A term commonly used in the religious world, to denote any person who makes an open acknowledgment of the religion of Christ, or who outwardly manifests his attachment to Christianity. All real Christians are professors, but all professors are not real Christians. In this, as in all other things of worth and importance, we find counterfeits. There are many who become professors, not from principle, from investigation, from love to the truth; but from interested motives, prejudice of education, custom, influence of connections, novelty, &c. as Saul, Jehu, Judas, Demas, the foolish virgins, &c.
See article CHRISTIAN: Jay's Sermons, ser. 9; Mead's Almost Christian; Bellamy's True Religion delineated; Shepherd's Sincere Convert, and on the Parable of the Ten Virgins; Secker's Nonsuch Professor.
Despite a stated reliance on the plain meaning of the Bible and the dictates of common sense, Buck's Theological Dictionary, first published in London in 1802, seeks to provide a textual basis for the evangelical community. By combining brief essays on orthodox belief and practice with historical entries on various denominations, Buck provided an interpretive lens that allowed antebellum Protestants to see Christianity's almost two millennia as their own history.Wikipedia
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