Are All “Christians” Christian?

HOW many Christians are there? According to the Atlas of Global Christianity, in 2010 there were almost 2.3 billion worldwide. But the same publication also indicates that those Christians belong to over 41,000 denominations​—each with its own doctrines and rules of conduct. Faced with this bewildering array of “Christian” religions, it is understandable that some observers become confused or even disillusioned. They may wonder, ‘Are all who claim to be Christians really Christian?’

Let us look at the matter from a different perspective. A traveler is usually required to state his citizenship to a border official. He also needs to prove that he is who he claims to be by producing some identification, perhaps a passport. Similarly, a true Christian needs to do more than profess his faith in Christ. He needs to have additional identification. What would that be?

The term “Christian” first came into use sometime after 44 C.E. The Bible historian Luke reported: “It was first in Antioch that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians.” (Acts 11:26) Note that those called Christians were Christ’s disciples. What makes a person a disciple of Jesus Christ? The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology explains: “Following Jesus as a disciple means the unconditional sacrifice of [one’s] whole life . . . for the whole of his life.” A true Christian, therefore, is one who follows the teachings and instructions of Jesus, the Founder of Christianity, totally and unconditionally.

Is it possible to find such people among the many who profess to be Christians today? What did Jesus himself say would identify his true followers? We invite you to consider how the Bible answers these questions. In the following articles, we will examine five statements by Jesus that characterize and help to identify his true followers. We will consider how the first-century Christians measured up. And we will endeavor to see who among the many professing to be Christians today fit the pattern.

“Remain in My Word”

“If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”​—JOHN 8:31, 32.

What It Means: Jesus’ “word” means his teachings, which came from a higher source. “The Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to tell and what to speak,” said Jesus. (John 12:49) In prayer to his heavenly Father, Jehovah God, Jesus said: “Your word is truth.” He frequently quoted God’s Word to support his teachings. (John 17:17; Matthew 4:4, 7, 10) True Christians, therefore, ‘remain in his word’​—that is, they accept God’s Word, the Bible, as “truth” and the ultimate authority for their beliefs and practices.

How Early Christians Measured Up: The most prolific Christian Bible writer, the apostle Paul, shared Jesus’ respect for God’s Word. He wrote: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial.” (2 Timothy 3:16) Men appointed to teach fellow Christians had to “hold fast to the sure and trustworthy Word of God.” (Titus 1:7, 9, The Amplified Bible) Early Christians were admonished to reject “the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ.”​—Colossians 2:8.

Who Fit the Pattern Today?: According to the Vatican’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, adopted in 1965 and quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “It is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the [Catholic] Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.” An article in Maclean’s magazine quoted a minister in Toronto, Canada, who asked: “Why do we need a ‘revolutionary’ voice from two millennia ago to guide us? We have fabulous ideas of our own, that are constantly weakened by having to tie them back to Jesus and Scripture.”

Regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses, the New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “They regard the Bible as their only source of belief and rule of conduct.” Recently, a man in Canada interrupted one of Jehovah’s Witnesses as she was introducing herself. “I know who you are,” he said, pointing at her Bible, “by your signature.”

“No Part of the World”

“The world has hated them, because they are no part of the world.”​—JOHN 17:14.

What It Means: Being no part of the world, Jesus was neutral in the social and political conflicts of the day. “If my kingdom were part of this world,” he explained, “my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.” (John 18:36) He also urged his followers to shun attitudes, speech, and conduct condemned in God’s Word.​—Matthew 20:25-27.

How Early Christians Measured Up: According to religion writer Jonathan Dymond, the early Christians “refused to engage in [war]; whatever were the consequences, whether reproach, or imprisonment, or death.” They chose to suffer rather than compromise their neutral stand. Their moral code also set them apart. Christians were told: “Because you do not continue running with them in this course to the same low sink of debauchery, they are puzzled and go on speaking abusively of you.” (1 Peter 4:4) Historian Will Durant wrote that Christians “were troubling the pleasure-mad pagan world with their piety and their decency.”

Who Fit the Pattern Today? Regarding Christian neutrality, the New Catholic Encyclopedia asserts: “Conscientious objection is morally indefensible.” An article in the Reformierte Presse states that a report by African Rights, a human rights organization, on the 1994 Rwandan genocide established the participation of all churches, “with the exception of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

Discussing the Nazi Holocaust, a high-school teacher lamented that “no group or organization of regular citizens spoke out against the mass of lies, cruelty, and eventual atrocities.” After consulting with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, he wrote: “I now had my answer.” He learned that Jehovah’s Witnesses stood firm in their beliefs in spite of the harsh treatment they received.

What about their moral code? “The majority of today’s young adult Catholics disagree with church teachings on issues like cohabitation [and] premarital sex,” says U.S. Catholic magazine. The journal quotes a church deacon, who said: “A great percentage I see​—I’d guess it’s well over 50 percent—​are already living together when they come to be married.” The New Encyclopædia Britannica observes that Jehovah’s Witnesses “insist upon a high moral code in personal conduct.”

“Have Love Among Yourselves”

“I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”​—JOHN 13:34, 35.

What It Means: Christ told his followers to love one another the way that he loved them. How did Jesus love them? His love transcended the national and gender bias prevalent in his day. (John 4:7-10) Love moved Jesus to sacrifice his time, energy, and personal comfort in order to help others. (Mark 6:30-34) Finally, Christ showed love in the greatest way possible. “I am the fine shepherd,” he said. “The fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep.”​—John 10:11.

