What Kind Of Christian Are You?
The world recognizes many kinds of Christians.
What we need to consider is what Christians are recognized by God.

Introduction
We hear all the time from various sources that there are different kinds of Christians.
There are Coptic Christians;
Orthodox Christians;
Catholic Christians;
Jewish Christians (like that makes sense).
And there are those who place an adjective before the title of Christian.
Things like born-again Christian;
believing Christian;
fundamental Christian,
and so on.

Now, if we go to the Bible, I think we can narrow the kinds of Christians to only three categories.
The three are
1) potential Christians,
2) faithful Christians, and
3) unfaithful Christians.
And yes, they still have adjectives we are discussing.
Perhaps we should say they are descriptions instead of adjectives.
There really is no need to make any other distinction at all.

Our point is that not all Christians are the same.
Even the world knows that.
Not all Christians practice the same religion.
Not all Christians teach the word of God.
Those who choose to make such distinction are part of the denominational problem that the Bible does not even mention, but specifically condemns.

Potential Christians
Who are these people?
Actually every living human being that has the ability to determine right from wrong is a potential Christian.
The reason being that the opportunity to become a Christian has been offered to all mankind (Titus 2:11-14).
Jesus died on the cross for all mankind.
Yet, we know that most of mankind will not seek to become a Christian at all.
We could also look at potential Christians as those who have decided to think of spiritual matters.
We know from John 4:21 that there are those who are seeking to worship God in spirit and in truth.
God helps these people find the truth through His providence (which we cannot see) and His guidance (which we can read in the Bible).
God also charges His children with the responsibility to go out and evangelize mankind.
Through one of these three methods, potential Christians can become Christians.

Faithful Christians
These are those who have been taught the commands of God and obeyed them.
Their choice to believe in God and Jesus as the Son of God, and their willingness to follow His commands makes them a Christian.
Notice that just believing does not make one a Christian.
It is by obedience to God's commands.
Especially the command that removes our sins through baptism.
Until one is baptized properly, they do not have a right to call themselves a Christian.
How long will they be a Christian?
Until they die.
Another similar question is necessary here.
How long will they be a “faithful” Christian?
The answer depends upon the choices they make, and the effort they put into it.
If they stop being a faithful Christian, they still remain a Christian, but now they become an unfaithful Christian.

Unfaithful Christians
These are those who have obeyed the gospel of Christ and been buried with Him in baptism, yet have not followed His instructions or commands.
Some of these do so by continuing in sin that they were supposed to repent of and stop doing.
Some just stopped attending the services of the local church.
Some just drifted away from the truth.
Some of these started attending and became a member of a denomination.
Once they stopped being faithful, they entered the world of Satan.
We know that Satan wants people to think they are headed toward heaven, but will not be allowed entrance into the magnificent palace of God.
Satan is the great deceiver and has been successful in deceiving millions, even billions into believing the lie.
Take time to read 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.
I hope you realize that many people who call themselves Christians are not really Christians at all.
Just because they will not enter heaven does not make them evil, wicked people.
In fact, these are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, and they can be more spiritually minded than the faithful at times.
Where they fail God is in respect to His word, the Bible.
These are the ones who follow those who have added to God's word, which is prohibited.
They follow those who have removed things from God's instructions.
And they have made many changes.
In fact, many denominations have outright rejected the Bible as the inerrant and infallible word of God (even though their creeds might state otherwise).

This begs the question if there are Christians in all various denominations.
The answer is yes. But don't stop there (we need to qualify that answer).
The only kinds of Christians in the denominations are the unfaithful kind.
There are no faithful Christians in the denominations.
A faithful Christian will follow God instead of man.
The denominations all teach doctrines contrary to the Bible, yet promote themselves as being acceptable to God.
And also note that the thousands of denominations each teach a similar, but different doctrine.
Such confusion does not come from God.
Only man can mess things up so badly, and the being that influences man is Satan.

Jesus has given us the best answer as to who is accepted of God.
In Matthew 7:21, Jesus speaks these words:
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven".

Conclusion
The infallible Bible tells us in 2 Peter 1:3 that everything we need concerning our salvation and how we are supposed to live is recorded in the Bible.
If everything is there, nothing else is needed.
So start today by comparing your Bible with the teachings coming from your church, and choose to follow God and not man.

By Carey Scott

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