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The cardinal doctrines
of Protestant Christianity

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Overview:

In this web site's section on Christianity, we have attempted to describe the full diversity of beliefs taught by various wings of Christianity. Unfortunately, this might lead our readers to believe that there are few core beliefs that most Christian denominations accept in common.

The Cardinal Doctrines of Christianity are those beliefs which most Protestant denominations accept as forming the foundational teachings of Christianity. Many, perhaps most Christian faith groups feel that all Christians should believe each of these beliefs. Some groups would classify a person as a non-Christian if they rejected even one belief on their own list of Cardinal Doctrines.

There appears to be a general consensus by conservative and some mainline Protestant faith groups that a list of core beliefs might include:

• The Trinity,
• The deity of Jesus,
• Jesus' bodily resurrection,
• The atonement as a result of the life, and particularly the death, of Jesus,
• Personal salvation by grace,
• The inerrancy of the Bible
• God's inspiration of the Bible's authors,
• The virgin birth, and
• The anticipated second coming of Jesus.

But there does not appear to be an agreed upon single list that most Protestant faith groups accept as "cardinal doctrines."

Beliefs of non-Protestant groups:

This essay deals with the cardinal beliefs of Protestant groups. However, Protestants do not form the entirety of Christianity. Consider just two other groups:

• It is perhaps ironic that if one considers the very earliest Christian movement -- the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem under the leadership of James the "brother" of Jesus and in the period immediately after Jesus' execution before the arrival of Paul -- they might not be considered Christian by today's standards. That group apparently did not believe in the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, salvation by grace, or the virgin birth. They expected that Jesus' second coming would occur sometime in the first century CE, not millennia later.
• Roman Catholicism expects its members to believe in a much larger list of cardinal beliefs than is listed above. One example that is not shared by Protestants is the assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at death. Pope Pius XII wrote in Munificentissimus Deus:

  "... we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith." ₁₃

We will attempt to document the cardinal beliefs of non-Protestant Christians at a future date.

Cardinal doctrines according to the Niagara Bible Conference:

The Bible Conference of Conservative Christians at Niagara, initially known as the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, was organized in 1868 and met annually from 1883 to 1897 at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. In 1878 they created the "Niagara Creed" -- a list of fourteen fundamental points of Christian belief.

Among the fourteen points, the five principal beliefs were:

• The verbal and plenary inspiration of the Bible,
• The total depravity of man, a Calvinist doctrine.
• The necessity of being born again in order to achieve salvation,
• Substitutionary atonement, and
• Premillennial return of Christ.

These were later discussed in The Fundamentals -- a series of pamphlets published between 1910 and 1915. From these pamphlets, the term "Fundamentalism" developed; before that time, Fundamentalists were referred to simply as conservatives. _10,11

A conflict over cardinal doctrines:

In 1910, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA (PCUSA) derived the following essential tenets from the Westminister Confession of Faith. This is the foundational document that they share with other Reform denominations:

• The inerrancy of Scripture.
• The virgin birth
• The substitutionary atonement
• Jesus' bodily resurrection
• The miracles generated by Jesus were authentic.

In 1916 and 1923, the General Assembly ruled that all ordination candidates had to agree with all of the above beliefs to avoid rejection by the denomination. A Fundamentalist / Modernist split occurred in the denomination that focused around this requirement for ordination. Some ministers suggested that the Bible was not necessarily inerrant on matters of science and history. Others believed that there were other valid principles by which the functioning of the atonement could be explained. 

Debate reached a fever pitch, much like the conflict over ordination of women and ordination of gays and lesbians in loving committed relationships were to generate conflict within some denominations in later decades.

