The Questioning Christian

Who Can Claim to be a Christian

Written by

D. C. Toedt III

in

,

Some people claim that to be a Christian, one must (for example):

  • have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; or
  • invite Jesus into your life; or
  • accept the supremacy of Scripture; or
  • subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion; or
  • be baptized by immersion, as opposed to by sprinkling;
  • etc., etc.

The folks who claim these things are almost always well-intentioned, God-fearing people. But I’m perplexed why they think they get to define who may claim the title of Christian.

* * *

In the Episcopal Church, the definition of Christian is very simple: It’s anyone who professes the Apostles’ Creed, commits to the baptismal covenant, and is baptized. Period.

Personally I like the definition implicit in the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-37): A Christian is someone who loves the One God with his (or her) whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and his neighbor as himself — even though none of us ever completely measures up to that standard.

Comments

2 responses to “Who Can Claim to be a Christian”

  1. Porter Barber Avatar
    Porter Barber

    I think the whole issue requires a little more consideration. However I can’t help noting that if ECUSA’s standard is profession of the Apostles Creed, then that disbars a lot of priests and bishops. Just to take the most prominent example, I could name John Spong. But there are many others who, if they ever recite the creed, must do it with their fingers crossed.
    And then there is the problem of the public, liturgical recitation of the Nicene Creed; shouldn’t we expect that if church leaders are going to recite it, they should mean and belief it?
    Thanks for your time
    Christ be with you,
    Porter Barber

    Reply
  2. DCT Avatar
    DCT

    In our corporate worship there’s no reason why we can’t continue to use creedal terminology as figures of speech. After all, in our everyday parlance, we still use terms like “sunrise” and “sunset.”

    Reply

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