Featured Can you be a Christian but not a disciple?

that is why I tend to see this in two separate areas...

can a sinner become saved apart from being a disciple of Christ? Yes, as per Apostles John/peter/paul, as they all wrote that whosoever believes in him shall be saved, but they also all added that once saved, that person must become His disciple, in order to experience becoming conformed into image of jesus!

 

Jesus was/is God incarnate, and the scriptures say to us that he failed to some some things due to lack of faith by others, NEVER that he needed faith to do things!

IF jesus needed to have faith, then the wof teachers would appear to be right, in that faith is your way to "write your ticket with God!"

 

God can and has save us by faith alone, thru faith alone, and that is the FREE GIFT of God towards us in Jesus, but after saved, we must strive to continue to mature in the faith!

There is no real salvation that tells us I am now saved, but continue to think and act just as IF I was not!

that happens though AFTER being saved, not salvation itself!

 

I am not, but believe that is EXACTLY what those holding to a severe form of Lordship salvation do!

 

I was thinking the same thing ...

 

How so? Biblical faith is sufficient when the object of it is Jesus as messiah/Lord/savior, that he died in our stead, so is that not sufficient in and by itself to save a sinner?

 

confirmed to Him God the father installs Jesus as Our Lord when he saves us by/thru Him, so in the sense of God view, we have jesus as Lord, but from our human view, this does need to worked out, as we are in a process to become more confirmed into image of Christ!

Think we are saying essentially same thing, as we seem to agree that we are once and for all instantly Justified before God, in right standing, when we receive jesus, but must continue to work out the process of submitting to the sauctifying work after that event!

 

You offer no proof for this statement.

Proof that the Greek word pisteuo has a wide range of meaning, so that context is needed to determine the meaning in any one usage:

Matt. 9:28--And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

Matt. 24:23--Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

Matt. 24:26--Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

This is just the book of Matthew, but there are many more examples.

 

You're making some good points.

Please tell us what a disciple is and how one can be a disciple while not attracting attention to it.

And after these things Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took away his body. And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Jn 19:38,39

 

One time, Jesus used the word "believe" in the passage of John 4:7-38, but the words "worship" (proskuneo) and "reap" (therizo) or forms of them are used no less than nine and seven times, respectively. The message is not only "believe," -- and that is really secondary -- but also "act." And only a disciple can act. A believer simply believes, but must become a "learner" -- a disciple -- in order to act, because only the disciple learns how to act, and why.

 

ALL Christians are believers in jesus, but not all have chosen to be His disciples!

 

I'm not sure why people are ignoring the posts of John of Japan on this topic.

 

As I quoted Him earlier from the Gospel of Luke, He said, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27). If one is not willing to repent, surrender him/herself, follow Him, take up his/her cross, not only is that person not a disciple, that person is not a Christian. Period. End of story.

 

How does your view differ from Lordship Salvation? I believe I've seen you reject LS, but then you seem to affirm what they teach

I could be wrong, seeing that I don't troll around peering in on all your posts.

But you seem to be saying that one is either radically "sold out" or he's an absolute imposter, much like Lordship proponents would


And what makes you think your "end of story" is any more authoritative than anyone else's end of story ??

 

What? How does that passage deal with eternal salvation? It says being a disciple takes true sacrifice. He is not speaking of attaining eternal life.