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Can a denomination which doesn’t believe in the divinity of…

Can a denomination which doesn’t believe in the divinity of Christ (but only His humanity) be referred to as a Christian denomination?

Discussion

51 comments

  1. Brock Tuttle says:

    I think we call that a Jew?

  2. Michael Hurtado says:

    No it cannot. The deity of Christ is essential doctrine.

  3. Bob White says:

    No

  4. Thomas Hoevelaken says:

    Those would be Muslims, who call Jesus a good teacher and a prophet.

  5. Shawn Howard says:

    That sir, is a resounding no.

  6. Clark Campbell says:

    No. The God of the Bible is Triune by nature. https://theo-tab.web.app/?p=element&abbreviation=th&v=120

  7. Kayla Sanders Clyde says:

    No, that is an essential. In order to be the mediator between God and Man, Jesus has to be both God and Man. Additionally, if Jesus was just man and just born of man, he would have had a sin nature from birth (Psalm 51:5) and would not have been the perfect sacrifice needed for the atonement of sins.

  8. Sheila Anne says:

    No.

  9. Cj Lebron says:
  10. Jo Jo says:

    Nope. Denominations that dont believe in Christ as who he is are cults.

  11. Marc Demers says:

    “Christian” is just a word. It was first used by Jews as an insult to those who believed Jesus was the Christ. Today we have “Christian” bookstores, “Christian” music, “Christian” romance novels, “Christian” movies… the word has become pretty watered down. Just tacking the word “Christian” onto something doesn’t make it holy.

    In Jesus’ own words He said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

    He’s not talking about unbelievers, He’s talking about people who call themselves “Christians.”

  12. Gina Draker says:

    No way!

  13. Kubowaki Julia says:

    No is an accult

  14. Noble Gill says:

    Even Muslim do believe the same

  15. Johny Goodwin says:

    No, definitely not, if we make Jesus any less than God we can’t worship Him as God, this is what cults do,
    Jws = Jesus is created
    Mormons = Jesus and the father are different gods
    Sda’s = Jesus is a created being
    Catholics = Jesus is God but subject to His mother

    The person and work of Christ is fundamental to ther gospel

  16. Dan Waenet says:

    No

  17. Jereme McAlpin says:

    No

  18. Leelamma S says:

    NO(a big NO)

  19. Kyle Nielsen says:

    No. That thinking was proved to be heresy in the 4th century.

  20. Yosef Kumi Ori says:

    NO

  21. John Cordaro says:

    No. It is essential to being a “Christian”, but it is not essential to being a true believer. A true believer will shun idolatry.

  22. Mark Beecher says:

    NO. I know this, first hand, because my wife came out of Christian Science – which she left (Thank God) – but her family is still immersed in, that claims to be a “Christian denomination,” but has as one of their doctrines, that “Jesus is not God.”

    All “denominations” in Christianity believe that Jesus is the Son of God and became the sacrificial Lamb of God – all based on the fact that Jesus, Himself, claimed to be EQUAL with YHWH/I AM and proclaimed that He was the I AM numerous times (which was the name The Lord told Moses to identify Him as), He accepted worship, people prayed to Him, performed miracles and raised people from the dead, including Himself.

    “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

    For example: Jehovah’s Witnesses & Mormons will try to claim they are “Christians” – this is not true, because of who they believe Jesus is!
    JWs believe:
    • Jesus is not fully divine. He is a created being. Jesus didn’t rise physically from the dead. Jesus came back secretly in 1914. They have their own different translation of The Bible.

    Mormons/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe:
    * DO NOT believe the Bible to be inerrant, complete or the final word of God. Jesus is the “Spirit Brother” of Lucifer/Satan. God/Elohim/Jehovah had physical parents. Jesus Christ is the first spirit child conceived and begotten by the Heavenly Father and one of Heavenly Father’s many wives – commonly referred to as “Heavenly Mother.”. Elohim came to earth and had physical sex with Mary. There is NO Original Sin.
    • Brigham Young (Mormonism’s 2nd president-prophet): “The Father came down and begat him [Jesus], the same as we do now…”
    • Brigham Young (Mormonism’s 2nd president-prophet): “The birth of the Saviour was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood—was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers.”

