by Stanley Courage Dugah

Created on: June 09, 2010   Last Updated: September 19, 2010

Living in a world so much saturated with diverse religious denominations, different schools of thoughts, and various biblical interpretations, some do wonder what makes a person Christian. This problem is further worsened by the unstable meaning of that particular word: Christian.

For the Jehovah Witnesses, a Christian is someone who believes that God is a trinity and that Jesus is God. They , however, do not consider themselves as Christians as they hold views contrary to that of mainstream Christianity.

Other religious denominations consider a Christian as someone who had come to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior, having confessed her faith by saying/reciting what is now popularly known as "the sinner's prayer." For these denominations, as soon as you confess Jesus as Lord, you have become a Christian with all its implications sort of guaranteed; a peaceful life here and heaven after death.

This view of who or what constitutes a Christian is however misunderstood and also privately interpreted by most people. Some consider it as not being all that different from Satan's subtle suggestion to most people; "Come on, you've already recited the sinners prayer. Heaven's guaranteed, you can now live like hell."

An unbiased look at who or what constitutes a Christian and a thesis on "how to know you're a Christian" will, however, be incomplete without a brief look at the origination of the word Christian and what it now stands for.

In doing that we dig into the scriptures and it's interesting to know that the first place that the word "Christian”" occurred was Acts 11:26 quoted below:

"And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."

An honest analysis of the above verse in the light of other verses and historical records will have to admit that the word Christian was not and never a sanctioned word used by the early members of the church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was rather a sort of nickname or derogatory term that critics or non-believers started using in reference to all they who believed in the Son of God; Jesus the Christ.

Doubters of this critic-argument may dig out etymological evidences to argue that the word Christian is not a derogatory term but rather a derived word from the Greek translation of Christ's Hebrew name, but it's at best doubtful even when 1

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