did the romans call us christians to insult us?

Original usage implied Christ-like in their manner of business, as the Greek ending came from the business world. A Christian would not cheat you in the market, would deliver the goods as promised, etc.

I like to think of "Christian" as a family name for the children of God.

 

Pontificate: to speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way? I'm sorry, did I do that???

 

if you go back to the book of Acts, the believers were first called "Christians" in Antioch where the gospel was being spread. The term was used to ridicule and mock the believers. We are called "Christians" today because we are followers of "Christ".

 

I thought we were called "Baptist" as a derrogatory term, because we did not accept the sprinkling, etc. of other pagan religious groups that simply changed the names of the various Roman Gods and Godesses. :Fish:

 

You are correct, kuntrygirl. A tag of derision that we wear proudly! :thumbs:

 

I am operating from memory so I might not be 100% accurate. Gundry in his "Survey of the N.T.",the chapter on the book of Acts makes reference to the romans using the term"chrestes"(which I think means worker)as a derogatory term when referring to Christians.By the time we were actually called Christians in the common sense we were pretty well established. The romans actually did think of Christians as athiests because they believed in only one God and you could'nt even see or touch him.