How do You Identify?

People seeking to separate themselves from “mainstream” Christianity often add grammatical modifiers to create hyphenated words. The intended purpose of hyphenating Christianity with other words is to separate true Christianity from other religious groups. Adding modifiers helping people identify as true Christians is not a modern-day movement.

People seeking to separate themselves from others in the Christian religion dates back to the New Testament Church. In the Corinthian Church, followers of Jesus, attempting to separate themselves from other Christians employed the teachings of different men to identify themselves in the Christian movement. In response to this movement, the Apostle Paul said:

 “For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?” (1 Co 3:4)

This passage of Scripture exposes the error people make when following and identifying with the teachers of God’s word and not Jesus Himself. Apostle Paul rebuked the idea of people identifying as followers of Christ based upon the teachings of man’s concept of Christianity.

Since the Roman Catholic Church’s concept of a Catholic (Universal Doctrine) church, followers of Christ have been using different types of grammatical “modifiers” to separate true followers of Jesus from the institutional identification of a Christian. The history of the Lord’s Church that developed along side the Roman Church used many different names to separate itself from the institution created by the Catholic movement. The book, The Church from Conception to Misconception, identifies many of these groups and their rejection of the teachings of Catholicism as they attempted to follow the teachings of Jesus in the past two thousand years.

The Great Awakening in the 18^th Century and the following “Awakening" movements, shifted the grammatical modifiers employed by Christians not to separate themselves from an institution but were employed for a different purpose. People were using modifiers to separate themselves into groups that were true followers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The grammatical modifiers now took on a new purpose; to identify with a movement or a theological teaching of a group. The Puritans and many ensuing groups employed the hyphenated words "Evangelical-Christian". These hyphenated words were chosen to separate true followers of the Gospel from the Christian religion’s many denominations. Evangelical is understood as “the good news,” or more commonly, the “Gospel.” The use of Evangelical-Christians now extends across all Christian denominations as people seek to self-identify with the Gospel and not a religious dogma.  

Billy Graham’s book How to Be Born Again, published in 1977, re-coined a true follower of Jesus as a born-again follower of Jesus. This biblical reference of Jesus’ words was spoken with His late night encounter with Nicodemus when Jesus said “… Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The words from this encounter have been universally adopted by the followers of Jesus to identify themselves as true converts to Christianity.

True followers of Jesus are people who have repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation and have rejected religious identification and self-produced works as a way into God’s Kingdom. The followers of Jesus who have rejected religious affinity and its works are attempting to separate themselves from the religious intuitional understanding of Christianity. Followers of Jesus have throughout Church history used grammatical modifiers to identify and to separate themselves as followers of Jesus.

It is a disheartening truth, many if not most of the people who call themselves Christians are not followers of Jesus but followers of a religious discipline that carries with it the name Christian. To call yourself a Christian and even devote yourself to religious activities does not make you a true follower of Jesus.

Let me remind you of Jesus’ warning to anyone seeking to enter into His Kingdom based on the religious identification or self-produced works.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Mat 7:21-23)

Jesus offers you no hope in religious works. When Jesus was asked about religion and its works that would allow entrance into His Kingdom, Jesus proclaimed the only “work” that allows anyone to enter His Kingdom with these words:

“This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29)   

How do you identify as a Christian; Baptist, Charismatic, Protestant,  Non-denominational, Catholic or some other church group? If you have not depended on the Gospel of Jesus, you are just a Christian in name only.

Repent today and call on the mercy of God through Jesus and you will be saved. God’s word encourages you, “… confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.” Following these instructions will change you and, “thou shalt be saved.” True salvation brings life changing experiences with both God and personal behavior, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” A born-again follower of Jesus has not only a change of mind and heart but will openly proclaim God’s work in their lives:

 “and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” (Rom 10:9-11)

What is your “Hyphen?” Whatever grammatical modifier you use to self-identify as a Christian, make sure you are indeed a follower of Jesus and His gospel and not the teachings of a religious group.