Christians are those who believe they need a savior and have accepted such in Jesus Christ.
NO rituals or traditions needed! Only Jesus
Does that include baptist in christian chruches? They seemed pretty ritualistic to me (having been baptise as an adult in one).
How about the symbolic gesture of taking communion? Also ritualistic. (catholics beileve the bread IS Jesus, Christians believe it symbolizes the act)
I was told by a Chirstian Bible literalist that what makes you a Christian is accepting Jesus Christ died for your sins on the cross so that your entrance into heaven is guaranteed if you believe he did that for that reason.
If i remember it right the reasoning is this: We were born with sin. A because of this we cannot live without sin. (from the mouths of babes comes lies) Therefore we cannot make it to heaven. Before Christ, once a year the Jews would sacrifice a lamb to "cleanse" themselves. I forgot the name of the ritual. Jesus sacraficed himself to wash away (cleanse) our sins. So by accepting him as our savior our sins are washed away.
What always bothered me was when they pastor or minister would claim that with out accepting Jesus you were certain not to get into heaven. I always wondered about the other 5 billion people on earth, and why they already were dammed to hell so to speak.