Finally, a question that I can answer with 100% certainty! :0) Some devout Christians follow certain Biblical rules verbatim; whereas, others ignore them entirely for different reasons. Christians who try to follow the Bible verbatim are more than likely believing that good works alone will get them into Heaven. When,in reality, good works are merely outward signs of your acceptance of Jesus as our Saviour. That's not to say that you shouldn't ever do your best to do the right thing! Quite the contrary, because you should ALWAYS try your best to do the right thing, but when you do fall and make a mistake, then don't have a nervous breakdown, instead, calm down, ask God to forgive you for your sins and then, try not to make the same mistake twice. Contrary, to some people's opinions, God is not in Heaven waiting to throw us into the fire every time we make mistakes. What God wants us to do is to accept Jesus as our Saviour, as I have already done, and spread His gospel to those who wish to hear His Word and to do our best to do the right thing. He realizes that being born sinners, that we're going to make mistakes, but He does expect us to admit our faults to Him and try not to repeat the same mistakes twice, which is where many religious denominations become confused and try to say that God is waiting to us all to hell because we made a mistake, which is NOT true. God doesn't send people to hell, people send themselves to hell by their own free choice by not accepting Jesus as their Saviour, but I am digressing. Back to the answer... . Whereas, some Christians ignore the Bible entirely due to foolishness, ignorance, and stubborness. For instance, some Christians may outwardly deny that pre-marital sex is wrong yet may still engage in it. Why? Simply because they want to cater to their own ways and NOT listen to what God is instructing them to do. It's much easier to be a "hearer of the Word" than a "doer of the Word." In addition, we get inundated with this humanstic relativism, which argues, "If it feels right, then it must be alright to do it." WRONG! I might feel like telling someone that I dislike them, but that doesn't mean that I need to go out of my way to be rude and obnoxious to them. Quite clearly, this perpetuated myth that has started becuase of Satan's grasp on the world has lead to world-wide problems. Just because something feels right, doesn't mean it is right, but to answer your question in a nutshell, people, who don't always follow or decide NOT to follow God's Word cannot call themselves Christians, anyhow because a real Christian will TRY and follow God's laws even if that means falling along the way. Then you have apostates, who merely claim to be Christians, but who are really not as Romans 1:20-32 states: "20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them" (King James Version Holy Bible) *source: <http://www.biblegateway.com> While, many people profess to be Christians, you couldn't necessarily tell they are Christians, which is disappointing. If you're a Christian, then people should be able to recognize right off the mark that there's osmething different about you by how you act, think, and talk--in a good way, that is. Clearly, if you're professing Jesus as your Saviour yet gossiping about your neighbor and how she's lazy and annoying, then that's not exactly acting very Christ-like. This doesn't make you an apostate, it simply makes you an immature Christian, who needs to learn to become less judgmental and more upbeat, and Christ-like. Personally, I need to work on myself a great deal because I find myself getting easily agitated with other people and gossiping and I'm a Christian, who has accepted Jesus as my Saviour. All of us, Christians, who want to try to do our best, at all times, more often than not, fail miserably simply because we're too busy being preoccupied with earthly matters and our thoughts rather than thinking about God and how He would react to certain situations. Bottom line: People who claim to be Christians, but don't act like Christians are either (A) not really Christians, but fakes just saying they are for whatever reason, or (B) because they believe God's Word, they just want to be stubborn and follow their own pathways, which is usually more often than not, why people tend to claim to be Christians, but simply don't act like Christians.

