essentials of faith

John Wesley, the unintentional founder of the United Methodist Church, taught that we should agree on the essentials of faith, and in other, peripheral matters we should “think and let think.”
As I consider the essentials of the Christian faith, this is my list:

1. God exists.
2. God created man, woman, and all things.
3. Man and woman fell away from God due to sin.
4. People have tried many times and in many ways to restore the relationship with God but they were unable to do so.
5. God sent His son, Jesus Christ, to do what we could not do ourselves.
6. Jesus taught the people, loved them, and suffered and died on the cross and rose again.

7. His death on the cross is atonement for our sins.
8. When a person chooses to accept the person of Jesus Christ and the power of his acts on the cross, their sin is forgiven and they are filled with the Holy Spirit.
9. A new life begins for that person in that we are conformed to the image of Christ . . . a little bit at a time.

If Christians can stay focused on the essential parts of the Christian faith, then we stay on mission. Churches struggle when they focus on the non-essentials.

Examples of peripheral, non-essential beliefs, non-heaven or hell beliefs would include:
1. Opinions on baptism.
2. Opinions on the book of Revelation and how the world may or may not end.
3. Opinions on particular social or political issues.
4. Etc.

I think we can tell when our topics of discussion are not longer helpful in our pursuit of Christ. Many non-essential issues are important issues, but we have to remember that they are secondary. People are going to have opinions that differ from ours. We should not break fellowship because of such differences. We will all spend eternity together, so why not start tolerating one another now?

It’s a beautiful day in God’s world, be sure to see the good.