The Essential Doctrine of the Christ

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

(Rom 3:23; ESV)

What is the essential doctrine of the Christian faith?  We get different answers to that question depending on who we talk to.  However we propose to use the Bible to demonstrate to our readers’ satisfaction that the Ransom sacrifice of Christ Jesus and the companion teaching of the Restitution of mankind to its lost estate are the essential and central teaching of God’s word and the Gospel.  This is what was foremost in the minds of the Apostles and others as they wrote the books of the New Testament as we will see as we progress in this short consideration of this very important subject.  We will by no means treat this subject comprehensively as there are too many verses and passages to include in the short amount of space we have.  However, I will mention a book which does at the end.

To find out why mankind ended up in the fix it is in we have to go back to the beginning, to the first book in the bible, Genesis.  In the first chapters we are told That God created the heavens and the earth; and then we are told how God spent seven “days,” or more precisely “eras,” preparing the earth for human habitation (Gen. 1).  Towards the end of chapter one and through chapter two of Genesis we are told that to people were created, married, and placed in a garden which provided for all of their needs.  But in chapter three, something happens.  First the woman, Eve, then her husband, Adam, are tempted and break the only law given them by God, the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, as Paul explained to the Roman Christians:  “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom 5:12).  That, in a nutshell, is why we are in the sorry condition we’re in with sin and death.

The essential doctrine of Christianity is that God didn’t leave us in that condition and did something about it. Paul carried the thought forward for us, “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” (Rom 5:18-19).  So the answer was to provide a ransom for mankind, because of one man’s disobedience and sin we all die, but God reversed the situation through the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ (vs. 17).

To understand how that works it is important to understand a very important principle of God’s justice, and it is why Paul emphasized the thought of one man bringing in death and the other life.  That principle is exact equivalency of the punishment fitting the crime.  According to the law:

And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast. And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.

(Lev 24:17-21)

This is the famous “an eye for an eye” law.  And the principle here stated is that exactly what was done must be recompensed exactly.  That was why Paul stated in the earlier cited passage from Romans, “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).  So what was lost had to be provided for a ransom.

So what was lost?  What was lost was the perfect life of the first man.  He was created perfect and had the prospect of eternal life before him and every human who has ever lived came from him, including Eve, who was made from his rib.   All of us, with the exception of Jesus, received life from him through all the males who preceded us.  That is how life is passed on, from the male to the female.  So, from God’s standpoint all of us were still in Adam’s loins when he sinned, so all of us received the sentence which was pronounced on him before the conception of his first child.  Jesus gave up his perfect life in order to ransom mankind back from death.  That fact is directly stated in three places, twice by Jesus and once by Paul, though the same thing is presented elsewhere in other terms in God’s word:

Mat_20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Mar_10:45  For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

1Ti_2:6  Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

That is why a Trinitarian god-man couldn’t provide the ransom necessary.  What was required was a perfect man, a man who existed on the same level of existence as Adam, and we in him, did before his act of disobedience changed everything for us.

But did Jesus live and die to give said ransom?  That is a legitimate question since scholars, some of them nominally Christian and teaching in seminaries, don’t believe it happened, that it was all a myth.  But Paul expounded on the fact of Jesus’ sacrifice and that message to the Corinthians reassures us of the fact of the Christian message.  So, with what we’ve written so far in mind, let’s go through his message:

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; (1Co 15:1)

So Paul state’s right up front that he is about to declare the Gospel, the essential doctrine of Christianity:

By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1Co 15:2-4)

So he states plainly that Jesus died according to the scripture, that is what I wrote about from the law, which is only part, and he rose on the third day after his death, which was also prophesied in scripture (Matt. 12:38-40, where Jesus predicts this using Jonah).  Then Paul goes on to prove what he says:

And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (1Co 15:5-9)

That is quite a list of people who saw the resurrected Jesus and includes one which is only alluded to in the Gospels without giving any details (Lk. 24:34).  Paul then spends two verses on a personal side note before giving one of the most profound refutations for the notions that Jesus was not resurrected and why it was necessary that he was:

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1Co 15:12-23)

So there it is, the Essential Doctrine of Christianity.  In a nutshell it is that Adam sinned and was condemned and all of us along with him by virtue of our being in him.  And Jesus was born as a perfect human to provide a ransom for all by ransoming Adam, along with all of his offspring by virtue of the same reasons as the fall, by giving up that life on behalf of us all.  That he did so, along with his resurrection, which was witnessed to by upwards of over five hundred people.  Thus we have a guarantee that he not only was successful, but that all the dead will be resurrected and all given the opportunity of eternal life, each in his own place.

