Who you calling "Christian"?

At church yesterday a brother of mine got up and addressed the congregation. He was concerned because people at his work who claimed to be Christians didn't know anything about the bible and claimed that there were multiple ways to heaven. This troubles me for several reasons, namely the obvious. (..I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life....)

But in another way it bothers me too. Who are we to call them Christians, and who are we to say they are not? Well, this question is maybe trivial to some, but to me it seems very important. I'll give you an example. Let say we called everyone who had ever removed a splinter from a finger "Doctor". This country would be filled with Doctors! Are you a doctor, sure...Who isn't. But isn't what makes a Doctor a doctor knowledge mixed with practice mixed with experience?

If we find people whom say they are christian but have no knowledge of Christ, the Bible, God, or the Holy Spirit....Who in no way practice walking as Christ walked....and who have no history of fruit...can we really say they are a Christian? You may say, Bryan, what's it to you? And you'd be right if I were just concerned about keeping girls out of my tree house club, but we are talking about people who may quite possibly be convinced and secure in a salvation that has yet to take place, i.e., they may still be lost.

This is very important. We as children of God are to look out and find God's other children who are out wandering in the dark, lost and confused, and show them the light of Christ so as to help God lead them back home! But we have some who may not even know that they need saving! How much harder is it to save a drowning man when he doesn't know he's drowning?

Let's say you went to a Doctor because you felt a lump in your throat. And the doctor walks in, takes one look, and says "your fine, there's nothing to worry about", and sends you on your way. But weeks and months pass by and the lump keeps getting bigger and bigger and more and more sensitive. Are you going to say to yourself..."Well, he said I was fine and he's a doctor so I must be fine."? Or are you going to consider that maybe he missed the mark and didn't know what he was talking about, i.e., your not fine!

In the same way, when we come forward during Invitation or Pray the "Sinners Prayer" we are acknowledging that we are Spiritually dead and in need of a Savior. So we follow the Preachers advice and ask Jesus to come and live in our hearts, we repent of our sins and the Pastor say's "You are saved". Great! Praise God if you are actually saved! But, what if over the next few weeks or months, you notice no change in your attitude toward sin? You notice that you still don't want to read God's word, and you really couldn't care less about about growing in the Body of Christs' church. Are you going to say "Well, the preacher said I was saved and he's a Preacher so I must be saved."? Or are you going to consider that maybe he and you both were wrong, you weren't saved. Well sadly, most of the time people just trust the preacher and never look any further.

Bless you Rob for caring enough to bring this urgent message before us yesterday.

2 Corinthians 5:17

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

1 John 2:5-6

⁵But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.