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“Google, What Is A Christian?”
Bored while driving down the road, I asked Google on my phone, “What is a Christian?” It instead defined Christianity. Curious what it said?“
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.”
What do you think of that answer? Substitute “Moses” or “Mohammed”, and you have the three related religions which elevates those two to the same level as Christianity. While there is a historical validity presented, it is almost totally devoid of what makes Jesus’s “Way” distinct – the gospel. Remove this essential component, and there is bumper sticker coexistence.
Although “Abrahamic”, this is more than a biological connection. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of a promise and not just a physical descendant (Galatians 3). We become heirs in being Christians.
While “monotheistic”, this is more than a numerical component. Jesus is God incarnate – The Son of God. If there is the Son of God, there is God the Father (Galatians 1:1ff). Neither Judaism nor Islam can accept this. We bow the knee to Jesus as Christians.
More than Abrahamic and monotheistic, “Christianity” professes the gospel of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1), and that distinction involves more than Jesus’s life and teaching.
Jesus is not just another wonderful example of how to live. Jesus is not another Ghandi, Confucius, or even an Abraham, or Abraham Lincoln. Jesus’s exalted example didn’t make Him so beloved by contemporaries that He lived to be an old, respected, man who died of natural causes.
Jesus’s “Way” is not a philosophy of ideas He taught, like Buddha, or stoicism. People looking for a better way of life will find Jesus’s teachings compelling. But as awe-inspiring as is the Sermon on the Mount, that alone is not enough. Jesus’s practical advice for a better life didn’t keep Him from being brutalized.
What is Christianity? It is Abrahamic, monotheistic, and much more. It is centered on the personhood of Jesus who is also Christ and Lord, and what He did that none else historically have done.
1. Jesus didn’t just live and die. He lived perfectly so as to be a sacrificial lamb.
2. Jesus didn’t just die and stay buried. The grave could not hold Him. He became the beginning of the resurrection for all. Jesus led an insurrection through the resurrection.
3. Jesus not only was a descendant of Abraham, He was the prophesied Son of David making Jesus a King, along with fulfilling hundreds of prophecies!
Now let’s apply this to my original question – What is a Christian? The gospel is about us being sinners in need of both a sacrifice and Savior, who after conquering sin and death, Jesus becomes our Sovereign, the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. Anything less is not enough. Anything less is another gospel. Both Judaism and Islam are centered on works as the means of salvation. This is another gospel (Galatians 1). Jesus is the only way of receiving righteousness.
I’m suspicious of Google’s introductory description. While any 14 word definition of Christianity will be insufficient, defining it by it’s common components so that it becomes just another religious “way”, is losing what makes Jesus’s way, the only way – Jesus.
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