For twenty-two years I ran a Christian bookstore and one of the questions I was frequently asked by customers was, “How do you select the books you put on your store shelves?” Many of those customers assumed that I must agree, from a theological standpoint, with every book I carried. My response was typically this: “As long as a book has a biblical view of Jesus Christ, correctly explains what He accomplished for us on the Cross, and rightly relates how we may have a personal relationship with Him; then I can in good conscience carry it in my store.” These are what I considered the fundamentals of the faith, or the basic tenets I was not willing to compromise.
The church I belong to calls them “the essentials of the Christian faith,” and lists them as follows: 1. A Trinitarian belief in God 2. The deity of Christ 3. The substitutionary and atoning death of Christ 4. The resurrection of Christ 5. The sinfulness of man 6. Salvation through faith in Christ alone 7. The inspiration and authority of the Scriptures
Of course, there are many doctrines I would consider to be among “the non-essentials.” Among these would be the differing beliefs on the mode of baptism; the various beliefs concerning the endtimes such as a pre-millennial, or a post-millennial rapture—or even, no rapture of the church at all; and topics such as the various teachings on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are primarily the different teachings that various denominations have centered around. Yet as long as a denomination has a biblical view of the essentials, they are considered to be Christian. While each of “the non-essentials” is important, and discussions on them can become quite heated, most theologians would not point to them as issues over which they would “fall on their swords.”
Certainly care must be exercised in interpreting any doctrine, because wrong understanding could lead to compromising one of the essentials. And compromise on one of the essential doctrines of Christianity can have devastating consequences. The list offered above is one in which every believer in Jesus should have at least a working knowledge. Not only will it strengthen your faith to grasp these doctrines, but it will also make you a more effective witness for Christ.
We should remain mindful of Paul’s admonition to Timothy: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15, emphasis mine). To “correctly handle the word of truth” we must know it and have an especially good grasp of the basic tenets of the faith.