The issues along with Patton's placement of them are as follows (with 1 = essential for salvation, 2 = essential for orthodoxy, etc.):
1. Belief in the full deity of Christ - 1
2. Belief in sola fide (belief that salvation is by faith alone, without the addition of any works) - 2
3. Belief in the existence of God - 1
4. Belief in the pre-tribulational rapture of the Church -4
5. Belief that the witch of Endor saw the Spirit of Samuel, not a demonic representation (1 Sam. 28:15) - 5
6. Belief in inerrancy (that the Bible does not have any errors in doctrine, history, or science - 3
7. Belief that believers, upon death, go to directly into the presence of Christ, not into a state of spiritual unconsciousness until the resurrection (i.e. you deny soul-sleep) - 2
As simple as that seems I couldn't do it. Not because I didn't know what I thought of the issues but I couldn't connect with Patton's categories. I tend to prefer Michael Wittmer's approach found in his interview with Justin Taylor to categorize Christian beliefs. Plus I do better with the fewer categories as follows:
(1) what they must believe
(2) what they must not reject
(3) what they should believe
1. Belief in the full deity of Christ - 1
2. Belief in sola fide (belief that salvation is by faith alone, without the addition of any works) - 2
3. Belief in the existence of God - 1
4. Belief in the pre-tribulational rapture of the Church - oops, need a category for "wrong".
5. Belief that the witch of Endor saw the Spirit of Samuel, not a demonic representation (1 Sam. 28:15) - and one for "I don't know".
6. Belief in inerrancy (that the Bible does not have any errors in doctrine, history, or science - 3
7. Belief that believers, upon death, go to directly into the presence of Christ, not into a state of spiritual unconsciousness until the resurrection (i.e. you deny soul-sleep) - 3
What about you? Which chart do you like? Do you have a better approach? And how do you see these seven issues?
3 comments:
I prefer Wittmer's approach.
For the statements:
1. Belief in the full deity of Christ - 1
2. Belief in sola fide (belief that salvation is by faith alone, without the addition of any works) - 2
3. Belief in the existence of God - 1
4. Belief in the pre-tribulational rapture of the Church - Wrong
5. Belief that the witch of Endor saw the Spirit of Samuel, not a demonic representation (1 Sam. 28:15) - Irrelevant
6. Belief in inerrancy (that the Bible does not have any errors in doctrine, history, or science - 3 if we are talking about those who still embrace partial inerrancy (the so-called "infallibility position"). Otherwise 2.
7. Belief that believers, upon death, go to directly into the presence of Christ, not into a state of spiritual unconsciousness until the resurrection (i.e. you deny soul-sleep) - 3
Daniel - I'm nervous, you and I seem aligned ... oh oh.
:-) Just joking, thanks for dropping by ...
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