What Do Christians Believe?

by Josh Moody (November 2002)

Further Reading:
David Bebbington, A History of Evangelicalism 1730-1980
John Stott, Basic Christianity

Argument Outline:
1. Christianity is a belief system and not just a cultural artefact.
2. There is an orthodox Christian faith, taught in the Bible, witnessed to in church history, which can be distilled and allied to across denominational lines. This is what evangelicals claim to be ‘evangelical’ Christian faith: the orthodox, apostolic faith of the Bible.
3. Divergence from these core beliefs lands one in territory outside of Christianity.
4. Cultic belief systems often claim to be Christian but are not because they deny one or more of these core tenets of orthodox Christian faith.

Note: Throughout this paper we are dealing with several interleaved issues. We are attempting to show that the Bible teaches a certain gospel message, the ‘evangel’ of evangelicalism. We are also evidencing the historical lineage of church forbears who have believed this message. We are further showing how this diverges significantly from competing claims to Christian faith among the cults. We are not, though, here trying to argue for the truth of these propositions as such – for good resources for apologetics of this kind see CS Lewis Mere Christianity and Ravi Zacharias Can Man Live Without God?

1. The Core Beliefs of Christians

Christianity is not merely a life-style. Obviously Christians live a certain way and follow a certain moral code. But Christians do not have a monopoly on being ‘nice’ or ‘good’. Many other members of other religious groups are able to partake healthily in contemporary pluralistic society, with its principle of mutual tolerance and religious liberty. Christians, however, do have distinct moral commitments, and a specific desire to live to please Jesus. The belief-system of Christians, though, is different from that of other religions. And it is able to be identified as a core orthodoxy resident down through the ages of the church, never without some faithful witness to it, and taught in the Scripture. The following are some of the key tenets of orthodox, biblical, apostolic Christian faith (For further exposition see Trinity’s Doctrinal Statement):

a. Revelation. Christians believe that the Word of God in scriptural canon is complete and the only infallible rule of faith. It reveals the truth about God, records his plan of salvation and so focuses on the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Bible inspires faith (Rom 10:17) and makes us “wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ” (2 Tim 3:15).

b. God. Christians believe in the triune nature of God. That is, they believe that God exists eternally in three distinct but equal persons (Genesis 1: 26; Matthew 28: 19; Romans 8: 33-36; 1 Peter 1: 2). They believe that God is a personality who can speak and create and who possesses a mind and will (Gen 1:1, 26; Jer 29:11; Ezek 18:30). And that God’s character is eternal (1 Tim 1:17), omnipotent (Rev 19:6), omnipresent (Ps 139:7-12), omniscient (Rom 11:33), perfect (Deut 32:4), and holy (1 Pet 1:16).

c. Humanity. Christians believe that God created us in his own image (Gen 1:26), perfect and without sin so that we could know and love him. They believe that we all rebelled against God and so all of us are naturally separated from God and need to be spiritually born again (John 3:3).

d. Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, the eternally Begotten Son of God who became flesh (Isaiah 9: 6; John 1: 1; Colossians 1: 15-20; Philippians 2:5-6).

e. Salvation. Christians believe that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the final sacrifice and cleansing for sin (1 Jn 1:7), so that we whose rebellion had separated us from God, can now have ‘peace through the blood of his cross’ (Col 1:20) and be ‘reconciled to God’ (2 Cor 5:19) because of Jesus’ substitutionary death.

f. Future. Christians believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will one day return to judge the living and the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:16). They believe that God will make all things new and will be glorified forever (Acts 3:21, Revelation 1:7).

2. Historical Agreement Across Denominational Lines

a. Down through the ages various Creeds and Confessions of Faith have been adopted by church groups to witness to their belief in the historic Chrisian gospel. While the terminology of some of these creeds varies somewhat, and the lenth and style of the confessions also, the differences are readily explicable (at least among the better sort of Confessions of Faith) as to do with circumstance and concern. Overall, Confessions of Faith have tended to get longer not shorter down through church history. This is because the abbrations have grown as the gospel has grown, and the need to give clarity on issues that before were assumed to be clear has produced increasing length of exposition. A contemporary example is the historic Christian belief in the exclusivity of the salvation of Christ: previous confessions of faith implicitly assumed this but did not sometimes explicitly state it. Nowadays contemporary confessions of faith need to state it or it will be assumed they don’t believe it.

