At 09:04 AM 1/23/2007 -0500, Ed Leafe wrote: > I'm confused now. First you claim that what is observed in a >person's actions are the defining criterion for determining if >someone is a Christian or not. Then you go on to say that actions are >meaningless; what counts is what someone believes, whether or not >that belief actually results in the outpouring you describe.
Ok. I'll try again. If someone needs to make a judgement on someone else, about the best you can do is look at their actions. But that judgement may or may not be correct. Is that hard to understand? I think I was clear in stating my opinion that being a Christian depends on the individual's heart. Because of that, I could not with 100% certainty say Hitler was not a Christian. All I can say is his actions do not conform to Christianity. If I'm asked to make a judgement on anyone else, I'd have to put the same caveat on that as well. Whatever I say about someone else makes absolutely no difference as to whether or not the person is a Christian or not. Being a Christian is between the person and God. How they behave does affect others and could well harm/help their witness for God. And those actions are what gets judged by others. But when a some evil act is performed, and someone says, "Yeah, that guy is a Christian." I believe it is appropriate to point out that the act is not in agreement with Christianity. > By your first definition, I'm a Christian, because I happen to > agree >with the relevant portions of Christ's message and try to act >accordingly, but by the second I'm most definitely not. I suppose >that I should be rooting for the second, huh? ;-) Nope. By my definition you are not a Christian because you refuse to accept God's Grace into your heart. You flat out reject there is a God at all (IIRC). Of course, these are my assumptions based on past dialogs and I could be wrong. You do good works, help others, etc. That makes you a 'good person' IMO. And, in fact, if I met you on the street and saw what you do for others and actually heard you refer to Christ in a positive light, I may indeed say I think you are a Christian if I were asked. But then if I'd have seen your other statements about being an atheist, etc, I'd have to say at that point you were not a Christian. And actually, I think you'd want to be rooting for the "good works" path if you're hoping to somehow do enough good to be eternally rewarded. But, as per my earlier messages, that is not what Christianity teaches. You might be closer to Buddism/Hinduism in that regard. ;-) -Charlie _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
