What makes you a Christian?

(Written by Bill Keller)
One of the things that has greatly troubled me recently, is the number of people who say that they believe in God, say that they are a Christian, yet have no problem supporting choices that are clearly defined in God's Word as sin.

My friend, Jesus said it best when He said that "no man can serve two masters." The Christian faith is not a smorgasbord where you can pick and choose what you like. You can't claim to have faith in Christ, yet support the things that the Bible speaks against. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CHRISTIAN MODERATE, to borrow a political term. Either God is real, or He is not.

Let me first clarify what a Christian is. A Christian is a person who has made the personal choice to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins, repent (turn away from) of their sins, and ask Christ into their heart by faith (John 3:16, Romans 10:10, Ephesians 2:8,9). It is your personal faith in Christ that makes you a Christian.

The church you belong to cannot save you. Having a priest or pastor baptize you when you were a baby did not save you. Living a good life does not save you. The fact that your parents are Christians cannot save you. Only making the choice to ask the Lord to forgive your sins, repent or turn from your sins, and ask Christ into your heart makes you a Christian.

If this is not something that you have never done, the Bible says that TODAY is the day of salvation. Pray, ask God to open your heart, then go to my blog http://christ-education.blogspot.com/ and look at Blog Archive in May. The article is “How you can become a Christian today”. God has made it so easy, but it is a choice that only YOU can make.

Once you have gotten to this point, the next step is that you MUST accept the Bible as God's inspired, inerrant Word. It is IMPOSSIBLE to be a Christian and not accept the Bible as God's Word. You see, to come to Christ by faith, you have accepted that this is God's plan to give his creation which is separated from Him because of their sin, a way to come back into His everlasting fellowship. This is God's ONLY plan!

That is why faith in Buddha will not save you. That is why faith in Mohammad will not save you. That is why faith in a golden statue will not save you. It is ONLY faith in Jesus Christ that saves you because it was Jesus Christ who God sent to die for your sins! He was God's perfect sacrifice to give fallen man a way back into everlasting fellowship with Him. So if you accept THAT, then you have to accept the ENTIRE BIBLE as God's inspired, inerrant Word. It can't be only part right!

The reason is God cannot lie. The Bible is an all or nothing proposition, it is either ALL true, or NONE of it is true. This is very serious, so please hear what I am saying to you today. You can't live your faith with one foot in the world, and one foot in the church. You either believe it all, or you don't really believe any of it. Either God is true, and we can count on EVERYTHING He says, or God is a liar, and we are the most foolish of all people. My friend, there is NO MIDDLE GROUND.


This is where so many Christians break down in their life. They simply don't want to let go of the things of this world. The fact is, this life is only a brief journey anyway. When it is over, the things of this world will be gone, and the ONLY thing that you will be left with is the fact that you have Christ in your heart, or you have rejected His love for you.

I realize that this is difficult for so many of you to read. I already know that there will be some very angry emails about how intolerant I am, how the Christian faith is horrible for excluding so many good people. Does this mean your Jewish friend who is a "good person" but never accepts Jesus is going to hell? YES! Does this mean that the family member you love but rejects Christ is going to hell? YES! Does this mean those kind people you work with that embrace Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or some other false religion are going to hell? YES!

The lie of the world is that "all good people will make it." The lie of this world is that there are "many roads to God." Those are LIES my friend, straight from the pits of hell! God made only ONE PLAN of salvation, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. There are no other plans, no other ways to God, since it is our sin that separates us from a Holy God, and it was only Jesus who died for our sins. That is why it is ONLY faith in Jesus Christ that can save you!!!

I will be praying for you today. Praying above all that you realize how serious it is to make a full and total commitment of your life to the Lord. The fact is when we ask Him into our hearts, the Bible says that it is no longer our life, but that it belongs to Him. We surrender our life to Him.

I realize as much as anyone how unpopular our faith can be to the world that we live in. The sad fact is, much of that world is lost, hurting, and living without ANY hope. They have chosen to reject God and live life the way they want to. That is fine. God has given everyone the free will to make that choice.

Sadly though, no matter how they may appear on the outside, inside they never experience the true joy, peace, and abundance that this life has to offer. As they get older, they start to realize that there has to be more to life, and in their search for God, get caught up in every kind of New Age, crazy philosophy that exists. What they are REALLY looking for is the peace that ONLY comes from a personal relationship with Christ.

As a Christian, you, me, each one of us, is called to be a light to this dark world that we live in. We can ONLY let our light shine bright when we are living fully, 100% for HIM. If you believe that God is real, TODAY is the day to make sure your life reflects that belief!