# Traits and behaviors of new Christians

Christianity represents three distinct classes:

1. An *incredibly* small minority of tested believers who do *not* demonstrate any of the below traits. They are often [clergy](mgmt-church.md), but can sometimes simply be within the laity, and the Holy Spirit's presence often gives them tremendous [influence](power-influence.md).
2. A very significant minority of legitimate believers who haven't had their faith [tested heavily by fire](hardship.md) yet and perform many specific out-of-place behaviors as a consequence.
3. A dramatic majority of likely or potential believers who have false beliefs, but they imitate the [culture](culture.md) of the significant minority.

Most stereotypes and opinions about Christianity come from those last two classes.

Human nature has certain [universal qualities](humanity-universals.md), and God is most certainly the same God [throughout all history](https://theologos.site/god-sight/). So, when He begins a new work on a Christian, people will always show the same approximate characteristics, with a variance coming through the scope of their [personality](personality.md) and [culture](culture.md).

Legitimate Christians don't exhibit these behaviors for very long, probably 1-4 years. Eventually, they'll keep building healthier [habits](habits.md) and put their spiritual infancy behind them. However, it's a weird time, and it has shown itself with the same silly representations across two millennia.

## Odd doctrines

[Anti-denominational](history-church.md) sentiments.

- Anti-Catholic over their [vast variety of rituals](mgmt-church.md).
- Anti-Protestant over their limited scope of ritual.
- Belief that one denomination is more spiritual or correct than the rest.
- Belief that everyone in a particular denomination with [a false doctrine](conflicts-christian.md) is also non-Christian as a result.

Belief in extraterrestrials, potentially interpreting or referring to God Himself as an alien entity.

- Technically, God is an extraterrestrial, but also our Creator, so there's a much greater [power discrepancy](power-types.md) than simply a difference in [technology](technology.md) or [understanding](understanding.md).
- We are also created in His image, so He's not *that* foreign to our existence ([Genesis 1:26](https://biblehub.com/genesis/1-26.htm)).
- If other sentient life existed in this universe, those people would look stunningly close to us (i.e., be in God's image as well), and they'd have a similar story to our Garden of Eden.

Pantheistic leanings, which imply that all (or several) faiths point to the same God.

- [World religion theologies](religion-answers.md) are logically incompatible, so *someone* is clearly wrong.
- There's a clear set of consequences for non-practitioners of *any* faith, so there will always be *some* type of exclusivity based on some type of condition, even if it's simply purgatory or nonexistence.

Assertion that the scientific community's long-term time estimations have authority.

- [Science itself](science.md) is a powerful mechanism for understanding [reality](reality.md), but *scientists* are a community of fallen people, mostly atheists, who are usually trying to make everything in their environment completely [certain](understanding-certainty.md), even when things [*can't* be certain](unknown.md).
- The other end of this extreme is the assertion that the scientific community's assertions are *entirely wrong* about empirically known things.

Odd non-Christian beliefs that closely identify with Christian values (e.g., [Rastafarianism, Mormonism](religion-answers.md)).

- A new Christian may still be part of that religious community for a time, even if they've [accepted Jesus as their Lord](jesus-gospel.md).

## Extremism

Absolute [terror](mind-feelings-fear.md) about committing an unpardonable [sin](morality-sins.md), typically including "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit" referenced in [Mark 3:28-29](https://biblehub.com/bsb/mark/3.htm).

- They typically haven't internalized God's [undying love](https://theologos.site/devotion-chaos/) and have contextualized one Bible verse against the context of many other *far* more articulated parts of Scripture (e.g., a Christian's [new identity](identity-christian.md)).
- Every sin can be forgiven, and has been in Christ, but that doesn't mean it always [feels](mind-feelings.md) that way.

[Moral](morality.md) extremism, typically about things they previously idolized.

- They tend to attack their [interpretation](image.md) of things *much* more than the moral [reality](reality.md) of those things.
- Their efforts *must* stay contained toward their [sins](morality-sins.md), and then expand only to the things they have legitimate [influence](power-influence.md) over.

Treating their body as a despicable, awful thing they must perpetually damage or thwart.

- While our flesh has certainly died in Christ ([Romans 6:6](https://biblehub.com/romans/6-6.htm)), it's a *past-tense* reality.
- God's long-term goal is that we may be resurrected, free of sin, with a *new* body.
  - [Romans 6:8](https://biblehub.com/romans/6-8.htm)
  - [2 Corinthians 5:1-10](https://biblehub.com/bsb/2_corinthians/5.htm)
  - [Revelation 21:1-4](https://biblehub.com/bsb/revelation/21.htm)
- The true way to live in Christ is through self-discipline, *not* self-effacement.

Condemning specific genres of media (e.g., music, movies, video games).

- Everything of [quality](values-quality.md) is good, in its right place
  - [1 Corinthians 8](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/8.htm)

Complete individualism or antisocial behavior (e.g., claiming they only need Jesus and nobody else).

