From: ata@hfsi.uucp (John Ata - FSO)
Subject: Re: Will the -REAL- Christians please stand up? Was: What did Judas betray?
Reply-To: ata@hfsi.UUCP (John Ata - FSO)
Organization: HFSI, McLean VA.
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 18:37:58 GMT

In article <1992Dec28.215354.24896@blaze.cs.jhu.edu> arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee) writes:
>
>But how do I tell if someone ignores the core beliefs of Jesus?  Not only can't
>Christians agree on who is a Christian, they can't even agree on what the core
>beliefs of Jesus are.  It's as if there were a few dozen mutually contradictive
>Republican party platforms.
>--

I would suggest that people read the New Testament for a
definition of what Jesus stood for.  It is the "party platform" of
Christianity.  To those who say that it has ambiguities, I would
reply that there is plenty of unambigous and clear teachings of
Christ to go around.  One can always find ambiguity in any work,
especially when they look for it.  Even a legal document such as
the U.S. Constitution has 9 people with full time jobs for their
entire lives making just such a determination of what is
Constitutional and what is not.  Do we throw up our hands and say,
"Oh, there are ambiguities, therefore it is impossible to define
what is Constitutional and what is not"?  Then why are people
suggesting that because certain people have interpreted the
Gospels differently in certain areas, then it is impossible to
define what the core beliefs of Jesus were, what he stood for, and
what it means to behave in a Christ-like manner?

There seems to be a notion that the fights that different
Christian denominations have with one another were over the basic
values of Jesus.  Perhaps, we as Christians might have a better
understanding for our behaviour if they indeed were so.  However,
if one examines the reasons for the various schisms in the
Christian church, it would seem that arguing over the core values
of Jesus had very little to do with it.  Now, when I talk of core
values, I'm not talking about dogmatic truths exactly.  Rather,
after reading the Gospels, one gets an idea of what Jesus stood
for: e.g. Love of the one true God, love of neighbor from which
springs forth mercy, compassion, unlimited forgiveness, etc.
These values are not contested by any Christian denomination that
I know of but are universally accepted because to deny them would
deny the essence of who Jesus was.

However, to be more precise for the technical minded, anyone who
is baptized and has not renounced their faith is then formally a
Christian belonging to the Church of Christ.  It is crassly
analogous to registering as a Republican.  However, as previously
stated, how closely an individual follows the group that they've
formally joined has nothing to do with the fact that they've
joined.  In the Christian analogy, acting in a Christ-like has
little to do with whether one is a formally a Christian.

>Ken Arromdee (arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu, arromdee@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu)


-- 
John G. Ata - Technical Consultant | Internet:  ata@hfsi.com
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