hinduwoman

The one thing in common all christians have is they regard JC as the saviour and NT as the good book.
Otherwise, every group/individual is convinced they/he alone know God's will.

Undercurrent

A True Christian believes that only members of his own congregation are True Christians. And he's a little suspicious of the people who sit in the pews on the other side of the centre aisle.

"Christian" is a term like "fractal" and "red". Kind of fuzzy around the edges, and can'r be made more specific to the satisfaction of everyone.

m.

Tercel

Gnostics I would call Christians only for want of a better word and I certainly don't regard them as True Christians. Arians? Hmm. Christians: Yes. True Christians: Maybe... hmm... maybe... ~ignores the fact that this contradicts what he said before about the Nicene Creed defining True Christian~

Wow I've never heard of the Johnites. :notworthy
From your description of them, I find it hard to judge.

Arvel Joffi

A Christian is a Christian is a Christian. For the most part, someone tells me they're a Christian: they are. More power to 'em, I hope they have fun.

Amos

Hello, Jekyl, you are the anti semistist because only you would see anti semitism in the truth that I describe. Understand well (which you never will but I write this for the others who might read this post) that the crufixion of Jesus-the-Jew was the best thing that the Jews have ever done because it speaks volumes for the efficiency of their mythology wherein the law is the heart of the mythology that must convict the believer of sin in such a way that it leads to the crucifixion of, in this case, Jesus the Jew as sinner. This in turn is what led to a divine comedy whereupon Catholics built their faith and the church had many such repeat occurances. So yes, there is extreme unity in the Catholic church but the problem is that no other religion can ever comprehend it because it is far beyond their human understanding and it is therefore that you will find as many explanations for the so called "Christian faith" as their is protestant denominations. The fact is, there can be no such thing as a Christian faith because there are no temples in the New Jerusalem (where Christians after the manner of Jesus take up residence).

Don't try and give me a history lesson on Jesus the Jew because he was the ego consciousness of Joseph the upright carpenter who went through the purgation period in the gosples. It is impossible for him, them, and us to return to Judaism because a new religion was formed and this was based on the example set by Jesus who came out of Judaism and found its origen right back to Adam to God (in Luke).

To be sure, Jesus was no teacher, no rabbi, but the ego consciousness of Joseph the Jew and it was through the crucifixion of this ego identity that true identity of Joseph here called Christ was set free under the name of Bar-abbas who later recalled the eiditic images of Joseph into the upper room of his subconscious mind.

So where is the anti semitism in this?

Amos

Christians don't need a savior but Catholics do if they are chosen to become followers of Jesus. Otherwise not and this is why both cold and hot are OK.

philechat

Spelling error. Johannites and the Great Heresy. According to Johannites Jesus killed John-the-Baptist and took over the Church of John. Modern Mandaeans in Iran/Iraq still hold John-the-Baptist with special reverence.

Amos

He deserves special reverence and the beheading of John the Baptist was needed to form the Catholic Church (Church of John).

John represents Catholic baptism which is needed to complete the race and arrive at the fullness of salvation. In Massacio's "The Crucifixion" both Mary and St.John [the Baptist] are shown to indicate that they were the driving force behind this victory.

The metaphysics here is that John was born from the netherworld of the subconscious mind and there prepared the way for the conscious mind to reach cessation (Nirodha).

Shake

Wow! This is just great, everybody! Some of my history was a little fuzzy, and now I remember learning about the whole RC/Eastern Orthodox split. I was just never quite sure when that whole thing took place.

Thanks to ArvelJoffi and hinduwoman for your posts. Both were funny because they're true!It's always hard to see the forest through the midst of the trees, I guess.

Jesus was a Jew who was trying to make changes, not create a new religion. This is much the same as Luther, who wanted merely to reform the Catholic Church, not create a whole new separate branch of Xianity.

Ab_Normal

Concur! I figure if somebody calls themself a Christian, they're a Christian. Who am I to say whether or not they are?