The book I mentioned which does comprehensively treat the subject is The At-One-Ment Between God and Man, and can be purchased here.

By way of disclosure I'm just a Brother in Christ to the folks I linked to and know some of them.  That is the site where I purchase most of my personal literature.

I Believe the Bible

Last June marked the end of our fortieth year as a baptized Christian.  We gave our heart and everything and gave up this world’s ambitions in consecration to our God out of love for what a wonderful God he really is two years earlier, but because our mother did not permit it our baptism waited two years until we reached the age of majority, 18 years.  One bit of reflection on that time of loving devotion to God is that, even though for thirty of those years we fellowshipped with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, those years can be summed up by four words, “I believe the Bible.”

Although our understanding of that book and its teachings were so imperfect for so many years of that time, what God’s word says was first and foremost for me, which made us a thorn in the side of the elders in most of the congregations we were in.  For all of these forty years there have been no creeds for us, only God’s word, because we believe the Bible.

Because we believe the bible we’ve been called a cultist because we don’t believe in or preach “the essential doctrine of Christianity,” the Trinity Doctrine.  But, really, where in God’s Word are we told that the Trinity doctrine is the essential doctrine of Christianity?  For forty years we’ve studied the bible from stem to stern, including in its original languages and we find no statement to that effect anywhere to be found.  What we do find are plain statements from Christ’s own mouth to the effect that “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to My God and your God,”  “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God’” and more (John 20:17; Revelation 3:14).  In fact, we find no indication of a trinity in God’s word.  Theologians rely on taking verses out of context and some really imaginative reasoning to “prove” their “essential doctrine.”  Even some of them through the years have admitted that a plain and objective reading of God’s word just doesn’t lead one to the conclusion that there is a trinity.  Now why would they say that?

The Old Testament

Throughout the Old Testament one concept reigns supreme, that there is no God in the sense we commonly use the word but one.  The “Shema” to Israel bears a powerful witness to that fact: “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut. 6:4-5; ASV).  That statement is unambiguous and even names the God who is alone in that category.  There can be no misunderstanding of that verse when not read through the lens of so called “theology.”

The bible does call others “god,” or “god’s,” including men (Ex. 7:1; Ps. 82:6) and it acknowledges many times the existence of other gods, inventions of men or demons, false gods in other words (Deu. 6:14, 2 Chron. 13:8,9  and much more).  In the case of men the word, “god” is used of officials as well as the word “lord” as the essential meaning of the word to the Hebrews is encapsulate in the early written form of the word El, a bull and a shepherds staff conveying the idea of a powerful leader.  But the bottom line is simple, and consistent, throughout the Old Testament, “But Jehovah is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation” (Jer. 10:10).  There is only one True God.

The New Testament

But Trinitarians point out that the Trinity is a revelation from the New Testament.  But we contend that the Old Testament picture of a single, all powerful God whole and complete in and of himself holds true throughout the New Testament.  We’ve already pointed to several plain statements from our Savior Jesus Christ on the matter.  But there is more.

When questioned about what the greatest commandment in the law was, Jesus quoted from the Shema, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Mat 22:36-37).  Thus, Jesus established himself as an observant Jew, whose views on the Unitarian nature of God were consistent with the Old Testament and his fellow Jews.  Nowhere do we find him asserting a Trinitarian viewpoint on God.  In fact, he called himself the “son of God” (John 5:25, 11:4), a fact acknowledged by the Leaders of the Jews themselves (Matt 27:43).  The one time the Jewish leaders tried to twist his words around to have him saying that he was himself God, Jesus hastened to correct the false impression they were trying to make (John 10: 30, 34-36).  Taken together with the statements of his earlier it is plain that he never asserted a Trinitarian relationship or even equivalence with God.

