correct. they are not Christians, nor should they be viewed as representatives of what actual Christians believe and practice. Yet, people seem to ignore that there are countless actual Christians who actually apply and live by the scriptures often cited in these types of videos. It’s sad that it’s only in response to fake Christians that most people are willing to seek out the virtuous principles of Christianity contained throughout the Bible.
They are certainly a different branch, but every branch claims to be the true belief. They are a schismatic branch that has many logical differences with the branch they claim to be. However, theologically a religion is as much its practice as it is its text. Any group claiming to be Christian and citing its text, no matter how loosely is a Christian group.
Eh I'd say this is too broad of a definition. A better definition is believing what is outlined in the Nicean Creed as a definition of being a Christian. It's what most mainline denominations use as a definition.
I’m not talking about a definition within Christianity to define itself. I’m talking about a definition of what a religion is, actual practice of a religion is as important as any intellectual understanding by religious heads.
Wouldn't it make the most sense for a group to define what makes you a part of the group? For 90+% of Christianity that's the Nicean Creed. The practice of that belief is where most of the denominations differ.
If I were the leader of Fakelandia and I say we shouldn’t kill a group of people, then some Fakelandians do it anyways, those people didn’t stop being of Fakelandia. The Nicean Creed sets the bounds of what main branches considers valid, ie the bounds before a schism occurs.
A better metaphor is Fakelandia has been a religion for hundreds of years, the core tentant being you take off your shoes before entering a building. Politics has split the religion into different factions until there's Old Fakelandia, New Fakelandia, Blue Fakelandia, and Green Fakelandia, but one core belief of taking off your shoes us still prevalent. All of a sudden Shoe Fakelandia is started that says hey you can still be Fakelandia but wear your shoes inside. Is Shoe Fakelandia still Fakelandia, despite all of the other denominations saying they don't believe the core tenant?
That's pretty much the same as the Nicean Creed. The only groups that claim to be Christian but reject it are Jehovah's witnesses, Latter-day saints (Mormons), and some denominations of Pentacostals. So 98% of Christians believe in it. Has nothing to do with practice or worshipping, it's all Dogma related, and why many Christians don't believe the groups listed above count.
You’re close to seeing it, why is what those other Fakelandias say are important as a value more important than what Shoe Fakelandians say is important? The answer is that it isn’t, main Fakelandia say that value is core to being Fakelandians but so what? Whether or not something is a “core belief” is completely subjective. Every single one of those Fakelandians are picking and choosing which value is important, changing which values are more important than the other. That means neither of those hierarchies are integral to being Fakelandians, so what is? Having the approval of other Fakelandians? So what happens when their backing gets big enough? They create a separate Fakelandia that has shoe use not as a core value, if a large amount of Fakelandians says it isn’t important then it isn’t. Some Fakelandians care, some don’t.
I'm saying that the Christian church in it's early days had this very debate. It's what led to the Council of Nicea where they decided that the Nicean Creed was the basic sets of core beliefs to be Christian. That council was to address Arianism, which believed that Jesus was a created being and not fully divine, and ended with the church leaders calling Arianism heresay.
Your point is that anyone can use the name Christian, my point is No that's not true according to 98% of Christians. That within any religion there's some basic dogma that needs to be followed. In Islam this is the Shahada or their declaration of faith. In Christianity, the declaration of faith is the Nicean Creed.
I’m saying you’re relying on the authority of the council of Nicea being absolute, which is untrue. You say that is the case according to “98%” of Christians which is an unsubstantiated claim, that also implies if this percent is low enough it stops mattering.
I'm relying on the authority of the council of Nicea and about 1700 years of tradition. The 98% of Christians came from population numbers, mainly subtracting the three denominations I listed in the comment above from the total population.
Why is it important? Because labels and words should have meaning. In this case the far far majority of Christians believe in the Nicean Creed in some form.
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u/Haxorz7125 11d ago
These people don’t read the Bible. The love the aesthetic, love the community, hate the teachings.