Tenchi
Member
Well, I think of what God says in His word are essential to being in relationship with Him:
Knowledge (Romans 10:14-15; 2 Timothy 2:12b; Romans 10:17)
Faith (Hebrews 11:6; 2 Corinthians 5:7; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11)
Love (Matthew 22:36-38; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 1 John 4:16-19)
Salvation (John 3:7; John 3:36; John 8:24; Corinthians 5:17-21)
Submission (Romans 6:13-21; Romans 8:14; Romans 12:1; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6)
Holiness (Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:16; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Peter 3:10-12)
I can do without a sophisticated understanding of, say, prophecy, or soteriology, or Church history, or the OT sacrificial system, but I absolutely can't do without the things I've listed above if I want to enjoy daily fellowship with God.
Too often, I've encounter professing believers who've badly misunderstood the Gospel. They think of it primarily as "fire insurance," as a get-out-of-hell-for-free card. These same believers also think of God as an accessory to their living, a sort of spiritual/religious "adornment" to their lives that is characteristic of the "good person," not as their Creator, Lord and King. None of these folk understand that salvation is an exchange: their crummy, sin-fouled life for new, holy life in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:1-3; Romans 6:1-11; Galatians 2:20, etc.). They don't know that salvation entails the death of their "old man," the person they are apart from God, who is replaced by the life of Christ, imparted to them in the Person of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-13; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 John 4:13, Titus 3:5, etc.). These points of misunderstanding/ignorance are inevitably reflected in spiritually-flat, badly compromised, and doubt-ridden lives.
I would suggest also that biblical inerrancy is a necessary, "brute given" for Christian thought and conduct; for if the Bible is not divinely-inspired and, at least in its original form, without error, how can it be trusted to impart the sort of life-saving, eternal truth it claims to reveal? If some, or all, of the contents of the Bible are potentially in error, on what basis does one discern which parts are correct and which are not? The answer to this question ultimately resolves down to a very subjective, what-I-think standard, making the individual the Final Arbiter of what is supposed to be objective, divine Truth. In this circumstance, the word of God becomes nothing more than a mirror of the individual rather than the objective, universally-authoritative, life-changing Truth of God.
As I think on it, the doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell seems to me to be a necessary doctrine, as well (to the Gospel, at least). What is it a person needs saving from, exactly, if hell does not threaten the wicked? What does one do with all of the dire warnings of Scripture about eternal separation from God in the everlasting torment of hell and the direct, explicit link the Bible makes between hell and the saving work of Christ at Calvary? (John 3:15-18; John 3:36; Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 10:28; Matthew 23:33; Matthew 25:41; Luke 16:19-29; Romans 2:4-11; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, etc.) The Gospel of salvation in Christ makes a lot less sense if there is no hell, no eternal separation from God and everlasting torment in hell, from which Christ saves us.
I believe, too, that the deity of Christ is crucial to the Christian faith. Only if Christ was God could he have accomplished what he did on the cross; only a perfect and infinite sacrifice could have fully and forever satisfied the holy justice of God concerning our sin (Hebrews 9-10:22). If Jesus was just a good man who taught good things and died a good death, he has no power to save any of us. If he did not rise from the dead in vindication of his claims of deity and in validation of the divine truth of his teachings, then the Gospel of salvation is useless (and a lie).
Christians have taken up this idea that the Gospel needs to be a tight, compact, quickly-delivered "sales pitch" (think: Ray Comfort), but where is this indicated in God's word? God saves people; we don't. God "gives repentance to the acknowledging of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25); we don't. And all whom God knows will be saved, He will save - with or without us. We are not essential; slick tactics are not necessary; a delivery of the Gospel under three minutes is not vital. What is absolutely needed is the power of God (See: Acts 2) and a full, careful preaching of the Gospel from a life that is, in love and humility, constantly submitted to God. There is no need to rush sharing the truth of God with others. All those whom God has given to the Son, all those whom God knows will come to a saving faith in Jesus, will be saved (John 10:28-29; John 6:37-40). Not one of them will be lost because our Gospel delivery was not polished enough, or short enough, or "safe" enough, or whatever. We can relax in sharing the Gospel with the lost because it is never up to us to save a person. God draws (John 6:44); He convicts (John 16:8); He changes minds and hearts (2 Timothy 2:25). We just get the happy privilege of being used by Him in His saving work.
Anyway, just a few thoughts on your interesting thought-experiment.
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