I am going to start this out with a good topic. I believe that every Christian has a basic belief in nine doctrines. Here they are:
- There is only one God and he is a personal one. Is. 45:5 Deut 4:35-39
- God is triune he is three equal persons in one. Mt. 5:16-17, Luke. 3:21-22 2Cor 13:14
- Christ is the very nature of God incarnate. Col 2:9, Heb 1:1-3 John 1:1ff
- Mankind is in a fallen state and his total perception is defiled. Rom 3:1-18 Jer 17:9
- Man is saved by faith alone and not by his own efforts. Eph 2:8-9 Rom 4:23 Rom 3:22
- The Church is to do the ceremonies commanded by Jesus.
- Baptism: Mt 3:11, Mt 28:18.
- Communion: 1Cor 11:23-29, Luke 22:17-20
- The second coming of Jesus. Acts 1:11 1Thes 4:16-17 Zech 14:(4?)
- The Bible Is the inspired word of God. 2Tim 3:16-17 2Pet1:20-21
- Man will spend eternity in Heaven or Hell. Wicked: Mt 25 2Thes 1:9 Luke 16:23 Saints: 2Cor 5:6 John 8:5
10 Comments
Is faith an effort? If so, is 5 self-refuting?
Oh man. I was just giving a basic overview. I guess I will have to go into more detail later.
Well, it seems to be a major sticking point with calvinism. That is why I brought it up.
A couple of complaints:
I am not convinced that a Christian has to believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. The verses you gave give little support:
Matthew 5:16-18:
Luke 3:21-22:
1 Cor. 13:14:
None of these three references give any support for a triune God. The best that you can say they do is say that there is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but there is little evidence in the verses cited that they are all one.
Number 5 is worded poorly. I would agree that humankind is saved by faith alone, but that faith in itself is their own effort. One still needs to make an effort to choice that faith.
My biggest complaint is that this is a doctrinal list and not a Biblical list. I think you would have a difficult time showing me that the Bible demands the 9 items above in order to be a Christian.
Henry…it doesn’t look like there is a link back to the home page. That would be nice if possible.
That is something I am working on. The B2Evolution site was down last night.
If there are any other things you want tweaked let me know.
I’ll try not to just start talking for the sake of talking, but I thought Dave’s last point was the best one made. This posting reminds me of an Indigo Girls song “Least Complicated” where she says
“So long ago when we were taught,
For whatever kind of puzzle you got
You just stick the right formula in.
The solution for every fool.”
I may not be a doctornally sound Christian, and probably not a Christian if you go by this list of right belief that decides the divine “yes” and allows us acess to the disembodied heaven, but I see nothing in these nine statemens of belief that have anything to do with grace, peacemaking, and the life of the church the three things, as I see it, that Christ came to exort us to. (certainly you have said that we should be baptized and practice communion, but as part of the church is probably more of an afterthought than anything since they seem to be simply part of the larger list of personal beliefs) We (and I would use we in two senses, we the entire human race and all things on earth meaning through christ all and all things are redeemed and we meaning it is a grace that must be recieved and shared collectively if it is to have any relevance) are recievers of grace sent to proclaim peace, through the body life and politic of the church, to a world caught in judgement of each other. With lists like this though we pervert that story of peace born out of grace and insert ourselves into the role of divine judge and jury declaring that only those who fit within OUR definitions are allowed in. We have found many ways of creatively declaring who is in and who is out, creeds, right “belief”, someones definition of sin based on the socio political leanings of the day, however, very rarely have we been able to be a people of peace and love in the face of our own desire to be God and judge, and unfortunately we have used the bible, spirituality, and the lust for power to excuse our failings in these areas. Anyway, I am just disapointed to see us continue the use of lists of disembodied beliefs rather than a call to the story of Christianty and the practices therein.
Good thoughts Blair, but I think there are some things to be said in response to your comment.
You complain that there is nothing in Andy’s post about the actions of Christians, such as the proclamation of grace and peace. I just want to point out that Andy was not trying to encapsulate the whole life of a Christian in one short post. Rather, he was making a list of beliefs that he thinks Christians should have and as such, one should not be surprised that items out side his scope are not on the list.
What other kinds of beliefs are there besides disembodied ones? Since there are not other kinds of beliefs, I have to assume until directed otherwise that you are attacking religious beliefs in general. I have to take issue with this. Beliefs are very powerful and in a certain percentage of occasions, very positive. It was not their zeal to help the poor that helped Christianity through their early trials and persecutions; instead it was their hope and their faith. Now, when faith becomes ossified in the timeframe, scientific understanding, and culture that it is first developed, it becomes dangerous. Such was the case with Galileo and is the case now with the Islamic Fundamentalists, and young-earth creationists, and to some extent, with the Religious Right (in my estimation, I don’t want to drag too much politics in here, just illustrate a point)
Good point, but just as there is a difference between driving and driving unsafely, there is a difference between being a hyper-exclusionist and not having doctrinal integrity. We are pursuing truth and love. Just because one extreme is bad (Andy, I am not saying you are guilty of it above), that alone is not a case to migrate to the other extreme. With that said, I really do emphasize with that point. The hyper-exclusivity was a great failing of mine 7-8 years ago. About 4 years ago, I woke up to that tragedy and have tried to reevaluate it.
Truth with out love is folly and so too is love without truth.
Andy,
Excellent post. I feel this is a terrific start to a list of essentials of the Christian faith. I feel that all (with the exception of point number 5 which I will get to momentarily) are indeed undisputable points that no true believer would find false in his or her heart.
Now we proceed to point number 5. Within this point you said, “Man is saved by faith alone and not by his own efforts.” This is indeed very close to Biblical truth, but there is a crucial error in saying that man is saved by faith alone. Man is NOT saved by faith alone, but is saved by grace alone. Let us consider some of the verses you cited for this point to elucidate this more.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.
If we understand this literally and understand the grammar here, it is grace that saves us, not faith. For faith is the instrument of our salvation, but is not what initiates our salvation. That is excluded to our rebirth by the grace of the Father.
“The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” Romans 4: 23-24.
Paul expounds about Abraham’s faith in order to prove further the necessity of faith in the life of a Christian. However, no where in the whole 4th chapter of Romans does he even imply that we are “saved by faith alone.” Within the context of chapter 4, we see that Paul is purely speaking that we are justified in the eyes of God by faith alone. The question is not “what saves us?,” but indeed “what is the indispensable and essential result of our salvation?” The answer is faith alone.
The only change that needs to be made to point number 5 is this: the word faith should be replaced with the word grace. This being said, justification by faith alone is nothing to trivialize. In fact, I would most definitely have this as another point unto itself on your list. This too is crucial to the Christian faith.
Dave,
Trinitarain debate is a wide one, but I think that if you truly want to worship the social God of peace, believing in the Trinity may actually be one of the best assets. See Volf’s comments about this. I find him to explicate social trinity for incredible reconciliation theology.
Blair,
Quick question about socio-political determination of sin…would that also then mean that determining war is sin comes from the pacifist socio-political determination or is it more absolute.
To be sure I’m playing Devil’s advocate as I am not for war and violence and deem them to be sinful acts, but just wanted to pose the question.