What are the Characteristics of a NT Christian?

[Harry Nevis]

I'd have to have some sort of benchmark to decern who was a true christian and who wasn't.

I'd say believing that Jesus is who He says He is, and striving to live by the teachings of Christ as depicted in the bible. 

I think that's as basic and fundamental as you can get. If someone says they are a Christian but then they say they don't believe that Jesus was the Son of God, I'd say that person's beliefs are not in line with Christian beliefs. If someone says they are Christian but they live a life of greed and hatred, I'd say that person is not living the Christian lifestyle.

But there are people who call themselves christian, but would disagree.  Newton called himself christian, but didn't believe in the divinity of Jesus.  The Prosperity Gospel folks seem pretty greedy to me.

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I'd have to have some sort of benchmark to decern who was a true christian and who wasn't.

That would be the NT. Your inability or unwillingness to refer to it has no bearing.

And christian's inability to agree on their own word of god has the greatest bearing.

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Here's how the Westboro Baptists are like the rest of the Christian schisms:

They themselves pick and choose which Bible strictures and edicts to enforce and which to ignore.  That they cherry pick different scriptures than some other denominations doesn't  confer on those other denominations the right to criticize Westboro for cherry picking scriptures, only for cherry picking the wrong scriptures in their opinion.

And of course, Westboro is just like all those other Christian denominations since they are ignoring so very, very many scriptures, despite a scriptural injunction against that very practice.

And if you think about it, "cherry picking the wrong scriptures" doesn't invalidate those scriptures, it instead indicts those also cherry picking, it absolutely doesn't invalidate those unchosen scriptures!  So declining to rebuke the denominations not selecting the same scriptures as the Westboro folks doesn't absolve them of homophobia, it instead condemns them for heresy/apostasy.

So, all the Christin denominations are 'like' Westboro in that regard, or they "'aren't doing it right" and a similar indictment of Westboro is of course valid since they "aren't doing it right" either.

And I hear more Muslims denouncing radical Islam than christians denouncing Westboro.

[Catholic_Lady]

I don't see my stance on this (as I copied and pasted below) as "No True Scotsman." I see it as a completely reasonable distinction. 

Disowning them as not true Christians is sometimes just a convenient way to make yourself appear cleaner. What does that change for the rest of the world? They're still there calling themselves Christians with plenty of arguments to back them up. They're still a self-proclaimed Christian group acting like dicks and making people dislike Christians. The problem doesn't go away like this.

At least I still see a lot of Christians calling them out for their actions and trying to correct them, so it's not like this is being ignored entirely. That's good.
 

If you don't believe Jesus was the son of God, your beliefs are not in line with Christianity. If you blatantly do the exact opposite of what Jesus Himself teaches us, then you are not living a Christian life.

I agree that believing Jesus was the son of God is a base requirement of Christianity. WBC falls in line with this. If you want to have a debate about what a Christian should act like, you should tell them. Telling me won't change anything at all. I still see two groups calling themselves true Christians and nothing improving because of it.

Again, I'm not saying who is/isn't a true Christian. 

I'm pointing out who is/isn't living by the teachings of Jesus Himself as stated in the Bible. Jesus specifically said that one of the greatest commandants is to "love your neighbor as yourself." He specifically said we should love everyone, even our enemies. If someone is doing/promoting the exact opposite of those things, there is nothing out of line about me pointing out that they are going against the direct teachings of Christ.

[Harry Nevis]

I guess the problem is that a lot of the members here seem to know pretty much only the types of Christian people who are extremely ignorant, deny science, and hate gays (or perhaps those are simply the only ones who stick out in their mind?). I'm not going to deny anyone here that this has been their personal experience with Christian folks, but personally for me, I truly don't see that. For example, only once in my life did I ever talked to a person who said they don't believe in evolution. I have literally only heard that once from one person, lol. I mean, sure, you see and hear about crazy people on TV or whatever, but that's why they are on TV... because they are crazy and not your average person.  

My experience has been that most of us are just completely normal people, who aren't complete morons and who don't hate others for their sexual preference. Especially having been living the military lifestyle for the past 4 years, and being surrounded by a TON of Christians who are totally friendly, intelligent, educated,and normal. So it's hard for me to understand all this talk on the forums about Christians being this and being that. Perhaps a lot of you guys are from the deep south? I've lived in Brazil, Ohio, Florida, and Texas, so I don't know what the culture is like in that part of the country. Maybe therein lies the difference... I dunno.

I also find a number of atheist, who seem to not be able to contemplate a Christianity that is different than what is in their mind.  This may be from experience, or perhaps there are other motivations to why they argue what they do.  It is quite annoying however being expected to defend something that you don't believe, and where not saying.   It seems like often I spend more time trying to get people to let go of there assumptions.  

