Introduction
Jude, the brother of Jesus, wrote to his fellow first century Christians, saying:
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.
Jude 3 NIV
Today, some 2,000 years later, there are thousands of doctrines across Christendom, many of which conflict. Whenever multiple humans are involved, there is bound to be a certain level of variation, conflict, and tension.
Sometimes, these differences carry little-to-no eternal significance, such as whether to observe religious holidays like Christmas or Easter.
But other times, misunderstanding or misapplying certain biblical texts or teachings has tremendous negative consequences.
As one of those imperfect humans, I don’t pretend to have all the answers, nor do I claim perfect understanding of Scripture.
Like most things in life, there is balance here. On one hand, thankfully, we don’t have to get all of these things right or know every truth accurately in order to please GOD. His grace is sufficient for His children.
On the other hand, our attitude must always be that I’m going to give GOD everything within me to honor Him and follow Jesus because that’s what He expects.
37 … “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
(Matthew 22:37b-38 NIV)
Truth stacks.
Even the most complex of mathematical equations and formulas is built upon the simplest of principles, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
So it is with truths from GOD’s Word.
The foundational truths must be established first. Then, more and more complex truths are established, linking back to the truths upon which their logic rests.
The goal of this Biblical Principles library is to contribute to increased understanding and unity among believers over time. Unfortunately, such a goal is difficult to measure.
Just as people don’t argue over whether 2 + 2 = 4, you won’t hear many Christians arguing over whether GOD is eternally self-existent, for example. Both of these are foundational principles about which virtually nobody (no Christian, in the latter case) would disagree.
What happens “in the real world,” however, is, when Christians disagree, they argue over doctrines way down the line, when the real issue is that one or more of them has missed or misunderstood a more fundamental truth(s) upstream, which has resulted in an erroneous perspective on the matter about which they are disputing.
My prayer and dream is to create a series of Biblical Principles that are 100% Scripture-backed (i.e., not Tim’s opinion, but irrefutable truth because it’s in “black and white text” from GOD’s Word), which provide clear references for the simple foundational truths and clarify the often-misunderstood complex topics, leading to better understanding and greater unity among believers.
That’s why I created the Biblical Principles library.