What Christian thinker has influenced you the most?

[Matthias]

A simple question from my X / Twitter “For you” feed this afternoon -

“What Christian thinker has influenced you the most?”

Pastor Rich Bitterman (@w_bitterman) on X

What Christian thinker has influenced you the most?

x.com

 

[TitusTwoWife]

Other than my husband, C.S Lewis.

 

[shepherdsword]

Francis Schaeffer more than likely. Although if we are talking about someone other than Jesus Christ I would say the apostle Paul

 

[Matthias]

There are four US Presidents carved on Mount Rushmore. Meaning no disrespect to them, if I were to replace them with four Christian thinkers who have influenced me the most ...

Tertullian, C.H. Spurgeon, Raymond E. Brown, and James D.G. Dunn.

 

[Lambano]

Just looking at whose names are on my bookshelves, C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, Steve Brown. Throw in John Barclay to make it a foursome. (Do they all count as "thinkers"?)

Might've added John MacArthur, but I got disillusioned with him as he seemed to lose his love as he grew older.

 

[ScottA]

Pastor Billy Rieder influenced me to leave (claimed that his seminary teaching was more true than the Bible). So I (we) did.

 

[Anchorite]

Charles Finney

TL Osborn

Andrew Murray

Tito Colliander (book The Way of the Ascetics)

EW Kenyon

Charles Stanley

Chuck Swindoll

Oswald Chambers

Billy Graham

Erwin Lutzer

 

[RandyDawson]

“What Christian thinker has influenced you the most?”

Jesus, Who is The Christ!

 

[RandyDawson]

Francis Schaeffer more than likely. Although if we are talking about someone other than Jesus Christ I would say the apostle Paul

Are you arminian?
I just saw this after serching on Francis Schaeffer

Francis Schaeffer expressed antipathy towards calvinism, particularly its deterministic views, and often emphasized the importance of human freedom in his teachings. While he initially identified with some calvinist ideas, his later works suggest a shift towards a more arminian perspective, focusing on free will and personal choice.

 

[Matthias]

Jesus, Who is The Christ!

Jesus, the Christ (or Messiah), is a Jew. (As are the apostles.) What does that infer?

 

[RandyDawson]

Jesus, the Christ (or Messiah), is a Jew. (As are the apostles.) What does that infer?

Jesus Christ is the only Christian thinker that has influenced me!
When I was a young believer there were a few preachers that influenced me for a while to not believe everything the Lord teaches in His book but the Holy Spirit the Lord gave me to be my teacher let me know these men were actually working for the devil. They were wolves in sheep's clothing.

Surely you don't claim someone other than Jesus Christ has influence you more that Jesus do you?

 

[Matthias]

Jesus Christ is the only Christian thinker that has influenced me!
When I was a young believer there were a few preachers that influenced me for a while to not believe everything the Lord teaches in His book but the Holy Spirit the Lord gave me to be my teacher let me know these men were actually working for the devil. They were wolves in sheep's clothing.

Surely you don't claim someone other than Jesus Christ has influence you more that Jesus do you?

No.

 

[Matthias]

Jesus, the Christ (or Messiah), is a Jew. (As are the apostles.) What does that infer?

The inference: Christianity began as a unique sect of Judaism, founded by Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, Son of the living God.

 

[Matthias]

What Jewish thinker has influenced you the most? Jesus of Nazareth.

 

[CoachedByChrist]

Dr. Charles Stanley belongs on this list. His steady, verse by verse teaching made God's will feel knowable instead of mysterious, and his seven questions for testing a decision still guard major choices today. Clear principles, calmly taught, tend to outlast louder voices. Grateful for teachers who point people back to Scripture.

 

[Lambano]

View attachment 92210

The inference: Christianity began as a unique sect of Judaism, founded by Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, Son of the living God.

Dr. Eisenbaum (who is Jewish) asserts that Paul was thoroughly Jewish, believed in a Jewish Messiah, and saw himself as an ambassador to the Gentiles to bring them into Covenant with the Jewish God as prophesied in the Jewish scriptures. I'm not sure I agree with her, but I found her work intriguing and an interesting spin off the "New Perspective on Paul" theologians like NT Wright, Richard Hays, JDG Dunn, and Krister Stendahl (but not yet Ed Sanders). I also like the provocative title.

