I stumbled upon this old article from armybarmy.com recently:
I am a Christian. No big deal, you say? Isn’t everyone? Well, no. In fact, it’s a relatively small group. I know we’ve stretched the meaning of the word so that it includes everyone who goes to church, everyone who’s been baptized, everyone who votes a certain way, everyone born in certain western countries. But it’s nothing like that at all. There are specific fundamentals to which someone who is a Christian commits. These fundamentals distinguish such a person from these other bloated groups. Let’s see if we can narrow down the collection of “Christians” to those who really are.
The first fundamental is the infallibility of Scripture. The Bible is true. It is the inspired Word of God. In its original manuscripts there are no errors at all. And the Bible is the only divine rule of Christian faith and practice. That will exclude heaps of people. Don’t buy any arguments you hear about the Bible changing over the centuries. Those are the statements of the ignorant. And don’t buy that the Bible’s teachings are out of date, that they are no longer valid because they failed to keep up with changes in culture. The Bible was affirming that the earth is a sphere even when, in the day of Columbus, the culture was claiming that it was flat. Truth is not determined by consensus.
The second fundamental is the Deity of Christ. That means Jesus is God. As the prophet Isaiah says, He is the mighty God, the everlasting Father. I know, I know; that excludes all the cults that claim Him variously as angel, prophet, enlightened one, or other such created being. It’s a radical thing to say, certainly not politically correct. But I’m afraid that’s it. Christians believe that Jesus is God.
The third fundamental is the Virgin Birth and the miracles of Christ. Now if you buy into the first two fundamentals this one is no big deal, since the Bible explains the virgin birth and Jesus as God can obviously pull off miracles. As you might imagine though, this is a big stretch for our ‘educated’ society. I mean, how can a virgin have a baby? But we’re dealing with God here, not your experience. The Former is a bit larger than the latter.
The fourth is Christ’s propitiatory death. Wow! Jesus didn’t die just as an example for us. He didn’t die by mistake. He didn’t die as a martyr to a cause. He didn’t die for political reasons. He died just because you and I - and everyone else - bear a MUCH closer resemblance to Adolph Hitler than we do to Jesus Christ, and He wants to change that. You see, we’re all in our natural state chock full of sin. Our sin separates us from God. Jesus died in our place so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be reconciled with God through repentance and faith.
The last fundamental is Christ’s physical resurrection and eventual return. Jesus actually came back to life, nail puncture holes and everything! It was a huge miracle. There were 500 eye witnesses. And He’s coming back like He promised. In the meantime we needn’t complain about who is not included, even if you are in that number. Instead, I invite you to consider these fundamentals of orthodox Christian belief. I invite you to submit to the living God, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, described in the infallible Scriptures, who died so that you may be saved, came physically back to life, and who is coming back. Ask Him to forgive you and change you, today.
Who put the fun back into fundamentalism! :-)
from Armybarmy.com
I am a Christian. No big deal, you say? Isn’t everyone? Well, no. In fact, it’s a relatively small group. I know we’ve stretched the meaning of the word so that it includes everyone who goes to church, everyone who’s been baptized, everyone who votes a certain way, everyone born in certain western countries. But it’s nothing like that at all. There are specific fundamentals to which someone who is a Christian commits. These fundamentals distinguish such a person from these other bloated groups. Let’s see if we can narrow down the collection of “Christians” to those who really are.
The first fundamental is the infallibility of Scripture. The Bible is true. It is the inspired Word of God. In its original manuscripts there are no errors at all. And the Bible is the only divine rule of Christian faith and practice. That will exclude heaps of people. Don’t buy any arguments you hear about the Bible changing over the centuries. Those are the statements of the ignorant. And don’t buy that the Bible’s teachings are out of date, that they are no longer valid because they failed to keep up with changes in culture. The Bible was affirming that the earth is a sphere even when, in the day of Columbus, the culture was claiming that it was flat. Truth is not determined by consensus.
The second fundamental is the Deity of Christ. That means Jesus is God. As the prophet Isaiah says, He is the mighty God, the everlasting Father. I know, I know; that excludes all the cults that claim Him variously as angel, prophet, enlightened one, or other such created being. It’s a radical thing to say, certainly not politically correct. But I’m afraid that’s it. Christians believe that Jesus is God.
The third fundamental is the Virgin Birth and the miracles of Christ. Now if you buy into the first two fundamentals this one is no big deal, since the Bible explains the virgin birth and Jesus as God can obviously pull off miracles. As you might imagine though, this is a big stretch for our ‘educated’ society. I mean, how can a virgin have a baby? But we’re dealing with God here, not your experience. The Former is a bit larger than the latter.
The fourth is Christ’s propitiatory death. Wow! Jesus didn’t die just as an example for us. He didn’t die by mistake. He didn’t die as a martyr to a cause. He didn’t die for political reasons. He died just because you and I - and everyone else - bear a MUCH closer resemblance to Adolph Hitler than we do to Jesus Christ, and He wants to change that. You see, we’re all in our natural state chock full of sin. Our sin separates us from God. Jesus died in our place so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be reconciled with God through repentance and faith.
The last fundamental is Christ’s physical resurrection and eventual return. Jesus actually came back to life, nail puncture holes and everything! It was a huge miracle. There were 500 eye witnesses. And He’s coming back like He promised. In the meantime we needn’t complain about who is not included, even if you are in that number. Instead, I invite you to consider these fundamentals of orthodox Christian belief. I invite you to submit to the living God, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, described in the infallible Scriptures, who died so that you may be saved, came physically back to life, and who is coming back. Ask Him to forgive you and change you, today.
Who put the fun back into fundamentalism! :-)
from Armybarmy.com
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