Sorry, no "all of the above" - the choice is for the PRIMARY factor in the definition of being a Christian.

A. The PRIMARY factor in being a Christian is believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He was resurrected from the dead. giving us an opportunity for eternal life.

B. The PRIMARY factor in being a Christian is good works and behaving according to the teachings of Jesus.

Zero: I tried to add a poll, and when I clicked save, it gave me an error message - invalid u.r.i. or some such thing. Can you please construct a poll with these two choices.

OK. Thanks for fixing it.

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I would say B. A is definition of what your belief system is, B is the responsibility that comes with it.

In America, religion is a very personal thing. Some of the original settlers came to America seeking religious freedom. It is a personal choice weather to respond to this thread . Christianity , or Muslim , or Buddhism ,or being Jewish , or any other belief is not open for debate.

Personally I am a Christian and do not hide it . Therefor I believe in Jesus and try everyday to live a good life. It does not however give me the right to judge or speak ill of anyone's beliefs .

There have always been those that carry their beliefs to extremes, violence and oppression are not part of the beliefs of most of the worlds religions. IMO, the worst offenders are being led by forces that delight in War, Ciaos, and Human Suffering . Many of the worst people in this world do not belong to any religion, but they worship Money or Power or something else that they peruse .

Last, I ask that we try to keep Politics and Religion out of this SPORTS FORUM ! :angel11:

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I still hope Zero can fix this and make it into a real poll. Either I'm doing something wrong or my internet won't allow it or something.

Smokey, glad you chimed in. Yes, this is a sports forum, but you should know by now, the other stuff has its place too, and it shouldn't be a problem as long as it stays in its place(s).

I put this poll thing in here because of a discussion I've been having with the Evil One in the Back Alley (no, not Satan, the other Evil One, although it is hard to tell them apart hahahaha). I guess he takes an early 1 - 0 lead, with 1 inconclusive.

I really thought the first choice was indisputable - that a person's belief system is what makes him a Christian or not. The other just kinda says if somebody seems like a good person or not. I say "seems like" because, as was said, we aren't supposed to judge. I've know Jews and Hindus and atheists who seemed like nice people - living pretty much like Jesus said to, but they certainly weren't Christians.

Somebody said something to the effect that we aren't supposed to speak ill of other people's beliefs? A big NO to that idea. Do not judge other people, that is the Biblical command. However, all through the Bible, Old and New Testaments, various other beliefs/religions are referred to as "pagan" or whatever, and God tells His people to avoid them, in the Old Testament, even go to war with them.

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For some annoying reason, there is a limit on the length of characters used in the poll options that is very restricted. So I put Option A and B and left your descriptions.

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Faith alone. I'm a Lutheran fundie, what can I say?

So A.

Christians ought to strive to be good in all things -- that's the second great commandment, after all. It's what Paul (Romans 1:5) called "the obedience that comes from faith." But not even Mother Theresa would be saved did she not have sufficient faith, for weighed against our sin any good works we might do or have done are trivially small.

But I'm sure everyone already knew how I was going to come down on this one.

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So let me get this straight - all you have to do is believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and rose from the dead, and then you get to live the rest of your life being a bigoted jackass and you enter the pearly gates. Sorry Texas, that's not going to fly for you.

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Just believing is not it at all. Satan believes in Jesus also.

And good works won't gain you salvation either.

Accepting Jesus as your personal savior is what it takes to be certain of eternity in heaven.
And so it's clear, saying you accept Him just so you can do what you want to do won't cut it. You can't fool God. He knows whether you mean it or not.

Yes, the Bible says "faith without works is dead". But I came up with an easy way to understand what that really means. It means that if you truely believe, it MAKES you work. If you really believe that people will die and spend eternity in Hell if they don't know Jesus, it will make you want to witness to others.

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That's indeed what makes you a Christian. Didn't you ever go to Sunday School or Confirmation class and study about the "means of Salvation"?

According to the Lutheran, Catholic, and several other mainstream churches, you need to believe in Christ, be born again, and repent of your sins. That is pretty much what the Bible teaches is necessary. The repenting is the hard part.

Long ago when I was teaching Sunday School, I taught that there were 3 distinctly different meanings to the line "Ye must be born again to enter the Kingdom of Heaven". What I learned as a Lutheran was it just meant being baptized; What the Baptist and Church of Christ types believe is that it means a life-changing experience when you accept Christ; What I believe that line means is that you must be resurrected from the dead to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Good works/living a Christ-like life is a characteristic of most real Christians/members of Christian churches/good normal Americans in general. However, gang-boys, Mafia bosses, probably even serial killers, probably even homosexuals all could theoretically become Christians on their deathbed or at some other point in their lives.

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That's true, Texas. We as humans have a hard time accepting that people that have done evil things can in fact get saved.
But the judging is up to God, not man.
If you read the Bible, you can see instances of that very thing, where someone persecuted Christians, even killing them, and then asking Jesus into their hearts.
Sin is sin, and even ONE sin seperates us from God. No one is perfect, or even CAN be perfect while we are on the earth.
There is only one way for salvation, and it's very clear in the Bible what that way is.

I have people try to pick me apart in things I do, just so they can say "YOU call yourself a CHRISTIAN?" Some people purposely look for any fault they can find in you, so that they can feel self righteous.
I say, "Christians arn't perfect, just forgiven."
When I tried to explain that very fact to my brother, he said to me "If you say you KNOW you are saved, then you are saying you think you are BETTER then me!" I told him, I am NO better then you, and I deserve HELL. The only difference between you and me is that I accepted Christ's death on the cross to cover my sins. YOU can have the free gift from God too! All you have to do is accept it for yourself! Then YOU can know you will be in heaven too!
He died at age 43 back in 1994.
I don't know if he ever took what I said to heart or not.
I hope he did. It hurts me to think otherwise.

Also, I believe baptism is an outward sign to the world that you have died to self, been buried (that's where the dunking under water comes in) and been reborn as a new creature in Christ.
I don't believe it is necessary for salvation, but should be done in obedience to God.
I mean, if someone accepted Jesus, and didn't have a chance to get baptised before they died, I don't believe God would not accept that person into heaven because of it.
Not getting baptised on purpose might make you have to answer as to why you didn;t do it when you are face to face with God.
We are to do it as an act of obedience. That's one of the "store your treasures in Heaven" things. Doing what God tells you to do when He tells you to do it. I believe you will get you crowns for doing the things you are supposed to do when He tells you to, and will have to answer for the things you did not do.

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