A) The Apostle’s Creed. Or at the very, very, very least 99% of the Apostle’s Creed. Belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Not just casual muttering, but genuine belief in the contents—the bare bone basics of the faith. This is what we believe together as a community. To deny the Apostle’s Creed is to deny the faith. To edit/alter who Jesus is—any part of the gospel revelation in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—to conform with “new” ideas is foolish. To deny any part of what the Bible has to say about Jesus is foolish. To pick and choose which elements of the gospel story to believe and which to reject is foolish.
B) The gospel. Closely related to the Creed, but worth mentioning on its own. Sin may not be popular to believe in these days, but, except for FOUR chapters of the Bible, SIN is very much front and center as humanity’s biggest problem. Jesus came to SAVE sinners from their sin. He didn’t come to bring “enlightenment” or to share his wisdom. He came to save SINNERS from SIN. To deny that sin exists, that all humans have a sin problem, that believers and unbelievers have a sin problem, to deny the need for a Savior, to CHANGE the reason—to make up new reasons—for Jesus to have come is wrong. Plain and simple. To say that there was NO NEED for the blood atonement and that the idea of atonement is OUTDATED is blasphemous. To say that we have misunderstood why Jesus came for thousands of years is outrageous and shows pride.
C) Confession of Sin and repentance. It is important to acknowledge that even those who profess the name of Christ, who follow Christ, ARE sinners still in need of ongoing, daily repentance. We are to confess our sins and praise God for his mercy because there is forgiveness to be found. To deny sin, to deny the need for repentance, to deny the need for confession is to welcome pride and vanity in with open arms. We need to walk HUMBLY with our God, to hate what God hates, to love what God loves. Our view of sin should be the same as God’s view of sin. To call evil good and good evil is wrong. To remove CONFESSION OF SIN from the Lord’s Supper or communion is misguided.
D) the Bible is the Word of God. God’s Special Revelation to humanity. It is God-breathed, inspired, infallible, inerrant, authoritative. Perhaps a pastor does not want to teach, to preach the WHOLE counsel of God. Perhaps a pastor wants to pick and choose what is taught, what is preached. To stay silent is one thing. To admit that it is difficult to wrap one’s mind around, to admit struggles is one thing. However, to DENY vast chunks and portions of Scripture, to openly preach from the pulpit that the Bible is NOT the Word of God, is NOT inspired, is NOT God-breathed, is NOT true, is blasphemy. To openly teach others to disregard whole books of the Bible or whole doctrines of the Bible is dangerous ground. To promote the idea of picking and choosing what is true and what is relevant is again shaky ground for a pastor IF that pastor values what the Bible has to say about a pastor’s responsibilities to his flock.
E) The existence of hell. Death in and of itself is not a ticket to heaven. Hell exists. All roads do NOT lead to heaven. Jesus is THE way, THE truth, THE life. The ONLY way, the ONLY truth, the ONLY life. This life—no matter how long or short—is the only time people have the opportunity to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. There are not an infinite number of chances AFTER death. Hell is not a time-out for naughty people. Hell is REAL and it’s forever. To teach that all ways lead to heaven OR to teach that hell is not real OR to teach that hell is just a temporary resting place and that ALL will eventually end up in heaven is wrong.
If pastors struggle with areas of the Bible, then silence about those areas is BETTER than teaching falsely. Going against face value, common sense, obvious reading of the text. To teach FALSELY is to actively work against God.
F) To care about the congregation, to walk alongside and provide what they need—spiritually. To pray for them. To listen to their concerns.
This might be slightly elevating from “bare minimum” to something slightly higher but….
G) Clear presentation of the cross and what it means. The flock suffers when truth is not clearly communicated. Imputation. Justification. Sanctification. These doctrines matter even if these words are never used. ALL of our sin was placed on Jesus at the cross. ALL. All of Christ’s righteousness was placed on US at the cross. God sees CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS in us. Jesus paid the price for our sin. It can no longer be reckoned to US. We have been saved and delivered. SLAVE TO SIN no longer. We are free at last. Free to be sons and daughters of the King. Free to walk humbly with the LORD. The burden of sin has been lifted. Grace is amazing indeed. We are called to be obedient, to walk in the Spirit. But we are SAVED indeed. GOD loves us.
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