Personal Journey

Personal Journey

Introduction

This paper has been written from a Christian perspective.

I'll start with my usual, because Crunchy Con had a blog post on it today and it's a topic that intrigues me…am I a Christian, and more broadly, what defines a Christian?

Crunchy con's post was about our president elect and statements he had made, in particular:

Quote from Barack Obama: “Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he's also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.

And he's also a wonderful teacher. I think it's important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.”

And Crunchy con's reaction:

“Unless Obama was being incredibly and uncharacteristically inarticulate, this is heterodox. You cannot be a Christian in any meaningful sense and deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. You just can't.”

This is my same dilemma of course and normally I would have agreed with the philosophy that someone who does not believe in the divine nature of Jesus, does not believe in the trinity and does not believe that Jesus is the son of god was by definition not a Christian. Hmmmm, does that mean that the early Christians were indeed not Christian? Many of them did not believe what I've stated here. Is a Christian defined by what the majority of the religions called Christian believe about one person (that would be Jesus)? An obvious answer is yes, of course. And by that definition I'm happy to admit I'm not a Christian. But, I do hope that Jesus was the son of God, I do hope that He sacrificed his only son so that our sins could be forgiven. It would be an amazing, loving truth - but I can't say that I know for sure. I can't say the all the creeds and memorization stuff because I actually want to believe it and won't say it until I'm sure. Does Christianity reject me as one of it's own? It's okay if they do, I'm just asking.

But what if, just if, it's not all true - what if Jesus wasn't the actual son of God, wasn't divine? Would that negate his message? Would that make everyone who believed that's what he was a non-Christian and all the rest of us doubters the real Christians? I don't believe so. Who gets to define what a Christian is?

Why can't someone like me, someone who believes in the amazing nature of a man (yes a man) named Jesus be a Christian? What takes precedence, acting Christian or believing Christian? Maybe the Christians should adopt the Don't ask, don't tell policy.

Culture has effected our lives in one way or another, and if we like it or not. Think about it, it's a chance you wouldn't have the same religion, the same rules, the same thoughts, the same idea to what's right or wrong, ...