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Jesus prayed that all who believe in Him would be "one" that the world might "believe" (John 17:20,21). 1. GOD'S STATED PROVISION FOR THE WORLD'S SALVATION (1). a. God so loved this world that He gave His "only begotten Son" that all who will believe in Him might be saved (John 3:16). b. Jesus Himself stated that He is the way, the truth, and the life; the "only" way to God the Father (John 14:6). c. Peter stated that there is "no other name" given among men, under heaven, whereby we "must" be saved (Acts 4:12). d. Those who receive of God's grace and gifts of righteousness will reign in life through "one", Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:17). e. For there is one God and "one mediator" between God and men, the "man" Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). "...for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). (Rom. 3:23; 6:23). 2. STATED INITIAL REQUIREMENTS TO RECEIVE THE PROMISE OF SALVATION (4). a. Hear the word. Faith comes from hearing the message...the message heard through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). b. Believe the gospel (good news of salvation). Whoever "believes" and is "baptized"....will be "saved" (Mark 16:15,16). c. Repent from sin. Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you... for the forgiveness of your sins (Ac. 2:38, 17:30; 22:16). d. Be baptized(immersed). Repent and be baptized every one of you...and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Ac.2:38; 5:32). e. Baptism is: 1) In water (Ac. 8:38,39); 2) A burial and rising (Col. 2:12,13); 3) Washing of the body (Heb. 10:22).
3. STATED ESSENTIAL CONDUCT FOR THOSE WHO ARE SAVED TO REMAIN SAVED (21). a. Profess Christ. If you confess (speak out freely) with your mouth the Lord Jesus...you will be saved (Rom. 10:9,10). b. Hold fast the gospel. If we receive the gospel, stand for and hold fast the message...we will be saved (1 Cor. 15:1-5). c. Believe and love the truth. They perish because they refused to love the truth...and so be saved (2 Th. 2:10-12). d. Faithfully attend church. If we willfully forsake the assemblies...there is no continuing sacrifice for willful sin (Heb. 10:25-27). e. Follow peace and holiness. Without peace and holiness...we cannot expect to see the Lord (Heb. 12:14,15). "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord" (Heb. 2:3)? 4. STATED COMMANDS, CHARGES AND ORDERS (55). (Commands/charges/orders received from a superior). a. Love one another. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you" (Jn. 13:34; 15:12). b. Observe all things Jesus commanded. "Teaching them (Christians) to observe all things I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20). c. Be rich in good works. "Command those who are rich...let them do good...be rich in good works, ready to give" (1 Tim.5:17-19). d. Don't quarrel about words of no profit. "Charging them before the Lord not to strive (battle) about words to no profit" (1 Tim 5:14). e. Give as God prospers. "As I have given orders...on the first day of the week...lay something aside...as he may prosper" (1Cor.16:1,2). "Blessed are those who do His commandments...they have the right to the tree of life...to enter the gates into the city" (Rev. 22:14). 5. STATED MANDATORY DOCTRINE (35). (From the Greek word "DEI" which means "one must"). a. Be born again. "Unless... born of the water and the Spirit... cannot enter the kingdom of God...you must be born again" (Jn.3:3-7). b. Worship in spirit and truth. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him, must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4:24). c. Obey God rather than men. But Peter and the other apostles said, "We ought to (must) obey God rather than men" (Ac. 5:29). e. Overseers must be blameless, the husband of one wife. "A bishop (overseer) must be blameless, the husband of one wife" (1Tim.3:2). f. Refuse to quarrel. "A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient" (2 Tim. 2:24). We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of ourselves (2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:12). 6. STATED BEHAVIOUR WHICH CONSTITUTES VAIN WORSHIP, DEFILEMENT, GOD'S JUDGMENT, EXCLUSION FROM GOD'S KINGDOM, VENGEANCE OF FIRE, THE LAKE OF FIRE, ETC. (76). a. Teaching and/or following the commandments of men as the doctrines of God is...vain worship" (Matt. 15:9,14; Mk. 7:7). b. "Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies...these things defile" (Mt.15:19,20; Rev.21:27). c. Unnatural sexual behavior, unrighteousness, covetousness, envy, deceit, backbiters, etc...deserves the judgment of God (Rm.1:26-32). d. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, revilers, etc...will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9,10). e. If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have...let him be eternally condemned (NIV Gal. 1:8,9). f. All who practice contentions, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, etc...will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21). g. Whoever adds to or takes from the things written in God's word...will be removed from the Book of Life ( Rev.22:18,19).
