User:StAnselm/Nominal Christian

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization define a "nominal Christian" as one who "is a person who has not responded in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour and Lord." The LCWE notes that such a one "may be a practising or non-practising church member. He may give intellectual assent to basic Christian doctrines and claim to be a Christian. He may be faithful in attending liturgical rites and worship services, and be an active member involved in church affairs." The LCWE also suggests that nominal Christianity "is to be found wherever the church is more than one generation old."

Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk suggest that "nominalism" is a major issue. They assert that "many traditionally Christian populations know nothing of a personal faith, true repentance and a trust in the finished work of Christ for their salvation," and estimate that 1.2 billion people are "nominal and non-practising 'Christians'."Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, Operation World: 21st Century Edition (Paternoster, 2001), 13-14.

The concept of nominal Christianity was important in the thought of John Wesley, who contrasted it with "Real Christianity". Douglas Strong writes that Wesley often talked about "real Christianity" as a way of designating "vital regenerative faith in contrast to nominal or formalistic religion." Strong goes on to argue that Wesley taught that real Christians "had a conscious assurance of divine acceptance."Douglas Strong, "A Real Christian is an Abolitionist: Conversion and Antislavery Activism in Early American Methodism," in Kenneth J. Collins and John H. Tyson (eds.), Conversion in the Wesleyan Tradition (Abingdon Press, 2001), 71. Randy Maddox argues, however, that in the 1740s, Wesley dropped the motif of real Christianity and the distinction between a real and a nominal Christian.Kenneth J. Collins, [http://www.catalystresources.org/issues/273collins.html Current Theological Trends in United Methodism: A Critical Evangelical Assessment].

Some theologians disagree with the category of "nominal Christian". Douglas Wilson argues that all who are baptized enter into a covenant with God, and are obliged to serve him. There is, therefore, "no such thing as a merely nominal Christian any more than we can find a man who is a nominal husband."Douglas Wilson, Reformed is Not Enough: Recovering the Objectivity of the Covenant (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2000), 96. There are, however, "wicked and faithless Christians."Douglas Wilson, Reformed is Not Enough, 97.

• Cultural Christian
• Legalism (theology)
• Rice Christian

{{Reflist}}

• Eddie Gibbs, In Name Only: Tackling the Problem of Nominal Christianity. Fuller Seminary Press, 2000.
• Rommen, Edward. "A framework for the analysis of nominal Christianity : a West German case study," in Reflection and projection: Missiology at the threshold of 2001 : festschrift in honor of George W. Peters for his eightieth birthday (Bad Liebenzell : Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, 1988) p 322-337.

• [http://www.comprehensivechristian.com/The-Nominal-Christian-comprehensivechristian.com.asp The Nominal Christian]
• [http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/nominal.html Nominal Christians]