With that being said, there are a number of different views in Christianity.  I was on a Christian Forum before, and there where some pretty wacky ideas, that where not normally very well supported.  Some of the particularly interesting ones that I found dealt with going back to the Greek, and arguing that the orthodox view was a translation issue.   The problem often being, is that the the Greek Orthodox, didn't hold this view, historically, or contemporarily and it only came about late, mostly from people who had minor education in Koine Greek language.  These differences can originate by coming from a different worldview, sometimes from ignorance or because they just haven't though about it much, and somethings are debatable.   I find these same things occur in atheism too.   The difference being, that individualism  is often championed concerning atheists, yet belittled when in regards to believers.  It's not a consistent principal, and really doesn't have any logical consequence concerning Christianity.   When I am in contact, with someone who disagree's, I ask why.   I normally, I strive to be able to answer that question when asked of me as well.  

By the way, I am one who could say, that I don't believe in evolution,   I could also say I'm skeptical; and that I believe in evolution.   All depends on what you are talking about when you say evolution.  So perhaps you have not met two people.   However my thoughts on evolution are not relevant to my theology.

Christianity seems to be different in a lot of christian's minds.  We're always being told that our interpretation, or what another christian has said, is not really christianity.  Can't blame us.  I was raised RC, BTW.

As far as evolution, why not look up the accepted scientific definition and decide whether you accept it or not?

[Jesster]

Again, I'm not saying who is/isn't a true Christian. 

I'm pointing out who is/isn't living by the teachings of Jesus Himself as stated in the Bible. Jesus specifically said that one of the greatest commandants is to "love your neighbor as yourself." He specifically said we should love everyone, even our enemies. If someone is doing/promoting the exact opposite of those things, there is nothing out of line about me pointing out that they are going against the direct teachings of Christ.

Okay, that's fine. That still changes nothing from a perspective outside of Christianity, though. Telling an atheist how you think a Christian should act doesn't change how other Christians act. All I end up seeing is a wide umbrella of Christianity that involves both good and terrible people. This is partially why religion is meaningless to me. I prefer to judge individuals for their own actions.

[Harry Nevis]

BULLSHIT, your mythological Jesus writers in the NT clearly contradict each other as to OT law applying. You don't get to blame us for something we didn't write.

Your character as the NT writers claimed DID say he came to uphold old OT laws. Stop being intellectually dishonest.

To bad for you that you have absolutely no facts on your side to support your belligerent assertions. And yet you continue to beclown yourself.

And you do, of course.

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That's about as vapid as saying that all opinions are equally valid. It's surprising how many atheists appeal to classical foundationalism when asking "evidence" then appeal to the principles of postmodern critical theory when doing comparative analysis.

Fuck off with your condescending bullshit. You're definitely not in the friendly Christian camp.

How many times is he gonna throw out "postmodern critical analysis"? I know I'M impressed...

[Jesster]

Greta Christina just shared this a couple days ago. It's a bit relevant to this thread.

Note to Christians: When a Christian does something hateful or vile, please don't say they're not Christian. When you insist that only good people with non-hateful opinions can be Christian, you're equating "Christian" with "good." Think about what that sounds like to people who aren't Christian.

Your religion has a lot of ugliness in its history, and a lot more ugliness right now. If you don't like that, talk to your fellow Christians. Don't try to persuade the rest of us that reality isn't real. And if you object to bigotry, don't participate in it. Don't insist that your religion has the key to goodness that everyone else is lacking.

[Neo-Scholastic]

That's about as vapid as saying that all opinions are equally valid. It's surprising how many atheists appeal to classical foundationalism when asking "evidence" then appeal to the principles of postmodern critical theory when doing comparative analysis.

Fuck off with your condescending bullshit. You're definitely not in the friendly Christian camp.

Apparently you consider anyone who dares to call you out on your inconsistency is "unfriendly". You might as well add anti-intellectual to the list or your short-comings.

[Brian37]

To bad for you that you have absolutely no facts on your side to support your belligerent assertions. And yet you continue to beclown yourself.

And you do, of course.

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Fuck off with your condescending bullshit. You're definitely not in the friendly Christian camp.

How many times is he gonna throw out "postmodern critical analysis"? I know I'M impressed...

Isn't he cute the way he calls me a clown while trying to sell a book of magic and superstition? He got us, men magically pop out of dirt, snakes talk, there is such a thing as invisible God goo with no second set of DNA,  and just like you can saw a woman in half, you can kill someone and they magically come back to life.

[Jesster]

Fuck off with your condescending bullshit. You're definitely not in the friendly Christian camp.

Apparently you consider anyone who dares to call you out on your inconsistency is "unfriendly".  You might as well add anti-intellectual to the list or your short-comings.

No. I'm just tired of you always talking down to others and straw-manning them all the time as your two options of debate. Welcome to my ignore list. At least CL seems interested in having a real conversation, so I'll just talk to her instead.

[Neo-Scholastic]

How many times is he gonna throw out "postmodern critical analysis"? I know I'M impressed...

I write at the level to which I am accustomed when having serious intellectual discussions. If that sounds condescending to you and Jesster, you may want to consider that I'm not patronizing you either.