Have you ever thought about what the “essentials” (as opposed to “gray” areas) are with regards to believing in Christianity and the Bible?
And who gets to decide what is “essential” to believe, anyway?
Most churches have a Doctrinal Statement of Faith that outlines what that church believes, practices, and teaches. This written document would define what they believe about things like God, Jesus, how a person gets saved, what is essential for getting saved, what they believe about spiritual gifts, end times, etc.
There have been many famous doctrinal statements and confessions of faith created over the past decades and centuries. In fact, doctrinal statements of faith have usually arisen due to prevalent heresies at the time.
For example, The Westminster Confession Of Faith (created in the year 1646, primarily by and for the Church of England) was created to solidify and unify what was to believed as opposed to what other churches believed and taught. In the first chapter of that confession, the Westminster Assembly set out to define what they believed and did not believe were acceptable regarding The Holy Scriptures. Here is a brief excerpt from that first chapter:
III. The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the Canon of Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.
IV. The authority of the holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or Church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the Author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.
A few years ago I created my own personal doctrinal statement of faith. I didn’t make it because of any particular heresy, but because I was preparing for pastoral ministry. It is important for someone considering ministry to know, understand, and be able to articulate what they believe about Scripture. And it doesn’t matter if that is pastoral or lay ministry, either.
What about you? Do you think theology is important?
For example, what if your children’s Sunday school teacher believed that people are saved by God’s grace but are kept saved by their own personal good works? Would you have a problem with that?
Or what if some of the deacons in your church believed the Apocrypha should be included as Scripture along with the 66 inspired books of the Bible? Would you be offended?
Or what if your local pastor believed (like one of America’s most “influential” pastors believes and teaches) that God is not three distinct Persons but merely three “manifestations” of God at different times (aka: Modalism)? Would you care at all?
Do these three issues seem trival to you? Let me assure they that they are most certainly not trivial. They are dangerous and/or heretical.
Here’s what I believe:
1) I believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God and without error in the original manuscripts, and that they alone are the complete, supreme, and final authority in faith and life (II Tim 3:16-17; II Pet 1:20-21).
2) I believe there is one living and true God, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—equal in power and glory (Deut 6:4; Matt 28:19; II Cor 13:14).
3) I believe that God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, is the Creator and sovereign Ruler of all things (Gen 1; Psalm 103:19; Rom 11:36; Eph 3:9). He is the Father of all mankind (Eph 4:6), but is the spiritual Father only to genuine believers (Rom 8:14; II Cor 6:18).
4) I believe that Jesus Christ, God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father. I believe in His pre-existence, incarnation, virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, burial, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, & personal and visible premillennial return (John 1:1-3; 10:30; 14:9; Matt 1:23, 25; John 1:14; II Cor 5:21; Rom 3:24-25, 5:8; I Cor 15:3-4; Acts 1:9-11; Heb 9:24; Phil 2:5-11; I Thess 4:13-18; Rev 20).
5) I believe that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, is coequal, consubstantial, coeternal with the Father and the Son (Matt 28:19; Acts 5:3-4, 28:25-26; II Cor 13:14), and is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in regeneration, baptizing all genuine believers into the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:13). The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers them for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption (Rom 8:9; II Cor 3:6; Eph 1:13).
6) I believe that man was created by God in His image, and created free of sin; that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical but also spiritual death, which is utter separation from God. Because of the first man Adam’s original sin, all men have inherited a sin nature and are sinners by nature, choice, and divine declaration. Man became inherently corrupt and totally incapable of choosing or doing that which is acceptable to God apart from divine grace (Gen 1:27, 3:1-19; Rom 3:9-18; 5:12).
7) I believe that salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, through His sacrificial death, and not on the basis of human merit or works (John 1:12; Rom 9:16; Eph 1:7; 2:8-10; Titus 3:5-7; 1 Pet 1:18-19). This salvation is appropriated through repentant faith (a faith that trusts in Jesus Christ alone and is authenticated by a life of turning away from sin toward God) (Mark 1:15; Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 20:21). True believers will reveal and exhibit the spiritual fruit of a changed life (Matt 13:8, 23; John 15:8; Gal 5:22-23).
8) I believe that all who trust in Jesus Christ with a repentant faith are immediately and forever sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13) and, therefore, placed into one united spiritual Body, the church (1 Cor 12:12-13), the bride of Christ (II Cor 11:2; Eph 5:23-32; Rev 19:7-8), of which Christ is the Head (Eph 1:22; 4:15; Col 1:18).
9) I believe that the purpose of the local church, i.e. the localized body of believers, is to glorify God (Eph 3:21) through the instruction of the Word, obedience to the Great Commission, discipleship, fellowship, service, and the keeping of the ordinances (Matt 28:19-20; Acts 2:38-42, 47; I Cor 15:58; Eph 4:12-16; II Tim 2:2).
10) I believe that two ordinances have been committed to the local church: Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Matt 28:19; Acts 2:38-42; 8:36-38; 10:46-48; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Luke 22:14-20).
11) I believe in the bodily resurrection of all men; the saved to eternal life (John 6:39; Rom 8:10-11, 19-23; II Cor 4:14), and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment in the lake of fire (Dan 12:2; John 5:29; Rev 20:13-15).
12) I believe in the personal, imminent, pre-tribulational, premillennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ for His church (John 14:1-3; I Cor 15:51-53; 1 Thess 4:15-5:11; Titus 2:13).
What about you? What do you think constitutes as “essential” and what are “gray” areas of theology?
Hey Charles, do you mean essential as in not being among the elect if one does not believe all of the above doctrine?
No, I don’t mean that at all. There are “essentials” that one needs to believe in order to be truly Christian and saved. But differing views on election and predestination do not fall within those. Neither does someone’s view on whether or not they are premillenial or amillenial, for example. But believing in the right Jesus, and by faith alone apart from works, are essential, for example.