In reply to lady fuschia's comment, I'll try to give a decent answer. What needs to be understood is the concept of covenants. The bible is divided into two sections - the Old Testamant and the New Testament. 'Testament' probably isnt' the best word to describe it. It really should read 'Old Covenant' and 'New Covenant'. After the nation of Israel came out of Egypt and into the Sinai desert, God instuted a covenant, or agreement with them. If they would follow His law and worship him, then he would be their God, and bless and protect them. He did not make this covenant with any other nation at the time. This covenant revolved around the law that was given to Moses. It involved the legal system, the priestly system, and the sacrificial system. The Israelites lived (and died) by this law. It was the agreement that the nation had with God. The law itself showed what 'sin' was. God said that the reward of sin was death, but he instituted the system of 'substitutional sacrifice' to spare the people from death. A flawless animal was slaughtered in its place - its blood shed, and its body burnt on the altar. This death 'substituted' the death of the sinner. Now skip forward about 2,000 years or so. God sends his son, Jesus. (Actually, his name should really be more like 'Joshua' - Yehoshua, or Yeshua, which means 'the Lord saves'). Jesus grows up and lives a supposedly sinless life. At age 30 he is baptised by John the Baptist, and the spirit of the Lord comes to rest upon him. From there he goes out into the countryside, teaching and performing miracles. He teaches about God's ways, and begins teaching past the law - into the principles behind it. He goes past the 'deeds' issue and digs into the 'attitudes' side of things. After 3 1/2 years of teaching, he is arrested by the priests and brought before the Romans as a heretic and a blasphemer. They pressure the Romans into executing Jesus. Jesus - a sinless man - dies. God takes the sin of the world - past, present and future - and puts it on his shoulders. He takes the sin of the world, and serves as a substitute for every person. He is the perfect sacrifice - he willingly gave up his life, and willingly took our sin. He substitutes himself for us, and takes the punishment for every sin we will ever commit - one sacrifice for all sin. Because of this, the sacrificial system is made redundant. His sacrifice paid for all sin, so there is no need to slaughter animals anymore. When he died and rose again, he made the 'Old Covenant' obsolete, and instuted a new one - the covenant of Grace. Now we are saved by grace, not by the law. We do not need to fulfil the law in order to have salvation. Our salvation comes through accepting the sacrifice of Jesus. No longer is the law death to us, because Jesus' sacrifice fulfilled that - he died every death for every sin in the world. This is where the "New Covenant", or New Testament comes in. The old covenant was done away with - it was fulfilled, not cancelled. Just as fulfilling the terms of an agreement completes that agreement, so Jesus fulfilling the law completed it. We no longer live by the Law of Moses - we live by the law of Grace and the commandments that Jesus and God handed down when he instituted the New Covenant. The Law of Moses is still useful, because as the Apostle Paul wrote - it shows us what sin is. However, the law was about actions. The covenant of grace is about attitudes of the heart. Jesus taught that if the attitudes are right, the actions will follow. There are some Christians who believe that we still need to follow the commandments of the Law, and to a degree that is true. I believe that if our hearts and our attitudes are right, we will automatically fulfill what the Law required. Paul said that if the 'Gentiles', who did not have the Law, did the right thing and loved God, then they were a law unto themselves. They could be just as righteous with God, even without the Law of Moses. So to answer the question, some laws no longer apply to us, and hence we do not follow them. In fact, you could say that the Law of Moses doesn't apply to us at all, but since obeying some of the laws are natural functions of a right attitude, then we follow it out of love for God, and that right attitude. I hope this hasn't been too confusing...

A lot of in-depth work has gone into some of the above answers. In essence, i agree with most of what i read. How's this for a capsule answer? Either out of immaturity or out of willfulness, we all pick our own sins. Ideally all Christians will follow all the commands. In more detail: Many Christians are growing to maturity and working with the knowledge and experience they have. They continually learn to conform more closely to God's righteous standards. As they become aware of necessary changes they make them. This takes much time and none of us has mastered it yet. Others claim to be Christian and have an outward display of devotion. 1 Timothy 4:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Romans 1:20+ (quoted by Answers101 above) and others show that many who claim to be godly will pick and choose what they want. What they like, they keep; what they don't, they discount. 1John 5:3 tells us that the love of God means keeping his commandments and that those commands are not burdensome. True Christians will not ignore any of the rules, but try, day by day, to incorporate them in their lives. This is one distinction between true and pretend Christians.

Because they are either innocently ignorant of the contents of the Bible, or are wilfully deceiving themselves in a desperate hope to have something reassuring in their lives... Meh, either one isn't particularly good

Well it’s been done before and this is what Jehovah said about it in the Holy Qur’an (HQ) as translated by Mr Pickthall (capitalization added): HQ 2:84. And when We made with you a covenant (saying): Shed not the blood of your people nor turn (a party of) your people out of your dwellings. Then ye ratified (Our covenant) and ye were witnesses (thereto). HQ 2:85. Yet ye it is who slay each other and drive out a party of your people from their homes, supporting one another against them by sin and transgression, and if they came to you as captives ye would ransom them, whereas their expulsion was itself unlawful for you. BELIEVE YE IN PART OF THE SCRIPTURE AND DISBELIEVE YE IN PART THEREOF? And what is the reward of those who do so save ignominy in the life of the world, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be consigned to the most grievous doom. For Allah is not unaware of what ye do.

Because they believe they can get away with it.

because inoreder to followit word for word you'd have to live like it was 2000 years ago.. me personally, I would go to hell for some good lobster (which is an abomination to god by the way)