Demons acknowledged him as the son of God, as did their master, the devil, in a backhanded kind of way (Matt. 8:29; 4:3,6), and they should know.  During his first advent his disciples called him the son of God many times (Mk. 1:1; John 11:27).  And even the Angel Gabriel so identified him to Mary before his conception (Lk. 1:26,35).  The Apostle Paul called him that at Romans 1:4; 2 Cor. 1:19; Eph. 4:13 and many other times in many variations on that theme.  So we find it witnessed to that he was God’s son instead of God himself throughout the New Testament.  Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians makes a very plain statement to the subordination of Jesus Christ to his God, that he is in no way an equal (1 Cor. 15:24-28).  And these are no obscure verses; they are many and plain so that the testimony of the scriptures is plain if we do not go at them with any preconceptions.

That testimony is so plain that the Arian view of God and his son not only predates the Arian controversy, but persisted down through the ages with men and women going to often horrible deaths rather than deny the bible’s clear testimony in the matter.  Michael Servetus was one such man who was chained naked to a stake roasted alive for hours at the order of John Calvin because he refused to recant his denial of the Trinity Doctrine in favor of Arianism.  An entire people were “excommunicated” for their Arianism, the Goths and Visigoths.  They are much maligned in history for their beliefs, though evidence of their tolerant nature towards Trinitarians has come to light in recent times.

So I believe the bible.  We believe it whether our investigation of its teachings agree with what is held by the wider Christian community or not.  When it doesn’t, we must follow the evidence wherever it leads, because we believe the bible.

Comfort in Times of Persecution

There is much meaning in our golden text today and all of it relevant to Christians today.  Those of us watching the world see the way the wind is blowing.  Already any who call on the name of our Lord Jesus in many parts of the world face severe persecution and even death, as is reportedly going on in Syria today.  But what about those of us in Western lands where the right to worship as we choose is traditionally respected?

Those lands are becoming increasingly secular, and just as happened under the secularism of the French Revolution those calling on the name of Christ are increasingly coming under attack.  We’re already mocked as out of touch with society and unenlightened.  As society pushes us into the margins while it celebrates the losing from all moral restraint laws are promulgated to marginalize us even further and even punish us for taking a stand for God’s standards.

On campus, Christian speech is relegated to hate speech and students taking a stand for God’s way receive failing grades or even find themselves put out of school altogether for their stand.  Hate speech laws are used to silence us, as in the case of a minister in Canada who was punished for the act of posting a billboard with a quotation from the Bible on God’s position on homosexuality.  A couple was fined in New Mexico for declining to take a job memorializing a gay commitment ceremony, something which wasn’t even legal at the time.  Yet that didn’t matter, punishing the couple for standing up for Godly morals was more important than little things like legality.  The same for another couple who refused to let an old church building they owned be used for a gay wedding, and one could go on.

The fact is that we who call upon the name of Jesus Christ, whether wheat or weeds, are now coming under a secular government intent on bringing all under its thumb and allowing none to question the new orthodoxy motivated by Christophobia.  That means one thing, persecution.  Many are in shock that this could take place in a land where freedom of religion is enshrined in its foundation document.  Others now fear this new development.  Could it happen to me?  When?  How?  Yet God’s word gives us plenty of reason to have comfort as we watch events unfold.

Our golden text at 1 Pet. 5:10 gives us assurance and explains the purpose of persecution.  We are assured that after undergoing suffering God will, “restore, confirm, strengthen and establish” us.  Yes, he will restore our equilibrium, confirm our calling in him, strengthen us through our suffering and establish us strong in his truth and way.  The thing is that we aren’t really perfect or ready at our calling for the role God has called us to.  We are nothing more than raw material needing further work before we become fit for his purpose for us in heaven.  We need to be purified and then strengthened for our job up there, which brings us to the first picture from the scriptures which comes to mind.

As the time for the writing of the Old Testament drew near the prophet Malachi was inspired to write a prophecy which is quite applicable to our subject:

"Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. (Mal 3:1-3; ESV)

Fuller’s soap is a mineral which used to be used to bleach fine linen to a pure white color.  It is also kind of harsh, it had to be to get that sought after pure white.  But the one we seek here is the picture of the refiner in verses 2 and 3.  The refiner mentioned is generally recognized to be the messiah whom we know to be Jesus Christ.  The “sons of Levi,” or the tribe of Levi, was a type for the household of faith in the Gospel age.  So the picture presented to us is that of our Lord Jesus refining those of us called by God to his Church.

