Christian Pure

What Is a Christian? Meaning, Beliefs and How to Become One

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. The Greek Christianos comes from Christos, “anointed,” the Greek for the Hebrew word we render Messiah.
  • Jesus’ followers were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:26), and the word comes only three times in the New Testament.
  • The Nicene Creed, which the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and major Protestant churches all accept, sums up the faith they share in the Trinity, in Christ’s death and resurrection, and in his return.
  • The New Testament ties becoming a Christian to repentance, faith and baptism, and the churches stress different things: Catholic and Orthodox churches stress baptism, and Baptists a personal conversion followed by baptism.
  • About 2.3 billion people were Christians in 2020, and they belong to three main families of churches: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant.

A Christian is someone who follows Jesus Christ and trusts him as Savior and Lord. The name itself says so, because it comes from the Greek Christianos, “a follower of Christ.” Acts tells us where it was first heard: “the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Before anyone called them Christians, the believers were disciples, and Acts goes on using that word far more often. The new name may have started as a nickname in the streets…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Matthew 11:3, 11; 14:31; 22:37–39; 28:19; Mark 1:15; 9:23–24; John 1:41; 3:3; 13:35; 20:25, 27; Acts 2:38, 42; 11:26; 26:28; Romans 8:1; 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:22–23; Titus 2:13; 1 Peter 4:16). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
  • The Book of Common Prayer (1928, Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America). Morning Prayer, “the Creed commonly called the Nicene,” pages 15–16. Standard Book facsimile, Society of Archbishop Justus. https://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1928Standard/
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  • Tacitus. The Annals, book 15, chapter 44. Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (1876). Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Annals_(Tacitus)/Book_15
  • Ignatius of Antioch. Epistle to the Magnesians, chapter 10. Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885). https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0105.htm
  • O’Connor, John Bonaventure. “St. Ignatius of Antioch.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910). https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07644a.htm
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