Second, I don't see how you can be a Christian WITHOUT believing everything in the NT.
Frankly, I don't care whether you think I'm a Christian or not.
Sorry. I wasn't intending that to be an attack, and I think it came across as one. I was intending to ask the question, "How can you be a Christian without believing all of the NT?"
Because if you doubt ANY of it then, in theory, all of it is fallible. If you believe all of it is fallible, then how can you believe so many of the difficult things that are essential for a strong Christian faith?
Honestly, I personally have to believe in ALL of the NT in order for ANY of it to make sense. And even then I have had to spend a LOT of time listening to lots of interpretations to really understand it all.
I have my beliefs... and ok, maybe I'm not sure about every word in the new testament. The 4 gospels were from people's points of view of what happened... and it's not like Matthew, Mark, Luke or John were around Jesus all the time. A lot of what is written in there is probably by word of mouth.
I do believe the majority of it... and I AM a Christian. I know TONS of people who are but dont believe in every word too! Some Christians think the bible is perfectly word for word account of what happened... and thats fine! Everyone has their opinions. There are no guidlines that say, "You can only be a Christian if you believe every single thing in the bible."
All that matters is that I love, worship and have complete faith in Jesus and what he stands for. In my heart I know I'm a Christian, even though I'm not strictly religious.
Fair enough.
My only issue though is still that if you doubt the Apostolic Witness then suddenly everything comes to doubt. And I, personally, would consider it arrogant of MYSELF to try and decide, thousands of years later, what the Apostles may have gotten wrong when writing the Gospels.
Granted, at this point someone has to throw in the Gnostic Gospels... but I don't even wanna touch that right now.