The Core Beliefs of Christianity

Having said that, what constitute beliefs that are fundamental to Christianity? We can start answering this question by presenting a preliminary definition of what a Christian is. The following general definition is given by the agnostic philosopher, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

I think that there are two different items which are quite essential to anyone calling himself a Christian. The first...you must believe in God...Then...at the lowest (you must have) the belief that Christ was, if not divine, at least the best and wisest of men.[1]

Russell framed the above definition as a preliminary to explaining why he does not consider himself to be a Christian. We can consider the above points, belief in the existence of a Supreme Being and in the special status of Jesus Christ[a], to be the necessary conditions for being a Christian. In other words, if a person does not believe in the existence of God or that Jesus was somehow different from ordinary men and the earlier prophets, he cannot call himself a Christian.

In addition to these, there is also the status of the sacred scripture, the Bible. While Catholics, Orthodoxs and Protestants may argue about the interpretation of the Bible, they are all in agreement that the Bible is the word of God. Even the most liberal of Christian theologians still cling to the idea that the Bible is the source of religious truth, however �truth� may be defined. Thus to be a Christian, one must believe in God, Jesus and the Bible. We will now look into each of these beliefs in more detail.

The Existence of (One) God

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The Trinity

With the exception of some of the fringe Christian sects, more ninety nine percent of all Christians belief in a modification of monotheism that is not shared by Islam and Judaism. This modification is known as the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine states that although God is one, there are three persons in Him: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are distinct, but are nevertheless one, having one substance. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of The Christian Church defines the idea as such:

Christianity affirms that God is a Trinity, consisting of "three persons in one substance", the Father being the source of all existence, the Son the Eternal Object of the Father's love and the Mediator of that love in creation and redemption, and the Holy Spirit the Bond of Union between the Father and Son.[3]

To the uninitiated, all the above discussion seems to border dangerously close to meaningless nonsense. The author is in total agreement with such a view. The doctrine makes no sense. In fact, Christians themselves don't understand it either. To hide their acceptance of obvious nonsense, theologians used the term mystery to describe the doctrine.[b] Take for instance this tacit admission form the Catholic publication, Our Faith:

The mystery of The Trinity is beyond our understanding. Over the centuries the church has upheld the true doctrine against errors which denied either that the three persons are either distinct or exaggerated that distinction..[4]

A university textbook on the Protestant faith has the same viewpoint:

Probably no aspect of the Protestant Faith...seems as strange as the discussion of the Trinity...The doctrine of the Trinity does not dispel the mystery of God. It does not explain God. It is an effort on the part of the Christian Church to protect its witness to God against misinterpretation and perversion.[5]

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The Special Status of Jesus

The Bible, or more specifically a portion of it called the Gospels, tells of a Galilean teacher who taught about repentance in the face of the coming of the Kingdom of God. He was supposed to have been born miraculously of a virgin. The events surrounding his birth, as described in the scriptures, testify to the special status of Jesus. The ministry of Jesus was also punctuated with miracles of healing, of raising the dead and of his control over nature. He was eventually crucified by a Roman court after being betrayed by one of his followers. However, the scriptures also showed that the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate tried his best to release Jesus but through the insistence of the Jews, was forced to have him crucified. On the third day after he was buried, Jesus' tomb was empty and he was seen again alive by his disciples. The epistles of St. Paul teaches that Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for mankind's sins and the original sin of Adam and Eve. Thus was how the Bible described Jesus and his mission. No where was it unambiguously stated that Jesus was God. But Christianity today, again with the exception of some fringe churches, teaches that Jesus Christ is truly God. Where did this dogma come from? It came from an extra Biblical source, the creeds.

Creeds are formal statements of what the Christian Church believed in. The statements are supposedly formulas that are to be ultimately derivable from the scriptures. The most important statement of Christian doctrine is contained in what is popularly known as the Nicene Creed, after the Council of Nicaea in the year 325. However, the Nicene Creed as we know it today, was not a product of that council. It more probably was developed at the Council of Constantinople in 381, and reached its final form after the Council of Chalcedon in 451.[6] The Nicene Creed is important in that it affirms the full deity of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit. Given below is the creed

THE NICENE CREED We believe in one God, the Father All Governing, creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten from the Father before all time, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not created, of the same essence as the Father, through Whom all things came into being, Who for us men and because of our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried, and rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and ascended to heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory to judge the living and dead. His Kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son, Who is worshiped and glorified together with the Father and Son, Who spoke through the prophets; and in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.[7]

With the exception of the three words given in italics, the Nicene Creed is accepted by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches. The three words, and the Son, is what is known as the Filioque Clause ("Filioque" is Latin for "and the Son"), which, as seen in the page on historical origins, was the point of contention between the Eastern and Western Churches. In its original from, the Nicene Creed does not contain the three words, they were added later by the Western Church. This interpolation was affirmed at the western council in Toledo in 589.[8] The Eastern Churches had never accepted that interpolation. The reader will note that if the doctrines in the creed can be traced to the Bible, as some Christian theologians still claim today, this issue would be easily be resolved. The reality shows that this is not the case. The doctrine of Jesus as God is not to be found in the Bible but only in the creeds. How exactly is Jesus God, as the Filioque Clause tries to define, cannot be found in the scriptures. Thus there was no solution except for the Great Schism.

The reader will also note that the creed says nothing about the teachings of Jesus. It is as though Jesus' whole life was merely a preparation for this crucifixion and resurrection. Christianity is therefore not a religion based on Jesus' teachings. It is a religion whose teaching is about the atoning death of Jesus. The position of Jesus is less that of a founder of the religion and more of its mascot.[c]

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The Bible as the "Word of God"

The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the inerrant word of God and totally accurate in all respects.[10]

However one may view such an attitude, at least, this claim is testable. We can check what is known to be true from sources outside the Bible and compare it with what the Bible says to see if the claim of Biblical inerrancy is true. A more irritating stance is that taken by the liberals. They, too, asserts that the Bible is true. Yet, wanting to have their cake and eat it too, they asserted that the truths of the Bible is not scientific or historical and should not be analyzed as such. The Bible, say the liberals, speaks of spiritual truth. Hence when it speaks of the six day creation of the universe, it was not meant to be taken literally but allegorically. This path taken by the liberals is non-testable because it makes no meaningful assertion. And how is one to know which passages are to be taken literally and which to be taken figuratively? No Christian church up until recently had ever read the creation account as anything other than a factual one. Liberals, at least in their views concerning the Bible, are atheists without the courage of their convictions. Their knowledge of science and history has shown the Bible to be clearly false if it is taken literally. To save their faith, they adopted the allegorical interpretation and the concept of spiritual truths. However, this actually open a Pandora box for Christian theology: for who is to know whose interpretation is the truth or is actually what was meant by the authors when they wrote the Bible? One example is the tendency among some liberals to adopt an existentialist interpretation to biblical passages, especially to the New Testament. But existentialism is, by and large, a philosophy of the twentieth century, how could such a concept be even imagined by the supposed authors of the gospels and the epistles?

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Notes

References

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