Essentials of Christianity

[GodSaves]

The Essentials of Christianity

Essential Christianity. We hear a lot of discussion about essentials and non-essentials, but what are the essentials of Christianity?

When we talk about the essentials of Christianity we're referring to the basic elements that make up and characterize our faith, and which, of course, separate it from other beliefs. Let's survey these doctrines.

First, we believe in the authority of Scripture, which is another way of saying that the Bible is God's inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word. It's the ultimate source for knowledge about God, as well as the definitive guide for our daily lives.

Next we affirm the existence of a triune God or one God in three distinct persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This God is self-existent, eternal, unchanging, omnipotent, omnipresent, holy, righteous, and loving. God created the universe from nothing and He rules over His creation sovereignly including both human and angelic beings.

We also hold that man is a physical and spiritual being who is created in God's image. But because of his sin or transgression, man has lost his fellowship with God. The extent of sin is so great that its effects continue to this very day in the form of cruelty, suffering, and death.

By God's grace, Jesus Christ - Who is fully God and fully man - was sent to save us from our bondage to sin. We believe that Christ was born of a virgin, died for our sins, physically rose from the dead, and will one day return to judge the world and deliver His people. Faith in Christ is the only means by which mankind can escape eternal damnation and judgment.

Finally, we recognize the church as God's ordained institution headed by Christ. The church is composed of all believers, and is organized for worship, for fellowship, for the administration of the sacraments, for spiritual growth and support, and for evangelizing the world.

 

[mhess13]

that sounds about right

 

[Gold Dragon]

Those may be the essentials of certain segments of Christianity, but what are the biblical essentials of salvation?

NASB - Romans 10:8-10

But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

NASB - John 3:15-16

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

 

[rmwilliamsll]

Historically the effort within the greater visible Church to write up a definition of what it means to be a Christian, in this case, what are the essentials of Christianity, appears to be impossible.

Look at the effort from the 1920's in the US under that maligned label Fundamentalism. That was and is the effort to define a boundary, who is in and who is outside the Church.

But which Church? visible or invisible? For these are essential definitions that point to something very important going on. The invisible Church is from the POV of God, it is the body of true believers from all time and all places. but we simply put have no access to this information, that will be revealed to us in heaven only.

What about the visible Church? it contains a mixture of Christians and not, plus there is an unknown number of true Christians outside of it for various reasons. It is this boundary alone that we have access to.But this boundary is problematic for it is bound up with institutions (those who publically declare their faith).

What the effort, both here with essentials and with the fundamentals project and others like it, was to true to define what a credible profession of faith required as propositional truth. What the details where that a person needed to believe in order for those already in the visible church to greet the new person as a genuine believer and brother/sister.

and this runs headlong into the problem of denominationalism.
at this point i see no solution to this but--
1-to refer to an early creed like the Nicenean as a basis for trans-denominational union
2-to attempt to define some least common denominator, this is the effort i've seen so far, the problem is that it always goes to far in some things and not far enough in others. never able to satisfy anyone, it just ends up creating and defining another boundary, this time fundamentalist for example. but never really capturing that elusive visible church boundary.

so i end up with lots of individual churches/denominations defining the boundary of themselves, and me simply saying some are closer and some are further from my definitions, thus effectively ranking these definitions according to my own church's definition. I really don't see any other alternative. for i've seen the attempt end up definiting a new boundary everytime, never a boundary that all people can accept as the visible church line.....

btw
this is the introduction to the issues of creedalism and confessionalism, a discussion that has been around since the beginning, it is nothing new to the 20thC or the 16thC etc.

 

[PaladinValer]

Those who promote the belief in a literal Creation as necessary for salvation are highly mistaken. They imply that true Christianity=YEC, which is a violation, correct me if I'm wrong, of CF rules.

I find this post quite offensive; I and the majority of Christians, since a majority are not YECs.

My God doesn't limit my salvation due to a worldly belief.