How Early Christians Measured Up: In the first century, Christians called each other “brother” or “sister.” (Philemon 1, 2) People of all nations were welcomed into the Christian congregation, for they believed that “there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for there is the same Lord over all.” (Romans 10:11, 12) After Pentecost 33 C.E., the disciples in Jerusalem “went selling their possessions and properties and distributing the proceeds to all, just as anyone would have the need.” For what purpose? So that those newly baptized could remain in Jerusalem and continue “devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles.” (Acts 2:41-45) What motivated such actions? Less than 200 years after the death of the apostles, Tertullian quoted what others said of Christians: “How they love one another . . . and how they are ready even to die for one another.”

Who Fit the Pattern Today? The book The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1837) observed that over the centuries those who professed to be Christians “have inflicted far greater severities on each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels [unbelievers].” A recent U.S. study found a strong link between religious people​—most of whom identified themselves as Christian—​and racial bias. Churchgoers in one land are often unaffiliated with those of the same denomination in another land and are thus unable or disinclined to help fellow believers when a need arises.

In 2004, after Florida was hit by a string of four hurricanes in two months, the chairman of Florida’s Emergency Operations Committee checked to ensure that their supplies were being used properly. He said that no other group was as well organized as Jehovah’s Witnesses, and he offered to provide any supplies needed by the Witnesses. Earlier, in 1997, a relief team of Jehovah’s Witnesses with medicine, food, and clothing traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to assist their Christian brothers and others in need. Fellow Witnesses in Europe had donated supplies totaling a million dollars (U.S.).

“I Have Made Your Name Known”

“I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world. . . . I have made your name known to them and will make it known.”​—JOHN 17:6, 26.

What It Means: Jesus made known God’s name by using it in his ministry. When Jesus read from the Scriptures, as he often did, he would have pronounced God’s personal name. (Luke 4:16-21) He taught his followers to pray: “Father, let your name be sanctified.”​—Luke 11:2.

How Early Christians Measured Up: The apostle Peter related to the older men at Jerusalem that God had taken out of the nations “a people for his name.” (Acts 15:14) The apostles and others preached that “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.” (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13) They also used the divine name in their own writings. The Tosefta, a collection of Jewish laws completed by about 300 C.E., says regarding the burning of Christian writings by opposers: “The books of the Evangelists and the books of the minim [thought to be Jewish Christians] they do not save from a fire. But they are allowed to burn where they are, . . . they and the references to the Divine Name which are in them.”

Who Fit the Pattern Today? The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, authorized by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States, says in its preface: “The use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom he had to be distinguished, was discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.” Thus, it replaced the divine name with a title, “LORD.” More recently, the Vatican directed its bishops: “In songs and prayers the name of God in the form of the tetragrammaton YHWHa is neither to be used or pronounced.”

Who today use and make known God’s personal name? When Sergey was a teenager in Kyrgyzstan, he watched a film that identified God’s name as Jehovah. For some ten years, he did not hear the divine name again. Later, after Sergey had moved to the United States, two of Jehovah’s Witnesses visited him at his home and showed him God’s name in the Bible. Sergey was thrilled to find a group that used the name Jehovah. Interestingly, under the entry “Jehovah God,” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary gives the definition “a supreme deity recognized and the only deity worshiped by Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

[Footnote]

“This Good News of the Kingdom Will Be Preached”

“This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”​—MATTHEW 24:14.

What It Means: The Gospel writer Luke reported that Jesus “went journeying from city to city and from village to village, preaching and declaring the good news of the kingdom of God.” (Luke 8:1) Jesus himself said: “I must declare the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this I was sent forth.” (Luke 4:43) He sent his disciples to preach the good news in the towns and villages and later commanded them: “You will be witnesses of me . . . to the most distant part of the earth.”​—Acts 1:8; Luke 10:1.

How Early Christians Measured Up: Jesus’ disciples wasted no time in doing what Jesus told them. “Every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ.” (Acts 5:42) Preaching was not limited to an elite group. Historian Neander observed that “Celsus, the first writer against Christianity, jeer[ed] at the fact, that wool-workers, cobblers, leather-dressers, the most illiterate and vulgar of mankind, were zealous preachers of the gospel.” In his book The Early Centuries of the Church, Jean Bernardi wrote: “[Christians] were to go out and speak everywhere and to everyone. On the highways and in the cities, on the public squares and in the homes. Welcome or unwelcome. . . . To the ends of the earth.”

Who Fit the Pattern Today? “The church’s failure to take preaching and teaching seriously is one reason for the general spiritual malaise of today,” writes Anglican priest David Watson. In his book Why Are the Catholics Leaving? José Luis Pérez Guadalupe wrote about the activities of Evangelicals, Adventists, and others and observed that “they do not go from house to house.” Regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses, he wrote: “They go systematically from house to house.”

An interesting and realistic observation made by Jonathan Turley is found in Cato Supreme Court Review, 2001-2002: “Mention the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and most people immediately think of preachers visiting our homes at inconvenient hours. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses, proselytizing door-to-door is not simply to advance their faith but the very article of faith.”

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Do You Recognize the Mark?

Based on the Scriptural criteria discussed in this series of articles, who today, do you think, bear the mark of true Christianity? Though there are tens of thousands of groups and denominations claiming to be Christian, bear in mind what Jesus told his followers: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will.” (Matthew 7:21) Identifying those who are doing the will of the Father​—thus bearing the mark of true Christianity—​and associating with them can lead to eternal blessings under God’s Kingdom. We invite you to ask Jehovah’s Witnesses, who brought you this magazine, for more information about God’s Kingdom and the blessings it will bring.​—Luke 4:43.