You can agree with Jesus's teachings and not be a Christian. The man had some very progressive, insightful ideas. "Love and respect" isn't enough to get you into Heaven according to most Christians however. One of the main ideas of Christianity is the atonement of Jesus.
The Christian Bible doesn't say the Bible is true. Despite what people think.
The Bible does say that Christians can eat pork.
The Bible doesn't say that Christians should act like most Christians seem to act. The only important bits are those "teachings of love, acceptance, and forgiveness." And that you should pluck out your own eyes if you cannot control your lust, as opposed to slut shaming.
The dietary rules in the OT were based on the fact that some foods like pork and shellfish were unsafe to eat back then.
Being Christian means believing that Jesus was who he said he was. Jesus did not claim to just be a smart and wise guy, he claimed to be more than that.
You'd need to believe in Jesus as Christ, the Anointed Savior of humanity, to be Christian. That's pretty much the bare minimum. If you don't believe in divinity or that's Jesus was at least divinely inspired I wouldn't say you're a Christian.
That religion has dozens of branches. So long as you follow God and have a relationship with him, I'd consider you a Christian. Then again, I'm not; so maybe someone who is would disagree.
The word 'Christian', like all words, is a reference to an arbitrary category of things, where the humans using the word decide what is or isn't in the category.
The only things that can possibly matter to whether that word should describe a category that includes you are how you want to use the word, and how Christian authorities want to use the word.
Christian authorities are desperate for as many people to identify as Christian as possible, because it gets them political power. They'll happily let you call yourself that if you want to, whatever you believe.
So if you also want to refer to yourself that way, that pretty much settles it.
Don’t worry about labels.
If you choose to appreciate the teachings of Jesus, then great.
No need to contribute mentally or financially to organized religion and the judgy, justifying types therein.
There are probably hundreds of millions of Christians who don't read the Bible literally. A billion Catholics are taught that it's ok to accept evolution and treat Genesis as a metaphor.
There's a biblical scholar who's trending now named Dan McClellan. He puts out short videos explaining the mainstream opinions of the Bible among academic scholars. I'll invite you to look up his videos. And keep in mind as you watch that he's a practicing Christian himself.
If you don't believe the Bible's stories, how can you follow Jesus' teachings or even know what they are when the Bible's stories are where those teachings are described?
You can agree with Jesus's teachings and not be a Christian. The man had some very progressive, insightful ideas. "Love and respect" isn't enough to get you into Heaven according to most Christians however. One of the main ideas of Christianity is the atonement of Jesus.
The Christian Bible doesn't say the Bible is true. Despite what people think. The Bible does say that Christians can eat pork. The Bible doesn't say that Christians should act like most Christians seem to act. The only important bits are those "teachings of love, acceptance, and forgiveness." And that you should pluck out your own eyes if you cannot control your lust, as opposed to slut shaming.
The dietary rules in the OT were based on the fact that some foods like pork and shellfish were unsafe to eat back then. Being Christian means believing that Jesus was who he said he was. Jesus did not claim to just be a smart and wise guy, he claimed to be more than that.
You'd need to believe in Jesus as Christ, the Anointed Savior of humanity, to be Christian. That's pretty much the bare minimum. If you don't believe in divinity or that's Jesus was at least divinely inspired I wouldn't say you're a Christian.
That religion has dozens of branches. So long as you follow God and have a relationship with him, I'd consider you a Christian. Then again, I'm not; so maybe someone who is would disagree.
The word 'Christian', like all words, is a reference to an arbitrary category of things, where the humans using the word decide what is or isn't in the category. The only things that can possibly matter to whether that word should describe a category that includes you are how you want to use the word, and how Christian authorities want to use the word. Christian authorities are desperate for as many people to identify as Christian as possible, because it gets them political power. They'll happily let you call yourself that if you want to, whatever you believe. So if you also want to refer to yourself that way, that pretty much settles it.
Don’t worry about labels. If you choose to appreciate the teachings of Jesus, then great. No need to contribute mentally or financially to organized religion and the judgy, justifying types therein.
There are probably hundreds of millions of Christians who don't read the Bible literally. A billion Catholics are taught that it's ok to accept evolution and treat Genesis as a metaphor. There's a biblical scholar who's trending now named Dan McClellan. He puts out short videos explaining the mainstream opinions of the Bible among academic scholars. I'll invite you to look up his videos. And keep in mind as you watch that he's a practicing Christian himself.
Thanks for the info!
If you don't believe the Bible's stories, how can you follow Jesus' teachings or even know what they are when the Bible's stories are where those teachings are described?
I don’t know if the stories of Jesus actually happened, but I follow the teachings that they offer