Should we use the term “Christian” to describe ourselves as True Believers?
The reason the designation "Christian" is rarely seen in the Bible is that it was neither a term given by Yehovah nor a label True Worshipers used for themselves. Instead, it was applied to followers of Yehoshua by the Greeks.
As Acts 11:26 notes, the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch—the original term being Christianos, with the -anos ending common in Grecian Asia. Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament observes, "The name was coined by pagans of the first century to mark the Greek followers of the Messiah/Christ as distinct from those who worshiped the Roman emperor, known as Caesar."
The New Shaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge reinforces that the term "Christian" did not originate among True Worshipers. Instead, believers called each other "the brethren," "the saints," "the disciples," or "the faithful." The Jews, for their part, used the terms "Netzari/Nazarene" or "the Way."
Another reference notes, “Wide use of the name did not become common in the empire until the reign of Hadrian (117-138 C.E.) or Antoninus Pius (138-161 C.E.). Pagans, unfamiliar with the confessional title ‘Christos’ (Messiah), misconstrued it as a personal name,” Mercer Dictionary of the Bible, p.142. It adds, “By the late first and early second centuries, the name ‘Christian’—which early believers avoided—was beginning to gain acceptance.”
Early New Covenant believers called their faith "the way," not “Christian.” They saw themselves as followers of Yehoshua/Yeshua’s WAY of truth, the Netzari/Nazarene. Acts describes their beliefs as this “way” (see Acts 9:2; 18:25-26; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14; 22—compare John 14:6). Jews who rejected Yehoshua called His followers Nazarenes, Acts 24:5, or heretics, Acts 28:22, 24:14, or Galileans.
We do not follow a Greek “Christos” or a modern Greco-Roman style of worship. Instead, we follow the true Hebrew Messiah, Rabbi, Savior, Yehoshua, and the original Hebrew faith, as in Jude 1:3.
We use “Believers of The WAY” or “Netzarim/Nazarenes” to identify those faithful to Yeshua’s truth.
Calling the Savior by a Greek title obscures the fact that He is a Hebrew from Judah. Our Savior said salvation is of the Jews, John 4:22, not the Greeks.
The Roman Governor Agrippa used “Christian” contemptuously in Acts 26, mocking Paul: “In a short time [and with so little effort] you [almost] persuade me to become a Christian.” (Amplified, verse 28). Agrippa knew that being called a “Christian” risked losing his governorship.
By Rabbi HaTzair Francisco Arbas