Christianity

A personal God who is the creator and sustainer of all things truly exists, independent of human belief.

The Son is of the very same essence (consubstantial) as the Father, not merely of a similar essence.

There is exactly one God, numerically a single divine being.

Father, Son, and Spirit are genuinely distinct persons, not merely three modes, masks, or roles of a single person.

The one God exists eternally as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God is an immaterial spirit, without a physical body of any kind.

Love is essential to who God is in himself, grounded in the eternal love among the persons of the Trinity, not merely something God does toward creatures.

God genuinely hears and responds to petitionary prayer, sometimes acting differently than he otherwise would have.

God is omnipotent: able to do anything that is logically possible and consistent with his nature.

God is fully present everywhere in his being, not merely in knowledge or power.

God knows all true propositions, including all of the actual past and present, exhaustively.

God infallibly and exhaustively knows the entire future, including all future free choices, as settled certainties.

Jesus rose bodily in the same (transformed) body that was crucified.

Jesus committed no sin during his life.

Right relationship with God comes specifically through Jesus Christ and not through any other name/mediator.

Father, Son, and Spirit are one single person manifesting in three modes or roles.

Jesus had a complete, real human body of flesh.

Deity and humanity are united in one single person (hypostasis) in Christ.

The New Testament directly identifies Jesus as "God" (e.g. John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13).

Jesus Christ is identified with the LORD (YHWH) of Israel.

The Son was created/originated by God and is therefore a creature, however exalted.

The Son is a distinct divine person from the Father (not merely a mode or role of one person).

The Son is "of the same essence" (homoousios) as the Father, not merely of a similar essence.

Jesus Christ is fully and truly God, sharing the one divine essence with the Father.

The Son existed as a divine person before his human birth, prior to and apart from creation.

Jesus is rightly given the worship due to God.

There was a state or "time" in which the Son did not exist.

The titles given to Jesus ("Lord," "Son of God," "Word") connote true deity, not merely a high human office.

After the incarnation Christ exists "in two natures," divine and human, each retaining its own properties.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, without a human father.

The Son remains permanently incarnate: he retains a glorified human nature forever.

The union of divine and human in Christ occurred at the moment of conception, not at a later point such as baptism.

Mary may rightly be called "Theotokos" (God-bearer / Mother of God) because the one she bore is God.

There was a real, primeval historical event ("the Fall") in which the first humans disobeyed God and lost an original state of integrity.

The Genesis Fall narrative is best read as a symbolic or mythic depiction of the universal human condition, not a report of a singular past event.

Adam and Eve were real, historical individuals from whom humanity descends.

Satan is a real, personal spiritual being who tempts and opposes God, not merely a symbol or personification of evil.

Physical death entered the human race as a consequence of Adam's sin; humans were not originally subject to death.

Adam's first sin has real, inherited consequences for all his descendants (an "original sin"), not merely a bad example.

After the Fall sin is so deep that it has become the very substance/essence of fallen human nature.

Sin is fundamentally the transgression of God's law/command (an offense against a divine standard).

The root of all sin is pride / inordinate self-love (turning from God to self).

Sin is most fundamentally a rupture of relationship/covenant with God and neighbor, more than law-breaking or substance-corruption.

The finally unsaved suffer conscious punishment in hell that never ends.

Justification is a forensic, declarative act in which God legally pronounces the sinner righteous, distinct from the inner process of being made holy.

Repentance (a real turning from sin) is required for salvation.

God is one indivisible person who manifests successively or simultaneously as Father, Son, and Spirit, rather than three eternally distinct persons.

The Spirit is a distinct hypostasis/person, genuinely other than the Father and the Son, not merely a mode or aspect of the one God.

The Holy Spirit is eternal, without beginning, and shares the one uncreated divine nature.

The Holy Spirit is the divine author who inspired the writers of Scripture.

The Holy Spirit is fully and truly God, equal in divine essence to the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit is a distinct personal agent (who can be grieved, speaks, wills, and intercedes), not merely an impersonal force or energy.

There is a specific sin against the Holy Spirit that is unforgivable.

The Spirit's saving, regenerating grace is ultimately irresistible in those God has chosen.

The fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.) is the truest evidence of the Spirit's presence, more than the spectacular gifts.

The Spirit distributes gifts sovereignly as He wills, so believers cannot simply claim or work up a particular gift.

The bishop of Rome (the pope) holds a divinely instituted primacy of jurisdiction over the whole church.

The church is apostolic: it must stand in genuine continuity with the apostles' teaching and mission.

The church is the mystical Body of Christ, organically united to him as its head.

The church is catholic (universal): the whole company of Christ's people across all times and places, not confined to one nation, culture, or congregation.

The church is a divine institution founded by Christ, not merely a voluntary human association of like-minded believers.

The church is holy (set apart and sanctified by Christ) even though its members remain sinners.

The true church is essentially ONE (a single body) despite outward divisions.

Belonging to the visible, organized church is normally necessary for the Christian life, not an optional add-on to private faith.

The church's central mission is to proclaim the gospel and make disciples (the Great Commission as its defining task).

The pope, under defined conditions (ex cathedra, on faith and morals), teaches infallibly.

