Years ago I took a class at Lincoln Christian College, I wanted to do a study on the core beliefs all Christians hold in common. This is the paper that came out of that class.
There are some core Christian Beliefs that all Christians believe. In the book Faith's Fundamentals, Jack Cottrell calls these the Bull's Eye Truths. If you look at a dart board, you have the bull's-eye in the center and all the rings around it. In this paper I'm just focusing on the doctrine at the heart and core of the Christian Faith, the bull's-eye truths. If your house caught on fire, what would you save first? Many expensive, beloved things would be passed over at first because some things simply take priority in this sort of situation like financial records, pictures, and mementos, for instance. In a similar way, we are dealing with here with the first things of Christianity, the bull's-eye of the Christian faith, its most fundamental truths. (a)
The Apostles Creed sums up these truths that has been passed down from one generation of believers to another. "I believe in God the Father, Almighty creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended to the dead. And on the third day He rose again. He ascended into Heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."(b) Rich Mullins said in his song Creed, "I believe what I believe, because it makes me what I am, I did not make it, no it is making me, it is the very truth of God not the invention of any man."(c) What we believe makes us who we are so we should be carefull what we believe.
I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. God, through His Holy Spirit, inspired men to write the bible. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 it says "All scripture is God breathed and is usefull for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. So that the man of God may be thourghly equipped for every good work." In 2 Peter 1:20-21 "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation. For prophecy never had it's origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." In the Knowing and Experiencing God study Henry Blackaby states, "We cannot depend on tradition, our experience, or the experience of others to be accurate authorities on God's will and ways. Experience and tradition must always be examined against the teaching of the bible." (d)
In the Baptist Faith and Message it says, "The bible has God for it's author, salvation for it's end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for it's matter. It reveals the principles by which God judges us; and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of the christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried."(e) The main theme of the bible is Jesus, God's plan to save the world through His Son.. Where the bible speaks, we as christians speak. Where the bible is silent, we as christians should remain silent. The Bible does not try to prove that God exists, it simply affirms that God exists. God is represented in three forms called the Trinity, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. When we think of the trinity we could to relate it to a cherry pie. If we cut the pie in three equal sections we would see the lines in the crust, but on the inside the pie would all run together.
I believe in God the Father, Creator of Heaven and earth. There is only one living and true God. The Apostle Paul explains it best about who God is in Acts 17:24-31, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. `For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, `We are his offspring.' "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." This man that Paul is talking about that God has appointed and raised from the dead is His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. "No man has ever accomplished so much in so little time to affect the course of the world as Jesus of Nazareth. He is at the center of human history."(f) Historically we can prove that Jesus was a real man who lived in Galilee, but I do not need the historical facts to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The way Jesus affected and changed peoples lives, like He affected and changed my life, that is why I believe that He is the Christ the Son of the living God.
Gilbert Bilezikian sums up how Jesus affects the people He came in contact with in his book Christianity 101, "As Jesus went about announcing publicly that the time had come when God was doing something new in the world, he came across many people who were struggling in hopeless situations. They were afflicted with diseases that made them blind or rotted their skin; they were paralyzed on stretchers in courtyards and on doorsteps; they were the abandoned and the hungry who begged for food on the streets; they were the women used, abused, and thrown out like trash; they were the small unimportant people of the earth- widows and orphans, the lame the disadvantaged and the disabled, the whores and the homeless, the despised and the rich and the poor, those crying out their wail to an indifferent world and those pushing down their secret pain in the dark tunnels of the soul. Jesus saw each one of them. He felt their hurt, and on the behalf of their God, he reached out to them with healing, comfort, and forgiveness and love." Bilezikian goes further to say that, "This sensitivity to the plight of suffering people was nothing less than the love of God become human in order to weep with the broken hearted, to embrace the untouchables, to communicate life to dead limbs, bodies, and souls, and to gather all the brokenness to himself and funnel it forever into hell through the lightning rod of the cross."(g)
I believe in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the word of God, the bible, and reveals to you the will of God. In the Experiencing God Study, Henry Blackaby states that "God speaks buy the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways." Blackaby goes further to say, "the Holy Spirit already knows the will of God. When we are weak and don't know what we ought to pray, the Holy Spirit prays for us and He prays absolutely in agreement with the will of God. He then helps us know the will of God when we pray." (h)
In First Corinthians 12:7, it says that the Holy Spirit manifests Himself to every person for the common good. The body of the church, it's members, are fitted together buy God. Members of that body are enabled and equipped by the Holy Spirit to function where God has placed them in the church, the body. The body then functions, by exercising their individual spiritual gifts, to build itself up to glorify Christ.
When building a house you need a strong foundation. Likewise when you build a church you need a strong foundation as well. That foundation is in Jesus Christ. Rich Mullins sum's it up best, "We need the church because it contain's the truth, because it has the songs that teach us about the faith, and because we need to hear the Word of God. The church offers us the body and the blood of Christ, the spiritual nourishment needed to sustain life. The church is the body of Christ. It is a group of people who have one thing in common, we are all joined to the same head, which is Jesus and we are members of His body."(i)
The early church is best summed up by Luke in Acts 2:42-47, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
What must a person do to receive eternal life? Do you know for certain that you have eternal life and that you will go to Heaven when you die? A person receives eternal life, salvation, when they ask Jesus into their heart. Someone can have a head knowledge of who Jesus is, but you need to have a heart knowledge. In order to receive salvation a person must believe that God sent His Son, Jesus to die on the cross for their sins. In John 3:16 it says, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life."
