How do we know that we're Christians?

[*Light*]

Greetings!

How do we know that we're Christians? What defines a Christian?

Well, the biblical answer would be two fold: 1) *knowledge, *belief (or assent), and *trust in Jesus Christ.

1. Knowledge in that one intellectually apprehends the essential facts of who Christ is--namely, that He is God in the flesh (sent by the God the Father) that He really died and *physically* raised from the grave, and born of a virgin (also including the facts of the Tri-unity of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit sharing the nature of the ONE God, i.e., one God co-existing as three eternal, equal, "distinct" persons).

2. Belief (or assent) in those facts.

3. Trust in that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.

The word believe as in for example, John 6:47 (as well as 3:16; 5:24; 1 John 5:11-12; etc.), is from the Greek word pisteuon. This word translated "believes" or "believe" is really a present active participle. A present active participle in Greek denotes a continuous action of the verb. For example the participle of "run" is running. Basically, you can make an English word a present participle by adding "ing" to a verb (swim = swimming, walk =walking, etc.). It shows the real active "on-going" faith of a real Christian; a faith that was the result of regeneration. Scripture knows of no one that has faith for a little while then loses his or her faith or stops believing (note: "believe" and "faith" comes from the same Greek word: "pistis"). Further, the term (pistis) does not only mean "knowledge" or only "belief" (for even demons believe), but rather in Greek all three components: knowledge, assent, and trust is the meaning of the term. So, first, if one is a true Christian he or she will have knowledge, belief (assent), and trust in the true Christ of biblical revelation (John 8:24; 17:3).

Second (recalling above, I said two-fold), a true faith will be an active faith. In other words, a true faith (as the apostle James points out), a true faith is demonstrated by works (also for example Gal. 5 speaks of the fruits the Spirit). Thus, how does one know that he or she is a true Christian?: doctrine and love (i.e., a true faith will be demonstrated by works). We are saved by faith ALONE, but that faith is not alone. God Bless!

In Christ,
Daniel

[Pastorj]

Moved thread to proper forum

[Faithful1]

John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

[Jerry]

John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples' date=' if ye have love one to another.[/quote']

The thread title is how do WE know, not how does the rest of the world know. We know we are saved based on what we did we Jesus and His finished work, whether we love the Word of God, how we deal with our brethren in Christ, and whether we are obeying what God has said. These are some of the criteria that 1 John gives us to gauge ourselves.

[Guest Guest]

Interesting topic and I?m sure it's one that could go many directions, So, let me see?. How do we know that we're Christians? It is probably relative thing to most people, since each may have their own belief on what defines a Christian based on their own interpretations of what God has revealed in Sacred Scripture. Of course, this leads to the subject of what interpretations are the true interpretations and that is not the topic at hand.

Omega started this topic off by doing a great job of declaring what it means to be a Christian per his beliefs. :thumb I may differ on the ?saved by faith ALONE? part of the post, but I wholeheartedly agree that it comes down to knowledge of Christ & His teachings, belief that they are true & trust that He means what He says.

[Kenny5682]

How do we know that we are Chrisitans? We examine ourselves in light of scripture to see if we are in the faith. (2nd Corinthians 13:5)