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Defining the Christian Faith

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Defining the Christian Faith
Mark Baham: M-Divinity: Christian Apologetics
Servantstable.academics@hotmail.com
Introduction

The faith birthed in Jerusalem on a Sunday morning in AD 33 has become a powerful

driving force for a large percentage of the world’s population. The belief that Jesus of Nazareth,

the humble carpenter who claimed to be the Messiah of Israel, rose from the dead after being

crucified and was, in fact, the Incarnate Son of God, was revolutionary, transcendent, and

powerfully motivating. The consecrated attitude, divine giftedness, and humble mind set of those

that accepted the miraculous happenings of that day have shaped the spread of a strongly

transformative philosophy and profoundly marked morality. Their example encouraged others to

accept the truth that made them free (John 8:32). The Christian movement has survived schism

and controversy, persecution and war, heresy and apathy, and still it is the largest faith system on

the planet. The numbers are huge: “according to the Religion and Public Life Project at the Pew

research Center, there are 2.18 billion Christians worldwide, which is about 31.6 percent of the

world population of 6.9 billion. About 50.1 of the total are Catholic, 36.7 percent Protestant, and

11.9 percent Orthodox.”1 This is a fulfillment of the apostle John’s vision, where he stated that

he saw a vast multitude of every description all gathered in faith in heaven (Rev. 7:9). This paper

will examine the core beliefs that define the Christian faith and describe the characteristics of the

cognitive, relational, and behavioral components that are distinctive to it.

A Distinctive Faith

Faith is the cornerstone of the Christian worldview. The attitude of the heart that is

recognized as faith drives how the Christ follower interacts with the world, their fellow human

1
Reference.com, “What Percentage of the World is Christian?” accessed July 14, 2019,
https://reference.com/world-view/percentage-world-christian-4baefda21d3bfcfd.
beings, and what shapes their hopes for the future and their understanding of the past and the

present. Craig defines faith as a step of commitment or trust, taken when the individual knows

something to be true and is ready to commit wholeheartedly to it.2 Faith is a subtle but critically

important aspect of the Christian experience, at once hard to adequately define in all of its

nuance, but at the same time immensely powerful and life changing. Committed faith in the truth

claims and critical aspects of Christian dogma is the uniting factor for all Christians worldwide.

Christian dogma is a collection of clearly defined and widely held beliefs about various

aspects of physical reality, spiritual reality, and the human condition. These beliefs are what the

Christian adheres to and what they have ultimately committed their lives to. These beliefs are

what the Christian has “faith” in. There are subtle variations about the exact meanings of some of

the doctrines contained within Christianity and there are significant differences of opinion that

have caused no small amount of controversy in the past two millennia. Despite the controversy,

the core foundational beliefs encompassed by Christianity are cognitively coherent and are

uniform and monolithic across the breadth of the faith. Moreland states “Christians believe two

things: (1) That God really exists, has a certain nature, and a has a set of ideas about various

things that he has disclosed to us. (2) That the things claimed in the first premise can be known

to be true and need not be accepted by a blind, arbitrary act of privatized faith.”3

These beliefs are based on the Bible, a collection of roughly sixty-six separate writings

by a variety of authors, compiled by early ecclesiastical leaders, that encompass the framework

of the beliefs of the church. Some facets of Christianity include and exclude some writings from

2
William Lane Craig, “What is Faith” (Video Presentation, Veritas.org), accessed July 15, 2019,
https://learn.liberty.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?courseid=5097251&contentid=317100331.
3
James Porter Moreland, Love God with all Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul.
(Colorado Springs, NavPress, 2012), Chapter 7.

2
the canon of Scripture, but generally, the core books of the Bible are universally accepted as the

revealed word of God for mankind. The Bible is the record of the dealings of God with humanity

and the reactions of humanity to the revelation that they received. The record includes history,

poetry, prophecy, wisdom literature, and some books that are curious mixtures of literary genres.

The Bible as it has become accepted by the global church has been the subject of intense scrutiny

and debate almost from the beginning of the church but continues to be the guidebook for

practicing Christians worldwide.

There are several core beliefs that define Christianity, setting it apart from every other

religion, centered around the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible teaches that humanity is in a

fallen, sinful state and that it has become separated from fellowship with a perfect, creating,

eternally existent, trinitarian God. This God loves his creation and longs for a restoration of

relationship with humanity. Christians hold that Jesus is the incarnate Son of God who, although

still God, was born into the world as a human savior to conduct a teaching ministry and

ultimately die for the sins of mankind. He lived a perfect, sinless life and went to the cross of his

own freewill and paid the sin debt that humanity could never pay on their own. Christians also

believe that after he died on the cross, he rose bodily from the dead and appeared to many of his

disciples before he ascended to heaven. After his ascension, Christians believe that the Holy

Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, came to take up residence within each believer and

leads and guides each person to become more like Jesus throughout their lives, allowing each

believer access to power to live a transformed life. Concerning the continuing Christian life,

Jesus said “he who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of

living water” (John 7:38).4

4
Unless otherwise noted, all scriptural passages referenced are from the New King James Version.

3
 Walking it Out

The Christian faith, based on the Bible, is a framework of beliefs and guidance for life

that addresses most of the situations that mankind encounters in the course of the journey from

birth to death. Solutions for the situations and details that are not specifically addressed in

Scripture can be inferred from the material that is included within the accepted biblical structure.

