What makes someone a Christian?

[Wry Catcher]

Faith in Jesus Christ as the son of God and entering into a covenant with Him to be His disciple.

This is the essence of being a Christian. Everything else is beyond this.

"Everything else is beyond this"? What does that mean?

 

[Ringel05]

Faith in Jesus Christ as the son of God and entering into a covenant with Him to be His disciple.

This is the essence of being a Christian. Everything else is beyond this.

"Everything else is beyond this"? What does that mean?

Simple. You asked what it was to be a Christian. What Avatar posted is the essence, the one and only key to describing a Christian. All other "add ons" are exactly that, add ons.

 

[Wry Catcher]

"Faith in Jesus Christ as the son of God and entering into a covenant with Him to be His disciple." is the essence of being a Christain?
So, what is the "everything else"?
Do you think Jerry Falwell was a Christain, or Pat Robertson, or Terry Jones? I don't.
Was George W. Bush? Seems sending high explosives into a residential area to kill the sons of a leader you don't like is a bit extreme. Is that part of "everything else" a Christian does.
Or as suggested earlier on this thread, is that behavior 'forgiven' if the actor (GWB) really really repents for killing innocent bystanders even though by doing the act he knew such a possibility was likely? So the answer to the essay queston was Yes, the End really justified by the means.
None of those named actually acted in the (simple) manner suggested. Did Bush really want someone to use high explosives on his home if (for example) the local police cheif believed a wanted felon might be living in his crawl space?
Maybe the Golden Rule isn't so 'simple' afterall. Maybe rather than believe God exisits or that a virgin delivered HIS only son or that some Ghost hangs around to form a Holy Trinity, maybe the essensce of Christianity is love thy neighbor. If that's the case the current crop of RW conservatives fail miserably. Don't ya think?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

I actually do remember the concept of "Original Sin" and recall thinking how can I be a sinner when I didn't do anything bad. I recall the Nun telling us that without Baptism a child would be destined to purgatory and never admitted into the Heaven. I remember thinking, "how does she know" and "that ain't fair".
Both simple observations, but observations none the less which lead to my conversion to Agnosticism.
If I believed my sins might be expunged by a supreme being might I act differently? My answer is I would not; I suspect many who claim to be "Christian" do so because it's the "in" thing in many parts of our country and some because they believe "confession" and being "born again" expunges past evil deeds.
None of us can know what happens at death, if a soul actually exists, or if there is a heaven and a hell. What we can know is that the good we do while living lasts, as does the evil, in the hearts and minds of those left behind.

Catholics, in general, are the least likely to understand the concept of original sin. I often find that ironic when I consider that they also have no trouble telling me that I have an advantage over other people simply because my skin is a different color.

I do not like the term original sin, I think the term Adam's sin is more accurate. This did not make you a sinner, you manage to do that all by yourself. When Adam sinned he was cast out of the garden, and removed from the presence of God. He lost the ability to perceive the higher dimensions that is often called the spirit world.

As he was the father of mankind, we all also lost this ability. That is actually a rather simplistic explanation, because God actually cut us of from the higher dimensions. This is something he did as a consequence of Adam's sin, and we all reap from that harvest when we continue to sin. God is able to lift that barrier at any time, and has done so in some circumstances. (2 King 6:16)

I love the way you take what I say and twist it into something else. Your sins were not expunged by God, Adam's sin was paid for by Jesus. This action allows God to treat us as individuals, and not as a collective. If you look at Adam's sin as something that affected God, and not us, you might be able to understand that we are not guilty of anything just because someone else did something. That is why Jesus chose to die for sin, so that God would be free to reveal Himself to those that choose to look for Him.

I do not claim to know what is going to happen when I die, or when you die. The Catholic concept of Hell is not supported by Scripture, so I am not going to tell anyone they are headed for a place I do not believe exists. I am also pretty sure that heaven is not a place where God sits around on clouds and signs laws passed by an angelic Congress. I do not believe that Christians end up there when they die any more than I believe that Muslims end up in Hell.

By the way, souls do exist. Souls are us, and we all exist, until we stop breathing anyway.

Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen 2:7 JPS)