XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: bbwebpage+usenet@gmail.com   
      
   darylgene@aol.com (darylgene@aol.com) wrote:   
      
   > What would you say it means to be a Christian? If it really   
   > doesn't mean anything other than a person "calls" themselves one,   
   > I suppose you are correct in questioning my position. To me, at   
   > least adherence to the first two creeds, however broadly viewed,   
   > provides the delineation. I am curious where you would draw the   
   > line, somewhere the beliefs become so different that they   
   > constitute a wholly different belief system. (no I do not consider   
   > Unitarians, Mormans and several other groups that call themselves   
   > "Christian" to be. if that is parochial, so be it, I suppose I am   
   > parochial then)   
      
   Part of the problem is that people think it's an insult if you say   
   that this group or that person is "not Christian." Lewis addresses   
   this when he talks about how "Christian" has become a value judgment   
   rather than an objective label.   
      
   But things do get complicated when different groups claim the label   
   and yet differ on what the objective standard is. I guess we just   
   have to live with that and be clear about what we mean. So we say for   
   example that Mormons are not Christian and hope that we won't have to   
   deal with responses that act as though we've called them axe-   
   murderers or have denied that they would call themselves Christians.   
      
   Of course, as I see it, a Christian is "really" someone who is   
   indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. But we cannot discern that   
   infallibly. So we use the secondary definition, namely that a   
   Christian is one who is a member of the visible church. And then we   
   explain how we believe the visible church is to be defined and   
   recognized.   
      
   --   
   Bill Baldwin   
   http://bettercovenant.wordpress.com/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)