I now would like to look more closely at the doctrines and beliefs which the bible itself claims as necessary to affirm in order for one to be a true Christian. Surprisingly I have found very few which are deemed necessary by the authors themselves. Monotheism, the deity of Jesus of Nazareth, salvation by grace alone, and the gospel. Non-essential doctrines and beliefs do not serve to undermine any necessary doctrine and there is no command to adhere to them. Freedom in these areas is recognized by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 14, along with a brief overview of some non-essential doctrines which were common in the formational years of the Christian church. Examples of some non-essential doctrines include: inerrancy of the bible, methods of baptism (full emersion or sprinkling of water), frequency of communion, and length of creation days. Beliefs concerning these subjects does not exclude one from Christianity.
Monotheism is the belief there is only one God, is the uncreated creator of-and separate from-the universe (Genesis 2:7, Psalm 33:6; 96:5; 115:15, Isaiah 43:10; 44:6, 8; 45:5, 14, 18, 21, 22, 24; 46:9; 47:8). This view stands in stark contrast to polytheism, which teaches the existence of many gods, a view common to many eastern religions. The bible acknowledges the perceived existence of multiple gods, but that they are false (1 Corinthians 8:5-6; Deuteronomy 4:28; 2 Kings 19:17-18; Psalm 97:7; Isaiah 37:19; 42:17; Jeremiah 14:22; 16:20; 18:15; Daniel 5:23; Zechariah 10:2). Similar to polytheism is henotheism, and differs in that while there are believed to be multiple gods, only one deserves worship and adoration. Pantheism suggests there is no distinction between the Creator and the universe. It tends to equate God and the universe and is contrary to the biblical teaching that they are separate. Similar to pantheism is panentheism which is the belief that the universe is a part of God, but not completely God. Thus in Exodus 20:3-6, the command to direct worship to YHWH Himself and no other. Anywhere the bible speaks of the existence of gods, it affirms only YHWH as the only real deity, and all others as false and powerless. For this reason monotheism is a necessery beliefs for the Christian.
Second, the deity of Jesus of Nazareth is spoken of through out the New Testament (NT), and alluded to in the Old Testament (OT). That Jesus is God, is central to what it means to be a Christian. Christians since the first century have worshipped Him as God, having taken a human nature to come in order to reconcile fallen man to Himself. The idea that it would be God Himself who would come is written in the OT and is not strictly a Christian idea. Psalm 49:7-9 reads: “No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him--For the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever-- That he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay” and states explicitly that your redemption nor someone else's can be redeemed by a mere man. It is Jesus that gives everlasting life, John 3:36 - “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”, John 4:13-14 - “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”. John 10:27-28 - “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish”. See also Romans 5:21; 6:23; 1 Timothy 1:16; Titus 3:6-7.
The OT and NT both teach the only savior is God Himself, Isaiah 43:11 - “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me”. Isaiah 44:6 - “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer”. Luke 1:47-“And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior”. 1 Timothy 4:10 - “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers”. Since the Advent, Jesus is also referred to as the only savior. Luke 2:11 - “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”, Philippians 3:20 - “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ”, 2 Timothy 1:10 - “but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”. See also, Titus 1:3-4; 2:10, 13; 3:4-7; 2 Peter 1:1, 11; 2:20; 3:18.
In many passages Jesus is called God both directly and indirectly. Paul writes in Titus 2:13-14 -“looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession”, 2 Peter 1:1 – “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ”. Indirectly, by application of OT verses referring to God are then in the NT applied to Jesus. Isaiah 45:22-23 – “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance”, compared with the passage in Philippians 2:10-11 – “so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”. Application of the title Savior has been covered in sections above and is significant. In the OT, God Himself claims to be the only Savior and the NT writers and followers of Jesus knew that. It is expressed by their continual use of “God our Savior” in their writings, but they also use Jesus name interchangeably as being the savior, even within the same verses. The language used indicated they have not abandoned their belief in only one God, and only one savior, it seems as though they recognize Jesus and God are the same.
The subject of the deity of Jesus is quite an extensive endeavor. Neither time nor space will allow an exhaustive apologetic for Jesus’ deity. For a quite thorough and readable treatment of the doctrine of the deity of Jesus, I suggest the book “Putting Jesus in His Place” by Bowman and Komoszewski.
Following Christ’s deity is the necessity of His resurrection. There is a reason that Jesus needed to be resurrected, physically in the same body. First, sin is destructive in nature. It is why living things die. The whole purpose for Jesus’ punishment and dying in the first place was that it was done in our stead. In order for that substutionary atonement to be effective, Jesus needed to be sinless. If He was not free from sin the suffering on the cross would have been for Himself and not for others. His being raised was in essence, defeat of the perils of the consequence which sin delivers. It is full trust in Jesus that He is God, crucified, and raised from the dead which delivers us from the punishment which we deserve for transgressions against God. Therefore belief that Jesus’ resurrection is a factual event in history is crucial. For Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:13-19 – “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied”. Basically our faith, if it is worth anything, must rest in the actual resurrection of Jesus. Without this fact being true, our faith is wholly in vain and of no value.
With Jesus’ resurrection comes opportunity for man to be saved from the just sentence we all rightly deserve for our transgression of God’s law. But the sixty-four dollar question is, how? Is it something we earn, what must we do to be saved from the wrath God declares is due to all who break His law? It is natural for a person to think salvation is something which must be earned, after all, nothing in life is free, right? Additionally, it almost seems right to us, that we make it better. How many of us have wronged someone whom we love only to ask them “what can I do to make it right?” This urge to somehow right the wrong ourselves is innate, but is this what God has required of us? The bible is clear about our means to the salvation Christ has provided: we are not, indeed cannot be saved by anything we do ourselves. Ephesians 2:8-9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works”. Works is a biblical term roughly meaning obedience to the law, which is in essence doing good. It is by the grace of God, through our faith that it was Jesus who bore our punishment, and that He did it completely, and that it is not anything we can do for ourselves. Galatians 2:21 – “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly”, hence, if salvation was something we could do ourselves Jesus is irrelevant. It could not be more explicit than in Romans 4:5 – “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness”. See also, Galatians 3:21, and Romans chapter 4.
The final indispensable affirmed doctrine is the gospel. The gospel proper is not the same thing as gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All four accounts contain the gospel, but they themselves are not the gospel. The gospel is defined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 – “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also”. It is this series of events which is the gospel, and is recorded by the four evangelists. Paul goes further saying in Galatians 1:8-9, NIV – “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” Paul makes it unambiguous, the gospel is very specific, and it is not to be distorted.
As we have seen affirmation of certain beliefs and doctrines are non-negotiable to Christianity according its authoritative religious text, while others are not. The main thing to glean from this piece is no one is arguing that one cannot believe anything they want. This is not an argument for the truth of Christianity. Believe what you will. Christianity and the doctrines and beliefs which define it, are found within the bible. Though many people will give many different answers to the question, “what must a Christian believe in order to be a Christian?”. Christians do not define Christianity, the bible does. If one is intent on claiming the bible as their chief religious text you must consider it for what it is. This holds true for any other religious system. Muslims are not free to alter the Qur’an which dictates what it means to be a Muslim, according to their preferences. When you abandon the contents of the bible relating necessary beliefs, you forgo your true association with Christianity, and have in all practicality, invented a religion of your own.
Related Article: Essentials of Christianity Part 1
Related Article: Essentials of Christianity Part 1
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