God by avoiding sin and seeking righteousness, nor much evidence of love, first for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and then for the Lost whom the Gospel obligates us to pursue with God's love?  If the evidence is lacking, and it ought to be clear enough to leave no doubt because we're talking about the overall direction of a life, not simply one or two moments, then the evidence is indeed lacking.  Without evidence of Christian faith, without fruit of the Spirit, we dare not assume that anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ is actually a Christian.
Let me put this another way: If there is not clear evidence that the old self, the sin nature, has been crucified with Christ, that the Holy Spirit has brought about a baptism of new birth, and that the person in question is now living as a new creation, then it is foolish to believe that Christ dwells within that individual.  This is not an invitation to be judgmental, nor is it any sort of works-salvation; we are absolutely and without any hesitation saved by grace alone through faith alone, but it is a reminder that we're trying to determine if someone has been transformed by the Spirit of God.  This is not something that can happen without making a difference in your life or mine, it will cause change, for the better, from the old focus on self to the new focus on selflessness.
If there is no evidence Christ-like attitudes and behaviors, then there is no Christian, its as simple as that.  Is he a Christian?  Don't tell me what he says, what does he do?  Are you a Christian, don't tell me what you think you are, how are you living your life?  For those who have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, there is never really any doubt, they belong to him, they've taken up their own cross and chosen to follow their savior.

If you want to delve deeper into this topic, I wrote a book about I John's perspective on the question of who is, and who is not, a Christian; it's called Christianity's Big Tent and can be accessed via that link or by going to the page at the top of this website where all of my written materials are located.

Back to the basics, what is a Christian?

All of this time spent during the past week defending the modern Biblical text against KJV Only advocates was necessary, but unfortunate when so much work is needed for the kingdom of God.  With that in mind, let me return to a topic that has been close to my heart for years and about which I wrote a book several years ago:  What defines a Christian?  How do we know if someone is a Christian or not?  The source for these thoughts is exclusively the first letter of the Apostle John, one of my favorite portions of Scripture, during which he repeatedly states this three-pronged thesis in a variety of ways.  The three part standard of John is reflected in fifty-two statements in his letter that will confirm or deny that someone is a genuine follower of Jesus Christ.  Those fifty-two statements are easily placed into three categories: (1) Belief, primarily that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, (2) Love, primarily for fellow Christian brothers and sisters, and (3) Obedience, focused on keeping the commandments of God.
In his letter, John makes 17 statements about belief, 14 statements about love, and 19 statements about obedience.  All three are necessary, to be a Christian, one MUST believe in Christ, one MUST love other Christians, and one MUST become obedient to the commands of God.  None of this is optional, none of this can be excused in the name of some other cause.  In other words, to defend Christ by showing hatred to other Christians cannot be the proper path.  Likewise, compromising any one of the three will endanger our ability to have any real confidence in our own salvation.

For a full examination of this issue, as well as an attempted application of it regarding various groups that hang around the fringes of Christianity like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons, please read my book.  And yes, I know the introduction needs to be updated to reflect my work here in PA and our newly arrived bundle of joy; I'll get to that at some point.

Christianity's Big Tent: The Ecumenism of I John

Are 95% of self-proclaimed Christians really still Lost? An answer to John MacArthur

The question of who is, and who is not, a Christian never seems to go away.  I know that the Bible goes to great lengths to define how a disciple of Jesus Christ thinks, what they feel, and what they do, but the vast variety of people utilizing the name of Christ continue to bring this question to the surface.  In my book, Christianity's Big Tent, analyzing 1 John, I relied solely upon his three tests of faith: Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?  Do you love your fellow Christians?  And do you obey the commandments of God?  For some, however, such a broad definition leaves too many unanswered questions.

            I was watching a couple of YouTube videos last night of John MacArthur, a man whose name carries a lot of weight among Evangelicals, in which he clearly threw both Catholics and Charismatic Christians out of the defined Church.  In both cases, MacArthur believes that the vast majority of people, who belong to those Churches, are in fact non-Christians still destined for hell.  As I’ve said before, this way of defining the Church leaves us with an end result where 90-95% of the people in the world who think they are a Christian are not, and leaves us with a Church that can only be described as a pathetic version of the triumphant Church that was supposed to take the Gospel to the whole world.

            In the case of the Catholic Church, the primary objection of men like MacArthur, such as RC Sproul and John Piper, is the way in which the Catholic Church (as well as the Orthodox, Anglicans, and to a lesser extent,  Lutherans and Methodists too) defines what is happening during Communion.  Because these followers of Jesus take his words “literally”, instead of seeing it as a symbolic act, they are doomed.  There is more to it than that, such as objections about the elevation of tradition to the level of the Scriptures and prayer to the Saints and Mary, but the heart of the objection to the Catholic Church has always been transubstantiation.  The Council of Trent is still a difficult thing to deal with, its doctrines in response to the Reformation were not helpful, but then again neither was the 30 Years War.  Even with that historical baggage, shouldn’t Vatican II mean something?  Should we let the failures of the past that brought the Church to the point of schism be perpetuated?