- God designed the Body of Christ as a vast collection of various people, each with unique [personalities](personality.md) and [gifts](spiritual-gifts.md)
  - [1 Corinthians 12:12-26](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/12.htm)

Extreme insistence on creating large-scale [political changes](politics-conservativeliberal.md) for a Christian cause (e.g., "end all poverty").

- Our [time with Jesus](spiritual-exercises-prayer.md) is more important than good political actions.
  - [Matthew 26:11](https://biblehub.com/matthew/26-11.htm)
- Most people who wrestle with political concepts often forget God's [long-term result](https://theologos.site/millennium/).

## Dismissiveness

Maintains [habitual](habits.md) [sins](morality-sins.md) out of ignorance or unawareness.

- Obviously, we all battle with sins, but they'll generally try to avoid the [consequences](results.md) of their sins while finding ways to keep doing it.
- Most [denominational](conflicts-inner.md) [cultures](culture.md) always have at least a few that even the *[leadership](mgmt-church.md)* dismisses as benign.

Confrontational or inappropriate behavior as a type of "ministry".

- They typically imply that God loves people but still permits awful things to happen to them, so sharing the truth is acting in [God's will](god-will.md), even if they're being rude.
- They're projecting their [family](church-family.md) background onto who God is and don't understand [His loving and gracious nature](god.md).
- Long-term, magnified [conflicts](people-5_conflicts.md) can provoke them to believe the logical consequence of their actions is a type of [martyrdom](hardship-persecution-church.md).

Engages in [cultural activities](culture.md) that God doesn't like.

- Most mind-altering [substances](addiction-substances.md) open spiritual gateways, which are an inherent risk to our souls.
- Any relationship with spiritual beings (e.g., divination, Ouija boards) builds [implicit contracts](people-contracts.md) that interfere with what Jesus has done and [plans to do](god-will.md).
- Sometimes, this can simply be over-identification with rebellious or anti-God cultural movements (e.g., punk, emo, goth).

## Misplaced Loyalties

Believing "Christian" media to be a vastly superior classification of media, even when it's [low-quality](values-quality.md).

- Many Christian [stories](stories.md) are absolute garbage because they don't give room for the experience to express itself.
  - Great stories tell fair-handed depictions of *both* sides of [a concept](values.md), then show the character deciding what the creator [believes](understanding-certainty.md) is the superior [decision](decisions.md).
- For whatever reason, many Christian creatives have zero [faith](trust.md) in their ability to convey the correct [meaning](meaning.md):
  1. The audience might not understand the implication that a bad thing is bad.
  2. The audience might understand the implication of a bad thing, but have moral sensitivities that may offend them.
  3. The audience may misunderstand why the creator is portraying a bad thing and attack them over it.

Allegiance to a [denomination](conflicts-christian.md) or its [culture](culture.md) more than the collective body of [believers in Christ](jesus-gospel.md).

- They don't see God's [ever-present efforts](https://theologos.site/god-sight/) to draw people from *every* nation, tribe, people group, and language.
  - [Revelation 7:9](https://biblehub.com/revelation/7-9.htm)
- They can often engage in trying to [convert others](power-influence.md) to their perspective more than converting others to the way of Christ.
- Frequently, they'll spend more effort arguing about how wrong other people are (and enhancing their [understanding](understanding.md) to that end) than [loving](people-love.md) other people enough to respect (and politely disagree with) their beliefs.
- At their most extreme, they'll believe all other denominations will go to hell, or that all [heresies](conflicts-christian.md) have equal spiritual significance.

Believing [prayer](spiritual-exercises-prayer.md) to answer every single problem.

- At its core, prayer is our release of control to God.
  - [Matthew 6:5-14](https://biblehub.com/bsb/matthew/6.htm)
  - [Luke 11:1-4](https://biblehub.com/bsb/luke/11.htm)
- We can only request something to Him humbly, and He can't be [bargained with](people-contracts.md).

## Ambitious

Trying to achieve righteousness through their strength and willpower alone.

- They haven't realized that only the Holy Spirit can grant our [spirits](humanity-christian.md) the awareness, [willpower](purpose.md), and means to [succeed](results.md) at [virtue](morality.md) and that He deserves all the credit for it.
  - [1 Corinthians 10:31](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-31.htm)

Complete belief that they can accomplish *anything whatsoever* as long as they trust God intensely enough to provide.

- They understand that God gives us [power](power.md) ([Philippians 4:13](https://biblehub.com/philippians/4-13.htm)) but fail to see that He delivers it abundantly according to [His desires](god-will.md).
  - [Matthew 6:10](https://biblehub.com/matthew/6-10.htm)
- Most of the time, they'll have a worthy goal that God wants as well, but they don't want Him to lead the experience.
  - [Proverbs 16:9](https://biblehub.com/proverbs/16-9.htm)
- They typically need to wait on Him more.
  - [Romans 8:25](https://biblehub.com/romans/8-25.htm)

Seeking spiritual experiences over [self-management](habits.md).

