WHAT is a "CHRISTIAN" ?

How does one get to be a Christian?
Who says YOU are a "Christian"?
Who-on-earth decides whether you are "qualified" to be a "Christian"?
Does any human in this world.... or any church-of-humans... decide whether or not you have been "accepted", by God, as a "Christian"?

A tablet from the on-going INTERNET BOOK, "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets"
( http://www.terrific-tabs.com )
by John N. Todd III, M. D. (link)

The web-link to this "tablet" is: http://www.terrific-tabs.com/print_christian.htm
To send a "live" link to a friend, copy and paste this web-link in an email message.

9/00; 5/01; 9/01; 11/01; 2/02; 4/02; 7/02; 8/02; 10/02; 1/03; 4/03; 6/03; 8/03; 10/03; 12/03; 1/04; 1/04; 2/04; 3/04; 4/04; 5/04; 6/04; 7/04; 11/04; 1/05; 3/05; 8/05; 9/05; 11/05' 12/13/06

This "tablet" interrelates closely with: God's People (link);
AND: CHOSEN by God (link);
AND: "CHRIST makes a Christian a Christian" (link);
AND: CHILDREN of God; BROTHERS of Jesus (link);
AND: FAITH, Belief, and Believers (link).


CLICK HERE to go to the "FRONT PAGE" of "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets"
CLICK HERE for ALPHABETICAL INDEX of this entire WEBSITE
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Romans 8: 29 (NEB) For God knew His own, before ever they were.... and also ordained that they should be shaped to the likeness of His Son.... that He (Jesus) might be the eldest among a large family of BROTHERS....

John 12: 44 (NRSV) Then Jesus cried aloud: "Whoever believes in me, believes NOT in me; but in Him who sent me. 45 And, whoever sees me, sees HIM who sent me.

2 Corinthians 1: 21 (NEB) "And if you and we belong to Christ, guaranteed as His, and anointed, it is ALL God's doing. It is God, also, who has set His seal upon us; and, as a pledge of what is to come, has given the Spirit to dwell in our heart."

James 4: 12 (NRSV) There is one Lawgiver and Judge -- who is able to save, and to destroy. So then.... who are you to judge your neighbor?

John 8: 42 (NIV) Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now am here.... 47 He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not BELONG TO GOD. If God were your Father.... you would listen."


And see numerous other Biblical references, quoted below.



What is a "Christian", and how do you get to be one? What is the process? What do you have to "do" to become approved and "accepted", by God -- and how do you find out, and know for sure, that you are "included" among God's People (link)? When do you discover whether or not you have truly "made-the-grade"?

Do you "write your own ticket"; that is, can you call yourself a "Christian", and thus cause yourself to become a "Christian"? Or.... is it up to some other human-being, or a group of humans (like a "church").... to decide whether or not God considers you to be "qualified" or acceptable to be a Christian "Godsperson"?

(As you read this, answer the questions that are proposed; and try to state what you yourself really believe -- not what someone else tells you. Answer for yourself -- instead of reciting someone else's "doctrinal" interpretation. Try to omit frozen religious sectarian claims.... and "superstition".)

Consider these questions: Is the way to become a "Christian" a matter of opinion.... and, if so, whose opinion? Who makes the rules about who is a "Christian", and about how one gets to be a Christian? IF it is "the church" that decides, then which "denomination" has been given this authority; and by whom was that "denomination" assigned the authority? Is it left up to "special" human-beings to decide who is, and who is not, a "good Christian"? Could it be that certain preachers decide, or perhaps special priests, or "the bishop", or a rabbi, or maybe the pope? OR -- is it God, only, who decides about your being a "Christian" Godsperson.... unrelated to any human's opinion -- even your own opinion about yourself?

These may sound like impertinent questions, to you. Perhaps you are superstitious about your "religion"; and maybe you are afraid to challenge the doctrinal tenets that you have professed. Maybe you think it is "wrong" or "sacrilegious" even to ask questions. But, what would your answers be to these questions? And, what would be the answers of your own "church"; and the answers of your "denomination"? Would your answers be the same as those of other individuals -- or other "churches"?

Here are additional rhetorical-but-pertinent questions for you to answer about "becoming" a Christian:

Can one be born a "Christian" -- because his or her parents claim to be Christians, or because the parents "belong" to a Christian church?

Can one simply state, "I am a Christian"; and, by so saying, become a Christian? What about "false confessions", and "feigned faith", and "pretend" claims of "conversion"? What human-being can verify the veracity of a "profession of faith". Who, other than God, can say that an individual has been approved by God -- as a "Christian"?

Can one become a "Christian" by attending a church, or by being "baptized", or by donating 10% of his income to a church? Can one live a "clean life", and serve food in the "soup kitchen", and visit the sick -- and thereby make himself into a "Christian"? Can one say a prayer every morning, and read the Bible every night..... and so get to be a "Christian"?

Does God wait for a person to be "accepted" by a church, before God Himself will include that person as one of His own "children"? Contrariwise, can a church or a minister, or even a pope -- by human decision -- declare a person to be "un-Christian", and so cause that person to lose the favor of our Sovereign God?

Certain denominational churches would have potential members to believe that it is a simple matter to "become a Christian". These churches would say that all one has to do, is to come down to the front of their church, publicly repeat a simple creed, be sprinkled or "dunked", say "Lord, Lord" -- and so receive the entire Kingdom of God (link). The "new member" would then be led to believe that he had just been magically "converted", and that he had been instantaneously transformed, and molded into a "Christian".... and thus "entitled" to all the eternal "benefits" of being a Christian. (Does God approve this means of generating "Christians"?)