 

[mhess13]

Those who promote the belief in a literal Creation as necessary for salvation are highly mistaken. They imply that true Christianity=YEC, which is a violation, correct me if I'm wrong, of CF rules.

I find this post quite offensive; I and the majority of Christians, since a majority are not YECs.

My God doesn't limit my salvation due to a worldly belief.

Who said YEC is necessary for salvation?
My goodness you TEs are whiny

 

[GodSaves]

Those may be the essentials of certain segments of Christianity, but what are the biblical essentials of salvation?

Salvations comes from believing in Jesus Christ and following Him. The New Testament tells what it means to believe and follow Jesus Christ. You can't just say all you need to do is tell someone you believe Jesus is God and then you are saved.

Faith is dead without works.

 

[GodSaves]

Those who promote the belief in a literal Creation as necessary for salvation are highly mistaken. They imply that true Christianity=YEC, which is a violation, correct me if I'm wrong, of CF rules.

I find this post quite offensive; I and the majority of Christians, since a majority are not YECs.

My God doesn't limit my salvation due to a worldly belief.

This was not a promotion of YEC is necessary for salvation. In other thread essentials to Christianity is being talked about. I decided to open a new thread instead of derailing the other to talk about this issue. If these essentials offend you then i don't know what to tell you....

 

[Singing Bush]

Who said YEC is necessary for salvation?
My goodness you TEs are whiny

I have to agree w/ Mhess13 and GodSaves here. No where in GS's original post above does it state that YEC is necessary for salvation. You're a little itchy on the trigger finger there brother.

 

[PaladinValer]

That's because you don't see the slippery slope coming...

 

[boughtwithaprice]

MOD Hat on


since when is this the "let's define christianity forum"? This is Origins Theology.

Either talk about Origins Theology or do not come to this forum

Is this clear?

MOD Hat off

 

[rmwilliamsll]

just to show the difficulty of writing lists of essentials:

from: http://www.equip.org/inside/index.asp?view=believe

(1) The Holy Scriptures, comprised of the Old and New Testaments, are fully and verbally inspired by God and are therefore infallible in the original writings and completely trustworthy in all areas in which they speak. Their central salvation message and essential teachings are clear and accessible to all who follow the standard and self-evident rules of literary interpretation. They are therefore the supreme, unmediated, and final authority of faith and practice for every believer.

and
from: http://www.equip.org/essentials/index.asp
(the source of the OP)

First, we believe in the authority of Scripture, which is another way of saying that the Bible is God's inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word. It's the ultimate source for knowledge about God, as well as the definitive guide for our daily lives.

compare the two.
is the Bible inerrant or not?
what is the definition of inerrant?

it is these kinds of problems that make a general essentials list so difficult if not impossible.

---
post posting edit.

oops. just saw the mod posting above.

i would contend that our inability to list essentials is appropriate to a discussion of origins if only to illustrate two points that seem to reoccur here:
1-trying to make YEC a salvation issue, or claiming that some do so. this is the boundary problem as applied to origins.

2-more importantly our inability to define essentials actually enters into how to debate issues such as origins. rather than incorporate a difficult issue like essential definition into the origin debate, we need to agree that anyone who claims to be a Christian can discuss here. this is in fact, what is de jure the standards on this forum now. this is the separation of the two issues, even to the point of using different forums to discuss them. the moderator's big point. the inappropriateness of this thread.

 

[Beowulf]

Well said GodSaves.

 

[TwinCrier]

I think instead of defining what is essential, since the claim has been made that creation belief is not essential to salvation and it is against forum rules to imply that anyone is not saved we need to define why we are even discussing our origin if it truly doesn't effect our eternity.

 

[mhess13]

well said Godsaves! But if I know the way things work around here this will earn you a warning if not a suspension.
Fight the good fight bro!

 

[GodSaves]

well said Godsaves! But if I know the way things work around here this will earn you a warning if not a suspension.
Fight the good fight bro!

Close!! Notice my post is gone....

 

[boughtwithaprice]

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