James, you are so sweet and I love the way you break things down. I'm not nearly ready to be on the "teaching" Bible classes end of it-but I do use the lessons I have gotten in my day to day conversations applied to all the madness going on in this town-it almost like I'm watching re-enactment of all the lessons.
Now for your question-also interesting to ponder as I have identified myself as either a Buddhist or a Humanist for a long time.
A surprising benefit of coming back home and re-connecting to my roots has been that I found no matter what I have called myself-I never left out "One of God's favorite  children".
There has been so much commercializing of the word Christian that hearing it as an identifier almost makes me recoil-depending on what follows when someone opens a conversation with "I'm a Christian" as that is most often followed by very un-Christ like behavior.

So, I guess it boils down to behavior-my own as that is all I can judge correctly-is Christ ok with what I have just thought, said or done? The definition, for me has to be an individual minute by minute choice.

Hi, James,

What an interesting question you have asked and what a predictable set of responses you have had.

Christianity and being a christian are not really related.

Let me explain.

Christianity is what men have made out of the teachings and records in the two testaments and is like a body corporate - it has to change as the customer base expands. The revisions and deletions from the testaments are not known to us. It is possible that some senior church panel may have access to books that have been omittted or deleted and they may have a record of the alterations that have been made to the content of the testaments by revisions of translation - but we will never know.

For true christians, what Jesus taught in his ministry on Earth are the rules by which a Christian life should be lead.

Jesus did not try to qualify his preaching by quoting chapter and verse from some old book - His teachings were at the behest of his Father - ancient history did not come into it except to help illustrate a story.

Any person who lives his life by the Christian ethos encapsulated in the ten commandments, no matter what religion he may accept as the true religion, is a christian.

No matter what name you call God by, if you worship God in part of your everyday life, you are fulfilling one of your obligations as a Christian.

If there is only one true God and you worship a God, you must be worshipping the one true God - whether you know it or not is immaterial

He knows!.

The Old Coot

I have always been taught (and have come to realize) this.

American means one who lives in, believes in and is dedicated to the point of lying done all other priorities for the "American Cause" or in other words, for America (the United States).

Christian means one who is Christ-like (to the best of their ability),

believes in His Teachings (with all of their heart) and understands the principles of the Gospel (to the best of their mental abilities),

always puts the teachings and principles first, even before their own emotions and reactions (allowing for the "human side of each of us").

Christian means "one who belongs to Christ" based on the following:

• He has paid for our sins with His Life.
• He has given us Teachings and Principles to live by.
• He has released a power greater than any evil (even death it self) into our lives.
• We accept this gift based on Him and His Love (actions) not based on anything we could or should do.
• We accept Him into our life based on faith, not on any proof.
• We love Him because of His love for us, not what He can do for us because He has already done everything!

Christ became a man:

• To show us He understands everything we go through physically, mentally and spiritually.
• To show us He has and understands compassion, look at those He forgave and even helped. He knows we are human and are prone to fail.
• He loved us before we realized we even needed Him.

Christ is our Hero, our Guide, our Mentor and on a daily basis He is our Friend.

Sincerely His,

Gene Confer

revgene@spiritchapel.com , ezgene@ezdaze.com

HTTP://www.spiritchapel.com, HTTP://www.ezdaze.com

What does the Christian mean to me? Everything. In all your ways acknowledge Him, Deny Yourself, pick up your cross and follow Him...Being Abel and not Cain. In other words, your brothers or sisters keeper. Being a Christian means that we are the Light of the World. We do have power to change and transform this world by prayer, fasting, and believing. Christian means that you see things that are wrong and don't remain silent thanking God that it didn't happen to you. You don't pretend to love, your love becomes an action...Being a Christian means, Everything becomes possible with Christ Jesus. Sincerely, Shirley Shaw DeliverTheWord