There are still other questions: Is it enough to pretend to understand, and to pretend "belief"? Is it possible to "fake" it? Can someone "fool" God? Can one simply state, "I believe"; and by so saying, change mysteriously, and become a true "Christian"; and hence one of God's "chosen" (accepted) people? If an individual says, "O.K., I accept", does that statement cause that individual to become a child of God -- a "Christian" -- and so to be included among those whom God accepts as His own?

So, tell me -- how does one come to genuinely "believe", and know, and understand; and to "accept" the truth about God? In other words, how does one become "awake" to the message of God -- from God -- and so become a "Christian" Godsperson? To whom does God's Spirit "make sense"..... and what causes "God's message" to be recognized?



My understanding is this: "Christians" are those individuals who have been selected and prepared and awakened by God.... to BE "Christians". Christians awaken to God, and begin to "see and hear" and understand God -- at a time specified by God -- and by God only. An individual may be led to become a Christian "Godsperson" through the message of the Gospel of God (link), as preached and taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ.... God Incarnate. (See this important link to the "Gospel of God".)

A "Christian" does not become a Christian because of anything he does, or because of the power of some "church"; or because of the begging and pleading of a preacher or priest; or because of a "sacrifice"; or because of the recitation of a creed; or because of a statement or claim of "commitment" -- or for any other reason except the "awakening" and "call" and approval and choice of Almighty God.

Churches, and preachers, and families, and friends may be a part of God's process of preparing and bringing an individual to the truth of God -- but it is God, alone, who decides who will be one of His own -- a Christian "Godsperson"..... and when that individual will be "accepted" and included.

Those individuals who are claimed by God are irresistibly and irrevocably and eternally God's people.... God's children (linked).... God's "Christians".


Read the following scriptures out loud -- so that you can see and hear the words of God:

Ephesians 2: 8-10 (NRSV) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is NOT your own doing; it is the gift of God -- 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for the good works -- which God prepared beforehand -- to be our way of life.

John 1: 10 (NASV) "(God) gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in His name -- to those who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.... but BORN of GOD."

John 3: 6 (NRSV) Jesus speaking: What is born of the flesh, is flesh; and what is born of the Spirit, is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above."

John 6: 39 (NIV) Jesus speaking: This is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has GIVEN me.... 44 NO ONE can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.".... 65 He (Jesus) went on to say, "This is why I told you that NO ONE can come to me, unless the Father has ENABLED him."

Romans 8: 29 (KJV) For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many BRETHREN. 30 Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us.... who can be against us?

Same (NEB) 29 For God knew His own, before ever they were.... and also ordained that they should be shaped to the likeness of His Son.... that He (Jesus) might be the eldest among a large family of BROTHERS....

John 12: 44 (NRSV) Then Jesus cried aloud: "Whoever believes in me, believes NOT IN ME, but in HIM who sent me. 45 And, whoever SEES ME.... sees HIM who sent me.

Mark 9: 37 (Jesus speaking): "Whoever receives me, receives NOT me, but the ONE who sent me."

Romans 9: 14 (NIV) What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16 It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.... 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy -- and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

Romans 9: 8 (NASV) says: "It is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise who are regarded as descendants."

There are self-proclaimed "Christians" who want to "claim" God, and to "try God".... and to pretend faith; as if to open an imaginary "umbrella" of God, in order to be protected by God.... "just in case" there is really something real and true about God, and God-Incarnate. But.... God knows those who are truly His own -- those who have been "accepted" (approved, chosen) by Him.

Claiming to be a "Christian" just doesn't make it so. No "church" can cause an individual to be "saved"; or to become "righteous" or "justified".... in the sight of God.... OR, to be made acceptable to God. No priest or minister can choose or "elect" -- for God -- and declare that an individual is (or is not) a "Christian". Churches and preachers may teach about Jesus, and about Christianity, and about the Bible, and about the promises of God for God's people.... but only God makes the choice that really matters.... and God's choice is determined by Him alone, for His own reasons (which we humans do not necessarily know and understand).

My understanding is a follows: God's people, "true" Christians, feel the "indwelling" Spirit of God, and know that they are "Christians". Christians become aware of their "Christianity" when they sense the "indwelling" presence of God, and when they begin to understand the "language" of God, and the language of the Bible; and when their "belief" in God becomes heartfelt faith; and when their "faith" progresses.... and evolves into an abiding TRUST in God (link).

Now "hear" more of the words of God. Read these out loud, so that you may hear what God is saying. Some of these are repeated, from above.
John 8: 42 (NIV) Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now am here.... 47 He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. If God were your Father, you would listen."

Same (NRSV) 47 Jesus speaking: "Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God."

John 8: 43 (NEB) Jesus speaking: "Why do you not understand my language? It is because my revelation is beyond your grasp."

John 10: 26 (NRSV) Jesus speaking: "You do not believe, because you do not belong to MY SHEEP (see link). 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them; and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand."

Same (NASV) 27 .... But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them.... and they follow me.

Matthew 15: 7 (NRSV) Jesus speaking: You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said (quoting Isaiah 29: 13), 8 "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines".... 13 He (Jesus) answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted, will be uprooted."

Luke 16: 15 (NRSV) So He (Jesus) said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others -- but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings, is an abomination in the sight of God.

Interesting fact: there are only 2 references to the word "Christian", in the Bible. Here, from NRSV, are those two references:

Acts 26: 28 (NRSV) Agrippa said to Paul, "Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?"

1 Peter 4: 16 (NRSV) Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace.... but glorify God because you bear this name.


Summary point: We human-beings.... regardless of our "position" in (or out) of the "organized church".... are not designated by God to decide for God who is "qualified", and who is not qualified, to be a "Christian" Godsperson. The entire "process" is in God's hands, and is unrelated to the opinion of any human creature.... even our own appraisal of ourselves.

12/13/06