This week on Geek Devotions Dallas too begun talking about the Super-Essentials to Superman. There have been many version of him over the years; yet in each one, we know that it is, in fact, the man of steel. As long as the presentation met specific requirements, people were ok with calling him, Superman. This led Dallas into an interesting thought process about the Church. We have many denominations, all with various beliefs. Unfortunately, there is a history of infighting amongst the body of Christ between these denominations causing more issues for the Kingdom of God than good. Much of the infighting is over non-salvific doctrine; essentially non-essential beliefs.
So the question must be posed, what are the “Super-Essential” beliefs of Christianity? Reality is that there are many groups out there claiming to be Christian, yet their belief consists of a twisting of the scripture. To help combat both the infighting in the church and to help educate others that they may be able to distinguish between actual Christian churches and false ones, Dallas has listed 5 Super-Essentials to the Christian faith. There are many more that could be added to this list, but these are five essentials that Dallas felt needed to be hammered home.
#1 The Bible Is God’s Word to Us
The Bible (both Old and New Testaments) are verbally inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man. The Bible is infallible and is the ultimate authority when it comes to determining what our faith looks like and what the conduct of a Christian should be.
Scriptural Basis: 2 Timothy 3:15-17 | 1 Thessalonians 2:13 | 2 Peter 1:21
All of our core beliefs come from the Bible. While this seems to be an undeniable point, it is a foundation that we must hold to completely. There are, sadly, some groups who claim to be Christian and even use the Bible, but they use other books in the formation of their doctrine. Those groups are leading people away from the truth of God by doing so.
Other groups use a “Bible,” but it’s their own translation of it. They have systematically gone through and reworded certain passages and phrases to fit their personal beliefs. There are secular Greek and Hebrew scholars who have looked at their “bible” and have discredited it thoroughly, yet sadly people in their group still hold to it.
Some, to discredit the church, have pointed out that there are many different translations so how can we have issues with groups who make it essential to use one specific version. While it’s true that there are many translations. It doesn’t mean that they contradict each other in the fashion that the one mentioned above does. Last year we did an episode called 4 Steps to Reading Your Bible and the very first step was about picking a translation. There are many wonderful translations out there that are solid that you can use.
#2 One God Who Exists as Three
This is one of the more mind-boggling doctrines that may never be fully understood until we are all in heaven. It is often called the doctrine of the Trinity. There is one true God who has revealed Himself as the eternally self-existent “I AM.” He is the creator of heaven and earth and the Redeemer of Mankind. He has further revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association as Father, son, and Holy Spirit.
Scriptural Basis: Deuteronomy 6:4 | Isaiah 43:10-11 | Matthew 28:19 | Luke 3:22
This is truly one of the more complicated discussions in the Christian faith. We wish we had more time to discuss this further here but for this article and the corresponding video, we just can’t. Entire volumes have been written on this singular subject, volumes that are far more in depth than what we can do here.
#3 Jesus is Divine and the Christ
On the surface, this sounds like it should be grouped into the second Super-Essential, but this does belong in its own header. aWithin scriptures, we find that Jesus was born of a virgin as prophesied in Isaiah 7:14. bWe find that He lived while He became like man, He still lived a sinless life, through God He performed miracles, he took on our punishment on a literal cross, He was resurrected from the dead three days later, rose to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.
Scriptural Basis: a – Matthew 1:23 | Luke 1:31-35 b – Philippians 2:5-8 | Hebrews 7:26 | 1 Peter 2:22 c- Acts 2:22 | Acts 10:38 d – 1 Corinthians 15:3 | 2 Corinthians 5:21 e – Matthew 28:6 | Luke 24:39 | 1 Corinthians 15:4 f – Acts 1:9 | Acts 1:11 | Philippians 2:9-11 | Hebrews 1:3
This is a very essential aspect of our faith as our Christians. There are some who will claim that Jesus was simply a man, perhaps a man with good morals or even a prophet, but still a man. Some claim that Jesus may have been heavenly but was not divine at all, they believe that Jesus was an angle. One group even claims Jesus was the brother of Satan. All of the falsehoods are sadly proliferated in a variety of groups and have no scriptural basis.
#4 The Gospel
This Super-Essential is a combination of many major aspects of the Christian faith. We believe that in the beginning God created the Earth and it was good, but when man disobeyed Him, sin entered into the world. God in his foreknowledge had already established a plan to redeem man through His son Jesus Christ (as mentioned above). As a result, we can be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The interesting thing here is that unlike some groups, you cannot earn your salvation. You cannot do enough to earn God’s favor. It’s a gift from Him to you should you repent of your sins and submit your life to Jesus. It’s a gift offered to all men and women all around the world.
Scriptural Basis: Romans 5:12-19 | John 3:3 | Romans 10:13-15 | Titus 2:11| Titus 3:5-7
We need to be sure to understand this Super-Essential for multiple reasons. The number one reason is so that we can share the truth of God with others that they may know His love and grace in it’s fullest. The other reason is so that we can distinguish between true Christianity and false. Some groups preach works-based salvation where you must do certain good things to be saved and even certain things to gain higher status in heaven. One group teaches that there is limited space in heaven and so you must do good things that you may earn some merit of favor at the end of days (more to come on that). Other groups teach that you must be a certain race to be saved. All of these are falsehoods that have placed people into a form of slavery and dishonor the truth of God’s grace.
#5 End of Days
This is one of those Super-Essentials that we can spend days talking about in-depth. There’s a variety of minute details that can be debated and worked through, but the essential core of it is this. Jesus is returning to make things right here on Earth. In the midst of His return, we have something that is commonly known as the rapture which is an extra-biblical term that means that the dead in Christ will rise to heaven and those living who are Christians will also be taken up. This is when the final judgment takes place where the wicked will be judged according to their works. Whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life will face the everlasting punishment in the lake of fire whereas those who have submitted their lives to Jesus will live with God forever.
Scriptural Basis: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 | Romans 8:23 |1 Corinthians 15:51-52 | Zachariah 14:5 | Matthew 24:30 | Revelation 1:11-14 | Matthew 25:46 | Revelation 20:11-15
Like we said above, there’s a lot of intricate details as to when this will happen, how it will happen, and in what order, everything will happen. However, in the end, those things don’t matter. Yes, we should strive to understand the word of God in its fullest, but the Super-Essential is that Christ is returning and we need to be ready for it.
We hope that this article helped you to understand a bit more about the faith of Christianity. If you’re a believer, we hope that this has strengthened your faith and equipped you to better minister the gospel with grace and love. This was not written to throw stones at anyone but was written shed light on something significant. This was written to help stop the infighting in the Body of Christ. We belong to a specific fellowship but we minister with a variety of individuals from a vast array of denominations, and that’s ok because we have these Super-Essentials in check.
If after you’ve read through this, after you’ve gone through and studied the word of God yourself, and you’ve found that you’re involved in a group that is not following these Super-Essentials, then we recommend respectfully backing away from that group. For some, we know this will be difficult. Some groups who do not follow these Super-Essentials have structured things so that your entire life is wrapped up in them. Know that we are praying for you, that you are loved, and that as you make the steps towards what God has for you; He will open doors and help you to find freedom and true peace. If you need help finding a new church to go to; feel free to contact us here at Geek Devotions, and we’d love to point you towards a few ministries that we know.