What are some of the essential doctrines of the christian faith?

Actually, the OP asks about the essential doctrines not of worship but of Christian faith.

I would argue that what day one calls the Lord's Day is not essential, and I believe that Scripture bears this out.

And to DHK: the principle difficulty in asking if the Bible teaches anything nonessential is deciding whose translation and whose interpretation of the Scriptures will win the day.


The early nonJewish Christians had no Scriptures. They had only faith in Jesus Christ.

Thus I would argue that the only true essential to Christian faith would be faith in Jesus Christ.

 

How about my favorite, oft-quoted scriptures?

John 14:6
John 3:16-17
Romans 10:8-13

Aren't those THE essentials?

:wavey:

 

I certainly like 'em

 

GE:

"If they believed not Moses and the prophets ...." they would still believe in Me, is what you are saying.

 

Granted and as I said - I don't think that ignoring the 4th commandment unnintentionally will preclude salvation any more than ignoring the commandment against idol worship as the RCC teaches would mean that Catholics are not saved - are not Christians.

 

GE:

In your post in answer to BR you talked about the house you would rather brake down and then completely built over again. That's right!

And here you see two texts quoted by yourself that support your 'house-idea' perfectly. In the first (Ro14, it's the old house that should better be demolished in order to make space for the new, as we get a picture of it in the last, Col2.

Therefore, you totally misapply the latter. There couldn't be a stronger case made FOR the Sabbath's feasting-essential of New Testament founding than Col2:12-19!

 

Of course having agreed to this - I also strongly affirm 1John 2

1John 2
3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.[/b]
4 The one who says, "" I have come to know Him,'' and [b]does not keep His commandments, is a liar[/b], and the truth is not in him;
5 but whoever keeps His word[/b], in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.[/b]

 

So do you keep the New Moons as well?

What about Diet rules in Lev 11, do you keep it?

Do you know that the Violators of Sabbath must be killed, do you kill them?


Don't you use electricity on Sabbath? It makes Power plant burn the fuel!

Ex 35:3
Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

Ex 31:15Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Deut 27:
1 And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day.


Acts 15:
10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Do you believe that you can do what Jews and Disciples couldn't do?


Gal 5:
3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.


Can we say that if anyone should keep Sabbath, he or she must keep the Whole Law?


Read this!

Gal 3:
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.


Gal 3:
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?


You were saved by Holy Spirit, then are you sanctified by keeping the Law?

 

What is His commandments? Isn't that to follow the commandments of the Holy Spirit, not the Jewish Law?

 

Is it your view that some of the Bible is authored by the Holy Spirit and some of it is authored by "unsaved Jews" or at best "well intentioned and possibly very smart jews -- just not God"??

Recall that in Mark 7:9-13 Christ calls "something" the "Word of God" what specifically does He identify as being the binding "the Word of God"?

And back to the idea of "Not worshipping graven images" where does the NT forbid an act of worship that is directed to images of "what is in heaven or on earth" as in the case of the RCC worshipping images in their worship services?

 

Not necessarily the Holy Spirit should order the same commandments. The commandments in OT were addressed to the Jews, and the Jews failed in keeping them. Then, now you are trying to prove that you can do better than they did, even though God didn't command you.

 

Acts 15:
20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

 

As for Idolatry:

Galatians 5:
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Ephesians 5
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

1 Peter 4

3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries

1 John 5
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.


Rev 9:
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:


Do you find any commandments for Sabbath like this in NT?

 

Remember this. In OT times, the Law had the function of reminding the people of the sins, and thereby the Law helped them to be saved. Even in NT times, it helps the people realize their sins. If the Pharisees tried hard to keep the Law indeed, they would have confessed " I am a sinner", then they looked for the grace and for the Savior, thereby could have been saved.
In that context, Jesus was not saying that they should keep the Law. but should realize that they were the sinners, and that therefore they should come to the Savior-Jesus.