The church should formally practice corrective discipline, up to exclusion, against unrepentant serious sin among members.

Local churches are properly bound together under a wider connectional structure (conference, synod, communion) with real authority over them.

There are exactly two ordinances/sacraments instituted by Christ: baptism and the Lord's Supper.

There are seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation/chrismation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony.

Valid baptism must use the Trinitarian formula "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

The collection of tithes and offerings is itself an act of worship within the service.

Jesus Christ will return personally, visibly, and bodily to the earth at a future point in history.

At death the believer's soul consciously enters the presence of Christ and remains aware while awaiting the bodily resurrection.

The finally unrepentant suffer conscious punishment in hell that continues without end.

There is no distinct "rapture" doctrine at all; the New Testament describes one return of Christ at which the living and the dead are gathered together.

Christ's return will be accompanied by literal cosmic upheaval: darkened sun, falling stars, and visible glory seen by all.

Scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the Church.

The canon of Scripture consists of exactly the 66 books of the Protestant Bible.

The historical narratives of Scripture (e.g., the exodus, the conquest, the bodily resurrection) record events that actually happened in space and time.

Inspiration extends to the actual words of the original text, not only to the general ideas or concepts.

The Holy Spirit is properly called the divine author of Scripture.

All parts of Scripture are equally inspired, not merely the doctrinally central or "religious" portions.

The Christian Scriptures originated through a genuine act of God, not merely human religious reflection.

God created the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo), not from pre-existing matter.

God genuinely reveals something of himself through the natural world and the created order, apart from Scripture.

Adam and Eve were real, historical individuals, the literal first human beings.

The fall of humanity into sin was a real historical event by the first humans, not merely a symbol of the universal human condition.

God can and does act in the world in ways that supersede or suspend ordinary natural causes (genuine miracles are possible).

Whatever knowledge of God nature provides is insufficient for salvation; saving knowledge requires special revelation in Christ and Scripture.

A clear and reliable knowledge of God and his saving purposes requires God's special, verbal self-revelation, not merely general revelation.

Genesis 1-3 is intended as an account of actual historical events, not primarily as theological symbol, poetry, or myth.

Human life possesses a special, inviolable dignity because human beings are made in the image of God.

The direct, intentional killing of an innocent human being is always gravely wrong, with no exceptions.

Human life is a gift over which we are stewards, not owners; we may not dispose of it (our own or another's) at will.

Using lethal force to defend oneself or others from a deadly attacker is morally permissible.

Donating one's organs after death is a morally good and praiseworthy act of charity.

Suicide (taking one's own life) is morally wrong.

Racism (partiality and contempt on the basis of race or ethnicity) is a sin contrary to the gospel.

Civil government is divinely instituted, and obedience to lawful authority is a Christian duty (Romans 13).

It can be morally legitimate for Christians to use lethal force under some circumstances (e.g. defense of the innocent, just war).

Opposing abortion and protecting unborn life should be among the highest priorities of Christian political engagement.

Scripture provides binding, authoritative norms not only for personal conduct but for the ordering of society, economics, and the state.

Scripture's command to welcome the foreigner and care for the sojourner imposes a real Christian duty toward immigrants and refugees today. (This question does not consider any political orientation's specific definition of what constitutes a legitimate "immigrant" or "refugee.")

Beliefs about angels and demons should be limited to what Scripture plainly teaches, rejecting speculative hierarchies, named extra-biblical angels, and elaborate demonologies.

Angels are created beings, made by God, and are not eternal or self-existent.

Biblical "angels" are best understood as symbols, personifications, or mythological language for God's action and human experience, not as actually existing spirit-persons.

Angels are real, personal, created beings who actually exist, not merely literary symbols or pre-scientific imagery.

Demons are real, personal evil spirits (fallen angels or their kind), not merely symbols of disease, vice, or social evil.

The devil and his angels will suffer eternal, conscious punishment in the lake of fire.

The traditional ninefold scheme of angelic orders (seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels) reflects a real heavenly order.

Satan is a fallen angel (a created good being who rebelled) not an independent evil principle or co-eternal power.

Satan/the devil is a real, personal spirit-being, not merely a symbol or personification of evil.

A portion of the angels rebelled against God and fell from their original state.

Adam and Eve were real, historical individuals who are the biological ancestors of all humanity.

Human beings are created in the image of God.

Human beings inherit a corrupted nature (original sin) from Adam, prior to and apart from any actual sins they commit.

The human soul is by nature immortal and continues to exist consciously after the death of the body.

There is exactly one mediator between God and humanity (Jesus Christ) and no creature shares in that mediating office.

Mary was preserved free from the stain of original sin from the very first moment of her own conception.

Mary now reigns as Queen of Heaven, crowned and exalted above all the angels and saints.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit while Mary was a virgin, without a human father.

It is good and proper to ask the saints in heaven to pray to God on our behalf.

Mary remained a virgin throughout her whole life and never had marital relations or other children after Jesus ("ever-virgin").

Mary may rightly be called "Theotokos" / "Mother of God" (God-bearer) because the one she bore is truly God incarnate.