Enough of a framework is included so that the blank spaces in the context from first century

Palestine can be confidently dealt with by the Christian in any time period. The Bible provides a

satisfactory and trustworthy framework in the mind of the Christian. Gnehm states “all of us face

similar challenges in our lives. Whether the particulars of our stories are dramatic or mundane,

the principles are the same. God’s all-encompassing knowledge of each of us as a person is a

certainty. We can be confident of God’s presence everywhere and at any time.”5

The life of faith is full of pain and is often traumatic. Christians worldwide suffer for

their professions of trust and faith in Jesus Christ. It has been a troubling aspect of the life of the

faithful since the earliest days in Jerusalem. The apostle Paul exhorts the congregation at Rome,

telling them that “the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17), even when they are persecuted. There

are many competing belief systems in the world that are hostile to Christianity and many of the

faithful are severely mistreated for the crime of believing in the Bible. Many times, there is no

physical rescue from the pain of this life, but, as Houwelingen points out “Christians are

exhorted to set their hope on a better homeland, temple, and city because of the atoning sacrifice

Edward Gnehm, “Trusting God on the Job” The Review of Faith and International Affairs 3, no. 2 (2005),
5

39.

4
by a better high priest, Jesus Christ. Faith in him and a life in the new covenant require a holy

life.”6

The Response of Faith: Christlike Behavior

The Genesis account relates how mankind was created in the image of God and the

Christian faithful see the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the means that God has used to repair the

relationship-destroying aspects of sin in the world. Based on their faith, although Christ

followers are not immediately made perfect, the image of God in them is more clearly seen.

Erickson states “the image of God is what makes humans human. Our understanding of the

image will affect how we treat our fellow humans and how we minister to them.”7 The clearing

away of much of the sin blindness that comes after accepting the gospel message is powerfully

transformative and fundamentally changes the interactions that Christians have with other

people.

Christians believe in the truth claims that are contained in the Bible and that knowledge is

a large part of what empowers the boldness that marks the committed Christian. Moreland states

“the possession of knowledge is crucial for life. knowledge provides truth about reality along

with the skillful ability to interact with reality.”8 This is part of the tension that has built up

around the Christian faith in relation to the largely secular culture of this postmodern time. The

clarity and the forcefulness of the tone in the Bible places the Christian in direct conflict with the

world system of morality or lack thereof. Groothuis explains “truth. . .is now widely taken to be

a matter of perspective, a mere social or personal construction. Truth no longer concerns the

P. H. R. Houwelingen, “The Epistle to the Hebrews: Faith Means Perseverance” Journal of Early
6

Christian History 3, no.1 (2013), 107.

7
Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2013), 459.
8
Moreland, The Role of Reason, Chapter 2.

5
nature of things, nor is it subject to intellectual analysis. Yet Scripture repeatedly affirms that

faith must be factual, that believing means connecting to reality.”9 In the mind of the committed

Christ follower, the truth claims of the Bible are not up for debate and have lost none of their

weight and authority with the passing of the years.

The Christian is promised that with an adherence to the structure of life that is related in

Scripture and a consciousness of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they will be empowered to

live a life that rises above the trials of the world. It will not be free of tribulation, Jesus himself

told the disciples that troubles would come (John 16:33), but the Christian life is one that is able

to see a longer perspective. Moreland and Craig point out “in Scripture, faith involves placing

trust in what you have reason to believe is true. Faith is not a blind, irrational leap into the dark.

So, faith and reason cooperate on a biblical view of faith. They are not intrinsically hostile.”10 A

proper attitude and perspective on life and the perseverance of faith will allow the believer to

display what Paul calls the “fruit of the Spirit. . .love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22).

Conclusion

The aspects of behavior that Paul outlined are what Christians believe emulate the actions

and character of the Lord Jesus while he ministered on Earth. These traits will mark the life of

faith as Christians seek to walk out their faith. Even when troubles come upon the Christian, the

hope of heaven that is foundational to Christian dogma allows believers to rise above it and look

forward to the hope that they have. Paul articulates the Christian’s hope through the transience of

9
Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove,
InterVarsity Press, 2011), 117.
10
James Porter Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview
(Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2017), 20.

6
 suffering and tribulation: “I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,

forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I

press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13). The

belief system that Christians share and seek to uphold is a comprehensive guide for life and it has

empowered individuals to lead noteworthy and upstanding lives for more than two millennia.

The Christian belief is centered on faith in Jesus Christ, that faith being “the substance of things

hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

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