We are all sinners by nature and by choice. In Romans 3:23 it says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." No matter how hard we try we cannot save ourselves, it is only by God's grace that we are saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works so that no one can boast". We deserve death and hell. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death." But God has provided a way to by-pass hell. Romans 6:23 goes further to say that, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord".
Jesus died on the cross for us so that we can spend eternity with Him. 1st Peter 3:18 says, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." The only way Jesus can change our lives is if we ask Him into our heart. " Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God", John 1:12.
We must repent of our sins. Acts 3:19 says, "Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out...." Repentance is not just feeling sorry for our sins it is turning to God through Jesus and away from our sin. It is like making a U-turn. As we make this U-turn we must place our faith and trust in Jesus. Faith is not just believing facts about Jesus, James 2:19 says, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe and shudder". Faith is trusting in Jesus. In Hebrews 11:1 it says,”Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.”
To put our faith and trust totally in Jesus means that we must surrender to Jesus as Lord. Romans 10:9-10 says, "That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Surrendering to Jesus and placing our trust in Him is not just saying we give our lives to Jesus. Matthew 7:21 says, "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven." Surrendering to Jesus as Lord means that we give Jesus control of our lives. Giving Jesus control of our lives is like trusting Him with our checkbook or sitting back and letting Him drive our car.
As evidence of giving Jesus control of our lives we should identify with Him. The New Testament way is to confess Jesus publicly and follow Him in baptism and church membership. Matthew 10:32-33 says, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."
Baptism and the Lord's Supper are two very important sacraments of the church. We can't have one without the other. They both would mean nothing if Jesus had not died on the cross for our sins.
By being baptized we tell our stories as individual believers.” (j) In Matthew 28:19 Jesus commanded His disciples to go throughout the world and to make more disciples. As a sign of their commitment the new disciples were to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Peter said in Acts 2:38 “Repent and be Baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins...” The physical act of Baptism does not save us. It is a symbolic act of what Jesus did in our heart. We receive salvation by asking Jesus into our heart, accepting what Jesus did on the cross, asking Him to forgive us our sins, and by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God. “We are saved through faith by divine grace, and baptism is an image representing that reality.” (k)
Baptism is the ceremony that tells our spiritual story to the church community as we become part of it. There is a hymn called "Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me...", the act of baptism announces that now we belong to Jesus and walk with Him and He also walks with us.
The Lord's Supper or Communion as it is sometimes called, is a symbol as well. Luke 22:19-20 "And He took bread gave thanks and broke it. and gave it to them saying, This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way after the supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." The bread symbolizes Jesus body on the cross and the juice or wine symbolizes His blood which was shed for us on the cross. Buy participating in the Lord's Supper we are remembering what He did for us on the cross. Jesus did not specify how often to observe the Lord's Supper, only to remember Him by it. It seems that the early church in Acts 2:42 and in Acts 20:7 celebrated it weekly.
There are many beliefs about Jesus' second coming, the resurrection. They have all one central belief in common, that Jesus is coming again. 1st Thessalonians 5:2, "It will come suddenly and unexpectedly, like a thief in the night." Jack Cottrel explains in his book Faiths Fundamentals, "Jesus said that it would be at an hour when you do not think. Many would be preoccupied with worldly things and will be taken by surprise. Even for those watching, it will be sudden. It will be like watching for lightning in the sky during a storm. Though you are watching, still it is so sudden that you are surprised. It is expected yet unexpected. Thus it shall be with Christ. All at once, He will appear." (l)
When Jesus comes, it says in Matthew 25:31-46 that "When the Son of Man comes and all His holy angels.....He will separate the people from one another as a shepard separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.........Then He will say to those on His left, Depart from me you who are cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
While studying these basic christian beliefs, "the bull's eye truths" we have to define the exact center on the dart board. I believe that it would all be summed up in John 3:16-18, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son"” If we keep Jesus the center of our lives, the point on the dart, we will hit the bull's eye every time.
My name is Wayne Mansfield, Table of Stephen. I just went on a 72 hour spiritual pilgrimage called an Emmaus Walk. Words can't describe what I experienced this weekend. I have been on a number of Ski Trips, Men's campouts, and Retreats, none of these can compare to what I experienced this weekend. I was told by my father-n-law to enjoy the moment, don't anticipate anything, just participate. From the moment I arrived I was overwelmed by God's love for me by the acts of kindness I recieved from brother Christians. This weekend has strengthend my relationship with Jesus Christ. It has changed my priorities on life. God is now number one and my wife number two, and myself number 3. In the past I put myself first ahead of God and my wife. The highpoint of this weekend was when I was laying face down on the chapel floor praying and asking God to forgive me of my past sins and realizing I had to forgive myself. This is the point where God broke me down with his love for me and then buildt me back up with that same love. We celebrated Communion daily along with time in the Chapel and quiet meditations and small group discussions. The group of guys I meet there, their friendships will last a lifetime. There are many more things that happened this weekend that are better left as a surprise. It was held in Merom, IN in a building dating back into the 1850's which was an old Seminary and Christian College. 
