Essentials
These essentials are things that I think are absolutely key to the Christian faith. It may be in some cases that you can be saved without believing some of them however I think most Christians would agree with me on most of these points:
God
- There is one God in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- He is Lord over all of creation.
- He reveals himself to human beings.
- He revealed himself supremely in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ who was fully God and fully man when born to a virgin.
- Though fully man he was sinless.
- Sin is primarily anything that goes against the revealed will of God.
The Bible
- The Bible is the main way that God communicates himself to us after Jesus. Therefore it is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and practice.
- He inspired the Biblical authors at all points and thus the Bible may be called “God’s Word”.
- The Bible consists of the 66 books in the Protestant canon.
- These 66 books in their original form when interpreted according to their genre are without error.
- The Bible’s main purpose is that Jesus may be made clear.
Man
- God made man as male and female, both equal before God.
- Man sinned, and continues to sin, thus making him guilty before God. He is unable to rid himself of the power of sin.
- This results in God’s wrath towards mankind, which is the reason for suffering in this world.
- When man dies in sin he will go to hell a place of eternal torment.
Salvation
- Jesus came down to earth and lived a life without sin.
- On the cross he took the punishment of sinners, that is the full wrath of God.
- Though he most certainly died and was buried, he was then raised from the dead by God. Now he reigns over heaven and earth and mediates for His people before God.
- Those who believe in Jesus Christ are freed from their sins only by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross are men redeemed from the guilt, power and penalty of sin and reconciled to God.
- This salvation is not just the only way Christians are reconciled to God but the only way anyone can be reconciled to God.
- This salvation is completely undeserved and is an act of God’s mercy not by good works, church membership or baptism on behalf of the believer.
- It is the Holy Spirit who is responsible for this turning to God. He creates a new heart in the believer and causes him to repent and have faith in Jesus.
- The Holy Spirit lives in all those who have been born again. He makes them more and more like Christ and gives them the power to witness to Jesus in the world.
- There is one universal Church to which all believers belong.
- There is no single denomination of Christianity which contains all believers.
- Jesus will return to judge everyone. Those he has given life to will be raised from the dead and will reign with him on a new earth for eternity.
Distinctives
These are some things not essential to being a Christian but are the frequently debated issues. They may colour my comments. These things are much more likely to change than the other doctrines, though for most of them I am quite soundly convinced.
- God sovereignly ordains everything in the universe for his own purposes, whilst at the same time he does not sin.
- God elected a people to be saved before time on the basis of his own grace and purpose not on any faith he saw in them or any works they would do. He irresistibly called these people by the power of his Holy Spirit and he will not let them go. No other human being will become part of God’s family, however this does not mean God does not desire them to come. It is ultimately their responsibility that they did not respond.
- There is a difference between faith and assurance. Faith is a trust that Jesus will take away sins that gives us eternal life. This may be small as a mustard seed and may not be fully recognised by the person who has it. Assurance is when a person is certain that they have faith. Assured people are not more likely to be saved, they are just more likely to be happy!
- Men and women are equal but with different roles. Men are giving the responsibility of caring leadership. Husbands are to be the heads of their households and only men are to preach to both men and women in the church congregation and have positions of leadership. Women are called to submit to male authority, though there are many ministries they can undertake within the church.
- The local church should evangelise (tell people the good news), administer the sacraments to believers (baptism and communion), preach the Word of God (not their own opinions), apply that Word to their hearers lives, have male leaders, care for the weak and sing as part of their regular work.
- I believe God can and does perform miracles today if he so chooses but I’m not sure how he administers those miracles to his people (i.e. are there people gifted as prophets or people who prophesy?). I do not believe tongues is an essential gift nor do I believe it should be practised in the main part of the church service. I think it is confusing to call anyone an apostle in today’s environment and advise against it.
- God definitely created the world and it would seem strange for him to do so via evolution, especially in light of the account in Genesis. Therefore I hold a creationist viewpoint, but I do not have any specific opinion on evolution.
- A significant part of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and “liberal” Christians are not the same as that given by God. Whilst members of these churches may be saved they are under dangerous teaching that is not for their benefit. It is best for saved persons not to attend these churches as their primary means of receiving sacraments and teaching.
- Involvement in politics is not essential for Christians. Christians will never save the world by getting elected.
- The ultimate gift God gives us is relationship with Him, not a mansion in heaven or reunion with loved ones.
I hope all that’s clear. Please feel free to comment on these ideas or to ask specific questions, especially if I have not explained myself clearly.
Tim Wilson is a primary school teacher in the North East of England. A Bible-believing Christian, he's committed to putting Jesus at the centre of everything he does.
