BASIC CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES
(John 8:31-32)
[HTTP formatted version of this sermon is located at
http://members.aol.com/abidingitw/docstate.html]
Doctrinal Basis. I adopt the following Statement of Faith as my interpretation of Bible doctrine:
BIBLE - The Bible alone, and in its entirety in the original languages, is the inspired word of God for our lives. It is the mind of Jesus Christ, and the believer’s only source of divine revelation during the present Church age. (John 8:31-32; 1 Cor 2:16; 2 Tim 2:15, 3:16-17; Heb 4:12; 2 Pet 1:20-21; Rev 22:18-19)
SALVATION - Salvation throughout all of human history is the gift of God brought to man by grace. A person receives salvation at the moment that he makes a positive decision to trust in the person and saving work of Jesus Christ only, whose atoning death on the cross provided reconciliation between man and God. (John 1:12, 3:16, 14:6; Acts 16:31; Eph 1:7, 2:8-10)
ETERNAL SECURITY - A person can never lose the eternal life received at salvation. Once salvation is acquired, the believer’s place in heaven is eternally secure. (John 10:28; Acts 16:31; Rom 5:9-10, 8:1; 1 Cor 12:21; 2 Cor 1:21-22; Gal 3:26; 2 Tim 2:13; 1 Pet 1:4-5; Jude 24).
TRINITY - God is one in essence, but is three in personality. The three distinct but equal members of the Godhead are God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is the author of the divine plan for mankind. His Son Jesus Christ is the revealed member of the Godhead who accomplished the plan. The Holy Spirit reveals and teaches God’s plan to members of the human race. Each personality of God is equally and fully perfect in essence. In essence, God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, just and righteous (holy), eternal, immutable, and love. (Gen. 1:26; Deut. 6:4; 2 Cor. 13:14)
JESUS CHRIST - The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became fully man without ceasing to be fully God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man. He accomplished this redemption after a sinless life through His spiritual death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Our redemption is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ is now in heaven and exalted at the right hand of God as our High Priest, by which He is our Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate. (John 1:1, 2, 14; Luke 1:35; Rom 3:24-25, 4:25, 8:34; 1 Pet 1:3-5; Heb 9:24; 1 John 2:1-2)
HOLY SPIRIT - The third person of the Godhead is the Holy Spirit, distinct in personality but equal in essence to the other two members of the Trinity. The ministry of the Holy Spirit to every believer includes the following: regeneration and indwelling at the moment of salvation, sealing (securing) the believer’s salvation, spiritual growth through the learning and understanding of Bible teaching, convicting of sin, bestowing of at least one spiritual gift, baptizing every believer into union with Christ in one body, and the filling (control) of the believer’s life by which the believer is enabled to perform divine good. All of these ministries are a permanent part of a believer’s life except for the filling of the Holy Spirit, which can be lost through sin and regained through confession of sin. (John 3:6, 14:16-17, 16:7-15; Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 6:19, 12:13; Eph 2:22, 4:30, 5:18; 2 Thes 2:7; 1 John 2:20-27)
SPIRITUAL GIFTS - Every believer is given at least one spiritual gift at the moment of salvation, apart from human merit and as the Holy Spirit chooses in grace. Possession of such a gift does not mean that a believer has spirituality. Such gifts include pastor-teacher, administration, helps, and evangelism. Certain gifts of the Holy Spirit in the early Church were temporary signs of apostolic authority until the written Bible was completed. These gifts of apostleship, healing, prophecy, miracles, tongues, and interpretation of tongues ended in the first century. (Acts 4:8, 31; Rom 8:23; 1 Cor 12, 13, 14)
ORDINANCES - The only ordinances to be observed by the Church until the Lord’s return are water Baptism by means of immersion, and the Lord’s Supper, also called Communion or the Eucharist. (Matt 28:19; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 10:47-48, 16:32-33, 18:7-8; 1 Cor 11:23- 26)
