ESSENTIAL BELIEF ASSESSMENT #2
ANSWER GUIDE
1 The Gospel is that Jesus died and rose physically (bodily) from the dead to conquer sin, death, and Satan.​
True,
The Gospel of Jesus Christ includes both death and resurrection. The cross and grave without the resurrection leaves born again believing Christ followers powerless to conquer their own sin here and now to be sanctified into greater Christlikeness. (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Heb. 2:14; 2 Tim. 1:10)
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2 God counts a person as righteous not because of one's works but only because of one's faith in Jesus Christ.
True,
Salvation and eternal life are granted to those who have faith in Christ’s death and resurrection alone with no works required to earn this righteousness before God. (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Titus 3:5; Rom. 3:28, 5:1; Gal. 2:16; Eph 2:8-9)
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Articles: "Is Salvation by Faith Alone, or by Faith Plus Works?" - Got Questions.org
"What Does It Mean We're Justified by Works? James 2" - Robert L. Plummer
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3 Religious belief is a matter of personal opinion; it is not about objective truth.​​
False,
Religious belief is based solely on objective truth. There are not multiple truths or many roads or a multitude of gods that lead to the same eternal life or salvation. Rather, there is one true God, and all others are false man-made gods. (John 17:13; Deut. 4:35)
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Article: "What is Objective Truth?" - Got Questions.org
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Video: "Why are you so afraid of subjective moral reasoning?" - Ravi Zacharias
4 The Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches.​
True,
The Bible is fully accurate in its teachings. There is no missing, incorrect, or inconsistent teachings within the contents of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament Bible. (2 Tim. 3:16)
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Article: “The Authority and Inerrancy of Scripture" - Matthew Barrett
Video: “Is the New Testament we have now, what they wrote then?” – Dr. Dan Wallace
5 Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation.​
True,
All sin is deserving of consequence, punishment, and eternal damnation before an all holy, righteous, pure, loving, just, and good God. There is no such thing as a small sin that is less deserving of eternal damnation. (2 Thes. 1:19)
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6 Humanity is created in the image of God who is sufficient in and of himself and needs no one or anything else to sustain him; therefore, humanity has no need of relationships with other believers.​​
False,
God is Triune in nature. He is three persons in one – Father, Son, and Spirit. Prior to creation, God the Father was in perfect harmonious fellowship with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Since, humanity is created in God’s image, they are hardwired with natural desire and need for relationships with others. Fellowship only happens with believers and not those outside the family of God.
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Article: "10 Reasons Why You Need Community" - Debra K. Fileta
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7 The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.​​
False,
The Holy Spirit is not a force like in Star Wars that is wielded or used for one’s own personal benefit. Rather, He is a personal being that indwells and is with the believer to counsel, convict, comfort, encourage, and more.Specifically, the Spirit can bring about power in a believer’s life to edify the church and transform the believer from degree of glory to another into the image of Christ.(2 Cor. 3:18; Acts 1:8; John 14:16, 26)
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8 Hell is a real place where certain people will be punished forever.​​
True,
Hell isn’t a figurative place nor a holding tank for all unbelievers to be annihilated from existence. They will exist for all eternity in suffering, pain, and punishment for their sins (Rev. 21:8; 1 Thes. 1:19; Jude 1:7; Matt. 25:41, 46)
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Article: "Is Hell a Real Place?" - Hope Bolinger
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9 Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.​​
False,
Jesus has eternally existed for all time with no beginning nor end. He is the person of the trinity who made all of creation and is fully God. (Gen. 1:4; John 1:1-4; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2-3)
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Article: "Was Jesus Created?" - Got Questions.org
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10 Despite suffering and evil in the world, God is good and blameless in his nature.​
True,
Suffering does not disprove the existence of a good and blameless God; rather, instead, it aids in proving the existence of a good God. Evil cannot existence unless there is goodness. God has full power to stop suffering from happening and vanquishing evil forever. In fact, that is God’s ultimate plan.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
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God is waiting to destroy evil because he does not want any to perish. If God stopped and removed evil the way many wish he would, then everyone would go to hell because of humanity’s evil sinful nature. God is patiently and lovingly waiting for all to reach repentance that will be his children.
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Article: "Why Does God Allow Evil?" - R.C. Sproul
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Video: "Why is there Evil in the World?" - William Lane Craig