Here's a list from the 1920s in the US.
"The five Fundamental points are:
1. The inerrancy of the Bible
2. The virgin birth of Christ
3. Christ’s substitutionary atonement
4. Christ’s bodily resurrection
5. The authenticity of Christ’s miracles
Other Christian groups adapted the five points with point two often becoming the deity of Christ rather than his virgin birth.
Many lists ended with Christ’s premillennial second coming, instead of his miracles, as the fifth point.
By the 1920s the five points had become called the five fundamentals and had become a rallying cry for conservative Christians across a broad spectrum."
I would change #2 to Christ's virgin birth and deity; maybe change #5 to the authenticity of Christ's miracles and promise to rapture His bride before God's wrath falls.
I was just thinking of that list.
Conversely, if you undermine the Trinity or virgin birth, you undermine who Jesus is and His unique ability to save us. So from that standpoint, they are essential, even if a full and complete understanding of either isn't.
and I like how Greg puts it.
We may grow in our understanding of each point but the initial point of salvation is based on:
God is perfect and requires perfection but He knew we aren't so
He sent His Son (part of the Triune nature of the Godhead, God in 3 persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit)
to be the perfect sinless sacrifice to cover ALL our sins (ways that we fall short of God's standard of perfection).
We can accept or reject that offer. We have free will.
If we accept it, God accepts us and our debt is paid in full. When we die (or Jesus comes to get us in the Rapture) we go to be with Him in heaven.
If we reject it we will live till we die, then we are plunged into hell on our death. Hell is eternal punishment for our sins. There is no end. No amount of suffering is enough because Jesus already suffered for those sins. Which is why the Catholic doctrine of purgatory cannot purge our sins. We can't add to Jesus' work on the cross. His work was sufficient for all time and eternity. So there remains only eternity under punishment because we rejected (just didn't accept) the offer.
Jesus rose again after His death, and this means we will rise again too someday (at the Rapture) as part of that process.
From there the baby Christian can grow in their understanding.
We can explain the fall in the garden, the reason for the virgin birth, the 100% true nature of the Bible, the Rapture and all the other doctrines as the young Christian matures.
But the new birth into God's family requires
we acknowledge that God is holy, we are not, that we have sinned and fall short and that Jesus paid for our sins on the cross and that if we call upon Jesus to be saved, we will be saved.
A useful list of verses for the person SHARING the gospel is the so called "Romans Road" the shortest version being: (ESV)
- Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
- Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
- Romans 5:8 but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- Romans 10:9-10 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
- Romans 10:13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
And then even simpler is the ABC method that I think is one of JDFarags finest teachings.
Salvation ABC's At it's core, it's a simplified version of the Roman's Road.
A- for Admit that you are a sinner
B- for Believe that Jesus is Lord (God) (and paid the price for your sins by dying on the cross and rising again)
C- for Call upon His name for salvation or Confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord.
What if someone has no mouth, no ability to speak? They can blink with their eyes, squeeze your hand to signify consent.
Sometimes it HAS to be simple because the person is running out of breath and life. My father in law for one. When he finally allowed me to speak on this there wasn't much time left and he was too breathless to say much.
We did NOT have time in that final phone call to do a lot of teaching or Q&A
He knew he was facing death very soon and was scared. I asked if he wanted to know how to be saved. He said YES
A- Admit that you are a sinner
B - Believe that Jesus died for your sins to make you right with God
C- do you believe that?
And his answer was a whispered YES
Within a week of that call he was dead at the ripe old age of 103. God preserved him long enough to get saved.
I spoke with the Russian Orthodox priest who did his funeral and he was a genuine born again Christian who had been working on and with Father in law for the months and then weeks before his death.
One plants, another waters, and God gives the increase.
