What do Christians Believe?
Summary:
God created humanity in his image to have a relationship with him, giving humanity free will to choose whether or not to obey him. Humanity rebelled, incurring physical mortality and spiritual separation from God. Sinful humanity is incapable of restoring this relationship. Only someone who was both God and sinless man could bridge the gap between God and humanity. God, who is holy and just, cannot tolerate evil. Being also loving and merciful, he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to be born as a human baby, and to die on the cross as our substitute. Taking on the punishment we deserve, he died and rose again, conquering both sin and death. By repentance and faith in him we can be reconciled to God and receive his Spirit to live within us, enabling us to grow more like Christ. At the end of human history Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. Those who have accepted him will live with him for eternity; those who reject him will be separated from God forever. (This is also summarized in the creeds in the Appendix.)
The above summary is all one really needs to know in order to respond to the good news about Jesus. What follows is a more detailed description of the Christian faith.
God
There is one God, without beginning or end, who exists as three Persons in one Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each equally divine and eternal, sharing one substance (or essence) and purpose, but distinct in role. This concept of God as Three-in-One and One-in-Three is known as the Trinity, a word which is not present in the Bible but can be demonstrated from Scripture. There are not three gods, nor one god with three different modes, but one God in three Persons.
God is present everywhere, knows everything, and is all-powerful. He is holy, just, merciful and loving. He is sovereign; nothing occurs without his permission and foreknowledge.
(a) God the Father. He is the initiator in Creation and Redemption but did not act without the Spirit and the Son. It is from the Father that everything originates. Most (but not all) Christian prayer is directed to the Father, through the Son (which is why we say, “In Jesus’ name” or “Through Christ our Lord” before saying “Amen” at the end of our prayers), by the Spirit who enables us to pray.
(b) God the Son is related (is “generated” or “begotten”) to the Father eternally. He is uncreated; there is no time when he did not exist. He is the “Word” (“logos” or reason) of the Father, through whom the Father spoke the universe into being. At a moment in time, in obedience to the Father and by the action of the Holy Spirit, the Son became human by being conceived by Mary, a Jewish virgin engaged to Joseph. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Palestine, and lived as a human, taught about the kingdom of God, performed miracles as signs of the kingdom, and predicted his own death as a sacrifice for sin. He was condemned to death by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, at the instigation of the religious authorities, and was crucified, died, and was buried in a borrowed grave. On the third day he rose bodily from the dead, appeared on numerous occasions to his followers and then after forty days ascended into heaven where he now intercedes for us. Before he died he commanded his followers to remember his death as a new covenant in bread and wine (known as Communion or the Lord’s Supper). Before he ascended he commanded his followers to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all he had taught. At the end of history he will return visibly and bodily to judge all humanity. Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. He has two natures (human and divine) but one will in one Person.
(c) God the Holy Spirit is the third Person. He proceeds eternally from the Father and is sent temporally (in time) at the Son’s request. He is the giver and sustainer of life, was present at Creation, spoke through the Hebrew prophets, inspired the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and caused Mary to conceive Jesus while she remained a virgin. At Jesus’ baptism the Spirit empowered him for his earthly ministry. The Father raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent to the early church at Pentecost (50 days after the Christ’s resurrection). The Holy Spirit exalts Jesus as Lord, convicts us of sin and God’s righteousness and the need to be reconciled to God. When one becomes a Christian one receives the Holy Spirit who assures us that God is our Father. He empowers believers, grants them gifts for the service of others, and gradually transforms our characters as we learn to yield to him.
The Material Universe
God created the material universe out of nothing and sustains it. It is therefore good and reflects his glory as a masterpiece reflects the skill and character of the artist. Without him the universe would cease to exist. God is present within the material universe (imminent) but distinct from it (transcendent). God is neither part of Nature, nor Nature part of God, although God is present everywhere in it, and we live and move and exist in God. Matter is neither despised as evil nor worshipped as divine. In the incarnation of Christ, God took on material form as a human. Christ rose bodily from the grave and ascended with his resurrected body to the right hand of the Father. When Christ returns the faithful dead will be raised. Those who believed in him will have resurrected bodies like his; those alive at his return will have their bodies transformed like his. Eternity will not be a bodiless existence. After the judgment at the end of history there will be a new heaven and a new earth. The whole of creation awaits Christ’s return. Christ has provided material sacraments as means of grace to be appropriated by faith, namely water in baptism, wine and bread in the Lord’s Supper. Because God is distinct from created matter Christians may not worship images, but, because the Son took on a physical body, the incarnate Son may be depicted in art.
The Spiritual Realm
God created spiritual beings, called angels, to serve him. Angels are not deities, nor are they mortal. They are creatures of spirit who can, on occasion, appear visibly to humans. At various times God has sent his angels to bring messages to humans, or has occasionally permitted people to catch a glimpse of the spiritual realm.
Lucifer, one of the greatest of the angels, coveted equality with God and rebelled against him, being cast out of God’s presence along with one third of the angels, now called demons. Lucifer is now called the devil, Beelzebub, Satan, the Accuser, the Prince of the Power of the Air and the god of this world. The struggle between good and evil experienced by humans is paralleled in the spiritual realm. There are no neutral spirits; all angels either serve God or the Evil one. Satan tempted our first parents to sin and continues to tempt us. God has granted us the means to resist temptation and the example of Jesus’ resistance to temptation. Satan was defeated at the cross. What we now experience as spiritual warfare is just the “mopping-up operations” before Satan’s final downfall after Christ’s return. Furthermore, God is sovereign; the battle is not an equal one or one in which the final outcome is in doubt. Satan, though powerful and evil is on a long leash and can do nothing more than God permits.
