Not a true Christian: Debate Christianity and Religion's role in Politics

I repeatedly asked you simply to define your terms. You wouldn't and still won't define "Christian". Asking you to define a term is not an unreasonable request but getting you to define "Christian" is as difficult as getting a right-wing troll to define "woke".

 

I thought you already knew I’m not an inerrantist.

Just to be clear, I’m not an inerrantist.

Is it OK if I ask you incessantly if you agree with Milo Yannopoulis or whatever his name is? Ali Alexander? Double standards are a KIND of standard.

 

I’m underwhelmed by your sincerity here lol

 

He just has Nicea on the brain and can't imagine the world before the Council of Nicea.

 

But that's kind of the point, isn't it? You say another group of Christians aren't "True Christians" (TM) because they believe the wrong things, but here you are going against traditional beliefs as expressed in early Christian creeds and contrary to the understanding of God that Christianity was founded on. Phrases like "God the Father" do very clearly attribute a gender to God consistent with the gender used for God in biblical Israel, among the pre-Babylonian captivity Hebrews, etc.

You are willing to assert that other people aren't "True Christians" (TM) because they don't believe like you do, but you also don't believe like the early Christians did.

 

There's an Emo Phillips joke lurking somewhere in this discussion on "True" Christianity.

 

So, Christians?

 

From my understanding, Mormons believe that Jesus is the Son of God, born both fully man and fully God in the same person.

Regardless, as mentioned earlier, Jesus makes it clear that it is not what you believe, but what you do that matters - that is the supposed basis of his advocacy. I strongly encourage the Christians here to take two sheets of paper and do what I described earlier. I found it quite enlightening as a gay man who was a devout Christian, especially when contrasted with how "True Christians" (TM) treated me.

 

If Christ is not the important part, why call it Christianity? Why not "Jehovism" or something like that?

 

Peter/Paulism?

 

Now you're just throwing up a Hail Mary!

 

It was the moment the Trianists expelled the Arinists or the socalled nontrinitarians.

 

1. They don’t believe the same thing as me on core aspects of the faith. I dont say that Catholics, with their beliefs on purgatory and saints and Mary, aren’t Christian. I don’t say Presbyterians with their beliefs on the elect aren’t Christian. Those aren’t core aspects. The nature of God is a core belief.
2. As far as what early Christians believed, I read this book

https://www.amazon.com/How-Jesus-Be...1757981030&sprefix=BART+ehrman,aps,138&sr=8-2

among others, and you’re wrong.

 

MORE THAN the teachings of Christ. I don’t know how to make it any simpler. It’s all written down in a certain book which is pretty famous.

 

You're not making it simpler, you're making it complicated...

 

If you read the book I mentioned above (and others too, but that’s the one with the link on this page) the earliest Christians were far from unanimous on the idea that Jesus was born God. In particular, Christians living in places that became Muslim typically didn’t believe that.

There is a strong scriptural argument that Jesus only became divine at his baptism. I was a lot less persuaded that Jesus became divine at the crucifixion.

The “Jesus was born this way” issue was related to a key argument at Nicea, the “one iota” argument. Roughly speaking, the crescent of Christendom (band name!) from Greece eastward down to Egypt was quite different from “Western” Christendom, and Western Christendom won the argument.

 

“Follow this guy’s wise sayings” is philosophy. To be a religion it has to be more than that.

 

Philosophy is more about asking questions than following already given answers.

 

You mean questions like, should devout Jews pay the temple tax? How many times should you forgive your neighbor? Questions like that?

Y’all should read the Gospels at least…they’re not that long.

 

According to your religion, that is... I don't subscribe to it, I think, as Ringo says.

 

I read them. I didn't see anything about any necessity of believing in the Trinity.

 

John 6:44 for starters

 

Matthew 14:33