Recall that we wrote earlier that we are all raw material.  Even is the raw material is natural gold, it still has to be removed from what little base material which clings to it and then refined by the fire to the point that all impurities are removed and the gold is pure.  That is what persecution and sufferings are, they are the fire which our lord uses to purify us and make us into the finest of gold, fit to be members of his heavenly bride as well as co-rulers in his kingdom.  Just as gold undergoes adversity to reach its purity, so must we.  But there is another biblical picture which applies.

In Revelation chapter twenty-one we are presented with the wondrous picture of the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven.  Of course it is the Church, and one part of the awesome spectacle is drawn to our attention when it tells us “And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald…” (Rev 21:19)  We are informed that the twelve foundations of the holy city are garnished, or adorned with all sorts of precious stones, something which no picture of the scene we’ve seen really shows.  Since the foundations are the Apostles, the precious stones decorating those foundations are likely members of the church, thus we are in part likened to precious jewels of the finest of work.

In our teenage years we had the hobby of lapidary.  That means we worked and polished valuable stones.  The stones had to be cut, then ground down to their rough shape before being polished, which was done by more grinding down of the stones with finer and finer grades of material until they had that shine so smooth one could see themselves in it like a mirror.  Well does that illustrate the process of turning those called to heaven into those fines and precious jewels which adorn the City of God!

Just like the precious jewels which start out as rough stones, our Lord uses adversity to shape and polish those rare finds into the best of jewels.  In the literal process of lapidary as much as half of the stone or even more may be lost in the process.  The idea is to remove all of the extraneous material and flaws we have as imperfect human beings to reveal and accentuate the beauty within.  That means for us revealing our character flaws and grinding them away until we become ready to fit in the place in the Church which is reserved for us at our calling.  However, we must cooperate in that process if we want to be set by our Lord in that place.

Sufferings, including under persecution is that polishing process.  Far from fearing it or trying to put it off we should welcome it, as James pointed out in his letter to our ancient brethren (James 1:2-4).  Now that doesn’t mean we are to seek out extreme persecution, we are allowed to flee that if a way out is available which does not compromise our Christian principles.  We are also permitted to challenge laws which criminalize our Christian freedom, such as hate speech laws and requirements which compromise our Christian principles in lands where there still is some semblance of justice, as some are doing even now.

Even in lands where such open official persecution doesn’t exist we may still find ourselves persecuted socially.  In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his listeners:

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Mat 5:10-12)

Yes, we may undergo the suffering of having our good names slandered by those who hate the truth for our stand for our Lord.  That is no trivial matter, as anyone so slandered can tell us.  More and more right here in the United States of America secular forces are marginalizing Christians and equating them with crazy people and hateful fanatics.  We are being driven out of the public sphere and towards the underground.  The media from news to entertainment portrays us in ways which amount to lies.  Those who take a Christian stand often find themselves mocked and slanderous rumors spread about them.  While such things aren’t nearly as pervasive here as they could be, it looks like they are well on the way to getting worse.

In that last quotation we also find how the Lord wants us to react.  Just as James wrote his brethren to “count it all joy,” Jesus told his disciples and others to “rejoice and be exceedingly glad.”  Why should we do that, and how can it help us as things get worse.  Paul gave us a reason:

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.  (Heb 12:7-11)

Remember the point in the golden text about confirming?  When we undergo our refining and polishing God confirms that we are indeed his children, a part of the household of faith with whom he is dealing.  That is a wonderful reason for rejoicing and submitting to those sufferings the same way Jesus did, without complaint.  That knowledge also helps us to endure and even use such trials as tools to help in our own molding by finding and rooting out any flaws the trials may reveal to us.  Paul acknowledges that those trials may be hard and burdening at times.  Yet he also reminds us that afterwards they bear peaceable and wonderful fruit.

So in conclusion, as we see things getting worse it is not ours to fear for the future.  Never forget that the future will get bleaker for all at this point as mankind descends further into the darkness.  As a consequence the world will hate us even more.  So persecution we are to expect persecution as even nominally Christian lands abandon any pretense of following the way of the Master and turn on those who do.  How hard and burdensome such trials may be we do not know for sure.  However, we shouldn’t let ourselves worry over it.  Everything is in God’s hands and he assures us that whatever he permits to befall us is for our good (Rom. 8:28).  So we should move forward and work in harmony with our Lord and Master secure in that fact and assured that what comes our way he will help us and comfort us in our time of trouble.