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    Back to Basics: A Study of Core Bible Teaching and Practice
    Back to Basics: A Study of Core Bible Teaching and Practice
    Back to Basics: A Study of Core Bible Teaching and Practice
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    Back to Basics: A Study of Core Bible Teaching and Practice

    By Hayes Press

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    About this ebook

    This book uses a combination of teaching and practical content and study questions to explore 8 key topics that are essential to the Christian faith: Knowing God, Salvation, Believer's Baptism, The Breaking of Bread, Understanding The Bible, The Return of Jesus Christ, Spiritual Gifts, Church Life - Why, what, where?


    This book contains a section of study questions and is ideal for personal or group Bible study.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHayes Press
    Release dateFeb 6, 2018
    ISBN9781540174338
    Back to Basics: A Study of Core Bible Teaching and Practice

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      Book preview

      Back to Basics - Hayes Press

      BACK TO BASICS

      Copyright © 2014 Hayes Press

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      Published by HAYES PRESS

      The Barn, Flaxlands,

      Royal Wootton Bassett,

      Swindon

      UK SN4 8DY

      t. +44 (0)1793 850598

      e. info@hayespress.org

      www.hayespress.org

      www.facebook.com/hayespress.org

      http://twitter.com/#!/hayespress

      Scripture quotations identified ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations identified NASB are from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

      Scripture quotations identified NIV are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used with permission.

      Scripture quotations identified NKJV are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright © 1985 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

      Scripture quotations identified RV are from The Holy Bible, The Revised Version. London: Cambridge University Press.

      British Library Cataloguing Data

      A catalogue of this title is available from the British Library.

      Printed in the UK 2014

      Foreword

      Our title, notwithstanding its fairly recent and somewhat discredited use as a political slogan in the United Kingdom, plainly states what we are about. We could have avoided any negative association, and remained alliterative, by employing some such alternative as Apostolic Absolutes; Biblical Basics; Core Convictions; Distinctive Doctrines; Evangelical Essentials; Faith’s Fundamentals ... we could probably go through the alphabet! However, as a title, what we have serves us well enough. The Bible has generated a vast wealth of sermons, and various published ‘Systematic Theologies’ attempt to quite exhaustively catalogue very many doctrinal assertions. The eager Bible student will scan these with some profit, but at some point the question will arise: ‘What are the key elements which are characteristic of, and defining for, Christianity?’ Also, ‘What are the main points of first importance practically which I should focus on so as to live to please the Lord?’

      In answer to that, this is a book which examines the core beliefs essential to the Christian faith - why we believe what we do about God, the Bible, the cross and the Apostolic Faith central to New Testament Christianity. Each of the chapters first appeared as an article in the NT magazine published by the Churches of God (see http://churchesofgod.info/media/publications/#NeededTruth). Readers found them a helpful summary of the things which are sincerely believed by us, and so we commend this compilation as a handy resource. Please have your Bible open as you enjoy going through it!

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Foreword

      The Trinity (David Viles)

      God in my Life (Karl Smith)

      Eternally Secure Salvation (Craig Jones)

      Taking Hold (Richard Hutchinson)

      Baptism of Believers (Alex Reid)

      Walking in Newness of Life (Stephen Hickling)

      The Lord’s Supper (James Needham)

      Do This Until I Come (Don Williamson)

      The Bible (David Viles)

      Reading the Bible for All It’s Worth (Karl Smith)

      The Lord’s Return (Craig Jones)

      He’s Coming Soon (David Woods)

      Spiritual Gifts (Alex Reid)

      Using our Gifts to God’s Glory (Stephen Hickling)

      The Church and Churches of God (James Needham)

      Living to God’s Pattern (Don Williamson)

      Epilogue

      CHAPTER ONE: THE TRINITY (DAVID VILES)

      The Fundamental of Fundamentals

      Although defined as ‘the central dogma of Christian theology’,¹ the term Trinity is nowhere explicitly stated in Scripture. Rather, it is a sublime concept, progressively revealed by God in His Word, which is nevertheless capable of deduction and acceptance by the finite minds of humankind. A classic description is ‘one God subsisting in three persons and one substance’. The words ‘persons’ and ‘substance’ are highly specific in this context – we will return to them later.

      Whatever the Trinity means, it must therefore be fundamental to understanding who God is and what God does. The figures one and three are crucial to such understanding. Christianity will emphatically concur  with the Jew that ‘the Lord our God is one Lord’,² but will add that He subsists in three Persons. This fundamental qualification accounts for the continuing opposition of Judaism to Christianity, ever since the Son of God declared, I and the Father are one.³ It also places Christianity at complete odds with Moslem monotheism.⁴

      This may already seem remote and complex, but the implications are also fundamental in a much more human way. For John to declare that ‘God is love’⁵ has little real meaning unless God had somebody to love before He created mankind in His own image – love involves at least two persons. Jesus insisted that the Father loves the Son with absolute candour and unity of purpose.⁶ This sublime love, subsisting and streaming eternally between the Persons of the Trinity, is presented to us as the fount of all human love.⁷

      Explaining the Trinity – Principles

      Basic as this doctrine is, it has never ceased to be controversial. For some people, the intellectual difficulty of encompassing a God who is both one and three, is enough for the Trinity to be relegated to the theological back burner or even rejected. There are therefore some basic principles by which the disciple will wish to be guided:

      1. We are used to complexity, both in our everyday lives and in the creation around us. Can we expect the Creator – immortal, living in light unapproachable, majestic in holiness – to be any more accessible to our finite minds?

      2. The Trinity, like all of Scripture, is the product of divine revelation, and God knows how much revelation we can endure of His ineffable glory. There are secret things which belong only to Him, and surely the fullness of the relationships within the Trinity is one of these. Nevertheless, the things revealed belong to us⁸ – assuring us that the Spirit will use meditation on these high and holy revelations to enrich our spiritual lives

      3. There are limitations imposed by our human condition in considering the nature and character of God. One is language, by which God has chosen to reveal Himself, but which is nevertheless inadequate to the task of communicating His reality. We therefore need to be very careful about the words that we use, recognising their limitations.

      Another limitation is our environment, particularly our domination by time. We are driven to use analogies in seeking to explain and defend the Trinity. There is nothing wrong with this approach, provided we are sensitive to the limitations implicit in comparing a thing or a state with the eternal and limitless. For example, in describing the unity and diversity of the Trinity we may choose the analogy of a man who is at once a husband, father and son, uniting three different functions in one person. This is helpful as far as it goes, but it fails to do full justice to the relationships within the Trinity which demand equality and universality as well as diversity.⁹

      So, confronted by these ineffable facts about God, the humble disciple can only wonder and adore, being content to accept the Trinity as a doctrine which accommodates all the relevant Scriptural revelation. The process thereafter of pursuing analogies which go some way towards explaining

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