By Hank Hanegraaff

The importance of essential Christian doctrine can hardly be overstated. First, these are the very doctrines that form the line of demarcation between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the cults. While we may debate nonessentials without dividing over them, when it comes to essential Christian doctrine there must be unity. Hence, the maxim: In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.

Furthermore, essential Christian doctrine is the North Star by which the course of Christianity is set. Just as the North Star is an unchanging reference point by which sailors safely guided their ships, so essential Christian doctrine has safely guided the church through doctrinal storms that have sought to sink it. Shooting stars may light the sky for a moment; following them, however, leads to shipwreck.

Finally, essential Christian doctrine is the foundation on which the gospel of Jesus Christ rests. Covering topics ranging from His deity to the eschatological certainty that He will appear a second time to judge the living and the dead, essential Christian doctrine is foundational to the gospel. All other religions compromise, confuse, or contradict these essentials. Muslims, for example, dogmatically denounce the doctrine of Christ’s unique deity as the unforgivable sin of shirk, of putting something created on the same level as the Creator. They readily affirm the sinlessness of Christ, but they adamantly deny His sacrifice upon the cross and His subsequent resurrection as the only hope of salvation.

I am so passionate about inscribing the essentials on the tablet of your heart that I’ve organized them around the acronym D–O–C–T–R–I–N–E. It is my prayer that you will become so familiar with essential Christian doctrine that when a counterfeit looms on the horizon you will know it instantaneously.

DEITY OF CHRIST. The biblical witness is clear and convincing that Jesus Christ is the eternal Creator God (John 1; Colossians 1; Hebrews 1; Revelation 1). Throughout His earthly ministry Jesus claimed to be God in word and deed (Mark 14:61–62; John 5:18, 20; 8:58; 10:30–33). He vindicated His claim to deity by living a sinless life (John 8:46; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5; 1 Peter 2:22); by manifesting His power over nature (Mark 4:39), over fallen angels (Luke 4:35), over sickness (Matthew 4:23), and even over death itself (John 4:50; 11:43–44; 1 Corinthians 15); and by accurately prophesying God’s judgment on Jerusalem through the destruction of the temple that occurred in AD 70 (Matthew 24:1–2, 32–35).

ORIGINAL SIN (a.k.a. Ancestral Sin). Sin is not just murder, rape, or robbery. Sin refers to any thought, word, deed, or state of being that fails to meet God’s standard of holiness and perfection. The Bible unambiguously proclaims that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). While the notion of generational curses and spirits is foreign to the text of Scripture, there is a sense in which all people are cursed as a result of an ancestor’s sin: Adam’s rebellion brought death to us all and tainted every aspect of our being (Genesis 3; 1 Corinthians 15:21–22; cf. Ephesians 2:3). God, however, has provided redemption through the atoning work of the Second Adam, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:12–21).

CANON. The Hebrew Scriptures along with the Greek New Testament constitute the Christian canon (meaning “standard of measurement”). While inspiration provides the divine authority for the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16), canonization provides human acknowledgment of that authority. As such, the canon was determined by God and discovered by church fathers who accepted books as part of the canon on the basis that they were widely used within the churches and ultimately traceable to the authority of the apostles and prophets. Heretics have no key to the mind of Scripture. Thus, they turn it into a wax nose. They purpose, said Saint Irenaeus, “to weave ropes of sand,” and in so doing “dismember and destroy the truth.”

TRINITY. Although the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, it aptly codifies the essential biblical truths that (1) there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10); (2) the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God (1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 1:8; Acts 5:3–4); and (3) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eternally distinct subjects (Matthew 28:19; John 15:26; 17:1–26). It is important to note that when Trinitarians speak of one God, they refer to the nature or essence of God. Moreover, when they speak of Subjects or Persons, they reference personal self-distinctions within the Godhead. Put another way, Trinitarians believe in one What and three Whos.

RESURRECTION. All four canonical Gospels record the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The immutable fact of Jesus’ resurrection is the cornerstone of Christian faith, because it not only vindicates Jesus’ claims to deity but also ensures our future bodily resurrection and union with God (1 Corinthians 15; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). The historical reality of the resurrection can be demonstrated by eyewitness accounts of the fatal torment Jesus suffered on the cross; the empty tomb (early Christianity could not have survived an identifiable tomb containing the corpse of Christ); the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus; and the transformation of believers whose lives have been radically altered upon experiencing the resurrected Lord.

INCARNATION. The doctrine of the incarnation is aptly summed up in the words of the apostle John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14 nkjv). The clear testimony of Scripture is that, in the incarnation, Jesus Christ was, and will forever remain, fully God and fully man; that is, the eternal Son of God, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, added to Himself an additional nature such that He exists as the perfect unity of a divine nature and a human nature in one Person (John 1; Colossians 1). As Theanthropos (“God-man”), the spotless Lamb of God (John 1:29) lived a perfectly sinless human life and died a sinner’s death to sufficiently atone for the sins of humanity (Romans 5:1–21; Hebrews 10:11–18) and thereby to adopt us into the family of God. Through adoption, we become by grace what the Son of God is by nature—children of God. Gods by grace. Gods by participation in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

NEW CREATION. The essential doctrine of New Creation is aptly codified in the words of the apostle Paul: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17 nkjv). All who believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and confess Him as Lord are reconciled to God and inherit eternal life in His glorious presence (John 3:16; Romans 10:9–10). Jesus’ resurrection from the dead inaugurated the renewal of all things. The new creation of faithful believers and the new creation of the natural world will be consummated in the resurrection when Jesus returns bodily to earth as the conquering King (Romans 8:18–25).

ESCHATOLOGY. The word eschatology is an intimidating word with a simple meaning: the study of end times. While the meaning of eschatology is simple to grasp, its importance is difficult to overemphasize. Far from being a mere branch in the theological tree, eschatology is the root that provides life and luster to every fiber of its being. Put another way, eschatology is the thread that weaves the tapestry of Scripture into a harmonious pattern. It is the study of everything we long and hope for. Early in Genesis, Adam and Eve fell into a life of constant sin terminated by death. The rest of Scripture chronicles God’s unfolding plan of redemption. Although Christians debate secondary aspects of eschatology, such as the timing of the Tribulation or the meaning of the Millennium, we are united in the truth that just as Christ came to earth once to bear the sins of the world, so, too, He will return again to gather the elect and to usher in the resurrection of all things (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; Hebrews 9:27–28). On that day, the just will be resurrected to eternal life and the unjust to eternal conscious torment and separation from the love and grace of God (John 5:28–29). Paradise lost will become paradise restored, and the problem of sin and Satan will be fully and finally resolved (Revelation 20–22).

 

Watch your life and doctrine closely.

Persevere in them, because if you do, you

will save both yourself and your hearers.

1 Timothy 4:16

 

The essential tenets of the Christian faith are:

DEITY OF CHRIST

ORIGINAL SIN

CANON

TRINITY

RESURRECTION

INCARNATION

NEW CREATION

ESCHATOLOGY

For further study, use the search function to search each of the key words.

***Note the preceding text is adapted from The Complete Bible Answer Book: Collector’s Edition: Revised and Expanded (2024). To receive for your partnering gift please click here. ***