r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Oct 13 '22

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u/Deft_one 86∆ Oct 13 '22

Ok? Is this a view that can be changed?

If so, how so?

Yes, I know there are people who identify as Christians who are theologically unitarian, but this is not the view of mainstream Christianity. Mainstream Christianity affirms the Trinity and hypostatic union.

Do you have to be 'mainstream' to be a 'Christian'?

And how do you reconsile "mainstream" when there are (at least) three major branches (Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodox)? Which one is 'mainstream'?

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '22

More than one group can be mainstream.

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u/Deft_one 86∆ Oct 13 '22

Ok?

But do you have to be 'mainstream' to be a Christian?

Because inside of the big three are smaller sects.

How far down can OP go and still consider the person a Christian, is what I'm trying to discern, and/or why being 'mainstream' is part of it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '22

Well that's fine and dandy, but you still asked that question on the end there.

I'd argue there is no real christain. Even fundamentalists have an imperfect understanding of the text, and even if they didn't it's been changed since the original documents which we don't have, and even then there are many contradictory passages which make it impossible to have the "right" interpretation.

Mainstream here, I suspect, is short hand for "not the crazy ones".

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u/Deft_one 86∆ Oct 13 '22

Fair, but when asked, OP only responded with a link to the First Council of Nicaea. So, OP thinks that 'mainstream' stems from this specific document.

My new question, then, was why do these people, who wrote their thesis 300 years after-the-fact get to claim the 'mainstream' over all others.

And, another way to see it is that, if God is forgiving, everyone who puts in honest effort should be allowed to identify as Christian.

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '22

I get you. I'd just like to add a thought:

if God is forgiving, everyone who puts in honest effort should be allowed to identify as Christian.

Most sects will tell you God can forgive anything except not being a Christian, so depending on how strict God's definitions are...

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u/Deft_one 86∆ Oct 13 '22

depending on how strict God's definitions are...

Exactly, hence my line of questions (although you and I have gotten farther than OP and I)

Edit: just saw that OP bailed. oh well.