Are there any Christians who only accept the gospels?
Upvote:1
Like bruised reed said, there was/is the Jesus Christians. An individual who is probably a former member/associate of the group mentioned once during a live stream (or a video) that there is a group in South America that practices similar ideas, but differs with them on the indifference belief in the Trinity has. Whether or not this is just a portion of Jesus Christians we can't be sure.
The Jesus Christians were started by Dave and Cherry McKay in the early '80s. They adhered to the idea that every church across the globe had abandoned the truth of Jesus' message in favor of a comfortable and stable relationship with a non-Christian world. Jesus' message of radical love for all people, especially the oppressed and downcast of society, was thrown out for (in their view) an apostate albeit well-intentioned gospel of wealth. They held firmly to the idea of Jesus as not just the Son of God, but as the world's last and greatest teacher.
The Jesus Christians anticipated that the end of days and final judgement in the book of Revelation would soon come to pass, with humanity's reliance on credit cards and obsession with financial gain being precursors to the Mark of the Beast, which they saw would come as a technology similar to RFID chips today. As a result of an apocalyptic worldview, they believed that preaching or studying any other book of the Bible besides the four gospels was overall pointless and a waste of time spent preparing.
Despite their unusually devout views, the Jesus Christians were surprisingly universalist and had no strict theology or canon of books to derive inspiration from. They held the view of non-sexual masturbation (as opposed to looking at p**n) being almost necessary for most men, as well as highly suggesting celibacy, and while holding the Bible in high esteem, they did not regard it as infallible in nature (not even the four gospels), but as simply inspired by God.
Upvote:8
Perhaps there are/were others, but the 'Jesus Christians' are the closest sect I'm aware of that matched your description (they are of relatively recent history - beginning in the early 1980s until officially disbanding in 2010: although their website is still being maintained and updated, so perhaps reports of their demise are premature). While not completely denying the inspiration of other scriptures, they placed much lesser value on them than the words of Jesus.
One of the striking consequences of their distinctive beliefs was the emphasis they place on 'living by faith' by not taking on salaried employment, and believing this is the normative pattern for all true followers of Christ and additionally the positive promotion of celibacy (marriage not forbidden, but classed as an inferior option).
Overall, I would describe them as a bit like Protestant Franciscan friars except for not recognising any authority beyond the words of Jesus and their groups interpretation of them and being highly sectarian (at least the two Jesus missionaries I encountered in 2005 gave me that impression).
More post
- 📝 Who is a Christian according to the Catholic Church?
- 📝 Does the right side have a higher status than the left?
- 📝 Where are the majority of Roman Catholic converts from today?
- 📝 Is a claim of 50,000,000 Baptist martyrs accurate?
- 📝 Why don't Catholics believe that Christ's atonement removed Original Sin?
- 📝 Evidence of Jesus being either autistic or having difficulty speaking?
- 📝 What steps are involved in Catholic churches divorce investigation?
- 📝 What do Catholic traditions say was the real name of St. Thomas?
- 📝 Exodus as justification for political or religious terrorism?
- 📝 Is it biblical to burn the heretics?
- 📝 What influence did Greek philosophy have on the formation of orthodox Christian doctrine?
- 📝 Did John Bunyan really dream the Pilgrim's Progress? Had he memorized all the verses?
- 📝 What might the capitalization of the word "church" indicate?
- 📝 Can the doctrine of Continuationism be logically deduced from Scripture via deductive reasoning?
- 📝 The Godfather Baptism Killings
- 📝 Why are the Jesuits and Society of the Sacred Heart gender specific?
- 📝 What exactly does it mean that Jesus Christ is the son of God?
- 📝 Which U.S. bishops are unfaithful to Church teaching on h*m*sexuality and LGBT ideology?
- 📝 Is it against the LDS Word of Wisdom to use marijuana as medicine?
- 📝 What is the source of the phrase "in your chamber bewail your sins"?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the claim that abortion is immoral?
- 📝 How do opponents respond to the Grace Gambit?
- 📝 Venial sin and James 1:15
- 📝 Does the bible support Ethno-Nationalism?
- 📝 Why did the disciples cast lots when the Holy Spirit was promised
- 📝 How were Jewish sacrifice different?
- 📝 Has a pope ever visited Macau?
- 📝 If a Pope does something wrong, or less than ideal, who is he representing?
- 📝 According to Trinitarians, why does Jesus glorifying himself amount to nothing?
- 📝 Did Lucifer’s sin in Heaven defile the Heavenly Sanctuary?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Are there any Christians who only accept the gospels?
- 📝 Are there any groups of Christians who believe that all loans made with their money should be made without the expectation of repayment?
- 📝 Are there any Christians who are partially cessationist with regard to the gifts of the Spirit?
- 📝 Are there any Christians who reject the canonicity of the whole protestant Bible?
- 📝 Are there any churches that do not accept the teachings of Paul?
- 📝 Are there any Christian denominations that don't believe Jesus is the only way to salvation?
- 📝 Other than non-Trinitarian, what terms are there for Christians who don't believe in the trinity?
- 📝 Are there any denominations that baptize ONLY in the Name of Jesus?
- 📝 Are there any Christian denominations that reject some of the gospels in the New Testament?
- 📝 Are there any denominations that accept the gap theory?
- 📝 Are there published testimonies from Christians who independently discovered the doctrine of the Trinity on their own by just reading the Bible?
- 📝 Are there any authors that who believe Eph. 4:11 is not describing titles but general characteristics of how God created the church to work together?
- 📝 Are there any individuals who are claiming to be the pope that are not Pope Francis?
- 📝 Are there any Christians who understand Daniel 10 implying that there is an evil spirit prince over each country?
- 📝 Are there any trinitarian Christian denominations that believe one should only pray to the Father, not to Jesus?
- 📝 What parts of Protestantism accept that there are some on earth who 'smite the earth with plagues' till the end of time (Revelation 11:6)?
- 📝 Are there any known Eastern Catholics who have received the stigmata?
- 📝 Are there any extra-biblical writings that document what the early Christians believed about the second coming of Christ?
- 📝 According to Latter-day Saints, are all Christians who are full of the Holy Spirit unequivocally led by the Spirit to accept the truth of Mormonism?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, is are there any teachings or traditions about who was the host of the house where Jesus celebrated his Last Supper?
- 📝 Are there published testimonies from Christians who had the truth of the Trinity revealed to them through the Holy Spirit?
- 📝 Are there any Reformed theologians who support the practice of mindfulness (inner body awareness)?
- 📝 Are there any Early Church Fathers, Doctors of the Church or Catholic Saints who believed the world would possibly end by a comet hitting the earth?
- 📝 Are there any Christians who are scientists and believe in modern miracles?
- 📝 Are there any examples of sarcasm in the bible?
- 📝 What is the Biblical evidence that there are ONLY three persons in the "Trinity"?
- 📝 According to Evangelicals, before the Reformation, who were Christians if “Catholics are not Christians”?
- 📝 Are there any writings from the church fathers teaching Original Sin before Augustine?
- 📝 Are there any statistics that show how many scientists are Christians or otherwise believe in a personal God?
- 📝 Are there any surviving hymns from the Valdensian movement?