All doctrines that God "equates" with "salvation" (Categories 1-3) and "states" as a command, charge, order, mandate, or exclusion (Cate-gories 4-6) are "essential" doctrines. They are "essential" doctrines because they are "stated" as involving salvation or entering or not en-tering God's everlasting kingdom. All who change, minimize or reject what God has stated will eventually suffer the eternal consequences. 7. STATED OBLIGATIONS (23). (From the Greek "OPHEILO" translated ought, debtor, duty, due, owe, etc.)
a. When we have done all things we have been commanded, we have only done that which is our duty to do (Lu. 17:10). b. Render therefore to all their due, taxes to whom taxes, customs to whom customs...honor to whom honor (Rom. 13:7). c. Owe no one anything, except to love one another; he who loves has fulfilled the law (Rom. 13:8). d. Those who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please themselves (Rom. 15:1). e. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies (Eph. 5:25,28). 8. STATED EXHORTATIONS (26). (From the Greek "PARAKALEO" translated beseech, exhort, etc.) To beseech or to exhort is to urge or encourage someone to pursue a particular course of action, always prospective, looking to the future. a. I beseech you...present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Rom. 12:1). b. We beseech you brethren...know them which labor among you...esteem them very highly in love, for their works sake (1Th.5:12,13). c. We exhort you brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint hearted, uphold the weak, be patient toward all (1 Th. 5:14). d. Exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13). e. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some...but exhorting one another...for if we sin...(Heb.10:25,26). Obligations and exhortations are not generally equated with salvation or stated as commands, charges, orders, mandates or exclusionary but are vital to ones growth and maturity in Christ. Continual neglect will always eventually result in spiritual degeneration! 9. STATED SHAMEFUL COMPORTMENT (26). (Behavior that is considered disgraceful or dishonorable.) Some ways of behavior are specified as that which will exclude one from God's kingdom (1 Cor. 10:9,10) and some behavior is indicated to be shameful. In several instances, behavior that is referred to as shameful, is that which offends cultural practices of others. a. For if a woman is not covered, let her be shorn...for if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn...let her be covered (1 Cor. 11:6). b. Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him (1 Cor.11:14)? If contention, no custom (v.16). c. Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing (1 Cor. 11:22)? d. Let your women keep silence in the churches...for it is shameful for women to speak in church (1 Cor. 14:34,35). e. Awake to righteousness and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God...I speak this to your shame (1 Cor. 15:34). Shameful conduct is not equated with being sinful or that which will exclude one from the kingdom of God as does some behavior. But if we knowingly and deliberately sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, we sin against Christ (1 Cor. 8:11,12). 10. STATED PERSONAL DIFFERENCES BUT NOT DIVISION OF FELLOWSHIP (9). a. Paul and Barnabas had such sharp contention about Mark they separated...but both continued in the Lord's work (Ac. 15:36-41). b. Let not him who eats (meat) despise him that does not; let not him that does not eat (meat) judge him who does (Rom. 14:1-4). c. One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike; be persuaded in your own mind (Rom. 14:5,6). d. I wish that all men were as myself (celibate). But each has his own gift from God, one in this manner, another in that (1 Cor.7:7-9). e. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters (1 Cor. 7:19). But, we should never, ever, make compromises with the first six categories!!Differences of beliefs that are not equated with salvation or stated as commands, charges, orders, mandates or exclusions should not be reasons for separation of fellowship with one another. We should be willing to receive one another as brethren in spite of these differences and make compromises (Rom. 14:1; 15:1,7). 11. UNCLASSIFIED DOCTRINE (53). (Doctrine based on "scriptural statements or examples" but not "equated" with salvation or "stated" as commands, charges, orders, mandates, exclusionary, obligations, exhortations and/or shameful).
God could have "equated" all the above doctrines plus many other doctrines, with salvation, or "stated" them as commands, charges, orders, mandates, exclusionary, obligations, exhortations or shameful. HE DID NOT! HOW CAN WE? We should be "free" to believe and practice our convictions about "unclassified doctrines." Differences over "unclassified doctrines" should not divide believers in Christ!! 12. STATED DOCTRINE TO BEWARE, AVOID, WITHDRAW, REJECT, COME OUT OF BABYLON (30). a. Note (mark, KJ) those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine that you have learned (Rom. 16:17). b. Avoid them (those who cause divisions), for they do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly (desires) (Rom. 16:16,17). c. Withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to our tradition; this is a command of Christ (2 Th. 3:6). d. Reject one who is a heretic (factious; divisive over self-willed opinions) after the first and second admonition (Tit. 3:10). e. Come out of Babylon (organized apostasy from Christ) that you do not partake of her sins and receive of her plagues (Rev. 18:1-5). All who continue to "create divisions" among believers in Christ, by rejecting what God has "equated" with salvation and "stated" as commands, charges, orders, mandates or exclusions and all who continue to "create divisions" among believers in Christ, by making "unclassified doctrines" conditions of salvation and fellowship should be noted, avoided, rejected and eventually (after admonition) withdrawn from.
Arranged by Eugene Lockling
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