Judas Was a Christian?

Wilson begins by asking the question, “What is a Christian?” He makes the observation that the word is only used in the NT three times: Acts 11:26, 26:24-29 and 1 Peter 4:14-17. In each case the source of the name is not from Christians themselves, but from outsiders looking in.

Wilson goes on to make the point that the modern use of the phrase “becoming a Christian” is not found in the Bible. It is often used to described spiritual birth.

Wilson then goes on to look at the OT as an analogy of the NT. There there is the concept of covenant membership which has the sign of circumcision. However, not all Israel is Israel (Rom 2:28-29). This is directly applied to Christians and baptism. Not all who are baptised are born again. The need to be come Christian “all the way through”! To have baptism but not life is to bring judgment on oneself.

Two errors:
Pietism - there is only one kind of Christian - the internally alive kind.
Hypocrisy - the one who is baptised yet not born again.

[Does the 1 Peter quote really imply that the Christians themselves did not own the title?

Assumption of complete continuity of the covenant.

The assumption seems to be that to be baptised is to become 'Christian'. It is a photographable evidence.]

Categories: WilsonD, Reformed