Which religions are Christian?

[Khristeeanos]

8. The salvation of man is wholly a work of God's free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His sight.

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The only place in the entire Bible that says "faith alone" is where it says we aren't justified (or saved) by faith alone.

[Ovedya]

The only place in the entire Bible that says "faith alone" is where it says we aren't justified (or saved) by faith alone.

Romans 3:28 - Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 

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Justification is not the same thing as salvation. Do not be confused. Our justification is solely based upon God's acceptance of Christ's unblemished sacrifice. Therefore, it is correctly stated that justification is the basis of our salvation, but it is not the essential factor of our salvation.

[Khristeeanos]

Justification is not the same thing as salvation. Do not be confused. Our justification is solely based upon God's acceptance of Christ's unblemished sacrifice. Therefore, it is correctly stated that justification is the basis of our salvation, but it is not the essential factor of our salvation.

That's a whole other thread.

All I know is that all Christians should be doing something for the Lord.

It is an improper response to ignore our responsibility.

[Ovedya]

Agreed, and agreed.

I guess I forgot one item on my list, eh? "Faith vs. works"

[his-servant-too]

Moderator Please close this topic.. It seems to have been blown off course. and I can't see any way to navagate it back

[nebula]

OK OK OK Hold on a min. Let me rephrase

Which denominations are Christian which are not?

Edited April 8, 2005 by nebula

[nebula]

Seriously. This topic is dangerously geared toward prideful denomination bashing.

Which is probably why everyone else answered as they did!

Christianity is centered on the question, "Who is Jesus?"

Be warry of the ones who screw that one up.

All others - not much to worry about! (Unless they advocate sin, which is another story. . . .)

[Ovedya]

His-Servant-Too,

As you can see there really is no definitive answer to your question. At least not in the way that you asked it. I think that you were really asking a couple of questions, without being aware of it. You were asking which religions are not Christian, when you really meant to ask which of those who call themselves Christian are really not. And that question should really be answered in light of what should be considered to be the essentials of the faith. I pointed out some essentials, and a couple of other posters have as well.

The fact of the matter is that since the inception of the church over 2,000 years ago their have been people and groups that have called themselves "Christian" but who have deviated from the essentials of the faith, as taught by the apostles. And in fact, those that have deviated from the faith have been adherents of only a relative few heresies, believe it or not. All the heresies have one factor in common. That is, they deviate from the pure faith taught by the apostles in one way or another. Whether it is the denial of Christ's absolute divinity on one hand, or it is the denial of His perfect humanity on the other. Truly king Solomon's words were never truer - there really is nothing new under the sun.

The Jehovah's Witnesses are the largest adherents of the Arian heresy today, followed by a group known as the Iglesia Ni Cristo in the Philippines. The Arian heresy denies the divinity of Christ, and relegates Him to the position of a perfect man only.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints is the largest adherent of several heresies, in fact. Like most false groups they deny the revelation of the Trinity in the Bible. But not only so, they are stout tritheists, holding Jesus as a separate and minor god from the Father. It has been said that the Mormons are the largest adherents of the Gnostic heresy today. I tend to agree with this assessment.

Common among these two groups is that they both have their own translations of the Scriptures. The Jehovah's Witnesses have "The New World Translation" of the Scriptures, and the Mormons have "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" as they call refer to to "The Book of Mormon." The difference between the two is that the JW's just have a poor and slanted translation, whereas the Mormons have an entire set of additional writings which they regard as being equal to the Holy Scriptures.

Now, there is really nothing at all wrong with translating the Scriptures for accuracy and ease of reading. However, the JW's "New World Translation" is an obvious attempt at skewing the Scriptures to support their heretical teachings concerning Christ. So the mark of this particular sect is not that they have their own translation, but that the translation is intentionally slanted to support their erroroneous teachings.

What I perceived to be your second question was "Which denominations have strayed from the truth?" Well, the fact of the matter, if you examine Christendom as a whole, is that all of the Christian denominations have strayed from the truth in one aspect or another. So, again, it's not a simple matter of composing a list. One could probably spend days, weeks, or months going through each of the denominations' doctrines, practices, etc. trying to find where they have deviated from the faith in one aspect or another. And, in fact, some people have done that.

But in my opinion it truly is a sad thing when a person or a group of persons dedicate a significant portion of their time, energy, and livelihoods trying to expose the errors of other Christian groups. Some have gone so far as to label entire sections of Christianity as heretics, saying that they are unsaved or have lost their salvation due to a particular doctrine or practice.

Certainly it is not wrong to speak the truth in love, to point out an error when you see it. But it is another matter entirely when one is so absorbed in criticizing other's that he actually believes that this is a ministry of the Lord!

Therefore, I would encourage you, do not be so concerned with who is doing what, and why. Be more concerned with your personal faith. The Bible exhorts us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Don't worry about the salvation of other believers. Let the Lord worry about that. Take care of preaching the gospel and feeding new believers on Christ. Eventually the Lord will head up every situation in the world, and He will shine where the darkness needs to be exposed. Just take heed to yourself, that the Lord's shining in you will be a glory to Him and not an exposure.

Much Grace,

~O

[seraph]

Well said, Ovedya

[his-servant-too]

As you can see there really is no definitive answer to your question

Which is why I ask for this topic to be closed. Not only has it been reopened but a few of the replys have been removed. So again In ask that this topic be closed.

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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

Chinese Proverb