    Christianity is divided into many different groups called denominations. The first Church was not an organization, but Jesus’ apostles and friends. He said in Matthew 18:19-20: “Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

    The first Christian organization was the Catholic Church, which eventually broke into different denominations especially in the 1500s as a result of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Christianity is divided between Eastern and Western theology. In these two divisions there are six branches: Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Assyrians. Restorationism is sometimes considered the seventh branch.

    The major Protestant denominational families are:
    Adventists
    Baptists
    Congregationalists
    Lutherans
    Methodists
    Pentecostals
    Presbyterians

  23. Steven Wells says:

    No. They reject orthodox Haitian doctrine

  24. Steven Wells says:

    Sorry Christian

  25. Rodolfo Manzano says:

    NO! they are identified anti-Christ. Read 1John 2 :22 the one who denied Jesus is the Christ is anti-christ.

  26. Jason Edward Miller says:

    Maybe a Jesus Fan Group but not Christian. Christ means anointed one. Jesus means God saves. The fullness of those titles only work in context of the hypostatic union.

  27. Amporias Bible Facts says:

    No.

  28. Beck Margus says:

    I’m going to go against the grain here. Isn’t a Christian someone who follows the teachings of Christ? I think they can call themselves a Christian denomination. Just because they have a different understanding, doesn’t mean they cannot be Christian. They don’t believe Jesus is God in the flesh, but they often believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life just as the Bible states. I think this is why it is so important for churches (and individuals) to have a statement of faith, to make it clear exactly where they stand. I also think usually they can authentically say they are a Bible-based, Christ-centered church, but they would not add anything stating Jesus being God.

  29. Samuel Emmanuel says:

    No

  30. Chad Bruce says:

    Jesus has to be both God and man… I’ll tell you why. Humans were the ones who sinned and doomed to an eternity in Hell. That’s why the OT sacrifices were good but they weren’t perfect, because they were animals. It’s like if you asked for an apple and I give you an orange. Jesus needed to be the perfect human sacrifice in order to atone for humans. An apple for an apple. But He also needs to be God because God is eternal, so is His atonement for our sins. The once and for all sacrifice. He is forever seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven mediating and interceding on our behalf. The Bible says that salvation is of the Lord, so in order for there to be salvation for humanity, Jesus has to be both God and man.

  31. David Marple says:

    No,any religion that denies the diety of Jesus Christ is considered a cult.

  32. Bob Jones says:

    Cult

  33. Jeremy Bickel says:

    If you mean, “are they saved”, God knows each individual’s salvation or lack of it. It is God Who saves. Whoever blasphemes against the Son of Man, Master Jesus Christ, The Son of God, will be forgiven (Luke 12:10a). For the critical issue of who is a Christian, we need to teach and come together concerning Paul’s gospel, which is salvation doctrine (Romans 10:9-10 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-8).

  34. Lawrence Solomon says:

    No…

  35. Adam Dyess says:

    No. Christ means “annointed one”. The Christ announced Himself as the Son of Man. Read Daniel 7

  36. Obed Newmai says:

    I don’t think so…

  37. Skarlet Pike says:

    No, if Christ is not God, then He was a liar and not sinless.

    Also, you cannot believe on name of Jesus (translated into Hebrew: Yahushua, YHWH-our-salvation) if you think He is the Savior but is not YHWH God.

  38. Quinten Mane says:

    No

  39. Charles Flores says:

    Sure, still make them false though.

  40. James Menhenitt says:

    Nope. Phew, after my posts to Latter Day Saints, that was an easy one!!!

  41. Isaiah Hess says:

    No. Arianism in all of its forms is a deadly error.

  42. Stephen McCulloch says:

    What would you call them? They are not Jewish, Islamic, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu …

  43. James Wallace says:

    You can’t be a christian and not believe Scripture. John chapter 1 is very clear about Christ’s divinity

  44. Joseph William Luna says:

    NO!

  45. Keith Morris says:

    Not from an orthodox perspective

  46. Giro Tairo says:

    YES! John 20: 17. Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”

  47. Ken Green says:

    no

  48. Jared Bingham Bolton says:

    This is one of my favorites from CS Lewis

    “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

    ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

  49. Chris Meinken says:

    No

  50. Mimi Von Trapp says:

    No, to be Christian is to believe, through faith, that Jesus is the son of God AND God at the same time.

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