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I hear the term Biblical Christian these days can anyone explain what it means to be a biblical christian ? Being in the church are we biblical christians ? Im confused on this term . I would say that a Biblical Christian is someone who is more of a fundamentalist, believes in the literal truth of the Bible and an atonement theory that more closely aligns with the Mormon one. Ironically, we would fit in that category as we teach a literal Bible and a substitutionary atonement theory, but Biblical Christians would not accept us as Christians. I don’t think we realize that there was a huge split in the Christian Church a long-while back where the mainline and liberal churches adopted a much less literal view of the Bible, became less concerned about personal morality and more concerned with social justice. Evangelical churches kept the literal stance and were still very concerned with personal morality and aligned with the Christian right politically. This is the wagon train we’ve tried to join and they keep pushing us out of the group and don’t accept us as Christians, no matter how many conference talks we give arguing that we are Christians.
Yes, I agree that what is meant is someone that believes the Bible is the literal Word of God. Evangelicals tend to fit in this category.
Seventh Day Adventists are big into studying the bible and the literal prophesies of the end times.
I would also place Jehovah’s Witnesses in this same category. They believe strongly in a literal bible. Somewhat similar to us Mormons, the JW’s do have their own translation of the bible and some unique doctrinal beliefs that cause them to be rejected by many of the other “Biblical Christians”. For example, I understand that they believe that Jesus was more of a super prophet pointing to Jehovah (though still Messiah, Savior, and Redeemer) than a God in his own right. They reject the trinity. Though not inconsistent with the bible, this doctrinal division is too much for many to accept them as Biblical Christians. The Witnesses, for their part, return the favor by decrying mainstream Christianity as lost and corrupt, having lost the power to deliver individuals to the highest state of afterlife happiness and glory (not unlike the LDS).
Although, the term biblical Christian might also be used by a person that considers themselves to be general Christian but not one that is affiliated with any particular church. There is somewhat of a movement in some circles against what is seen as legalism and hypocrisy in organized religions.
At the most basic, the term biblical Christian might only mean a Christian that believes in the bible.
I have attended the Unitarian Church a handful of times. They bluntly state that their roots are from Judaism and Christianity. They add that they take those traditions seriously but not literally. Unitarians are NOT biblical Christians.
A fundamentalist who sees the Bible as the literal word of God is a biblical Christian.
I don’t necessarily see Biblical Christians as fundamentalists, but those who try and back their beliefs from the Bible, as true Protestants do, not from tradition like Anglicans, RCs and the Orthodox church, or from whatever the current fashion is like the Quakers and Unitarians. I would not put the LDS in this bracket because:
* They rely on contemporary revelation through their president.
* They have a lot of other scriptures from which beliefs are derived.
I am not saying our scriptures are all wrong but they are not within the Biblical canon.
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