So far I've covered what it takes to become a Christian. Someone sees the house that is Christianity and asks, "How do I get in?" I've given the basic beliefs necessary to get in that door. There is, first, the recognition of the need -- the sin condition -- and, second, the person and work of Jesus. It is a specific Jesus here. He lived and died and rose again. He died for our sins (necessary for solving the "sin condition" problem) and He rose from the dead. Placing one's faith in that Jesus is necessary for entering the house we call "Christianity". That would be "essential Christianity" if the question is "What must I do to be saved?" And now we move on from here.
The next question is regarding the primary structure of this "house". What is it made of? What holds it up? You see, in every structure there are necessary components and there are ... decorative components. Sticking with my house metaphor, there are foundations and "load-bearing beams" and just stuff put up for convenience or comfort. What we're looking at from here on out are the necessary components, the parts without which the house will not stand. Essential Christianity.
This "house" metaphor isn't my own. The Bible uses it, too. Paul refers to Christians as "members of the household of God" which, he goes on to say, are "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone" (Eph 2:19-20). So, at the outset, it is clear that our "house" called "Christianity" has a foundation of "the apostles and prophets" with Christ as the cornerstone. (Don't I have a clever way with words?)
The cornerstone of a building is key. It is the starting point. For the Church, that would be Christ. It is the defining point. It stakes the location in a certain point and it provides direction for the entire building. Placed first, this cornerstone indicates where the foundation begins and which way the walls run. As the cornerstone defines the building, Jesus defines Christianity. And in other places Christ Himself is our foundation, so we'll need to spend time there.
But there is this foundation, the part laid after the cornerstone is laid and the building is defined but before the building is built. The foundation is the base on which the building stands. And Paul indicates that the base of the building of Christianity is "the apostles and prophets". What is that to us?
The reference to the apostles and prophets is a reference to biblical history. It goes back to the beginning and calls up every single messenger sent by God to Man. It includes the Apostles (capital "A") who were specially called by Christ as disciples in His day and commissioned by Him to carry out His continued work. These, of course, are no longer alive today. So what is our foundation today? The foundation of the building we call Christianity, then, is the Word of God, the Scriptures, the Bible.
The Bible we have today is a translation of original texts that are, of a necessity, God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16-17). They were not merely "inspired" as we might use the term today, but actually breathed by the Holy Spirit to His authorized messengers who, in their own words and under the supervision of the Spirit, wrote down what God wanted His people to know. As such, these texts were infallible -- could not be wrong -- and inerrant -- had no mistakes. The Bible is the only source of authority in matters of faith and practice for Christianity. If it is true that the foundation of the Church is the apostles and prophets, this position of the authority and reliability of Scripture is not negotiable. It is essential. Those who argue otherwise only end up arguing to tear up the foundation on which Christianity stands. Remove the authority and/or reliability of the Bible, and you remove any genuine authority or reliability in and of Christianity at all. It isn't a point of discussion. It is an absolute necessity. Just as a house without a foundation cannot stand, Christianity without the proven Word of God (Prov 30:5) cannot stand.
There are arguments for the reliability of Scripture. They are not a few. They are multiple. They offer answers to skeptics. They give reasons to believe that the Bible is indeed the infallible, inerrant Word of God. I'm not offering any of them here (except, obviously, to link to a few). My aim here is not to prove the claim, but to list the essentials of Christianity without which Christianity will not stand. What, as a believer, must a person affirm to continue in Christianity? First and foremost -- step one, so to speak -- there must be an authoritative source upon which to base all these claims of Christ and Christianity. That source is the Bible, God's tried and tested Word. With it, we can confirm or deny the rest. Without it, we have nothing but conjecture. The first essential Christian belief, then, is the reliability of Scripture which serves as the foundation of Christianity.
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Interestingly, this particular essential is likely one of the currently most controversial. Never has the Church in all its history disagreed about the authority of the Bible, but these days it is the primary disagreement, the beginning of all disagreements. Without this first step, this essential, we have chaos. Every man will do what is right in his own eyes. This controversy, of course, isn't new. It started in the Garden, didn't it? "Did God say ...?"
I was just having this conversation with someone about the very importance of Scripture. Without the authority of Scripture we just have men telling men how to live based on how they think they should live, and that Christianity would be just like any other religion.
Yes. That would leave us with some sort of "weighted authority" system. We have Scripture which may or may not be completely reliable and then other things like logic, experience, personal perceptions, personal preferences, etc. Each person could then decide which factor to give weight to, and you would have people telling you that homosexual behavior is not a sin because lots of people are doing it (experience) and they're happy about it (personal preferences) and Scripture can't actually be relied on to be 100% accurate when it says things like "That behavior is sin." Oh, wait ... that's what we have!
The problem, of course, is the nature of authority. Authority has to have a basis. I don't get to tell you what to do without some basis for authority. Your boss, for instance, has the authority on the job, so he/she can tell you what to do on the job. Not elsewhere.
So we come to matters of faith and practice. Something or someone must have the authority to tell all people in the arena of "faith and practice" what is right and what is wrong. If it is me, I only have the authority to tell me and not you. If it is God, He has the authority, but the means are nebulous. But having given us the Scriptures -- His WORD -- He who has the authority has given us the necessary instructions in matters of faith and practice. Problem solved. Without that foundational principle, problem NOT solved. Each will do what is right in his own eyes and no one will have the right to tell another "What you're doing is wrong," not having the necessary authority to do so.
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