By: Mike Wallace
What is a Christian? This seems like it should be a very easy question to answer yet it does not seem to answer easily. We hear the number of “Christians” in the world as being over one billion people. Yet Jesus was very clear that not many are being called now (Matt. 6:33-34: Luke 12:32 “little flock”; Matt. 20:16; Matt. 22:14; Luke 10:2 and Luke 13:23-24). The vast majority of people will be raised up in the future and given their opportunity to meet and obey God (Rev. 20:12-15). See www.coscog7.org one pager “A Day of Salvation”.
It is curious we often call “nice’ people “Christian”. When did “nice” become the definition of a Christian? In Church and in conversations, the term “Christian” is used quite regularly to describe many people.
It would be best to define some terms of what is meant when one uses the word “Christian”.
-A nominal Christian being one who lives in a Christian Nation but does not attend church.
-A marginal Christian being one who attends church on Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals.
-A professing Christian being one who professes belief in Jesus Christ, attends Sunday church regularly, Easter, Christmas, funerals, weddings, is a “nice” person, gives to the poor, serves at church, and believes in the Jesus they have been taught and has good feelings… but does not keep God’s law or the Sabbath day.
God provides us an exact definition of what a Christian is.
What is God’s definition of a Christian? A Christian is someone who has been called of God (John 6:44), repented of their sins (Acts 2:38), been baptized by full immersion (Acts 2:38) had the laying on of hands (Acts 8:18) to receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9 and Acts 2:38) to join the body of Christ (I Cor. 10:16-17; 12:12,20,27; Eph. 5:30; Col. 1:18;3:15). This newly begotten “Christian” then goes on to live a life of obedience to God and His laws (Rom. 2:13; 3:31; 6:1-2,15,23;7:12;8:6-9;13:8-10; I Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-23; I John 2:3-6; 3:4, 22; 5:3; Rev. 20:12-15; 21:8;22:14. In the time of the end, Satan goes after those who keep God’s Commandments (Rev. 12:9). We also read, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life…” (Rev.22:14a). God expects His family to keep His laws. See www.coscog7.org one pager on Baptism. Ultimately, we are fully responsible for what we know of God. The Sabbath is the 4th commandment and is the day of the week Christian’s gather to worship God and Jesus our Savior.
What is baptism? “Mark 1:15 tells us to “repent and believe the gospel.” These two conditions are what is expected of the budding young Christian, “repent” and “believe”. Also, Mark 16:15-16 Jesus tells us to “believe and be baptized”.” Jesus said it therefore we must do these things to be a Christian.”
What scriptures back up the given definition of a Christian? I Cor. 7:19; John 15:10; Matt. 19:16-19; I John 3:22-24; John 15:10; 14:15; Rev. 22:14-15; I John 2:3-4; 3:4; Matt. 7:21.
God says to be a Christian we must repent of sin, be baptized by full immersion, have the laying on of hands and then receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to dwell in us. God is also very clear, as Christians, we must keep His Ten Commandments.
What is the mark of a Christian? The apostle John sums up what the mark of a Christian is, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:17 NKJV).
Keep His commandments and testify of Jesus Christ.
