In one of the questions, John was asked what the minimum set of beliefs someone needed to trust in the God of the Bible to be saved. Keith has addressed this before, but I thought I'd just post some quick notes from he said about what a person needed to believe in to be saved. I have reordered a few of his comments as he developed some of his thoughts as he spoke. He made clear he didn't necessarily think this was definitive, but it was what he could come up with at that moment.
- Believe that there is a God who created the possibility for sin. Sin means rebellion against His moral authority in your life.
- Believe that you are a sinner - that you have actively broken God's law and have rebelled against Him.
- Believe you are justly under God's just wrath.
- Believe that God provided the sinless son of God as His wrath-bearer in my place on the cross.
- Believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.
- Believe that you must actively trust Him and repent (have a change of mind), and that he must regenerate you.
When asked if one needs to believe in the Trinity, John's answer was it was not necessary to know the word or necessarily articulate it, but also not to deny essential things about it. In other words, not to reduce any member of the Trinity or confuse their relationship. As a comment on my part, this might give some fudge-factor to those raised in groups that hold to modalism such as Oneness Pentecostals.
Pastor Keith has written an easy-to-understand presentation of the gospel on our website. I invite you to read through it and compare. Keith's presentation is concise, flows well, and I believe encapsulates all the essentials.
