Christian Doctrine

0/30 done

StartGod makes himself knownStart

Revelation and Scripture

  1. God makes himself knownWe can know God only because he makes himself known. He shows his power and goodness to everyone through creation and conscience, and he has spoken through the prophets and finally in his Son, Jesus Christ, whose revelation now comes to us in Scripture.
  2. The inspiration and authority of ScriptureScripture is breathed out by God. Written by real human authors carried along by the Holy Spirit, it is fully their words and fully God's word, given to make us wise for salvation in Christ and to be the rule of our faith and life.
  3. The canon: which books are ScriptureThe canon is the list of books the church receives as God's word and as the measure of its faith. The church recognised the Old Testament that Jesus received and the writings of the apostles through long use and discernment; Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians share the same twenty-seven New Testament books but differ over some Old Testament books.

God

  1. What God is likeGod is self-existent, eternal and unchanging, present everywhere, knowing all things and able to do all he wills; he is also holy, loving, just, good, faithful and wise. These are not separate parts of God but one undivided life, so that his love is always holy and his holiness always loving.
  2. The TrinityThe doctrine of the Trinity confesses that there is one God, who exists eternally as three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is not three gods, nor one person wearing three masks, but a summary that holds together everything Scripture says about God.
  3. ProvidenceProvidence is God's continuing care and government of everything he has made. He upholds all things, feeds the birds, directs our steps and rules history, and he works even through evil for good without being its author, so that his eternal purpose and our real responsibility stand together.

Creation and humanity

  1. CreationGod made everything that exists out of nothing, by his word. The world the Father made through the Son and by the Spirit is good, distinct from God and dependent on him at every moment, and it exists for his glory as the stage of his love.
  2. The image of GodGod made human beings, male and female, in his own image, to know him, to reflect him and to care for the world on his behalf. Every human life therefore carries the same dignity, and the image that sin has marred is being renewed in Christ, the true image of God.
  3. Angels and spiritual beingsGod made things invisible as well as visible. Angels are creatures who worship God and serve his people; Satan and the demons are fallen angels, real but never God's equals, and already defeated by Christ at the cross.

Sin and covenant

  1. The fallGod placed the first man and woman in a good garden under a good command, but they doubted his word and his goodness and reached to be like God on their own terms. That turning away is the fall, and at its root sin is unbelief and pride. Yet in the same chapter God comes looking for them, clothes them and promises a Saviour.
  2. Original sin and its effectsSin is not only something we do but a condition we are born into. Through Adam's sin all people are under sin and death and cannot free themselves, but in Christ, the second Adam, grace overflows where sin increased.
  3. Law and covenantGod binds himself to his people by covenant, and the promises he made to Noah, Abraham, Israel and David come to their fulfilment in the new covenant sealed with Christ's blood. The law is holy and good: it shows us our sin and leads us to Christ, but it cannot make us right with God, and in every age salvation is by grace.

The person of Christ

  1. The incarnationThe incarnation is the eternal Son of God becoming truly human without ceasing to be God. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, he came to show us the Father, to live the obedience we owed and die the death we faced, and to bring us into the life of God.
  2. Truly God and truly manJesus Christ is truly God and truly man, one person in two natures, divine and human. Through its councils the church set fences around this mystery, and the Council of Chalcedon in 451 confessed that the two natures are neither mixed together nor divided.
  3. Prophet, priest and king‘Christ’ means ‘the Anointed One’. As prophets, priests and kings were anointed in Israel, so Jesus is the prophet who makes God known, the high priest who offered himself once for all and lives to intercede for us, and the king whose kingdom will never end.

The work of Christ

  1. The cross and atonementChrist died on the cross for us and for our sins. The church has described his death with several pictures (ransom and victory, satisfaction, the penalty borne in our place, an example of love) and its traditions weigh them differently, but all confess that the cross springs from God's love and reconciles sinners to him.
  2. The resurrectionOn the third day after his death and burial, Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead. His resurrection declares him the Son of God with power, seals our justification and new life, and is the firstfruits of the resurrection of all who belong to him.
  3. The ascension and Christ’s reignForty days after his resurrection Christ ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. From there he reigns over all things, intercedes for us, pours out the Spirit and gives gifts to his church, and he will come again in the same way he went.

The Holy Spirit

  1. Who the Holy Spirit isThe Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force but a person who teaches, testifies, speaks and prays, and he is truly God, worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son. He was at work in creation and in the prophets, rested on Jesus throughout his life, and was poured out on the church at Pentecost.
  2. New birth and the indwelling SpiritNew birth is God's work by the Holy Spirit, giving new life to people dead in sin; the same Spirit then lives in every believer, assuring us that we are God's children, sealing us as his own and bearing fruit in us. Christians differ over how new birth relates to baptism and whether it comes before or after faith, but all confess it as God's work, not ours.
  3. Gifts of the SpiritThe Holy Spirit gives every believer gifts for the common good, and they are rightly used when they build others up in love, the more excellent way. Christians differ over whether gifts such as prophecy, tongues and healing continue today, but they agree that every Christian is gifted, that gifts are for others, and that the Spirit is the giver.

Salvation

  1. Grace and electionSalvation begins with God and is his undeserved favour from first to last. Scripture says both that God chose his people in Christ before the world began and that he wants everyone to be saved; the churches explain his choosing differently, but all confess that salvation is wholly of grace.
  2. Faith and justificationJustification is God's act of accepting a guilty sinner as righteous for Christ's sake, by grace and through faith, not by our works. The churches describe it differently, as God's declaration or as his declaring and inwardly renewing, but they agree that it is God's gift and not our merit.
  3. Holiness and perseveranceGod saves us to make us holy, and by his Spirit he changes believers into Christ's likeness over a lifetime. The churches differ on how far that change goes in this life and on whether a true believer can finally fall away, but all agree that our hope rests on Christ, not on how well we are doing.

The church

  1. What the church isThe church is the people God gathers by the gospel: the body of which Christ is the head, the temple in which his Spirit lives, the bride he loves. The creeds confess it as one, holy, catholic and apostolic; Christians differ over how it should be governed and how its unity is seen.
  2. Baptism and the Lord’s SupperChrist gave his church baptism and the Lord's Supper to keep. Baptism marks our union with Christ in his death and resurrection; the Supper proclaims his death until he comes and is a participation in him. Churches differ over how many sacraments there are, whom to baptise and how, and how Christ is present at his table.
  3. Worship and prayerWorship is our response to God for who he is, offered with the whole of life and gathered with his people on the Lord's Day; prayer is coming to the Father through the Son and in the Spirit. Churches worship in different shapes, and differ over what may be included and over the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.

The last things

  1. Death and the intermediate stateDeath is an enemy that came into the world with sin, but Christ has taken away its sting. Those who die in Christ are with the Lord at once, and their final hope is the resurrection of the body when he returns.
  2. Christ’s return and the millenniumJesus Christ will come again in person, visibly and in glory, to judge the living and the dead and to make all things new. No one knows the day, so we wait by watching and working; Christians read the thousand years of Revelation 20 in several ways, but they share this one hope.
  3. Resurrection, judgment and the new creationAt the last day all the dead will be raised bodily and Christ will judge everyone with justice. Those who are in him will be raised with bodies like his glorious body, to live in a new heaven and a new earth where God dwells with his people and they see his face.