SPIRITUALITY - At the moment of salvation, a person is filled with (controlled by) the Holy Spirit. This state is known as spirituality. It is an absolute and temporary condition that can be lost through deliberate or unknown sin. Once lost, it can be regained by confession of sin to God. Through naming his known sins to God, the believer takes control of his life away from his old sin nature, and gives control back to the Holy Spirit. (Eph 5:18; 1 John 1)
CARNALITY - At the moment a believer sins, either consciously or unconsciously, he loses the filling (control) of the Holy Spirit in his life. He is then in the absolute condition of carnality, having taken the control of his life away from the Holy Spirit and given it back to his old sin nature. The believer can regain spirituality (the control of the Holy Spirit) through confessing his known sins to God. (1 Cor 3:1-5; 1 John 1)
DISPENSATIONS - God has progressively revealed Himself to man through successive ages, during each age testing man in respect to obedience to some specific revelation of His will. In each such dispensation, man failed the respective test and incurred judgment from God. Certain of these ages are the subject of extended revelation in the Scriptures. These include the dispensation of the Age of Israel, which began with Abraham, was interrupted by the present Church Age, and which will conclude with the Tribulation (the seventieth week of Daniel). These dispensations also include the present Church Age (which began on Pentecost and ends with the Rapture of the Church), and the Millennium (the one-thousand year reign of Christ on earth after the seven-year Tribulation). This dispensational viewpoint is essential to the correct interpretation of the plan of God and His purpose in the world relating to the Church, Israel, and to the nations. Regardless of differences in the way that God administered His purpose in each dispensation, salvation is always by grace through faith on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 9:17; Rom 4:3- 8; Eph 3:2, 9, 11; Col 1:25; 1 Tim 1:4; Heb 11:1-40)
THE CHURCH - All believers, regardless of affiliation with Christian organizations, are united to the risen and ascended Jesus Christ into His body through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This body is known as the Church, of which Jesus Christ is the head, and will be taken to heaven as the Bride of Christ at the Rapture. The Church is distinct from the nation of Israel, and was not the subject of Old Testament prophecy. (1 Cor 12:12-27; Eph 1:22-23, 5:25-27)
RESPONSIBILITY OF BELIEVERS - The believer should seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through study of the Bible. The result should be a life consistent with God’s plan, thus resulting in blessing to the believer and glory to God. The believer’s purpose is also to make Christ known to an unsaved world. (Matt 28:18-19; Mark 16:15; John 17:18; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor 5:18-20; Col 1:9; 1 Pet 1:17, 2:11; 2 Pet 3:18)
THE RAPTURE - The next event to occur in Bible prophecy is the Rapture of the Church. Jesus Christ will return to meet the Church in the air. Believers who have died during the Church age will be raised first, then those who are alive will be suddenly transformed, all receiving resurrection bodies. The Rapture will occur suddenly and at any moment. There is no further prophecy to be fulfilled before this event can occur. (John 14:1-3; 1 Cor 15:51-52; Phil 3:20; 1 Thes 4:13-18; Tit 2:11-14)
THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST - Immediately following the Rapture, each believer appears before Jesus Christ in heaven, and his deeds (not sins) are judged. Those deeds done while the believer was filled with (controlled by) the Holy Spirit (spirituality) are rewarded as divine good ("gold, silver, and precious stones"). Those done while the believer was under control of the old sin nature (carnality) are burned as human good ("wood, hay, and stubble"). (Eccl 12:14; Rom 14:10-12; 1 Cor 3:8, 11-15, 4:5; 2 Cor 5:10)
THE TRIBULATION - The Rapture of the Church will be followed on earth by the fulfillment of Israel’s seventieth week, during which the Church as the body of Christ will be in heaven. This seven-year period will be a time of judgment upon the whole earth. The latter half of this time period is called in Scripture "the time of Jacob’s trouble," the great Tribulation. (Dan 9:27; Jer 30:7; Matt 24:15-21; Rev 6-19)
SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST - The great tribulation will be climaxed by the pre-millennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth to set up His kingdom. Christ will return with power and great glory to introduce the millennial age, a one-thousand year period of perfect environment. Jesus Christ will also at that time bind Satan and place him into the abyss, lift the curse that now rests upon all creation, restore Israel to its own land to fulfill God’s covenant promises, and bring the whole world to the knowledge of God. (Deu 30:1-10; Isa 11:9; Ezek 37:21-28; Zech 14:4-11; Matt 24:15-31, 36-46; Acts 15:16-17; Rom 8:19-23, 11:25-27; 1 Tim 4:1-3; 2 Tim 3:1-5; 2 Thes 1:7-10; Rev 20:1-3, 6)
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT - At the end of the Millennium, all unbelievers will appear before the Great White Throne of God, where they will be judged according to their works (not sins). At this time, all unbelievers will be ultimately condemned based upon their unpardonable sin of rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior. Having in effect made the decision to stand on their own human merits, God will judge their human good and find no righteousness. (Rev 20:11-13)
THE ETERNAL STATE - At death, the soul and the human spirit of Church Age believers in Jesus Christ immediately pass into God’s presence, to remain in conscious bliss until the Rapture. At that time, the soul and spirit are united with a new resurrection body to be associated with God in glory forever. However, the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the Great White Throne Judgment at the close of the Millennium. At that time, the soul and body are reunited to be cast into the lake of fire and will not be annihilated, but will be punished with everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord. (Luke 16:19-26, 23:42- 43; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23; 2 Thes 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev 20:11-15)
SATAN AND FALLEN ANGELS - God created an innumerable host of angels, a third of whom rebelled against God and brought sin into the universe. The leader of these fallen angels is a being named Lucifer, or Satan, who is the open and declared enemy of God and man. Satan will ultimately be completely defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ. (Job 1:6-7; Isa 14:12-17; Ezek 28:11-19; Matt 4:2-11; 1 Tim 3:6; 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6; Rev 20:1-3)
TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN - Man was originally created in the image of God, but through sin, incurred physical death as well as spiritual death, which is separation from God. As a result, all human beings are born with a sin nature, are alienated from God, are totally unable to save themselves from this lost condition. (Gen 1:26-27; Rom 3:22-23, 5:12; Eph 2:12)
GIVING - The entire program of a Church will be supported by the free-will offerings of those who are led by the Holy Spirit to contribute to its support. Tithing was a form of taxation required of all citizens of Israel during the prior dispensation, in addition to the free will offerings of the people. Tithing is never commanded after the Church began at Pentecost, so is not the basis of giving for Church Age believers. Other unscriptural methods of raising funds include meals for profit; all sale of tickets, raffles, chances, merchandise, rummage sales, bingo, and any other methods that are not supported by the teachings of the Bible. (Lev 27:30-32; Mal 3:8-10; 1 Cor 16:2; 2 Cor 8 & 9; Heb 7:7)
SOCIAL/POLITICAL CAUSES - No activity should be performed on Church property or using Church resources, which benefits a particular political candidate, party, or political/social platform or point of view. This does not prohibit the non-partisan use of the Church as a polling place for voting machines. This also does not prohibit the teaching, by the Pastor or authorized Sunday School teachers, of political or social viewpoints specifically mentioned in the Bible.
Copyright (c) 2000, Frank J. Gallagher
Abiding In The Word
http://members.aol.com/abidingitw
All materials are written by me and are copyrighted. These materials may be freely copied and distributed for the purpose of study and teaching, so long as they are made available to others free of charge, and my copyright is included. These materials may not, in any manner, be sold nor used to solicit "donations" from others, nor may they be included in anything you intend to copyright, sell, or offer for a fee. God the Holy Spirit freely provides this knowledge in grace, and so do I. My copyright is exercised to keep these materials freely available to all.
