Quote:
Originally Posted by martureo
We're back to the meaning of words Kerry.
A category inherently contains restrictions and definitions which differentiate it from something else.
Christians are those who believe in the Trinitarian God YHWH. If they don't, then they aren't Christians, they're something else. The earliest Christians believed this, and Christians today believe this.
Call gnostics, the Ebionites (who I don't believe ever called themselves Christians), the Arians and the Marcionites "pseudo-Christians" or whatever you want. But they aren't and never have been Christians.
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I agree that categories are meaningful. But your restrictions on the category 'Christian' are anachronistic and exclusionary. The question of what is included in the category 'Christian' is determined by historical investigation and not by normative decisions by church bodies intent on narrowing the category in accord with their own ideas. You privilege certain people and traditions in determining what 'Christian' means. The prime example is your privileging of St. Paul. The fact that he calls his opponents 'false teachers' proves that there were Christians who held different ideas about Christianity than St. Paul's yet you insist on using his ideas as the measure of Christianity. It's historically inaccurate and disingenuous. Those opponents of St. Paul were as Christian as he was.
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