b. One good example of a historic creed is the Apostle’s Creed. Concerning the nature of Jesus Christ it says that he was “Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried; He descended into Hell; the third day He arose from the dead; He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick [ie living] and the dead.” Some aspects of this have been disputed (eg what did they mean by saying that Jesus ‘descended to the dead?’ It seems that the biblical writers understood that Christ received the punishment of hell that was ours – his substitutionary death – and this is probably the biblical way to understand that kind of phrasing). But it has also been an important statement of the essential matters of faith. Some of the aspects of that creed in more contemporary situation now need to be filled out. So churches, like Trinity, produce a Doctrinal Stament of their own which makes clear their commitment to salvation by faith alone, through Christ alone, as well as their position on secondary matters of less importance such as baptism.

c. The historian David Bebbington has identified four components of evangelicalism that have united evangelicals through the ages. They are biblicism, conversionism, activism, and crucicentrism. These are helpful bullet points of agreement, even if they need to be somewhat clearly defined. We might also want to add the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus. d.Great evangelical Jonathan Edwards, while himself a pastor of a church in a particular denomination, also witnessed to a broader evangelical unity across denominational lines in such works as his Concert of Prayer. The evangelical preacher George Whitefield, an anglican minister, preached in Edwards’ pulpit because they both believed the same gospel.

3. Theological divergence of cults with a few modern examples.

a. Mormons. Mormons appear on our door step wearing smart suits and big smiles. Sometimes they have impressive-looking named badges indicating that the young men in question are ‘elders’. Mormonism, though, is a religion which departs significantly from the historic orthodox gospel. While latterly it has rejected its original commitment to polygamous (more than one wife) marriages, it still retains beliefs that thoroughly diverge from the Christian faith, as well as beliefs and practices that border on the bizarre. Mormons, for instance, believe that their founder Joseph Smith discovered the original book of Mormon on golden plates in the hills near a town in New York State. These golden plates could only be translated with the use of special spectacles provided by an angel for him. Actually, though, the book of Mormon reads like a bad forgery, scattered as it is with obvious poor parallels to the style of the Authorized Version of the Bible, and it seems even quoting verbatim parts of the Aurthorized Bible (though it claims to have been written a thousand years or so before the AV). The archaeological claims of the Mormons have never been validated by non-Mormon scholars and are flatly denied by the Smithsonian Institute, and the Book of Mormon credits New World immigrants with metal-producing capabilities, a claim not confirmed by archaeological research and describes elephants roaming the Western hemispheres, though no skeletons have ever been found. The early Mormon leader Brigham Young also espoused another doctrines that Mormons would like to forget. He taught that Adam was actually God who took on a body and came to Eden (Missouri) with one of his heavenly wives, Eve. This Adam-God (the Archangel, Michael) begat Jesus by sexually cohabiting with the Virgin Mary in a physical, flesh relationship. ‘He [Christ] was not begotten by the Holy Ghost’ he declared emphatically. Also believe that Jesus actually came to America. But all this, polygamy and Adam-God theory, are not the only unorthodox doctrines of Mormonism.

• They subscribe to the idea of an anthropomorphic God who has physical, material properties. He is a procreating father (all humans were preexistence spirits he begat) with a divine mother-wife. It is this conviction that undergirds the Mormon emphasis on marriage and parenthood in this life and next.
• Some Mormons believe that Jesus was married to both Mary and Martha and that he bore children on Earth.
• Good Ms enter into their secret temples and don white garments to indulge in esoteric Masonic-like rituals that seal their marriages for eternity.
• Most famous aphorism “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may become”. God himself was once procreated in another world, and now humans may aspire to the status of procreator that he has obtained. In other words, ‘Adam fell that men might be’. The right to godhead is not earned by the grace of Jesus but by being a good M. Followers of Mormonism prove faithfulness by being baptized and married in the temple, being a member of the priesthood and tracing genealogies. As potential father and mother gods, Mormons will ultimately have their own planets to populate.
• All those born prior to Ms founding in 1830 cannot enter the celestial state without a little help from present day adherents. Mormons are universalists all will eventually have immortality with only baptized Mormons attaining godhead.
• All Mormons over 14 may enter Aaronic priesthood. Over 20 Melchizedek. Until 1978 this was barred to those with black skins because Joseph Smith taught they were the descendents of Cain and therefore cursed.
• First president is considered to be a prohetic successor to Smith and thus speaks in God’s name. From there authority descends in a non-democratic fashion to the Presidents advisors (two other high priests), the twelve apostles, the presiding quorum of 70, and the presiding bishopric. Individual members are organized into wards of 500 to 1,000.
• Insistence that US constitution is divinely-inspired.
• Believing state of women inferior to that of men.
• Opposition to use of birth control.
• Three-tiered heaven with separate sections for heathens, non-Mormon Christians, and those with sealed mariages whose earthly matrimonial unions will endure forever.

