What should Christians know?

[charisenexcelcis]

A couple weeks ago my Episcopalian friend found out I had no idea what the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed were, and she freaked out on me. She said every Christian should know what those are, because they are a foundation of our faith. She then posted links to each, and I read over them. It was while I was reading the Nicene Creed that I realized I did know what it was; I was simply unfamiliar with the name.

Last Sunday my dad spoke of the Five-fold ministry in Sunday School class, and when we got home mom told him he should be careful about using denomination-specific terms, because the Five-fold ministry is generally a term used in Charismatic churches, and we are currently attending a Southern baptist church. While the people may know what the five-fold ministry is, they may be unfamiliar with the term.

These two examples got me thinking about all the theological terms floating around in Christianity. Each denomination has their own terms, and some denominations even share certain terms. Some denominations have different terms for the same thing. Most denominations expect others in different denominations to know what they are talking about when they say certain terms, but people end up being confused instead.

So, what exactly should Christians know? Do they need to know the terms for their beliefs, or should they simply know what they believe? For example, was it necessary for me to know the term "Nicene Creed," or is it enough for me to know the content of the Nicene Creed? (granted, I don't agree with the Catholic church part)

First, I want to apologizing to lil-rush for responding to one of the answers before responding to the post.

Regarding the language of theology, you can know and believe everything that you need to without knowing the theological terms. The Bible is written in the common languages of the people who it was written to at the time. (This is a secret frustration of some theologians--lol.) The most important things that a Christian should know, IMO, are these things:
1. That God loved the world so much that He gave up His only begotten Son so that whoever places his trust in Jesus will have eternal life.
2. That this God is the Creator, the Judge, and the Saviour of the World. That He is the only God.
3. That God has been actively dealing with man from the beginning. That the Bible is the record of God's dealings with man. That the Bible records that God is gracious and kind towards man.
4. That Jesus Christ, God with Us, fully God and fully Man, came into the world through a miraculous birth. That He ministered to us while in the flesh. That at the Father's timing, He was crucified. That our sins were placed upon Him. That He died and descended into hell. That His sacrifice was accepted by the Father. That the Father resurrected Him, as firstfruits of the resurrection promised to us.

There are other things, but these I consider to be most important.

What you must know to be saved? Far less.

 

[loveschild]

You start learning everything you can and everyday learn more and never stop learning till the day you die. You will never learn it all. But you can have fun and get stronger and stronger with each new piece you learn.

 

[lil-rush]

I like what Witsius says:

It is in different measures of clarity, completeness and efficacy that divine revelation, the means of grace, and the communications of the Spirit are enjoyed; and a corresponding diversity takes place in the degrees of knowledge attained by the saints. In some, it is clear, distinct, steady, and accompanied by a very firm and decided assent; in others, it is more confused, more implicit, subject to occasional wavering, and attended with an assent that is yielded with difficulty. The command of God, indeed, lays an indispensable obligation upon all men, to make every possible effort to attain a most clear, distinct and assured knowledge of divine truth. It cannot, however, be questioned that the Deity, in his unbounded goodness, receives many into blessedness, whose knowledge even of the principal articles is very indistinct, and such as they are hardly capable of expressing in their own words. The smallest measure of the requisite knowledge appears to be this, that when an article of faith is explained, the mind so far at least apprehends it, as to recognize and embrace it as true.​

(qtd. in Muller's Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: Vol. 1: 411-12.)

Christians need to know the fundamental articles of the Christian faith, but its impossible to expect them all to understand these articles with the same degree of clarity, which is why I like Witsius' remark on "the requisite knowledge."

What a Christian should know will also depend on their role in the Body. A pastor needs to be much more knowledgeable than Sophie the Washwoman concerning matters of theology.

That makes sense.

So, by knowing the fundamental articles, do you mean they need to know specific labels or they should know fundamentals written in the Bible?

If we are talking about Sophie the Washwoman, it doesn't seem necessary that she know the term "hypostatic union," so long as she has some knowledge of the basic concept that the term is supposed to refer to. On the other hand, a pastor or elder or theological instructor should probably know this term.

I guess I'm Sophie the Washwoman, because I'm not quite sure what a "hypostatic union" is lol. I've heard the term before, but if someone explained to me what it meant, I guess I forgot.

As far as technical language or "jargon" is concerned: it arises naturally as we try to simplify and clarify our language. Specialized fields do require a particular or special use of terms. It's not unique to Christians or theology in general.

So, people don't need to know specific terms exactly. They'll just learn certain terms the longer they are around other Christians, basically?

If we want to get rid of labels, let's get rid of "spoon" too. From now on I want it referred to as the eating device with a smooth concave surface on one end and a handle thingy on the other end. I mean seriously folks, it's not like "spoons" are exactly alike anyway, so how can you try to put them in a box with your modernist labels!! But I digress...

I think I might start calling a spoon "the eating device with a smooth concave surface on one end and a handle thingy on the other end."

(Not that all Baptists will necessary believe we should only celebrate the Lord's supper quarterly, but you get the point. And even in my drawn out description I still have a lot of specialized terms or jargon, like Lord's supper, Presbyterian, imputed, and apostolic succession… it's virtually impossible to totally get away from it.)

Those words you learn after being a Christian for a while, and then there are the terms specialized for each denomination. Even the music can be specialized for specific denominations. I get annoyed with my Praise Pastor sometimes, because he'll say "Every good Baptist knows this hymn. You should know it." I'm not Baptist, thank you very much. I don't know the hymn.

It's when people say things like that ("Oh, you should know this term" or "Oh, you should know this song") that I get frustrated. Why should I know it? Where in the Bible does it say I should know the Nicene Creed or I should know the hymn Love Lifted Me? Consequently, I know both of those now.

 

[lil-rush]

First, I want to apologizing to lil-rush for responding to one of the answers before responding to the post.

It's okay. People can respond to others in the thread without responding to my questions, as long as it's relatively on topic lol.

Regarding the language of theology, you can know and believe everything that you need to without knowing the theological terms. The Bible is written in the common languages of the people who it was written to at the time. (This is a secret frustration of some theologians--lol.) The most important things that a Christian should know, IMO, are these things:
1. That God loved the world so much that He gave up His only begotten Son so that whoever places his trust in Jesus will have eternal life.
2. That this God is the Creator, the Judge, and the Saviour of the World. That He is the only God.
3. That God has been actively dealing with man from the beginning. That the Bible is the record of God's dealings with man. That the Bible records that God is gracious and kind towards man.
4. That Jesus Christ, God with Us, fully God and fully Man, came into the world through a miraculous birth. That He ministered to us while in the flesh. That at the Father's timing, He was crucified. That our sins were placed upon Him. That He died and descended into hell. That His sacrifice was accepted by the Father. That the Father resurrected Him, as firstfruits of the resurrection promised to us.

There are other things, but these I consider to be most important.

What you must know to be saved? Far less.

Those are pretty important. That's a good list.