Some liberals in the denomination met at the Auburn Seminary in northern New York state in 1924 and agreed on the Auburn Affirmation. It stated, in part:

"...we are united in believing that these are not the only theories allowed by the Scriptures and our standards as explanations of these facts and doctrines of our religion, and that all who hold to these facts and doctrines, whatever theories they may employ to explain them, are worthy of all confidence and fellowship. ₈

It asserted that Presbyterians at the time should:

• "Safeguard liberty of thought and teaching of its ministers";
• Prohibit restricting the church to rigid interpretations of scripture and doctrine; and
• Refuse to rank ecclesiastical authority above the conscience swayed by the [Holy] Spirit. ₈

That document prompted the 1925 General Assembly to form a Special Theological Commission "to study the present spiritual condition of our Church and the causes making for unrest....to the end that the purity, peace and unity and progress of the Church may be assured." Their report influenced delegates to the 1927 General Assembly to institute a type of local option within the denomination. They declared that it is the individual presbyteries, not the General Assembly, which would determine what their clergy must affirm theologically. A schism occurred in 1936 when Fundamentalist members left the PCUSA to form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in America under leader J Gresham Machen. _9,14 A later schism happened later over female ordination.

There is a concern that a similar schism may happen in the future to mainline Presbyterian, Methodist and Episcopalian denominations over issues related to homosexuality.

Recent listings of cardinal doctrines by various para-church organizations:

• The Christian Research Institute lists:
  1. The authority of Scripture.
  2. The Trinity
  3. Man is a physical and spiritual being adversely affected by sin.
  4. Christ is fully God and fully man who was sent to save humanity.
  5. The church is God's ordained institution headed by Christ.
     
• Living by the Word differentiates between:
  • Five "Essential Christian Doctrines" which one must believe in order to be saved
    1. The deity of Jesus Christ.
    2. Jesus' bodily resurrection from the dead.
    3. The Trinity.
    4. Christ's vicarious atonement for man's sin.
    5. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
  • "Cardinal Christian Doctrines" which may not be required for salvation, but which are extremely important:
    1. The Virgin Birth
    2. Inerrancy of Scripture
    3. The second coming of Christ ₁
       
• Lamb & Lion Ministries lists five "Cardinal Doctrines of the Christian Faith:"
  1. The Bible is the divinely inspired inerrant Word of God.
  2. The Virgin Birth.
  3. Jesus' bodily resurrection.
  4. Salvation is a "free gift of God's grace" obtained by trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior.
  5. The deity of Jesus Christ. ₂
     
• The Congregational Holiness Church lists as the "cardinal Christian doctrines" that they hold in common with most other Christian denominations:
  1. The Trinity.
  2. The inspiration of the Scriptures.
  3. The Virgin Birth.
  4. Jesus' bodily resurrection.
  5. The second coming of Christ.

  They also hold a key belief that is generally restricted to Charismatic and Pentecostal denominations: the "Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues..." ₃

• Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (CARM) lists four beliefs of Christianity which were declared "by scripture to be essential:"
  1. The deity of Christ. including belief in the Trinity, monotheism, and Jesus as both God and man.
  2. Salvation by grace.
  3. Jesus' bodily resurrection.
  4. The Gospels' teaching that "Jesus is God in flesh, who died for sins, rose from the dead, and freely gives the gift of eternal life to those who believe." ₄
     
• The Moorings has a study in Bible doctrine which lists basic Christian doctrines as:
  1. Inerrancy of the Bible.
  2. The Incarnation.
  3. Jesus is both God and man.
  4. The personhood and deity of the Holy Spirit.
  5. The Trinity.
  6. Heaven. ₅
     
• Online Christian Discipleship School has a Bible study on "Basic Doctrine of Christianity." They list:
  1. The Trinity.
  2. The inspiration of the Bible.
  3. God created humans in his image and deserves our love and obedience.
  4. Sin entered the world through Adam.
  5. The atonement.
  6. The resurrection.
  7. Salvation through trusting Jesus.
  8. Spirit possession of believers by Jesus. ₆
     
• Marty Rothwell, an author on a Roman Catholic site "Christ's Faithful People," suggests that prior to the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century, all Christians were expected to believe in many key doctrines.
  
  Some of these are still shared by most Protestants:
  1. "God the Son is of the same substance and nature as God the Father."
  2. The Trinity.
  3. Jesus is fully God and fully human.

