What are the Fundamentals?

Criteria for defining a Fundamental of the Faith
What is a Fundamentalist?
Why defining the Fundamentals is so important

DISCLAIMER: I am not inspired nor perfect, so I do not claim to be perfect in this assessment of what are the Fundamentals. Perhaps I missed some, perhaps some I include are wrong and are not a "Fundamental" but are simply part of Bible doctrine.

GOD

God's Word is faithful, true, infallible, and without error.

Based on the knowledge of the character of our God, we hold that God's "official" communication to us (through His Word, the Scriptures, or the Bible) has to be correct and without error. This inspiration and infallibility goes down even to the very words and concepts God has placed in the Bible. God has given us all we need to know to live our lives, what to believe, and principles to establish our standards, norms, and conduct from His word. We believe that God has given it without error, and God preserves His word without error. Without this Fundamental, we cannot rely on anything else. All else falls if we accept error in the Word of God, or accept that God can lie or deceive in His promises to us.

We should note that this is one of the most important Fundamentals, because this defines the authority for the true Christian. True Christians accept only God's Word as their "ultimate and final authority" and reject such authorities as councils, churches, traditions, customs, or reason. The true Christian is marked by a rigid adhering to the Scripture as the guide, rule, and standard for his faith and practice. This admits that God has the right and concedes God His right to make judgments, discernments, and in general direct our lives as God sees fit. We are God's possession, not our own. Therefore God's will is what makes us and our lives, not our own wills.

Moreover, when the true Christian holds to the Fundamentals of the Faith, they must rebuke, reject, and separate from any who would oppose, deny, dilute, or compromise these Fundamentals. They will not give in or accommodate themselves with those who do not hold to these Fundamentals.

There is only one God, who exists triunely in three persons.

Here we go into the essence of God. If God defines Himself as "God is love", then what is the minimum necessary for love to exist? Three things, the person who loves (the Father), the object of this love, or the person who receives this love (the Son), and some kind of manifestation of this love (the Holy Spirit which proceeds from the Father to the Son).

The personality, office, and work of the Holy Spirit

This fundamental is necessary to understand and abide in the work of God today.

God is holy, separate from the common and sinful of this world.

God does not "mingle" or fraternize with the common (vulgar or profane) or the sinful. God's essence of holiness demands a separation, purity, or holiness in those that commune with God, in the things God uses (instruments, methods, or agents for doing His work and will), and in the place where God dwells or abides.

The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, and Deity of Christ, sinless of Christ

In this point, we need to clearly understand, that if Jesus is not fully God then His sacrifice for mankind's sins was useless. If He is not fully man, then His identification with mankind likewise is in vain. Jesus had two natures, fully God and fully man, yet in His human nature, he was without sin. Without fully understanding the intricacies of this issue, yet we understand that Jesus had to be born of virgin (no man's seed involved) so that he would be sinless. Also we assert that Christ was completely a man in every sense except having the personal knowledge and experience of sin or sinning. Being God Himself, Jesus could not disobey the will of Himself (God). This is made easier for us to understand because God presents Himself as three persons, and Jesus submits to the "will of God the Father".

SALVATION

Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works.

Quite simply, to have a form of Christianity without a faith salvation is to not even have true Christianity. So many false cults, religions, and heresies have failed on this one point, that it should not be necessary to belabor this point.

Salvation is by faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, His death, burial, and resurrection. (substitutionary atonement)

We can essentially define the gospel with this point. Jesus died a substitutionary death for all mankind, which is currently being taken advantage of by only certain ones who are the redeemed. Involved in this is that Christ really actually physically died and was resurrected from the grave. This is an act of sacrifice planned and executed by God so that Jesus died in the place of the real person, as in the Old Testament, a perfect lamb without blemish was sacrificed in place of the person believing in this act. We also note that the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the sign from God that God accepted the legitimacy of Jesus' sacrifice. It opened the door to actual salvation of people. This could not come to pass without Christ's death. The resurrection is the approval of God on Christ's sacrifice for mankind.

Jesus is the Messiah, the God-ordained Savior of the World

This Fundamental is the essence of salvation. Without Jesus in the center of salvation, we have no salvation. We also may add, that besides Jesus being the way of salvation, He is the only way by which a person can be saved and go to heaven.

Existence of Heaven (abode of God, angels, and those in eternal life-blessing) and Hell (abode of Satan, demons, and those in eternal suffering).

If we remove the existence of heaven, then we remove all meaning to the concept of salvation. The life of the redeemed here on earth is described as present suffering, not to be compared to the bliss of that future state. If we cease to exist after death, then this makes no sense and essentially "guts" Christianity of all its meaning. Likewise, if we do not hold firmly to a place and state of eternal punishment for those who oppose God, then it is as if God ignores those who do not do His will, who will not accept His salvation.

The imminent return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection from the dead.

Many things in the New Testament hinge on Christ's return for His saints. This is our hope on the one hand, and on the other, this is the trigger event for the end times. God is presently allowing the world and the church to continue without bringing to a close eternity as described in Daniel and Revelation. The culmination of our salvation hinges on Jesus' return.

We should also add here that without the belief in the resurrection from the dead, then we have no salvation, no eternal life, no eternal life of bliss with God. The promises of God are then vain and hollow if we cease to exist after death. Likewise, the threats of God to the wicked are hollow if there is no resurrection of the unsaved so that they can be fully judged.

The necessity of repentance and faith in divine acceptance.

This Fundamental is an understanding that salvation depends on a disposition within the sinner, that being to reject whatever else he may be believing and holding onto as a hope for his salvation, to abandon all of that (repentance), and to cling to Jesus Christ as his only hope of salvation. This goes further to define our problem as how God sees it, our sin. We either hold to our problem (sin) or to God's remedy (salvation), but not both. The act or attitude of soul of turning from sin to God and His salvation is repentance. God will not accept anybody who refuses to repent and abandon his sin, although this is a life-long process which has its ups and downs, victories and defeats, that God advises us will be difficult.

The church, the body of Christ, the corporate relationship of the redeemed.

This Fundamental is a statement that God has organized His redeemed into a body, referring to it as the "body of Christ" (with Christ Himself being the "head"). This concept is how God treats the redeemed, and it reflects the working relationship within or among the redeemed (different members of a body). Although the concept is worldwide, and spans across the centuries, the actual outworking of this body is always in a local group, also called a church. This is the method which God has devised and approved for the accomplishing of His will and His work. Within this group of believers, the Christian is act and function, fully develop his relationship with Christ through his brethren (fellowship), and unite with them in various aspects of God's work and his own Christian life. He is to support and promote that local church. He makes his public proclamation in this local church through his baptism, and furthermore promotes the gospel through witnessing and evangelism, with the concept that any converts are to be channeled back into that local church for discipleship and training, and full integration into that local body. This evangelism is every Christian's task. This local church is the primary place where he is to receive preaching, teaching, exhortation, correction, discipline, and encouragement in his Christian life.

Last updated: 10/08/08
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