The Bible and the religious label
Ratzinger of Catholicism, “she is no longer, as she once was, a Church composed of pagans who have become Christians, but a Church of pagans, who still call themselves Christians, but actually have become pagans.”
The New Testament warns about religious labels. The
Jewish leaders of Jesus' day were not very bad people - Jesus himself said they
were religious and prayed a lot and fasted a lot and would make huge sacrifices
to get converts - but Jesus still said they were not really Jews for they were
not holy enough and were really hypocrites. The Bible says that only somebody
who is miraculously changed inside into one who has faith without reservations
and without cherry-picking is a real Christian. And as nobody can see the heart
but God it is up to God if he exists to judge who is a Christian and not the
census or the government. It is easy to call yourself a Christian while showing
no signs of a Christian faith. Labels can demean or hide the truth about what
you really are. The Christian labellers are really trying to get special rights
for those who claim to be Christian. It's dishonest.
St Paul denied that unrighteous Jews were really Jews. He said that circumcision makes one a Jew but sin reverses that initiation so the circumcision is then worthless.
Revelation 2:9 King James Version has Jesus saying to a section of the Church, I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Authoritive Christian tradition agrees. St John
Chrysostom wrote that Jewish Christian sect the Minei was neither Jewish or
Christian and was lying and blaspheming by claiming the names. He says
scholarship refutes their labelling.
The New Testament says a label means nothing unless you earn it.
Labellers ignore scholarship. It has the final say
if somebody merits a religious label or not. You have no right to
self-identify as a Mormon or Catholic for example if you are not baptised.