 

Actually Jesus is condemning them in Mark 7:9-13 for inventing a man-made tradition to nullify the "Word of God".

My question was what part of the Bible was He upholding against their man-made tradition?

Notice that He even upholds it to the point of saying "In vain do they worship Me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men".

 

Jesus said "The sabbath was made for mankind - not mankind for the Sabbath" in Mark 2:27.

You appear to be saying "The Sabbath was made for Jews not for mankind".

You need to write some sacred scripture.

In addition you appear to be saying that the OT should be taken as authorotative by Christians. What do you do with all the times that NT authors use it in quotes as an authorotative form of scripture?

What do you do with the pre-cross teaching of Christ?

in Christ,

Bob

 

Indeed -but Exodus 20 is specific about not engaging in worship using "graven images" of what is in heaven.

For the worship of pagan idols it is clear that both NT and OT forbid it... But when it comes to Worship of the one true God - using graven images to pray before - it is only the OT that tells us that this is also wrong.

Do you find any exact quote of the Ten commandments in the book of Job, the book of Malachi?? Do you suppose that in the OT they ended when they ceased to be repeated word-for-word in some book of the Bible??


Matt 24 - "Pray that your flight be NOT on the Sabbath day".

In the Gospels they "rested on the Sabbath according to the Commandment".

In John 14 "If you love me KEEP My Commandments".

In Heb 4 "There REMAINS therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God" Just as we saw it in the days of King David writing the psalms.

In Rev 14 "Fear God Give Glory to Him - Worship HIM who MADE the heavens and the earth the seas and the springs of Water".

in Isaiah 66 refering to events long AFTER the Cross "From Sabbath to Sabbath shall ALL MANKIND come before Me to Worship".

In Rev the Saints are those who "keep the commandments of God".


In Christ,

Bob

 

Bibliology: That the Bible in all of its books, and in every verse and in every part is fully inspired of God. (2Tim.3:16; 2Pet.1:20-22).
--It is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and doctrine.

Soteriology: Salvation is by faith in Christ and by faith in his sacrifical work on the Christ--by faith and faith alone.
More accurately it is by grace through faith (Eph.2:8,9)
It is by grace for God provided salvation entirely by his grace.
It is by faith for the only way to accept the gift of God is by faith; it is impossible to receive his gift by works. One cannot work for a gift.
It is the substitutionalry work of Christ that saves, whereby Christ came a substitute for us suffering the penalty of our sin on our behalves--the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit.
It is the atoning work of Christ, Christ making an atonement for our sins--an official payment with his shed blood that the Father would be satisfied with the payment of the penalty of our sins.
It demands faith, repentance, the new birth, conversion, and regeneration. all of which are similar in nature but describe a different aspect of the salvation process.

Christology:
Jesus Christ is God--He is fully God, the second person of the trinity. He is eternal--existng before the foundations of the world--having no beginnng and no end: the alph and the omega, the beginning and the end.
He was born of a virgin, became God incarnate; became fully man and fully God at the same time. He died, was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and demands all to believe on him for salvation. He is the only way by which man may go to heaven (John 14:6)

Theology:
This is the study of God (proper). God is a triune being--three persons in one God--God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three have their own personality. They are three separate persons, and yet at the same time make up only one God. This is a mystery which must be taken by faith. God created all things. He is a God of Love, Justice, Mercy, Holiness, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, and has many other attributes. None of his attributes contradict each other, but full compliment one another. He is fully God, having need of nothing. It is God that we depend upon for all things. He is the potter and we are the clay. Through Jesus Christ we may develop a relationship with him. True Christianity is not a religion but a relationship.

Pnemeunatology: The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is much misunderstood. The Holy Spirit is a person--the third person of the triune Godhead. He is not just an influence but an actual person. He is known in Scripture as the "Comforter" which Jesus promised would come after Him, and would indwell every believer who believed on him. We do not believe that there is a subsequent blessing, but rather that the Lord commands the Christian to be filled with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis by submitting to Him.

