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Things Worth Dying For 2: What makes something essential? What non-essential? Further Introduction.

So what makes something essential and non-essential? Those things that are essential to me are those broad themes and truths that are self-evident to anyone reading the text of scripture. Of course, that presupposes that Scripture is the first essential of Christianity (in some way) and I will discuss this in the next blog. But assuming this, the essentials are those elements of the Christian message that are utterly critical to the faith.

To illustrate from the world of sport. Critical to rugby is the lineout and ruck/maul (i.e. point of continuity). If I take the lineout out of the game, it ceases to be rugby and becomes more like league. If I take out the ruck/maul and replace it with a play the ball, despite there being a few rule differences, it is essentially league with 15 players in it.

It is probable that we can grade levels of essentiality actually. Some things are essential for salvation others are not. How created the world to me is not an essential in this regard. That God created the world is very essential. That Jesus' death paved the way to salvation is entirely essential. That the Spirit is experienced in a particular way may be of limited essentiality, that the Spirit is essential for Christian faith is an essential.

Hopefully, you get the idea.

So from the next blog on I will explore this issue... enjoy
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