The Main Things

As Christians debate matters of faith and practice, it becomes easy for any point of controversy to be taken as an essential element of our faith. We quickly fall into the “No true Scotsman” fallacy. No true Christian would disagree with me on baptism. No true Christian would possibly challenge my understanding of the interplay between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. No true Christian could ever vote differently than I do. Yet, when we begin to embrace such thinking, we unwittingly elevate a point of controversy to an essential element of our faith.

Our goal in our We Believe series to explore the core beliefs of our faith. We want to look at the essential elements—those foundational truths that are central to the Christian faith. We begin this series and will spend much time looking at who God is. God himself is the center of our faith, and so we what we believe about him forms our core doctrine. All else that we believe flows from who God is.

In our age of division and outrage, we would do well to understand the truly essential elements of our faith. Our prayer at CTK is that this series will help us focus our attention on God himself as he has revealed himself in Scripture as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we do this, may we grow to love, enjoy, and glorify him more.