(August 8, 2018 at 3:15 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(August 8, 2018 at 1:47 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: How are you defining what a Christian is? Are Mormons Christians? What is the litmus test, and more importantly, why is that the litmus test?
A litmus test would imply a clear line designating a difference of kind. Personally, the issue is this. Out of all the doctrinal differences which churches share the most doctrines and which reject most of the commonly held ones. Mormons and JW are Christians but in my opinion share far fewer doctrines with other Christians than say RC, Orthodox, and Protestant churches. Quakers also seem to be further out on the bell curve, but clearly not as far out as Mormons. Nearly all the gnostics, such as the Cathars, were branded heretics but IMO they still fall within the Christian community. I guess what I am saying is that one can be a Christian even if other denominations consider your type of Christianity heretical. But those are just my opinions. Jack Chick clearly disagrees.
I think there is a clear litmus test in the NT itself: Salvation. List of pertinent verses here. It is not just a belief it is an actual step you have to take. I'll allow that it can be a process. Still, it is an intentional act. The devil has no false beliefs about Jesus or the events that happened. Obviously that cannot be the threshold for being called a Christian. The NT clearly and repeatedly says living an upright life alone will land you in Hell. If you don't use the more restrictive, clearly articulated NT definition, you will end with billions of "Christians" in Hell. What kind of sense does that make?
By extension, if a group does not teach the requirement of an intentional act of the will as outlined in those verses, it is not a Christian church.
