Is the term "Bible believing"really necessary when identifying oneself as a a Christian?

Father Joseph (Cristoiglesia) stated what I believe is the most important practical point about this matter. When people call themselves "Bible believing" Christians, they almost always are protestants, and by "Bible believing" they really are saying "Non-Catholic."

I'm irritated by the expression "Bible believing Christian" more than I am by most anti-Catholic epithets and rhetoric because it is an expression that seems to me to be used as a sort of "secret code" phrase. Christians who don't want to admit that they reject, and maybe even hate, the Catholic church use this phrase to identify themselves to other like-minded people. They know what they mean - "NOT Catholic."

People use the label very proudly, very often as a clear boast, declaring by innuendo that they are superior. It just strikes me as flatly contrary to Christian charity and humility. It also offends me because most people who label themselves as "Bible believing" use an abridged Bible (such as the KJV) that excludes seven entire books of the Bible.

Maybe the label is at least accurate in a particular sense. People who identify themselves specifically as "Bible believing" believe Christianity came from the Bible, and it is the Bible in which they have faith. We Catholics, of course, having written and compiled the Bible, certainly believe it, but we practice our faith within the community of faithful Christians that Jesus Christ established - The Catholic Church. We trust The Church that Jesus gave to the world, and we trust the Catholic Church's most famous text - The Bible. We do not, however, trust the Bible in isolation from the Catholic Church that gave it to the world. We know Jesus gave us a Church, not a book, and we trust the Church that Jesus gave us. As such, we trust The Bible, and we faithfully trust the Holy Spirit to guide our Church in teaching us the meaning of this beautiful sacred text.

I pray that all readers of the Bible will come to wonder more honestly and ambitiously how The Bible came into existence, and that their wondering will lead them to Jesus Christ and eternal salvation through the Catholic Church.

I am Roman Catholic.

Peace be with you, and with all who seek fully to accept Jesus Christ.

It sounds like it's basically away to imply that other people are wrong, or less "good" at being Christian.

It also sounds like, from some of these answers, many "Bible Believing Christians" don't know a whole lot about how the Bible was compiled.

I think it's either redundant, or it's meant to self aggrandize. Could you imagine some one typing "non-Bible believing Christian"?

hahahahahahaa. It is like, spouse-loving husband. A moniker is claimed by a minority who then redefine it narrowly. This puts those that do not agree with them as being a "normal Christian", not a "Bible Christian" The implication (though not what is stated) is that normal Christians and not Bible-believing.

While the statement is factually true, its intent is to mislead and vilify others. This is exactly the same kind of truth that politicians use. I call it a lie.

English communication requires that "extra" words have a reason for appearing. The adjective "Bible-believing" means that other Christians, and possibly you are not.

As with all miscommunication and lies, it is not playing nice and the person should be treated as any other liar.

It is not necessary. True Christians are mandatorily guided by the Holy Scriptures in their Christian way of life. To say you are bible believing only, will label you as that fanatic fundamental protestants - a very immaterial group of protestants crying out in the wilderness, that the majority will just ignore them.

"cristoiglesia" / Father Joseph, and "ex arcam" say it best so far, in my opinion, but I would like to add my two cents worth, or two points worth if you will. I have found that when many people here on Answers say "Bible believing", they are protestants trying to denigrate the Roman Catholic Church and Roman Catholics by inferring, and later stating, that, somehow, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't truly believe in the Bible or wholly follow it. How that can be possible, since the Roman Catholic Church is the reason why the Bible even exists, short of God Himself, is beyond me or any sensible and reasoning person. After these protestants took the Bible and butchered it like they have, how they can say we Roman Catholics don't believe in it, nor are familiar with it, is beyond me. I'm sure they identify themselves that way to serve their ignorance of and bias against The Church, and somehow it helps them put themselves up on some very shaky pedestal. God Bless you.

"Bible believing" Christians are those Christians who say that the words, actions and events of the Bible are always to be taken literally. [Though they, themselves do not always follow their stance!] They tend to be born again/Pentecostal/fundamentalist. One could even include the Jehovah Witnesses in the group. Personally I think they should be called "Bible only literalists". They do not accept the early and on going Sacred Tradition of Christians like the Orthodox/Roman Catholic/main line Protestants do in varying degrees.

It's not necessary, and often the persons who do that are being smug -- though some of them may not realize it.

The term sometimes implies that their Christianity is more perfect than the Christianity of others who believe things that aren't in the bible.

Take Catholics, for example, do who believe in the bible, but also believe things that aren't in the bible -- because Catholicism teaches that God didn't limit himself to the bible, but continues to provide revelation through the action of his Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised would happen (see the bible.) The Christian who says "I'm a bible-believing Christian" points out the difference between himself and those poor, deluded idolatrous slobs -- if you take my meaning.

But sometimes a Catholic might say it, too, to underscore that even though Catholicism teaches extra things, it also teaches everything in the bible.

I liken it to a marketing gimmick. It's like they're secretly acknowledging that protestantism is rootless, even though they're all "Bible Believing"...no no no, we're REALLY Bible Believers, because it's what we believe, not those other Christians who also use the Bible as the sole rule of faith who market themselves in the same way. Gosh, it makes my head hurt.

Why is it necessary to identify yourself in that way?

Unfortunately there are many "apostate" churches in this world who claim to be "Christian" but who deny the inerrancy and divine authority of the Bible. They use the Bible to give an air of authority and then they teach whatever they want to teach and distort Bible passages in order to "make them say" what they want them to say.

Just on this site alone I've run across people like that. There was one "pastor" and his wife from Maine who claimed that the Lord Jesus was a proud bisexual man, apparently based on a passage like this one.

John 11:5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Then there are "Christians" who have compromised what the Bible says about creation and miracles in order to accommodate scientific skepticism.

So it has become a necessity upon occasion for a Christian to distance them self from other people who also claim to be Christians with the addition of a "Bible believing" Christian.

there are people who say they are christian because they prayed the sinner's prayer but do not believe or agree with anything that the bible says... nor do they follow it...

I've had christians hate me when I tell them what the bible says... and was banned from christian chat rooms for telling them what the bible says...

so not a "christians" are bible believers...