b. Jehovah Witnesses

Refusing to accept blood transfusions is just one of several distinctive beliefs associated with JWs, quote Gen 9:3,4 and Lev 17:10-15 saying that JWs consider taking blood in veins to be same as eating it. They do not donate vital organs nor receive transplants. Until 1952, they were forbidden smallpox vaccinations. They also refuse to vote, salute the flag, sing ‘the star spangled banner’ (or any nationalistic anthem) and will not serve in the Armed Forces. Witnesses who depart from such injunctions are disfellowshipped. From then on, Kingdom Hall worshippers (even family members) consider them as dead. The excommunicated ‘apostate’ is told he will not rise from the grave on Judgement Day.

In 1879 a Bible study leader named Charles Taze Russell was looking for a way to expound his somewhat peculiar teachings. He had departed from orthodoxy by denying the existence of hell, the Triniy, and the deity of Christ and felt compelled to reach a larger audience. He co-publihsed The Herald of the Morning magazine with its founder NH Barbour. By 1884 Russell controlled the magazine, renamed it The Watch Tower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom, and founded Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society (now known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society). First edition only 6,000 copies. Now publishing complex in Brooklyn, NY, churns out 100,000 books and 8000,000 copies of its two magazines, daily. Until his death in 1916 aboard a train in Texas, Russell insisted that the Bible could be understood only according to his interpretation. At the heart of his system was a prophetical chronology that predicted the Gentile era would end in 1914 (Russell had already concluded that Christ had returned in 1874, but as a ‘presence in the upper air’, not a visible manifestation). The end of the sealing of the 144,000 saints who would be ‘kingd and priests in heaven’ was also designated to occur in 1914. Those saved after that would belong to a servant class, ‘the great company’ who would rule on earth under the tutelage of the 144,000. After death of Russell, a Missouri lawyer named Joseph Franklin Rutherford took over the presidency of the Watch Tower Society, and at a Columbus, Ohio convention in 1931 cited Is 43:10 as the pretext for chaing the name of the organization to JWs. Thus the stigma of Russells questionable scholarship (he had only a seventh-grade education) and morals was resolved. After Russells death Nathan Knorr took over, similarly supplanted Russell’s influence. Now Frederick William Franz, a widower in his eighties. Their translation, The New World Translation, translators are anonymous so neither credentials nor their manuscript sources can be checked. Need to be aware of Witness beliefs so that a clever choice of words doesn’t disguise their extremely unorthodox doctrine.

Eg, the Trinity is seen as a demonic doctrine. Holy Spirit robbed of personality, and Jesus of his deity. John 1:1 the word was a god, introducing Witness belief that Christ, the Archangel Michael, was created by Jehovah.

Eg Soul sleep and annihilation of wicked (along with Satan and his demons). They deny that soul can exist apart from the body. Hell for the Watch Tower is the grave. Faithful Witnesses hope one day to be recreated (resurrected) from Jehovah’s memory. Those destined for resurrection will inhabit either paradise, earth (the large earthly class), or heaven (the elite spiritual class, the 144,000 of Rev 7&14). The earhtly class will live as they have here with a body and life-animating force (soul). The heavenly class will ‘give up’ any right to a resurrected body and will live as spirits, as they believe Jesus did after his ‘recreation’ or spirit resurrection.

Eg Witnesses make much of their devotion to Jehovah and eschew any reference to God by another name [obvious linguistic nonsense].

The greatest challenge to Watch Tower Society doctrine is the fact that the Bible presents Jesus as Jehovah-Go, a fatal blow to their entire belief system.

