Getting back to the Basics

I was in St. Petersburg, Florida (approx. 45-50 minutes from where I live) to go listen to Phil Wickham sing at Calvary Chapel in St. Pete. What I did not know is that it was an actual service that Phil was filling in for the worship pastor for. It was amazing, music was great and the message was great, what got me in the message was this...the guy had mentioned that had me quite amazed.

This guy (I honestly don't remember his name) mentioned that when he was told that he needed to diet and exercise and that seemed great and all but it takes a lot of work. He started seeing these pills and fruit juices stuff on commercials that said "BURN FAT FAST!" and it got him thinking that he should do this! Well, before long, these things get out mindset off of what is actually needed, the simple, diet and exercise. Sometimes, these commercials even deceive people in saying things like "is diet and exercise not enough? try this!" When the reality is, diet and exercise is all we need, but time is a key factor along with our patience.

The point of me saying this story is, sometimes we as Christians like to focus on the extra things, things that are not pertinent to our salvation, things that we like to hold on to as fundamentals when it really is not. For example, some in the Pentecostal realm state that if you do not speak in tongues (a babel talk that they believe is the tongues referred to in the Bible) you are not saved, some Calvinists believe that if you aren't Calvinist you are not saved, some Arminians believe that if you are not Arminian you are not saved....etc. These things are not fundamentals, but rather it is that men are sinful, Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man and He suffered the penalty for those who will believe, the Godhead is 3 persons in 1 nature with distinction of persons but no distinction in the essence that they share. We must not veer from the basics, we must hold on to the truth and must hold on to the fundamentals.

Good sources - http://carm.org/basic-christian-doctrine
http://carm.org/essential-doctrines-of-christianity