  However, there are also beliefs not shared by most Protestants, or not shared to the same extent:

  1. The Body and Blood of Christ are present in the Eucharist.
  2. The Apostolic Succession.
  3. Beliefs are grounded in both the Bible and church tradition.
  4. The Holy Spirit guides the Church away from error.
  5. The effects of baptism.
  6. Believers are saved by Grace and faith.
  7. Salvation can achieved and later lost.
  8. Baptism of infants.
  9. The Deuterocanonical books / Apocrypha form an integral part of the Bible.
  10. Clergy are restricted to males.
  11. The Pope is the head of the Christian church.
  12. Canonization and veneration of saints.
  13. Effectiveness of the prayers of deceased saints.
  14. Confession of sins to a priest.
  15. Penance is needed after sinning.
  16. Purgatory as the destination of many persons after death.
  17. Prayers for the dead are effective.
  18. Seven sacraments of: Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Communion, Marriage, Holy Orders, and Extreme Unction.
  19. Veneration of the Virgin Mary.
  20. Liturgical worship.
  21. Images are useful aids to worship. ₇

Links to key doctrines of Christianity:

This web site has essays on most of the topics that are frequently mentioned above as cardinal doctrines:

• Atonement, "...the central tenet of Christianity"
• Biblical inerrancy
• God's inspiration of the biblical authors
• Heaven and Hell
• Jesus' bodily resurrection,
• Criteria for salvation.
• Origin of sin: Does Genesis 3 represent the fall or rise of humanity?
• The second coming of Christ and the end of the world as we know it
• The virgin birth

To which we would add another belief that runs as a frequently appearing theme throughout the Bible, but is almost never mentioned in sermons or books on theology or apologetics because it is considered immoral by so many religious and secular systems of morality:

• The transferability of sin and punishment from the guilty to the innocent

We plan to write other essays in the future which deal with the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, his ascension to Heaven, Jesus as God and man, the incarnation, and possession by indwelling spirits.

Books on cardinal Christian beliefs:

• Gilbert Bilezikian: "Christianity 101," Zondervan (1993). "This accessible book presents the eight basic doctrines of the Christian church in plain language for both old and new curious Christians interested in sharpening their understanding and defense of the faith." Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
• Emmaus Bible School staff, "What Christians Believe: Basic Studies in Bible Doctrine and Christian Living," Moody Publishers, (1951). Read reviews or order this book
• Shirley Guthrie, "Christian Doctrine," Westminster John Knox Press (1994). Read reviews or order this book

Additional books on the Amazon.com web site:

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Closely related essay on this web site:

• What is the definition of "Christianity?"

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. "What We Believe," Living by the Word, undated, at: http://www.livebyword.org/
2. "Cardinal Doctrines of the Christian Faith," Lamb & Lion Ministries, at: http://www.lamblion.com/
3. "Welcome," Congregational Holiness Church, at: http://chchurch.com/
4. "Essential Doctrines of Christianity," CARM, at: http://www.carm.org/
5. "Studies in Bible Doctrine," The Moorings, at: http://www.themoorings.org/
6. "Basic Christian Doctrine," Online Christian Disciple School, at: http://www.web-church.com/
7. Marty Rothwell, "Catholics Protestants and History," Christ's Faithful People, http://www.cfpeople.org/
8. Text of the 1924 "Auburn Affirmation" is online at: http://www.presbyweb.com/
9. "Lesson 2: On the history of the church's ordination standards," Ordination Standards: Biblical, Theologican, and Scientific Perspectives, North Como Presbyterian Church, Pages 139 - 140. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
10. David O. Beale, "S.B.C. House on the Sand?" Although this essay is available on the Internet, the publisher states that "Permission must be obtained...to link to this page." We have requested such permission.
11. Mark Sarver, "Dispensationalism," Sermon Links, at: http://www.sermonlinks.com/
12. "The Essentials of Christianity," Christian Research Institute, at: http://www.equip.org/
13. Pope Pius Xii, "Munificentissiumus Deus," Vatican, 1950-NOV-01, at: http://www.ewtn.com/
14. D.G. Hart, "Machen and the OPC," Orthodox Presbyterian Church, at: http://www.opc.org/machen.html

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