WhatIsaChristian

What is a Christian?

... and why should I become one?

Welcome to the What is a Christian? page on GuiltyExpression. Most of this web site is for people who are already Christians. Quite a lot of the site is about things we find difficult about being Christians, or complaints we have about other Christians, God or ourselves, but this page is because despite our problems, many of us here are Christians, and we still think it's good and true, despite the problems.

This page is jointly created by everyone who visits here, and you are welcome to change things and add your own perspectives. We'd ask you to bias your changes towards adding things, rather than deleting, so you don't accidentally destroy something someone else felt was important, but that's not a hard and fast rule, or this page would soon become unmanageably long. If you want to edit this page, have a look at HowToUseWiki for instructions.

Anyway, on to the main event:

What is a Christian?

A Christian is someone who has given their life to God. They believe that God wants to inhabit our lives, but that this has been blocked by our bad attitudes and actions. Nevertheless, they believe that God wants to forgive us for everything we have done wrong in our lives, and wants to be reconciled to us. This, strangely, is claimed to be achieved by Jesus (who is said to be God-in-the-flesh, both human and God) living with us, dying on a cross and coming back to life.

His life, death and raising back to life, incredibly, dealt with all of our guilt, and removed the barrier between us and God. Because of this, God now offers us forgiveness, and a new life with him, as a completely free gift; and a Christian has accepted the offer, and dedicated the rest of their life to him. God enters their lives, and mysteriously lives with them.

Here are some ways some of us understand it: (feel free to add your own)

• Someone who first of all knows Jesus. Someone who then recognises he is our saviour, our king and our God. Finally someone who acts on the above information

This throws up approximately a million questions, some of which are below:

Why should I become a Christian?

We think you should become a Christian because it is excellent. We think God made us, and he specifically made us to be friends with him, and so when we accept his forgiveness and become his friends, we are much, much better off. It's amazing to be God's friend! One of the hardest things about being a Christian is just remembering that God's love is powerful enough and his forgiveness is complete enough that we can still be his friends even though we mess up all the time. We often forget that he still loves us, but when we remember and experience that love, it is beautiful. We think we can find true happiness by giving ourselves completely to God.

Nothing can separate us from God's love

What do I need to do right now to become a Christian?

Talk to God. Tell him you are sorry for what you've done wrong, and you want to give your life to him.

Now talk to someone you know who has a true faith in God and tell them about what you've done. Look for a community of Christians which you can become a part of.

Think about getting baptised.

What happens in my life when I become a Christian? What should I do next?

God will change you gradually (probably far too slowly for your liking!) to become more like your true self. He'll do this through his relationship with you.

Get to know God. This is mainly achieved through reading the bible and praying (your relationship directly with God) and being with Christians (our shared relationship with God).

What exactly have I done wrong? Why do I "need" forgiving?

Can you honestly say you've never done anything wrong? The unusual thing about Christianity is that it says that even the smallest thing you've done needs forgiving. Personally, I've done some pretty big things in terms of hurting other people, so I don't feel I've got a leg to stand on anyway...

Why couldn't God just forgive me without the whole Jesus thing?

There are different views on this.

Some people think that by letting him die, God punished Jesus for the things we did wrong, instead of punishing us, and this allowed God to forgive us. Recently there has been a bit of debate about this, sparked by some comments make by Steve Chalke.

The important thing is that Jesus died for us. Maybe we can't completely understand what that means or why it needed to happen.

Why do I have to give my life to God? Do I have to earn this "free gift"?

FILL IN

What happens if I don't become a Christian?

Nothing: No thunder, lightning bolts, disasters or string of bad luck.

At least, not yet.

FILL IN MORE

How come life is so hard if God is good?

FILL IN

How could this supposedly good God send people to hell?

FILL IN

Why are Christians such fools? Why are they horrible people?

FILL IN

Surely science has disproved religion - why do you believe something that is clearly wrong?

Lots of Christians and non-religious scientists believe that there is no conflict between science and Christianity. Many scientists who are Christians see their work as discovering the beauty of God's creation. By exploring how the world is made they are performing a sort of worship.

There is a huge debate about whether evolution as a theory is anti-God. Several people on this site believe that evolution is one of God's most brilliant inventions!

As a side note, many people on this site find the arguments put forward by some "creationists" (people who argue that God made the world in 7 literal 24-hour periods) to be misleading (at best) about what evolution is, and what claims are made about it.

Some atheists claim science disproves the existence of God but most these days admit that science and religion attempt to answer different questions ("How?" and "Why?" respectively) which makes any glancing conflict between them more a side issue than the main event.

What web site am I on anyway? What is a Guilty Expression?

This site describes itself as "Rants and raves inspired by a passionate, frustrated love for God" but really it's just a place for people to say whatever they like about being a Christian (or not being a Christian) without anyone telling them they're wrong or evil or anything. Find out more from the home page: http://www.guiltyexpression.org