Eg the worlds end has been prophesied for 1914, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, and more recently, 1975. Witnesses taught that since Adam’s creation occurred in 4026BC, 6000 years of human history would end in 1975. When the date passed thousands left the sect. But President Franz had an explanation all ready. The 6,000 year chronology was set forward to begin after Eve’s creation, and how long that occurred after Adam’s advent is an interval not yet revealed by Witness leaders. Still, members believe that the end can’t be far off. They have been told that the war of Armageddon will be waged, and the Millenium must dawn before all of the 144,000 ‘anointed class’ from 1914 have died. How many of these are now left?

Note: Silent Lambs web site recently begun by Bill Bowen, a JW of 43 years standing, 20 of them as an elder. While an elder Bill became aware that a fellow-elder had abused a child several times, wanted to notify police but found the matter was being covered up at local Kingdom Hall. Eventually he called the legal desk at Watchtower headquarters and was told not to get involved. Mid July 2002 BBC program Panorama dealt with cases in the UK and USA. By end of July another 50 new cases of abuse had been reported over the net. JW response that need to be two witnesses present, but paedophiles do not usually operate with witnesses unless fellow paedophiles. September 27, 2002 protest marchers due to walk just seven city blocks in Brooklyn, NY to 25 Columbia Heights, the headquarters of the JWs.

c. Christian Science

“Mother” Mary Baker Eddy had declared that sin, illness, and disease are all illusions of the mind to be corrected by right thinking. Stories of CS people’s children dying etc., eg one Matthew Swan. Church members may have broken bones set but aren’t permitted to entertain any medical diagnosis because Mrs Eddy taught that consulting a physician breaks the first commandment. How manage to hold sway over 1 ½ million people?

Claimed divine inspiration – choice of ‘key’ in title to her book was based on her belief that he was the woman of Rev 12.

Story of her life v different from exalted status. Her childhood characterised by emotional disturbances and frequent illnesses. 22 she married George Glover, who died seven months later. Second marriage to a denties, Dr Daniel Patterson, ended in divorce. In 1877 she married Asa Eddy, her first disciple and the first Christian Science practitioner. During this her life changed.

Seeking relief from a spinal illness in 1862, she visited a spiritual healer by the name of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. He practiced a form of mind-over-matter healing that he called Christian Science. Though CSs have denied the possibility that Quimby had any influence on Eddy, research scholars have proved beyond doubt that she plagiarized heavily from his mss.

In 1866, she fell and injured herself. She later claimed that the fall left her with only 3 days left to live (though her physician dneied such a diagnosis). On 3rd day she reported that after reading Matt 9:2 she experienced a miraculous cure. From then on she felt her mission to spred this ‘new’ discovery of CS. In 1875 she published Science and Health, offering healing to those afflicted with any number of maladies. The Church of Christ, Scientist, was incorporated in 1879.

Nor ordinances are recognized and the service is ended with a reading of the Lord’s Prayer (the verses interspersed with Eddy’s interpretations).

Influenced by the New Thought fad of her day, she underpins all her doctrines with the Hindu concept of an evil, illusory, material world. In this system, that which is spirit is the only true reality.

• Man did not fall
• Death is an illusion
• Angels are God’s thoughts
• God is divine mind
• Genesis 2 is a ‘lie’
• The Virgin Birth was a spiritual idea
• The Trinity is pagan
• Evil and sin are imaginary
• Disease can be removed by right thinking
• Jesus was not God
• Heaven is a state of mind
• Hell is nonexistent
• Prayer to forgive sin is pointless
• Christ did not die
• His resurrection was spiritual not physical
• The shed blood of Christ is ineffectual for sin

In the end even she turned to physicians and was treated with the painkiller morphine. Auschwitz and Eddys own decayed body seem sufficient proof to question the ‘man is incapable of sin, sickness and death’.

d. Scientology

Tactic to approach with questionnaire to give a free personality analysis. Scientology counselling not cheap, though. 50 hours of counselling can cost $2,350. Run by L Ron Hubbard from a floating fleet of ships. Lafayette Ron Hubbard published his book, Dianetics – The Modern Science of Mental Health in 1950. The medical community responded with alarm thus forcing him to formalize his theories into a religion and thus seek tax-exempt status and freedom from governmental interfernce. Hubbards reputation as an explorer, science fiction writer, and parabotanist (he was one of the first to expound the idea of communicating with plants). Need a crash course in Scientology nomenclature to understand Hubbard’s teaching. The church has found it necessary to publish a dictionary with 7,000 definitions for the use of over 3,000 Dianetic words. Hubbard teaches that mankind is descended from a race of uncreated, omnipotent gods called thetans, who gave up their powers to enter the Material-Energy-Space-Time (MEST) world of Earth. Gradually, they evolved upward by reincarnation to become humans who could not remember their deified state. Scientologists are encouraged to awaken their dormant thetan potential by removing all mental blocks called engrams. By doing so they can realize their true personhood, achieving total power and control over MEST.

