Posted by Peg on March 25, 1999 at 06:24:41 {MWV7/1kkPzlK6}:
In Reply to: *Inserted Text in NWT posted by Ben1957 on March 22, 1999 at 20:41:06:
I agree with some of the others..on Revelations...
Here is something for you:
The Bible itself reveals those doctrines that are essential to the
Christian faith. They are 1) the Deity of Christ, 2) Salvation by Grace,
and 3)
the Resurrection of Christ. These are the doctrines the Bible says
are necessary. Though there are many other important doctrines, these three
are the only ones that are declared by Scripture to be essential. The truly
regenerate may be ignorant to some extent of one or more of them at the
beginning of his/her new life in Christ, but he will come to a proper
understanding of these three issues as he studies the Word of God. A
non-regenerate
person, or a cultist (i.e., Mormon or Jehovah's Witness),
will deny one or more of these essentials.
1. The Deity of Christ
A. - Jesus is God in flesh (John 8:58 with Exodus 3:14). See also
John
1:1,14; 8:24; 10:30-33.
1. - 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."
i. - 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.
ii. - 1 John 4:2-3 is saying that if you deny that
Jesus is God in flesh than you are of the spirit of
Antichrist.
2. - 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."
i. - Jesus said here that if you do not believe "that I
am" you
will die in your sins. In Greek I am is 'ego
eimi,' which means 'I am.' These are the same words
used in John 8:58 where Jesus says "...before Abraham
was, I am." He
was claiming the divine title by quoting
Exodus 3:14 in the Greek Septuagint. (The Septuagint
was the Hebrew Old Testament translated into Greek.)
B. - Jesus is the proper object of faith
1. - It is not simply enough to have faith. Faith is only as
valid as what it is put in. You must put your faith in the
proper object. Cults have false objects of faith;
therefore,
their faith is useless--no matter how sincere they are.
2. - If you put your faith in a vacuum cleaner, then you
will be in a lot of trouble on the day of judgment.
You
might have great faith, but so what. It is in something that
can't save you.
C. - The Doctrine of the deity of Christ includes:
1. - The Trinity - There is one God
who exists in three
persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are
all coequal, coeternal, and of the same nature.
2. - Monotheism - There is only one God in all
existence
(Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8; 45:5). Mormons believe that many gods
exist though they serve and worship only one. Therefore,
they are polytheists which excludes them from the camp
of
Christianity.
D. - The Hypostatic Union - That Jesus is both God and man.
1. - The sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ - The
sacrifice of Christ is completely
sufficient to pay for the
sins of the world.
i. - As God - Jesus must be God to be able to offer a
sacrifice of value greater than that of a mere man.
a) - He had to die for the sins of the world (1
John 2:2). Only God could do that.
ii. - As man - Jesus must be man to be able to be a
sacrifice for man.
a) - As a man He can be the mediator between God
and man (1 Tim. 2:5).
2. Salvation by Grace
A. - "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).
B. - "You who are trying to be justified by law have been
alienated from Christ;
you have fallen away from grace" (Gal.
5:4).
1. - This verse and its context plainly teach that if you
believe that you are saved by faith and works then you are
not
saved at all. This is a common error in the cults.
Because they have a false Jesus, they have a false doctrine
of salvation. (Read Rom. 3-5 and Gal. 3-5).
2. - You cannot add to the
work of God. Galatians 2:21 says,
"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness
could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
(NIV).
C. -
"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).
- "Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?
Absolutely not!
For if a law had been given that could
impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by
the law" (Gal. 3:21).
3. The Resurrection of Christ
A. - "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.
5:17).
B. -
To deny the physical resurrection is to deny Jesus' work,
sacrifice, and our resurrection.
C. - These verses clearly state that if you say that Jesus did
not rise from the dead (in the same body He
died in -- John
2:19-21), then your faith is useless.
(A comment on on Gal. 1:8-9: "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! (NIV). These two verses here in Galatians
could be considered a
fourth self declarative statement of the essentials.
But, Gal. 1:8,9 is simply stating the necessity of believing 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.
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; Col. 2:9);
Salvation is received by faith (John 1:12; Rom.
10:9-10), therefore it is by grace; and the resurrection is mention in
verse 4. Therefore, this gospel message automatically includes the
essentials.)