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Church Doctrine...
Doctrine (Latin: doctrina) is a code of beliefs or "a body of teachings" or "instructions", taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. The Greek analogy is the etymology of catechism.
Often doctrine specifically connotes a corpus of religious dogma as it is proclaimed by a church.
The Bible reveals those doctrines that are essential to the Christian faith. They are:
The Deity of Christ Jesus is God in flesh (John 8:58 with Exodus 3:14.
1 John 4:2-3: "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every
spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already
in the world." The above verse needs to be cross referenced with John
1:1,14 (also written by John)where he states that the Word was God and the Word became flesh.
John 8:24, "I said, therefore, to you, that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins."
The Trinity - There is one God who exists in three persons: The Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are all coeternal, and of the same nature.
The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient to pay for the sins of the world. As God - Jesus must be God to be able to offer a sacrifice of value greater than that of a mere man. He had to die for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Only God could do that.
As man - Jesus must be man to be able to be a sacrifice for man. As a
man He can be the mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5).
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast" (Eph. 2:8-9, NIV).
"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing
the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin" (Rom. 3:20).
"However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the
wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).
The Resurrection of Christ "And if Christ has not been raised, our
preaching is useless and so is your faith" (1 Cor. 15:14).
"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still
in your sins" (1 Cor. 15:17).
To deny the physical resurrection is to deny Jesus' work, sacrifice,
and our resurrection. The Gospel "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally
condemned!" (Gal. 1:8-9, NIV).
Verses 8 and 9 in Galatians declare that you must believe the gospel. The gospel message which in its entirety is that Jesus is God in flesh, who died for sins, rose from the dead, and freely gives the gift of eternal life to those who believe.
Jesus is God in flesh per John 1:1,14; 10:30-33; 20:28; Col. 2:9; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb.
1:8. 1 Cor. 15:1-4 defines what the gospel is: "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I
preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (NIV).
Within these verses are the essentials: Christ is God in flesh (John 1:1,14; 10:30-33; 20:28; Col. 2:9);
Salvation is received by faith (John 1:12; Rom. 10:9-10), therefore it is by grace; and the resurrection is mentioned in verse 4.
Therefore, this gospel message automatically includes the essentials.
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