At times I wonder why people even call themselves Christian as it appears they do not believe in common doctrines of the Bible. A good example of this was an article in our local newspaper today about the man who has been the pastor of a local Presbyterian church for the last 14 years.
In the article, he admits that he does not believe in a heaven or hell, calls Angels and the Devil imaginary beings and on another occasion, that the Blood of Jesus does not hold any power of justification and should be stricken from all preaching and songs. There was more, but this seems to be enough for me.
How can you call yourself a Christian let alone a Pastor when you do not believe in Heaven, Angels or the Devil (Satan) and what is your salvation based on if not cleansed through the shed Blood of Christ of which Jesus Himself said:
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
And another passage:
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
These Scriptures along with many others show the power of the Blood of Jesus. How is it that a person such as this so called pastor, denies the Blood of Jesus? There can be no salvation without the Blood of Jesus.
Add to this all the battles in different denominations over the acceptance of people committing acts of homosexuality without repentance. It amazes me that anyone could read the Bible and believe that committing the act of homosexuality is acceptable to God! Some seem to believe that God created people to commit homosexuality. That would be like saying God created people to be thieves or adulators or even murderers. It would also mean that God has created a person to send them to eternal damnation, it is us ourselves that send us to hell, not God!
Recently, a large number of pastors had a day to honor Darwin for his work on evolution. As far as I can see, anyone that believes in macroevolution (not microevolution such as variance within species) cannot be a Christian. Why? Simply if you accept that man evolved and was not directly created, you could have no concept of Original Sin and thus cannot understand the basis of salvation.
I once heard a pastor of a very large international church declare that you do not have to believe in the virgin birth to be a Christian. If there was no "virgin birth", then Jesus would have had inherited the Original Sin of Adam and thus could not have been a sinless sacrifice for sin. So, you would have to believe in the virgin birth to be a Christian.
Some people quote:
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
They say it clearly shows you only need to confess and believe and you shall be saved. Yes, this is the basics, but in this is hidden many other things. For an example, to confess Jesus as Lord, you must let Him rule your life, there is that old saying "You cannot say – no Lord – If you say No, He is not Lord of your life". Of course, you would have to believe in God and Jesus along with Original sin as you have to have something to be "saved" from. Also, is the "virgin birth", the deity of Christ, and the list goes on and on.
I plan to launch OurLocalChristians.com in the future, but one of the task I have before the launch is to come up with a list of basic common beliefs to be a true Christian. Before that day comes I will be posting more here.