Every one of these “who is a Christian” debates is mind numbingly stupid. They all rest on the same false premise, that Christianity is assent to a list of metaphysical propositions. It never was.
Christianity is faith in Jesus Christ. And faith in the New Testament is not what moderns mean by the word. The Greek term is pistis. In the first century it meant trust, fidelity, allegiance. It was a relational word. It named the bond between a soldier and his commander, a client and his patron, covenant partners who staked their lives on each other. When the apostles called for pistis in Jesus, they were calling men to give their loyalty to a living Lord, not their signature to a doctrinal statement.
The creeds came centuries later. Whatever their value, they were never the door. Pistis was the door from the beginning.
To follow Jesus is to be a Christian. Loyalty to Christ makes the Christian. Nothing else.
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And loyalty to Christ has a shape. It is orthopraxy, a way of life.
Love God with everything you have and your neighbor as yourself. Forgive the man who wronged you, seventy times seven. Love your enemies and pray for the ones who curse you. Keep your word without oaths. Keep your marriage bed and your eyes. Give to the poor without being seen. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, take in the stranger, visit the sick and the prisoner, because in Matthew 25 the King judges the nations by exactly that list, and there is not one doctrinal question on the exam.
Not everyone who says Lord, Lord enters the kingdom, but the one who does the will of the Father. By their fruits you will know them.
A man can recite every creed ever written and remain a stranger to Christ, and a man who has never heard the word homoousios can walk so close to him that his life becomes the argument.
Faith without this life is dead. The way of life is the confession.
In general yes, but…
How do you deal with heresies, specifically regarding God’s/Christ’s ontology (such as Arianism, Nestorianism, PSA, Mormonism)?
Some wiggle room might be justified due to ineffability, but any ontological definition will affect every part and of a “Christian” worldview. Eventually you’ll redefine Christianity into idolatry and/or blasphemy.
Pragmatism (the philosophy)
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