Originally posted by lucifershammer
I don't think any Christian tries to be. 🙂
It is an interesting question - at which point (of disbelief) does a Christian stop being a Christian? Is an Arian still a Christian? A Manichean?
The foundational statement developed by the early church is the Nicene Creed (325 C.E.?). Nowhere does it (or the Apostle’s Creed) mention “belief” in the Bible in any way. [It does, however, mention “belief” in “one holy, catholic and apostolic church (
ekklesian)”—since this was before the “great schism” of 1054, “catholic” does not refer only to Rome.]
In the original Greek, the Creed begins “Pisteuo…,” generally translated as “We believe…” However,
pisteuo (from
pisteo, to trust, to have confidence in, “to faith” ) did not mean “what you think;” neither did the English word “believe” when it was first used to translate
pisteo—it meant “to hold dear,” to trust. The creeds are not about “think right and be saved.”
A decision to entrust oneself to the God described in the Nicene Creed, to the best of one’s hope and understanding, has identified one as an orthodox Christian for some 1,680 years (orthodox vis-à-vis such things as arianism, manicheism, monophysitism, etc.).