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Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
Not going to dump the book bro, but I understand if it's quite tainted for many. We may not agree with all the specific particulars, but the basic thought is good as far as I'm concerned. (again, very sad the overall concept wasn't practiced in the LC)
Looking through the verses you cited, including 1st Timothy 1, I see very general references to "the faith." Are there more specific things we can pick-up regarding what the faith is, and what would those references be? Perhaps I am missing something in those verses . . .
Let me take a stab at this - if someone were to ask me what I thought the essentials of the faith were, I might say the following:
- Jesus Christ is the Son of God; God came in the flesh
- He lived on earth, died on the cross and God raised Him from the dead, to live forever more
- On the cross God put all our sins on Christ and paid the price for us to be fully reconciled to God
- If a person accepts God's free gift of reconciliation in Christ, they are saved and regenerated with a new life
So how's that? Do you think there's good scriptural backing for saying these are essentials we shouldn't compromise on? I thought of various things that could be added, but I don't know I would call them "essentials of the faith." |
To me the essentials were given by Peter publicly on Pentecost.* God raised up Jesus, of this we are witnesses. ~Acts 2:32 Either Peter's witness is lie, or it is truth. If it is truth, then everything else points to this, and derives its own measure of truth by what degree it points to that. Anything that doesn't point to that is irrelevant at best.
Let me give an example: Paul's writing to the Corinthians. There's a lot of stuff going on there that isn't befitting of Christians. Everything, however, that Paul is less-than-enamored of, is because it's detracting the believers from the path of the gospel, and it ruins this very testimony to the unbelievers. If the believers are fornicating, getting drunk and stealing, then did Christ really rise? And if he did really rise, then why are they conducting themselves so terribly?
And so forth. The focal point of scripture is the agony that Christ bore on the cross, and the glories that followed. Either it's real, or it's not. Everything else is settled by this one proposition.
*Peter's sermon in Acts 2 was repeated almost verbatim in Acts 13 by the Gamaliel-trained urban Pharisee Paul. No stronger 'amen' could be given.