Engrams are said to be traumatic experiences in past lives. Dianetics teaches the techniques for removing (clearing) all engrams. The one who joins Scientology, a preclear (PC), is said to be in need of auditing to discover his engrams. This is done by using a galvonometer called an E-meter which measures the resistance to electric current by recording galvanic skin responses. Like a lie-detetector (polygraph) the instructor (auditor) asks a series of questions while the student holds the two tin cans of the E-meter in his hands. Scientologists insist the procedure is like a church confessional.

An FBI raid on church quarters revealed a hit list of enemies. Jeff Dubron, a Church leader, explained that Scientologists are not prone to turn the other cheek, “Ron [Hubbard] says you only get hurt when you duck”. On the hit list were the Mayor of Clearwater, Florida, who exposed their clandestine activities regarding a hotel purchase, and Paulette Cooper, who wrote The Scandal of Scientology.

A major creed of L Ron Hubbard states that “man is good”. This tenet is consistent with the Dianetic belief that man is descended from the gods and may someday evolved to reclaim his thetan potential. Other doctrines and practices include astral travel, regression to past lives, and the ‘urge toward existence as spirits’ (Scientology Dynamic number seven). Hubbard declares Dianetics to be ‘the spiritual heir of Buddhism in the Western world.’

Church ministers wear the conventional black priest-suit and white collar, and even sport crosses, though they point out it isn’t representative of Christ’s crucifix – the cross, believed to have ancient religious connotations with the bar denoting matter and the vertical symbolizing spirit.

e. The Boston Church Of Christ

The Boston Church of Christ is not to be confused with the traditional denominatoin also known as the Church of Christ. Although they share some of their teachings, they are considerably more extreme and have largely been disowned by that denomination. The movement traces its roots back to “The Crossroads Church of Christ” in Florida, USA, and to one man in particularl, Kip McKean. Converted as a student at the University of Florida, trained with the Crossroads Church of Christ, tried to start several discipling ministries in other churches. In June 1979 he arrived in Boston with his wife Elena to set up the Boston Church of Christ, and it was here that he developed with others the techniques and practices that have created such a disturbance. In 1982, teams were sent out to Chicago and Lond, from where many other offshoots have sprung. By Autumn of 1989 there were 67 difference centres worldwide with plans for more to come.

As with many authoritarian groups, the heirarchy is very tightly structured. A ‘discipler’ is given responsibility for each individual, and monitors their ‘spiritual growth.’ The discipler keeps in constant touch with the person, passing on instructions about all kinds of matters and making all sorts of decisions for them.

In many ways movement holds to traditional Protestant teaching about who Jesus is, nature of Trinity, authority of Bible. However, it is clear from both the nature of their teachings, and the practice of their members that they do not regard members of other churches as being Christians at all.

Difficult to know what they teach because they wary of putting anything in writing.

• Salvation does not come by faith alone. “We do not teach that salvation comes by faith alone…it should be noted that ‘salvation by faith’ is in no way identical with ‘salvation by faith alone’
• They teach 5 things as necessary for salvation: i. Hear the message. Ii. Believe. Iii. Repent. Iv. Confess Jesus. V. Be immersed.
• Baptism is the moment of conversion. Baptism v importan to CLOC. They believe it to be the moment of rebirth when a person becomes a true Christian and receives God’s Spirit. Only full immersions acceptable.
• Baptism has to be correctly understood. Baptism is only effective, however, if you believe that it is the moment of conversion. If you think you were a Christian before the baptism, then it is useless. In effect this means that only their baptism works, as nobody else shares this understanding.
• Important truths are denied. Doctrines of Original Sin, Justification by Faith Alone, the Perseverance of the Saints are openly denied.
• Discipling must be rigorously practiced. Essentially the framework of CLOC is one of total submission to authority.
• The person and work of HS is disregarded. He is referred to as an ‘it’, and spoken of in terms of being God’s personal presence.