- Frequently, denominations that draw in people like this can create a dramatic spectacle of unregulated [emotional](mind-feelings.md) expression.
- They still haven't learned the scope of God's power, so they interpret unusual things but overlook [God's amazing feats of engineering](science.md) that He designed into our day-to-day existence.
- They also haven't realized yet that a spectacular redemption story doesn't show growth in Christ *nearly* as much as enduring trials.
  - [1 Peter 1:6-7](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_peter/1.htm)

## Chronic Symptoms

Much later, after a few months or years, if a person hasn't grown through integrating God's truths into [themselves](humanity-christian.md), they'll create many *new* [habits](habits.md) that merge the above domains into new, disgusting forms of religiousness.

Asceticism, or some other deep belief that the body is a bad thing.

- Frequently, they'll make tremendous sacrifices that self-abase and deprive their bodies in the name of spirituality, often associating the pain of self-deprivation as a form of spirituality itself.
- They haven't realized that their very *essence* is partly a body and that it's essentially an advanced animal they're supposed to restrain every day for *other* [moral](morality.md) purposes.
  - [Matthew 6:16](https://biblehub.com/matthew/6-16.htm)

Rigidity and denial to even *think* about [speculative](imagination.md) elements that expand on what the Bible alludes to.

- If we dwell on the Bible, we're going to ask questions (and form theories) about what God may have done before He created us, whether [God](god.md) has always been a Trinity, etc.
- Most of this is driven by [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) of heresy, but Christians will be improving their [understanding](understanding.md) for all eternity, so these ideas are worth peacefully discussing and wrestling with.

Complete openness to discussing [speculative](imagination.md) elements that have absolutely *no* grounding in the Bible.

- We must *constantly* renew our minds by conforming to the truths we discover ([Romans 12:2](https://biblehub.com/romans/12-2.htm)), so we must curb our imaginations to the [constraints](mind-creativity.md) of what we know to be [reality](reality.md).
- The ideas we entertain are often *heavily* influenced by those around us, which is why we must be careful who we associate with and for how long.
  - [1 Corinthians 15:33](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/15-33.htm)

Confronting others over broader-reaching spiritual matters that have zero day-to-day significance.

- They have obsessed heavily with some aspect of [theology](theology.md) (e.g., [the Millennial Kingdom](https://theologos.site/millennium/), [the Rapture](jesus-returns.md), [creation science](https://theologos.site/god-sight/)) and have transferred their lousy, [unloving](people-love.md) attitude to spiritual matters.
- The internet makes this situation particularly easy to abuse, especially on [message boards](networks-social.md).

Jealousy over another person's spiritual status.

- We all must maintain a [quiet humility](https://theologos.site/devotion-chaos/) about the station in life God has placed us in.
- Each person has their walk, and God holds them individually responsible.
  - [Romans 14:4](https://biblehub.com/romans/14-4.htm)

Harsh or inconsiderate [decision-making](decisions.md) about others' lives.

- They have likely let the world's methods of [power management](power-types.md) corrupt them (e.g., [management roles](mgmt-1_why.md)).
- This can often be expressed as [political activism](politics-conservativeliberal.md), especially in [a free society where the people have more power](politics-systems.md).

Once in a while, they'll become the [leaders](mgmt-church.md) of an organization that, in some way, advances many of the above.

- They have a worse fate waiting for them if they don't repent.
  - [Luke 17:1-2](https://biblehub.com/bsb/luke/17.htm)

## Signs of Growth

Some things are pretty clear demonstrations when they're *not* a new Christian anymore.

They've been at least somewhat [persecuted](hardship-persecution-church.md) for their faith.

- This can represent as simply being turned down in [a job interview](jobs-5_interview.md) or rejected from a social gathering.
- However, many contexts can extend it to public shame on an internet message board or an [inter-church conflict](history-church.md).

A general sense of peace about others' [decisions](decisions.md).

- Newer believers frequently try to get others to [change their minds](power-influence.md) toward [moral actions](morality.md) out of new spiritual desires, but they will eventually become familiar enough with [boundaries](people-3_respect.md) that those decisions will grieve them instead.
- Their [conflict](conflicts-inner.md) will become an internal struggle to [pray for them](spiritual-exercises-prayer.md) instead of an external [political aspiration](rules.md).

They'll find something lacking in mainstream Christian church services.

- They'll feel the weekly homily is weak or [theologically](theology.md) sparse compared to their personal studies.
- They will feel like many other believers are frequently not as committed to following Jesus as they are.
- Many times, they'll have moved through at least a few [denominations](history-church.md) to seek [more mature believers](spiritual-discipleship.md).

They may even accept a particular [cultural value](culture.md) they completely eschewed.

- They'll typically see how it may be a sin for *them* to engage in it, but that it may be fine for others.
  - [1 Corinthians 8](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/8.htm)

The long-term goals they aspire toward start incorporating the constant question over whether their actions are loving.

- [1 Corinthians 13](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/13.htm)