Why does the Bible never call the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and Judea Christians?
Scripture reserves the term Christians for the believers at Antioch, where the gospel of Paul was presented. The Jewish believers in Jerusalem and Judea remained under the Judaistic umbrella, having only believed Jesus was the Messiah of Israel, not that He had died for their sins, shed His blood, and risen from the dead.
Les explains that the Jerusalem church had already been holding forth for about 12 years, yet the Bible never calls those Jewish believers Christians. They were still under the Judaistic umbrella and had only acknowledged Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. At Antioch, by contrast, a primarily Gentile group of disciples was taught by Barnabas and Saul for a whole year and was first called Christians. They were being presented with Paul’s gospel, which differentiated from what had gone before: Christ died for them, His blood was shed for their sin, and He was raised from the dead. Les notes this gospel was a secret held in the mind of God until revealed, something totally different.