Getting Back To The Spiritual Basics

There is a saying in sports when things aren’t going well. “We need to get back to the basics.” The same could be said of other disciplines. It can also apply to Christian beliefs. There is a great falling away from the teachings of the Bible, especially concerning salvation, yet the gospel is the only thing that is going to save people without hope, peace, and security in this troubled world. More than ever, humanity needs a Savior and a source of real truth. Unfortunately, the remnant of true believers in Jesus Christ is getting smaller and smaller. A very large percentage of so-called “Christians” no longer believe in the inspiration of the Bible, or that Jesus was, and is, divine, and the only way to heaven. A very small percentage have a biblical worldview!

2 Timothy 4:3-4 says, “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” That time is now here! I Timothy 4:1 adds, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in the later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons…”

So, what are the basics of the Bible and salvation?

1. The Bible is the inspired Word of God (2 Peter 1:21).
2. Jesus is the only way to heaven (Acts 4:12, and the claims of Christ in the Gospel of John).
3. Jesus is the divine Son of God in human flesh. He said “I and the Father are one” in John 10:30.
4. Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead (I Cor. 15:1-4, and Acts 10:39-41).
5. Salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
6. To go to heaven one must believe the above points about Jesus and accept him as their Savior.

If anything is taken away from these tenets of the Christian faith, or added to it, it is a false gospel. Hebrews 3:12 says, “Take care, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God,” because “it is impossible, in the case of those who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt”(Hebrews 6:4-6). Very strong language for those who have gotten away from the basics.

Galatians 1:8-9 has an additional warning: “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” The Greek meaning of accursed is “to be set aside for destruction.”

Getting back to the basics of what the Bible teaches also includes adhering to the family unit with marriage between a man and a woman (Genesis 2:18-25), recognizing only two genders: male and female, according to biological birth anatomy (Genesis 1:27 and 2:18), and that all babies from the time of conception, are a special and unique creation of God, whose life is not to be taken (Psalm 139:13-16).

What you have read in this article is what it means to get back to the basics of Christian belief. Hopefully, you are part of the remnant of true believers who have not departed from the faith. If you know of someone who has, might you consider sharing this article with them.