Titus 1: 9, “He [an elder] must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.”
Paul in his letter to Titus used the phrase “sound doctrine” when speaking about the teachings of the Christian faith. The word “sound” simply means healthy. Paul was telling the elders of the church to hold onto the truth and to teach healthy or true doctrine.
The elders were also to rebuke the false teachers who opposed them. Rebuke here means to show a teaching is false and confront them with the truth. The early church encountered many false teachers and Paul was encouraging Titus and the elders to put a stop to their false teachings.
We have the same challenge today. People come to our doors with false belief systems and try their best to convince us we’re wrong. Statistically close to 75% of Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses are from Christian churches. This is why it is vitally important that each of us deepen our understanding of what is true and then use this information to teach others to protect the church.
Christianity has what could be termed core beliefs or essential doctrines. These are doctrines that a person cannot reject and still be a Christian. If you reject just one of these doctrines, you can call yourself anything you want but you cannot call yourself a Christian.
I am going to focus on 6 essential doctrines of the Christian faith. There are addition doctrines that could classified as essential but these 6 will help illustrate key beliefs of Christianity. All major cults deny most or all of them.
Six essential doctrines are:
- Only one God
- Jesus is fully God and fully man
- Man is sinful and will be judged
- Jesus is the Christ (Messiah)
- We are saved by grace through faith
- Jesus rose bodily from the dead
I will deal with each of these doctrines in a separate post. Books have been written on each of these but I will deal with them briefly and support them with scriptures.
