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Originally Posted by mrnoodle
To continue mangling the metaphor, it seems like what you're asking is, "If someone claims to be an apple tree, how do I know if they're telling the truth?" Well, see if there are apples on the ground.
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I'm not really asking that. I can see if there are, in my opinion, "apples on the ground" or not, irrespective of how the person defines themself - as a Christian, or not. And those "apples" are only from my perspective, anyway.
I guess it just seems like to me the word Christian has a personal meaning to each person, based on their interpretation of the message of Jesus. So, that's as many different definitions as there are people in the world. That's not a very useful meaning for the word.
The meaning I use is: people who go to Christian churches, and/or define themselves as Christian, are Christians. Since I can't see into the heart of each and every one of them, I just
respect their personal wishes to be defined however they see fit. That seems like the most fair, and most clear, way to define the word, to me. That's because I am intending this to be a real world definition for an actual, tangible human institution.