With that in mind, here is the tally of what the average Catholic believes that isn’t supposed to help save them due to a faulty understanding of Communion:

1. There is only one God, a trinity consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

2. The Bible is the Word of God, inspired and to be revered.

3. All of humanity is sinful; each of us must repent of our sins.

4. The only hope for us to overcome our sin is the death and resurrection of Jesus.

5. Prayer and worship are important parts of being a Christian

6. Obeying God’s law is important, as are acts of loving kindness.

            Can you have all of this, and still be a “Church of Satan?” as MacArthur concludes?  RC Sproul believes that praying to the Saints is belittling the desire of God to use his grace by thinking that you need an intermediary.  Whether or not this objection is valid, isn’t saying that 95% of would-be Christians have failed due to their theology, despite the fact that they affirm the Nicene Creed, an insult to the power of the grace of God?  Did Christ really die for the sins of the world only to have that power fail 95% of the time?

            The objection to the Charismatic movement follows similar lines.  In this case it isn’t any core doctrine that is being misunderstood but an objection to the idea that the gifts of the Spirit as seen in Acts are still in use today.  Once again, this is a question of interpretation of Scripture, with one side seeing God’s work as a temporary solution and the other as a part of God’s ongoing plan.  That there are legitimate reasons to be concerned with the Prosperity Gospel movement is no reason to throw all those who still believe in the gifts of the Spirit out the door of the Church.

            One last thing that I find troubling with John MacArthur’s view of the Church is that he believes that between AD 400 and AD 1500, there was no real Church, only an Apostate Church.  Thus for 1,100 years, the Church of Jesus Christ was only a shell that required any “real” Christians to not be a part of the community of believers, but instead to be rebels and martyrs.  The Church certainly had flaws during that time period, as it does today, but to dismiss the work of God in our world for over a millennium is a startling conclusion.

            Why do so many Evangelicals, of which I am one, prefer to think that the Church is a tiny persecuted minority, a frail and threatened thing that is dwarfed by apostasy?  Is this some sort of perverse glory in being the only ones who have it right?  Is this the result of dispensational theology, a pre-tribulation emphasis that almost hopes that the world is getting worse and the Church failing so Christ can return soon?  Whatever the reasons are, I can’t be on board with that attitude, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is far too powerful to be thought of as so very weak.

Things I've written you might enjoy.

Well, if you already read at least some of my blog it stands to reason that you might be interested in some of the longer pieces I've had occassion to write.  They're all already contained in individual blogs posts, but I figured it was time to make things easier and put all the links here on one post for any new readers.  Enjoy, use, cite if you're writing a paper for a high school or college class (which would be real cool, let me know if you do), think about what I've written, and then feel free to comment so I get some feedback.  Thanks.

A brief Theology derived from the Nicene Creed

This is just a short version of what a systematic Christian theology might look like when the Nicene Creed, the Church's oldest, most generally accepted creed, was used as the format.

 Christianity's Big Tent: The Ecumenism of I John

Christianity's Big Tent: Bibliography

This is an unpublished book that I wrote, 150 pages, about how we can define the Church through an analysis of I John.  The question of who is, and who is not, a Christian is answered on the basis of the teaching of I John.  The second link is the works cited page.

The Historicity of Asimov's Foundation Series

Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series is one of the best selling and most influential Science Fiction stories of all time.  It also has an interesting viewpoint on human nature and history.  That topic is explored in this paper that examines those aspects of the series from a Christian perspective.

The U.S.S. Platonic

The Platonic is a play that my wife Nicole and I wrote, directed, and starred in while she was working as a teacher at Saranac High School.  We began writing the play as friends and ended it as much more, it actually mirros the problems of the two primary characters whose friendship grows into something more.  A bit of art imitating life.  Feel free to enjoy its wacky humor, if you're thinking of directing a play, feel free to us it and let us know.

Relational Intimacy: Creation, the Fall, and Redemption

This is a paper I wrote about how intimacy between people was intended to be in God's original creation, how it was changed by the Fall, and how our redemption begins the process remedying it.

Young Goodman Brown: Analysis

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown is a fascinating short story that is an allegory of the destruction of one man's faith.  This paper is an analysis of that story from a Christian viewpoint.  I recieved an "A" for it in college, and its the most viewed page on this blog, so I know that some of you may be tempted to cut/paste portions of it, or simply change the name, and pass it off as your own.  Rather than do that, simply use what I've written if it works for you and cite me as the source.  I was afterall, an English teacher for ten years.  

Christianity's Big Tent: The Ecumenism of I John

I wrote this 150 page "book" to settle the questions in my mind about Ecumenism that falling in love with Nicole raised. I decided to use the framework of the letter of I John because the Apostle spends a lot of time answering the question, "Who is a Christian, and who isn't?" I had some hopes of finding a publisher, but I really just want it to help anyone who wants to read it. The book also touches on the topics of what is important to the core of Christianity, and answers questions about groups like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. The book is in two parts, the book itself is one, the works cited pages is the other, please download them and enjoy. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

** Note, this book was revised and updated in 2006 and 2014.  Eventually, a revised introduction to include the portion of my life here in Franklin, PA will be written and an overall revision will take place as well.  Thank you. 4/4/14 **

Christianity's Big Tent 

 Christianity's Big Tent: Works Cited