Looking at the Core

I’ve got two blog threads going so I hope I don’t confuse you.  I’m still open to comments about worship (see those blogs).  If you start a conversation on that I’ll be happy to continue talking about preaching, music, worship in the digital age.  But while we wait I’m going to explore theology with you.  So let’s do it!

 

Core Beliefs

First I believe that you can be wrong about a lot of things and be a Christian but to really be a Christian there are some things you have to have right.  We aren’t saved by knowledge and you can believe thse things and not trust them in faith but as you see these are a part of the salvation discussion.

God

You can be an atheist Buddhist but you can’t be an atheist Christian.  It simply doesn’t work.  So you have to believe God is real.  You might have some wrong ideas about God but you can’t escape the reality of God.  You might adopt Christian values and practices and go to church and not believe God but you aren’t a Christian if you do not believe in God.  That’s my humble obvious assessment.

Jesus

You have to believe Jesus exists and is real and not a myth or a fable or allegory.  Christians were called Christians as a negative.  Originally we were called “the Way” but folks started calling us “little Christs” as an insult and the name stuck and is one of pride now.  We are Christians.  We believe Jesus was real and we believe he existed literally on this earth.

Jesus is the Son of God who is the Savior

Some will disagree and say you can believe Jesus was a good man and great teacher but not the Son of God and be a Christian.  But I do not agree with that.  Please feel free to comment and some will not like this idea but I believe that for 2000 years orthodox Christianity (not the Orthodox Church–don’t be confused, but the non-heretical church-there were groups that are deemed heretical- have always declared Jesus to be the Son of God).  It is more than having factual knowledge but to make a faith decision one must understand the decision one is making and this decision is to place one’s life in the hands not of a teacher but of a divine Son of God who died for the world and rose again.  I believe one has to accept:
*Divinity of Jesus

*Death of Jesus

*Resurrection of Jesus

*Purpose of Jesus

One has to accept that Jesus is the Son of God, who came, lived, died for us, and rose again.  That the purpose of Jesus is to save us.

Having said that I know there are many atonement theories that describe how this happened.  There are many details that people argue about.  And I believe you can have many understandings of how this worked and be a Christian.  So however we understand or don’t understand it happened this is essential.

We are Sinners needing Saving

Once we believe in God and believe in Jesus we need to understand we are lost and need salvation.  A drowning man will drown if he doesn’t know he is drowning.  We have to understand this and admit we are lost.  Admit we are sinners.  I once read it like this…

Admit you are lost.

Believe in Christ.

Confess your faith.

There are those who want to add works to the mix but I believe we are saved by faith in Christ alone (a cry of the Reformation…although I’m not saying only Protestants are saved).  Someone may be confused and think that they have to add something else and I’m not going to debate that such a confused person is really lost.  Again they may be confused but if they have trusted in Christ as their savior that is what saved them.  Even if they think that baptism was also necessary they would NOT be correct on that point but the main thing is that they have trust in Christ for their salvation and found eternal life through Christ.  But if the person is depending on works to get them to heaven I would have concerns about the validity of their decision.  Saving faith is placing one’s trust in Christ and not one’s self.   Part of finding salvation is letting Christ save us and not thinking we can do it.  Still a person might be saved by doing this and be confused about some things.  This is splitting hairs and confusing so please don’t misread me.   I would counsel a person to make sure they are trusting in Christ and not themselves and that they need to make sure they’ve done that. 

This is a basic outline of salvation.  The book of Romans is a great book to study as you seek this as are many other writings of Paul.  Studying the Gospels will show you more about Jesus and his plan and purpose. But in a nutshell I would say that for us to be saved it is essential that we believe in God, believe in Jesus, admit we are lost and sinners, and trust in Christ to save us because we know he is the Son of God who is able to save us and give us eternal life.

I think that is the core of a saving knowledge.  We can’t do it by ourselves and being a member of a church, being baptized, and coming from a Christian family doesn’t do it.

Now once we’ve trusted in Christ and know Christ what type of church or faith would be ‘orthodox’ and necessary to be a part of classic Christian believe?  And what are issues we might debate and not be as crucial.  That is what we’ll discuss next!

Blessings,

Derik