The distinction between “Saved” and “Christian”
The distinction between “Saved” and “Christian.”
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians writes:
I do think it is important and even necessary sometimes to distinguish between “saved” and “Christian.” Surely there have been (and I hope are) people who were saved in the sense of having a right relationship with God, but who should not be considered Christians in the sense of explicit Christ followers. I would put some heterodox persons in that category. They claim to be Christians (e.g., Mormons), but I have difficulty acknowledging them as Christians in the full sense. And yet, I do not necessarily question their salvation. Whether someone or some church or organization is “Christian” is a theological judgment; whether someone is truly saved is a judgment best reserved to God. If someone claims to be saved in the sense I mean it--reconciled with God by faith in Jesus Christ--I tend to believe him. But that does not mean I would automatically consider him a Christian.
Consider for example the case of a God-fearer in Rome (or anywhere in the Roman empire) during the earthly life and ministry of Jesus Christ in Palestine. Presumably that person was “saved” in the sense of having Abrahamic faith and thereby right with God (like Cornelius). But what if that person died a month or a year after Jesus’ death and resurrection? Would he go to paradise? Surely he would. And yet without every being a Christian. If someone says the person went to hades (or wherever the wicked go after death before the resurrection) he would be implying (and more) that the person was unsaved by Jesus’ death and resurrection. That’s ridiculous. So this alone is proof that there have been persons in history who were saved but not Christians. I carry that distinction into today and believe (for myself, anyway) that there are many people who are saved by implicit or explicit faith in the messiah of God who either have not yet heard the name Jesus or who have but have a very distorted idea of who Jesus is and who God is, etc.
So, I consider all saved persons my brothers and sisters (some Mormons included) without making the theological judgment that they are yet Christians. I would include many Baptists in that category (to pick on my own family of faith) because, in my experience, they have faith in Jesus Christ, but their beliefs are all messed up or they have quit going to church altogether or something else.
I wonder if some persons in this present discussion are saying that some Calvinists are not Christians in the full sense (because they worship a different “god”) even though they are saved and therefore our brothers and sisters. I don’t know; I'm only expressing a hypothesis to be confirmed or denied.
In any case, I do consider most Calvinists Christians because I recognize this debate (between us and them) as one that has endured for 1500 years and probably will go on until Jesus returns and it is not over any essential of the faith but over doctrine or opinion (not dogma).
