There are a variety of terms in the New Testament for what we routinely refer to as "a Christian". That is our common term for it. Interestingly, that term occurs only three times in the New Testament, and all in the book of Acts. What are some of the other terms?
One very common term we use, of course, is believer. That one occurs in the Bible as well, but only twice. To be fair, there is a whole lot more when we include "those who believe" or something like it. So that's a fairly common biblical nomenclature. Another one we're quite familiar with is "brother". That one is a little harder to count because the term is used to reference either blood relations or spiritual relations. Still, there are a lot of them. Very popular biblical term. Another one that tends to confuse is the term "saints". The Roman Catholics have corralled that term to reference a special, extremely limited group of people who achieve a higher status of godliness than anyone else. The Bible doesn't use the term that way. It simply references anyone who has been made holy by God, set apart, declared righteous. You know, anyone who is a genuine Christian. One of the other most common terms in the Bible is "called" or "chosen". This term shows up in a variety of forms. It might be "the elect" which is simply a reference to "the chosen". It might be "called". It might be "chosen". It might even be a combination, as in Rev. 17:14 where we are referred to as "called and chosen and faithful". In fact, this term, "elect", and its variations seems to be one of the most popular biblical terms for "Christian".
Oddly, it isn't one of our favorite biblical terms? Why is that? Well, first there is the problem of favoritism. The root meaning of the Greek word for "the elect" is actually "the favorite". If God is choosing people, it implies that He likes them better than the ones He is not choosing. Clearly it's favoritism, and when it comes to eternal outcomes, that's not nice nor is it fair ... right? The corollary to favoritism is the problem of superiority. I mean, if I am one of the chosen, I'm somehow better than those who are not ... right? And, of course, the whole mechanism of choice comes into question here. How does God choose? Does He choose capriciously, just on a whim, without any reasons at all? Or maybe He wisely chooses the best? No, no, surely He chooses the ones He knows will choose Him, right? But isn't that the same as choosing the best? And what of those not chosen? Was it their fault? Did some of them want to be chosen and just got left out because God decided not to choose them? Of course not! That would just be mean! But the question still hangs there.
Here's the problem. If the Bible refers to us as "the elect", and does so with gusto, what does it say about us when we balk at it? If we are clearly called "the chosen" and we refuse the term, is it the term that is in question or is it our attitudes and perceptions? If God's Word likes to refer to God's people as "the elect", it would seem to me to be arrogance on our part to refuse the term.
2 comments:
I thought there were more than two occurrences of the term "believer" in the book of Hebrews, but I will bow to your superior track record for study since I don't have the time to go look for myself now.
I suspect the issue is again how Christians are perceived by non-Christians. It's unusual that so many Christians worry about what non-Christians think of them and their faith. You certainly do not see that kind of preoccupation by adherents of other religions. Kind of makes you wonder if there is a specific sin that is being committed there, doesn't it?
"I thought there were more than two occurrences of the term 'believer' in the book of Hebrews"
I suppose it would depend on what version you're reading to some extent, wouldn't it? Oddly, in the New Living Translation (which had the most uses of "believer" that I found) there are still no uses of that term in the book of Hebrews. Of course, as I said, other variations (like "those who believe" and so on) certainly add to that number.
I can imagine that how we are perceived outside would be an issue -- a poor one, but I can see it. But it's inside that baffles me. One fellow believer told me "If we're chosen by God, I'll just become a member of the KKK because it's the same thing." (I don't fully understand, but that's what he said.)
Post a Comment