25 And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Acts 11:25-26 (NASB)
Back when I first started writing these posts and helping Ken Silva and Ingrid Schlueter on the old Slice of Laodicia blog deal with the continuous attacks from the Emergents, one of the main topics that was continually in play was that those who were attacking every doctrine that was foundational to orthodox Christianity refused to be called “Christian.”….
Instead they demanded that we call them “Christ Followers.” I refused to do that because their demeanor was not Christlike at all. Instead, they were bullies who twisted scripture and attempted to derail everyone’s faith by attacking their character directly. Some even attempted to take us offline by threatening our Internet providers if they didn’t take us down. Who does that sound like? In any case, who are true Christians and what does that word mean?
In Acts 11:26 the word “Christians” translates the Greek noun Χριστιανούς (Christianous) the accusative, plural, masculine case of Χριστιανός (Christianos), which means “of the party of Christ.” Calling someone by the name of a teacher or leader was not unusual, as the followers of Herod were called Herodians, Ἡρωδιανοί (Hērōdianoi) as per Mark 3:6.