Demonology and Angeology:
The devil (Satan) is a real person. He is not omnipresemt, but ubiquitous. That is, he seems to be everywhere because of the legions of fallen angels (demons) that he has under his control and are working for him. Are all these are real spirits working for evil in this world today, working for Satan against the will of God. The Bible commands us to "resist the devil and he will flee from you."
Angels on the other hand, are God's spirits sent to minister to the saints. (Heb.1:13). They live in heaven in the presence of God, to do God's bidding. They also are spirit beings.

Ecclesiology:
God's chosen vessel of doing his will today is through the local church. Most of the epistles were either written to a local church or to a pastor of a local church. It is a God-ordained institution, whereby saved individuals are baptized and then voluntarily need to join in order to carry out the Great Commission and join in celebrating the two ordinances of Christ: the Lord's Supper and the ordinance of Baptism. The church, per se, cannot save. But it is God's vehicle whereby the Great Commission was given and it is instrumental in the salvation of others, and in the instruction and fellowship of fellow believers.

Eschatology:
The study of last thngs cannot be ignored as the Bible devotes a great deal of it pages to this important subject. Christ is coming agan. He first is coming for his own, when the first resurrection takes place. This is called the rapture. Immediately after the Great Tribulation will take place and will last for seven years. then Christ will return agan, at which time he will set up him Millennial Kingdom. At the end of that one thousand period, Satan will rebel against God one final time and will be defeated by fire coming out of Heaven. Then the Great White Throne Judgement will take place. This is, of course immediately following the second resurrection.
Eternity will begin immediately after that.

Since this is all from memory, I may have missed one or two doctrines. But these are some of the most important doctrines that are fundamental to our faith.

 

"God so LOVED that HE GAVE..." "God IN CHRIST reconciling the world to HIMSELF"

Or "Christ so sufferred that finally the Father was satisfied"??

 

I have written quite a lot above before you asked these and therefore I hope you can gain some more understanding by reading them carefully.

Job and Malachi lived OT era before Jesus completed the Great Work at the Cross, and therefore we cannot compare our times to theirs.

But my point is this, there was a tremendous change after the Cross, and therefore, we the Gentiles need some guidance about the guidance by Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit doesn't teach us clearly about the Sabbath keeping.

If you read NT carefully, you can notice that there is an apparent difference between other commandments like Murder, Adultery, Idol and Sabbath keeping. There is no emphasis on Sabbath keeping in NT at all.
All verses that you can bring in are arguable.

Jesus was talking about 2 events, one was the Jewish War during 66-70AD, and the other was Eschatology during Great Tribulation. So, it may have applied to the Jews during the Judean War

Yes, it was because the time was still considered as OT times. Cross was not complete until the Resurrection and Inauguration of Holy Spirit.

Keeping His Commandments means following Holy Spirit. The Love is the keeping of Commandments.

True Sabbath keeping is taking Rest in Jesus Christ and therefore Sabbath in Heb 4 :8 means Believing in Jesus.

Yes we do fear God and worship Him who created all things thru Jesus Christ.

I already explained you about this.
From Sabbath to Sabbath means EVERYDAY, Not on each Sabbath. From Sabbath to Sabbath means Sabbath, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sabbath.

Do you claim that From Sabbath to Sabbath means Sabbath, another Sabbath, third Sabbath? Then you are claiming Saturdayonly Christians. Can you commit sins on Monday and go to drinking bars, gambling on Tuesday?

Yes, they keep the commandments of God, not the Law given and addressed to Jews, by following the Holy Spirit, by obeying the commandments of Holy Spirit.

As for Mark 7, the point that Jesus was pointing out was the Hypocrisy of the Jews, and Jesus was not complaining that Jews and Gentiles must keep the Law. Such claim was brought in by the Jews in ACts 15.

ACts 15:5
But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.


What was the conclusion at the conference? Was the above mentioned claim accepted by the Early Church?
NOPE!