With all of the news and activities surrounding the Methodist church over the last few years, I have struggled to understand why?! I have read hundreds of things across the diverse landscape to understand the different sides and comparing that to my understanding of the Bible.
I ended up this year, focusing on what I think are the 2 key issues behind schisms in the church: Doctrine, Style and Structure. I mainly focused on Doctrine.
What are our key Doctrines?
For Methodists, these are part of the Book of Discipline.
For Christians as a whole, there seems to be a lot of opinions on what are our core Christian Doctrines. Just Google “core Christian doctrines” and look at the results:
- Some list 5
- Others 7 or 8
- Some show 12 or 14
- Up to 99
No wonder we have so many religious groups! So, I decided to identify, for me personally, what are my key doctrines. I came up with a list of 10 different categories along with some brief descriptive words for each – to help understand what is included.
I welcome your thoughts, suggestions and support that can help improve this information!
The high level list is (a few may need to be combined):
- Belief in God
- Belief in Jesus Christ
- Belief in The Holy Spirit
- The Bible (God’s infallible revelation)
- The Church (Communion of the Saints)
- Sin
- Salvation
- Sanctification
- Transformation
- New Heaven and New Earth
Love is the greatest commandment; however, we don’t stop there. We are called to recognize we need to change and transform our lives…
Below is a summary list from various sources I have pulled together to summarize what I think are our core Christian beliefs:
Click for the interactive version (best on desktops/large devices)
(Interactive chart has small blue dots you can select for more details)
(note: link above goes to my other site to download)
In basic terms, we need to all recognize that the entire Bible is all about His relationship with US and our redemption. He wants us to believe in Him. His word is both inspirational and infallible on matters of faith and practice. The Church should be for broken people who are trying to be more like Christ. We all Sin and need the redemption of Christ. Only He can help us transform our lives and prepare us for the future.