Imperishable Inheritance

One of the greatest struggles in the Christian faith is clearly defining what exactly one must believe in order to be saved and a member of Christ's church. There is much confusion, especially in our postmodern, relativistic culture, that to be a "Christian" becomes leaner and leaner. When this accumulates, then all of the sudden Christians think and act the same as the world.

One of the other things I want to note is that most lay people don't worry about things such as this, and they also tend to despise denominationalism. Christians who struggle with this are those who have deep theological convictions, and these Christians find themselves in a denominational church out of conviction. This list is at the lowest common denominator; the sine qua non or "without which it could not be." This is a hard topic, and I hope that my readers will contribute their thoughts on this topic.

If you hold these beliefs that doesn't necessarily believe you had "good theology," but these faiths are minimum that I believe the Scriptures teach that one needs to hold in order to be saved. Jesus says that "unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mat 18:3), and this reflects the humble, child-like, basic belief we must have. This does not believe that I believe in "doctrinal regeneration," but I do think the Scriptures speaks to this list.

Essential Christian Beliefs

» The Existence of God. This seems rather obvious, but I ran into the practicality of this when I met a self-proclaimed "Atheistic Christian." The Bible doesn't provide an apologetic for the existence of God'it assumes it.

» The Deity of Jesus Christ. If Jesus is not God then he could not be sinless, serve as our sacrificial lamb, and then he would not have raised from the dead. This also includes pre-existence of Christ.

» The Atonement of Jesus Christ. By this I don't mean that we have a "limited" or "unlimited" view on the scope of the atonement, but I do mean that we believe that Jesus did pay for their sins in order to appease a holy God.

» The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the cornerstone of Christianity, and Paul lays this out in 1 Corinthians 15. Without the resurrection Christianity is futile, and we are still in our sins.

What About...?

» Justification By Faith Alone. This is probably the most difficult one, because it lies on the line between Catholics and Protestants. Even though I think it is a hallmark of orthodoxy, I cannot say this is "salvation essential;" because of the book of Galatians. Paul rebukes the Galatians for trusting in their following of the Mosaic Law (Gal 3:1-4); these Christians were saved in Paul's mind, but they had a terrible misunderstanding. ¹

» The Inerrancy of Scripture. Does the Bible ever say that one must believe in one or another view of inerrancy defining that to the letter? No. The truth is that the only inerrant Scriptures were those that the authors wrote by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and we have none of those manuscripts today. That means that we trust the process of textual criticism and the faithfulness of God to preserve his message for his people.

» The Trinity. This is also a huge sticking point, but I would put this in the area of beliefs that there may be a misunderstanding in the beginning; but I think it is a belief that should be in a mature Christian. There are so many nuances in this, and the church has battled heresies through the history of the church. The question is: How much should we understand concerning the ontological nature of God in order to be saved?

» The Hypostatic Union. This is the unity of Jesus' (post resurrection) divine and human nature as being "conjoined but not confused." It certainly must be true that he had to become human in order to secure our bodily resurrection and that he could be our high priest. This is an understanding that can come with doctrinal mentoring and correction.

» The Holy Spirit. Now I'm not saying we can overtly deny the existence of the Holy Spirit, but I can say that we can have a misguided view in both our understanding of the Holy Spirit in his role in the Godhead and his role in both regeneration and sanctification.²

Resources

I listened to two good talks from a radio show called "Theology UnPlugged" on this very issue. I suggest the talks, because they speak in humility and wrestle with the issues honestly.

• Salvation Essentials (Part 1)
• Salvation Essentials (Part 2)

1. Now I do believe that if you continue to believe this after studying the Scriptures for an extended amount of time then I would call into question their faith, because this doctrine summarizes that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, by the work of Christ alone. [Back]
2. My pastor right now is doing a good sermon series on the basics of pneumatology or the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.  He realizes that we very well can be saved and have a misunderstanding on this doctrine. [Back]