C.S. Lewis, in his book “Screwtape Letters” warns of two opposite and equally dangerous approaches to the spiritual realm: one is to be blissfully unaware of it and therefore have no discernment about the existence of evil, the other is to be unhealthily preoccupied with it. Christians are not to dabble in the occult, or to participate in inter-faith worship which involves the invocation of gods or spirits other than the God who has revealed himself to us as recorded in the Bible.
Man
God created man in his own image, having personhood and the capacity to reason, love and communicate. Originally innocent, man rebelled against God, having been warned of the consequence, and became subject to physical mortality and spiritual alienation from God. The image of God within was thus tarnished but not eliminated. All humans subsequently inherit a predilection for evil, and although capable of choosing to commit specific sins or not, are incapable of restoring the relationship with God thus lost, without his intervention. Every human being, from the moment of conception, is infinitely precious to the God who created us. Every human (other than Christ), no matter how good, is in the same predicament.
Revelation
God has revealed himself in nature and in the history of Israel and her prophets. The Scriptures reveal to us the nature of God, his moral standards, his love, and his call to repentance. He has definitively revealed himself in the person of his Son, Jesus who in turn entrusted the gospel to his apostles and promised that the Holy Spirit would guide the church into all truth.
Sin and Salvation
Sins (plural) are individual acts of commission or omission which are contrary to the will of God. Sin (singular) is a state of existence in which we find ourselves, now that we are alienated from God through the rebellion of the first representative humans whom the Bible calls Adam and Eve. Salvation is the process of restoration of physical, spiritual and mental wholeness made possible by Christ. It begins when we turn to Christ but is not finished in this life. Salvation has past, present and future components. Past: in that Christ has completed through his one unrepeatable sacrifice all that is required to deal with the power and penalty of sin. Present: in that we have to receive the gift of salvation now and cooperate with the Holy Spirit as he works in our lives. Future: in that the work of transforming us into Christ’s likeness, or of becoming partakers of his nature, will not be completed until we reach heaven.
By way of analogy: suppose that a man chooses to jump into an enormous pit of sinking sand. Blinded by dirt in his eyes and deafened by mud in his ears, weakened by his efforts to save himself, he is unable to reach solid ground. His struggling only causes him to sink deeper. God’s arm is long enough to reach out and pull him to solid ground. All the mired man has to do to be saved is grasp the hand offered to him. All too often he strikes out and pushes away the proffered assistance. God is the one who wipes away the mud and dirt, gives the strength to grasp his hand and the faith to trust him to save us. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation; it is a gift to be received. God is not willing that anyone should perish. He calls everyone to repent and turn to him but he does not force us to respond.
A proper appreciation of the sovereign grace of God leads us to conclude that if anyone is saved it is solely through God’s initiative. If anyone perishes it is by that person’s own responsibility in not receiving the salvation offered.
When we repent of our sin, believe in Christ and put our faith in him, we become God’s children by adoption and new birth, receive his Holy Spirit, are washed by the water of baptism and experience his forgiveness and the power to live a life pleasing to God.
The Church
All faithful Christians who have come to faith in Christ as expressed in Christian baptism are members of the body of Christ, the church. Wherever two or three people gather together in Christ’s name, Christ is with them by his Spirit. Wherever Christ is, there is the church. The church is not a building, an organization or an institution. The church consists of people. One becomes part of the church by becoming a Christian. A local congregation, no matter how small or large, is not “part” of the church; it is the church, just as a drop of water and an ocean are both H2O. Its fullest expression is seen when Christians gather to hear and study God’s Word, and to receive the Sacraments. The early church used the term “church” in two senses only: (a) the local gathering of believers in a given location and (b) all Christians throughout the world (including those who have died) who are connected to each other by a shared trust in Christ. One (of several) metaphors for the church is the family of God. In this new extended family we receive encouragement, support, instruction and accountability. The support helps us to grow and persevere.
Conclusion
The above outline of the Christian faith is intended to represent the core doctrines shared by all the major historic denominations - Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant. Individual denominations would emphasis some or other of these points to a greater or lesser degree or add to them. I have attempted to avoid denominational buzz-words, points of major disagreement and the discussion of the more esoteric aspects of some issues such as eschatology or the best mode, timing or method of baptism or whether there are more than two sacraments. A such, this brief article is a description of what is sometimes called “the Great Tradition”, “ecumenical orthodoxy” or “Mere Christianity” and trust that it will be accepted in that spirit. No attempt has been made to accommodate “Progressive” Christianity which will be discussed in a separate article.
Appendix
The Apostles Creed (a Western statement of faith used at baptisms)
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,born of the Virgin Mary,suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried;he descended to the dead.On the third day he rose again;he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father,and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body,and the life everlasting. Amen.
Ecumenical Version of the Nicene Creed:
We believe in one God,the Father, the Almighty,maker of heaven and earth,of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,the only Son of God,eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light,true God from true God,begotten, not made,of one Being with the Father;through him all things were made.For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Maryand was made man.For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;he suffered death and was buried.On the third day he rose againin accordance with the Scriptures;he ascended into heavenand is seated at the right hand of the Father.He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,the Lord, the giver of life,who proceeds from the Father,who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.We look for the resurrection of the dead,and the life of the world to come. Amen.