5 comments
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August 18, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Eshu
I’m be interested to know on what basis you discount the bits of the Bible which say you need more than just “faith alone” in order to be saved. For example:
“And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” –John 5:29 (KJV)
August 20, 2008 at 10:55 am
Tim Wilson
Again an excellent question!
There are certainly bits of the Bible that say faith alone is not the only thing required, what is important is the stage at which these things are required.
In football (or “Soccer” if you’re an American) at various points in the game you have to do different things. If you’re a goalkeeper, and the ball is coming towards you, you must use your hands to stop it going into the goal. However, if you used your hands to score a goal you’d get sent off.
It’s the same in a Christian’s life at certain points things are required and at other times they are dangerous.
Humans have absolutely no way to be saved on their own. If we tried to achieve our way to God we wouldn’t get that, as perfection is the required mark. Therefore, trying to start our Christian life with works would just be a failure. The Bible makes this utterly clear (Romans 9:30-32 for instance in reference to the Jews failure because of attempting to be saved by works).
However, works are very important. It is clear that Jesus will use them to sort those who have faith in him from those who don’t (Matthew 25:31-46). How does this work if we’re justified by faith?
If we have faith in Jesus, he will take over as ruler of us from sin and give us the Holy Spirit so we can have some victory over it. Therefore, those who have faith will have some good works to bring that will show themsleves to be able to come to the resurrection of life.
The Bible does say that those who do good will be the ones in heaven. But how can we do good when God says “No one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12)? Not one of a natural humans deeds are good.
If we are justified by faith in Christ, his works are attributed to us. But also our small works, containing perhaps the smallest fragment of goodness, are a testament to the fact we had faith in him.
Does that make sense?
In your article you mentioned baptism and predestination too. I’m still figuring out where the Bible stands on baptism so I’m afraid I can’t give you a definite answer on that one, as obviously it differs as to whether infants can or can’t be baptised, an issue I’m not yet decided on.
However, predestination is a very interesting one and I’ll try and drop another comment off to answer that one for you.
August 20, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Tim Wilson
Okay so predestination. Well I mentioned that works come after faith. But the Bible teaches nobody can do good and that includes having faith.
So what precedes faith?
Predestination, choice by God. God chooses you to have faith. Thus he puts his Holy Spirit in you that you will cry out to him for help. This is called the new birth or the new creation in the Bible and theologians often call it regeneration.
So it goes Predestination -> Jesus atoning for sin of the elect -> Faith -> Sanctification (performing good works) -> Eternal Life. There’s a few more steps in the progression but that’s a basic overview.
They all tie in, but at it’s particular point faith is the one thing necessarily. That’s why it is still Biblical to say we are justified by faith alone, even though the Bible also talks about predestination and sanctification.
Christians call this the Ordo Salutis or “Order of Salavtion”. There are some differences between Christians (Arminians would say faith comes before predestination) but really that’s about it.
August 21, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Eshu
Tim,
Thanks again for your responses.
The fact that many learned Christians still disagree about this should show that it is far from clear.
You believe in predestination? So where does this leave free will?
August 22, 2008 at 8:35 am
Tim Wilson
Well it depends of your definition of a Christian I guess. The two main classes of protestants who aren’t Liberal (that is those who are willing to take liberty with the Bible, not necessarily those who hold a liberal political view) are Arminians and Calvinists. They agree that man is utterly unable to save himself except by works, even though they have different ideas of election.
Liberals take liberty with the text. They are free to have their own opinions, but their views are largely not based on Scripture. So I don’t think their opinions invalidate my claim that the Bible makes this utterly clear.
I know it’s controversial but I’d also argue that if you looked at history you’d see the Catholics view on works is based more on getting enough money to fund the production of Vatican City than a certain interpretation of the Bible.
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As for free will, it’s become a bit of an obsession in Western Christianity despite having very little real mention in Scripture. However, free will and human responsibility is there to some degree.
The Bible holds human responsibility and God’s ordination at the same time without any thought of contradiction.
On the topic of the new birth I think it makes a lot of sense. All humans freely chose of their own will to reject God. God predestined some humans to have a new heart that they may also freely choose to come to him. Free will isn’t stopped but it just has limits to it’s resources.
For example I can do whatever I want to, but also I can’t give birth children. My body doesn’t give me that capability. Does that limit the amount of freedom I have? No, I’m free to do whatever I want within the constraints of my body.
Same with human beings. Some people’s hearts will just never come to him, but they freely choose everything they do. Some people’s heart will come to him, and they are free in that and doing everything.
I know…ridiculously oversimplified but hopefully gives some idea.