Perhaps I should've introduced this one in the (thoroughly ridiculous) thread about Christianity not being derived from Judaism.

 

[Anchorite]

Jesus Christ is the only Christian thinker that has influenced me!
When I was a young believer there were a few preachers that influenced me for a while to not believe everything the Lord teaches in His book but the Holy Spirit the Lord gave me to be my teacher let me know these men were actually working for the devil. They were wolves in sheep's clothing.

Surely you don't claim someone other than Jesus Christ has influence you more that Jesus do you?

I understand the desire to avoid human teachers when you were misguided by some in the past. I have experienced that dreadful situation myself.

But God has given teachers to the body of Christ.

There are several Bible teachers that I like, but I do not accept everything they teach. Some do not understand or teach divine healing, for example. Others think war and military service for Christians are okay.

I listen to sermon videos on YouTube and enjoy them.

We must exercise scrutiny when encountering a Bible teacher, but we can also be humble and recognize that certain men have studied and contemplated and can enrich our lives with their understandings.

Ephesians 4:11, 12 - And He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

 

[Anchorite]

Dr. Eisenbaum (who is Jewish) asserts that Paul was thoroughly Jewish, believed in a Jewish Messiah, and saw himself as an ambassador to the Gentiles to bring them into Covenant with the Jewish God as prophesied in the Jewish scriptures. I'm not sure I agree with her, but I found her work intriguing and an interesting spin off the "New Perspective on Paul" theologians like NT Wright, Richard Hays, JDG Dunn, and Krister Stendahl (but not yet Ed Sanders). I also like the provocative title.

Perhaps I should've introduced this one in the (thoroughly ridiculous) thread about Christianity not being derived from Judaism.

Eisenbaum, a Jewish New Testament professor teaching at a Christian seminary, argues that later biblical texts, particularly the Book of Acts and subsequent church traditions, mischaracterized Paul as having broken away from Judaism.

Traditional Christian apologists and some theologians argue that Eisenbaum draws too sharp a line by assuming "Jewish" and "Christian" are mutually exclusive categories in a way that minimizes Paul’s radical Christology.

Some critics suggest she underplays how Paul's reinterpretation of the law and faith in the crucified and resurrected Christ genuinely broke with mainstream Pharisaic Judaism of his day.

If we say that a Christian for Paul would be someone who saw Jesus as the resurrected Messiah and Lord of all, then we could definitely say that Paul was a Christian.

The problem is that Eisenbaum argues throughout that Paul never ceased to be a Jew so he would not have been a Christian, but this makes it be that if one is a Jew, one cannot be a Christian, and vice-versa.

So if Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, and He is, what could be more in line with being a Jew than believing in the Messiah of the Jews?

Ironically, Eisenbaum, who is arguing that Christianity does not mean opposition to Judaism, has herself created an opposition to Christianity in her work. That one cannot be a Jew and a Christian both would certainly be news to many Messianic Jews today.

 

[RandyDawson]

What Jewish thinker has influenced you the most? Jesus of Nazareth.

Yessir!

Dr. Charles Stanley belongs on this list.

That's very unfortunate for those that listened to this man.
He didn't know his way around the bible very well.

 

[RandyDawson]

But God has given teachers to the body of Christ.

Yes and God gave THE Teacher, Who is the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit lets me know if I should be listening to someone or not so He's the One I'm called to put first place.

We must exercise scrutiny when encountering a Bible teacher

Yes we surely do, like the Bereans did. They didn't just accept what the Apostle was teaching them and get all googly eyed just because they were talking to the Apostle Paul.

No, the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to check whether the teachings they heard from Paul and Silas were true or not (Acts 17:11–12). Difference being, today most people believe a preacher to be true if he has a large church, followers to tell everyone how great they are, and people really think they are speaking truth if they are on the radio, have a TV show, or have social media channels with a lot of subscribers.

In other words with most people, just show them a little something flashy and they'll follow just like getting a pet monkey's attention by showing them something flashy. For many, the truth of God's word is not what gets them excited, it's the show and the entertainment that gets them excited and if they get some goose bumps than they're all in!