This morning on Facebook a person asked what makes someone a Christian. Were there some non-negotiable set of doctrines someone must believe in order to be called a Christian. This was my reply.

I don’t know if you can “define” what makes one a Christian any more than you can “define” God. Yesterday I posted that putting God in a bigger box is still putting him in a box. I used to believe there were “non-negotiables” when it came to doctrine. My list kept getting smaller and smaller. I think you obviously have to believe that “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Hebrew 11:6. This kind of covers it for me. I might add that you need to believe that your sin is forgiven, that God is approachable (covered in that scripture), that fear and death is defeated. But those things all can extrapolate and blow up into huge variances. People might get upset that I didn’t mention the cross or Jesus. Jesus is God so that is covered in the Hebrews verse. The cross? Without the cross sin is not forgiven so that is covered. All the rest are details of how and why. Do I believe that a person in the bush-bush of Africa who never met a white man can be saved? Yes. If they do instinctively the things Jesus spoke of, love God, love you neighbor as yourself. All the sin of all mankind was forgiven at the cross. Does ALL really mean ALL? In Greek, all means all. All people who ever lived are forgiven. Asking is not necessary. No more that is was necessary for you to ask to be born. Not all are saved. I’m probably using definitions of these words that many would not be used to. But that will wait for another post.