Post by h***@geneva.rutgers.eduI consider someone as a
Christian who accepts Christ as his savior.
I choose the Apostles' Creed because it doesn't have the more specific
doctrines that are present in the Nicene Creed. I support the Nicene
Creed, and so do all the major branches of Protestant Christianity.
But there are peope who don't quite agree with the Nicene formulation
of the Trinity but still held Christ as Lord and savior. I consider
them heterodox Christians as opposed to non-Christians.
How far does your tolerance go? Do you accept Unitarians and/or
Universalists as Christians? Is your coy "don't quite agree with the
Nicene formulation of the Trinity" a reference to Unitarians?
Those of us who have drifted away from the mainstream don't mind being
called "heterodox" but we don't really think that anybody has the
power to declare us "non-Christians".
What is your judgment of my position? I don't hold "Christ as Lord and
savior". I don't hold Jesus as a anything other than an ordinary man
and I don't consider the events of two thousand years ago in Palestine
as of more than historical interest. What matters to me is the
continuous ongoing activity of the Holy Spirit and the everlasting
presence of God.
But I am perfectly willing to let other people come to God in their
own way and on their own terms. As I see it there is no Truth other
than the Truth of God and all our little human efforts to acknowledge
God are more likely than not to be wrong. My efforts just as much
anyone else's.
---
[I'm not sure I'm required to judge whether everyone is a Christian or
not.
While I was in college I went to a Friends meeting for a while. (I was
at Haverford College, which is Quaker. At least in the last 1960s it
was the traditional East-coast Friends, not the more explicitly
Christian and even evangelical Friends that you find in some parts of
the country.) I ran into folks that I think are similar to you there.
Some of them were reluctant to call themselves Christian, because they
thought you had to agree to a detailed creed. But I thought they were.
Others probably weren't. I don't mind people who are probably best
thought of as generic theists respecting Jesus and trying to follow
his example. While I ended up going to a Presbyterian church, I'm
still not uncomfortable at the thought of worshipping with Friends
(though I haven't done so for a while).
At any rate, the original question I was responding to was about
Protestant Christianity. While the Friends have some historical
connection with Protestantism, I wouldn't regard them as Protestant
(at least not the ones I was with). I suspect you aren't either.
Unitarianism can be heterodox Christianity. Universalism was
originally part of mainstream Christianity, and I think some modern
Protestants believe in universalism but are still pretty mainstream.
However as far as I can tell the current U. U. Church isn't classical
unitarianism, although it started out that way. It's become a generic
religion that isn't necessarily explicitly Christian. Many U. U.
congregations have a mix of Christians, pagans, and some that are
probably what I'd call generic theists.
--clh]