1. A Christian according to Scriptural standard.
1766. Wesley, Jrnl., 31 Oct. A real Bible Christian. Ibid. (1788), Wks. (1872), VII. 203. The Methodists … were one and all determined to be Bible-Christians.
2. The name of a Protestant sect founded in 1815 by William O. Bryan, a Wesleyan preacher in Cornwall; chiefly in the south-west of England.
a. 1860. Whately, Com.-pl. Bk. (1864), 267. Still more objectionable is the title of Bible-Christians assumed by a sect.
1860. Venables, Isle Wight, 389. The ‘Bible Christians,’ or ‘Bryanites,’ were peculiarly active in gathering congregations in the outlying hamlets.
