I tried to be through, honest I did.

The entire NT is essential for the Christian and I was never intending anything else to be conjured up. The 8 things I listed were I guess a failed attempt at showing there were certain Christian essential concepts that all Christians have in common. There may be more than this, but these 8 are the ones I listed.

The 8 things I listed are take it or leave it concepts. They are either 100% true or they are false. I say all 8 are true. Scripture tells us these 8 are true as well. And I maintain that anyone calling themselves a Christian and any church that considers themselves a Christian church will also say those 8 things are true. To be blunt, if one or more is claimed as false then that is false doctrine and a false Christ and a false Gospel.

I will agree with you that if someone says that obedience is optional in the Christian life, then there are some major issues with their faith and belief. Obedience isn't optional, it is natural because ti is the outflow of our circumcised and changed hearts that now has Christ. When we abide in Christ and he in us, we will have a life marked with obedience and with love. It will not be perfect, 100% obedience or perfect love however. It can't be because we are sinners saved by grace.

As believers, Yes we are a new creation. Yes we've been washed and given a new heart in Christ. Yes we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to help us. Yes we have the Word to teach and instruct us. Yes we have direct communication to God through Christ, our mediator, in prayer and petition to guide us. We have many things as believers.

But we do not have perfection.....yet! When we come into a saving relationship with Christ we are then JUSTIFIED! We are redeemed by Christ's blood. But God ain't done with us there. He then begins the work of fixing us, molding us, shaping us, refining us, pruning us, perfecting our faith from the inside out through SANCTIFICATION...a life long journey. This journey continues until God Glorifies us in heaven.

There are other issues that are very important and also vital, such as obedience to Christ's teaching in he NT. I dare not argue anything contrary to that. However, obedience is a minute by minute (second by second for me some days) way of life. We make choices to obey or disobey every day...and we even sin when we really wanted to obey because of our sin nature. We are unable to obey perfectly. It is impossible no matter how hard we try. So while obedience is indeed a vital part of the Christian life, it doesn't condemn us to hell if we mess up if we are true believers with Christ in our hearts.

Now if we have issues with obedience and sometimes fail to obey...then what? Are we still saved? Are we still loved? Yes, we are on both accounts. Us sinning doesn't destroy the Gospel or make it false...if we answer no to 1-8 though it does mean just that.

I lied yesterday to keep from having a stressful conversation...putting it off until later. I wasn't honest. I also got really angry at someone and I sinned in my anger. I was mad all day yesterday and into this morning. I sinned. Does that disobedience take away my salvation? No!

God convicted me of it and I spent time this morning in prayer and made things right today: I had the conversation that was unpleasant and apologized for putting it off; I went to the person I was angry with and offer my apology for being unkind. God convicted me, straightened me out, pruned and refined me---he is working on me as a believer.

My sin didn't take away from the truths of 1-8. Me sinning doesn't mean I'm not a Christian or a believer. (Now if we are talking about a consistent sinful lifestyle without remorse, without repentance, without confession---then that is a completely different animal)

Bamarich has done a good thing and prompted me to think about what I wrote and how I wrote it. He's not understood what I meant because of my lack of ability to write it down in an understandable way, I think. I am pretty sure we are in agreement and unity on 99% of things and some of the disagreement may just be on how we are defining something which impacts how we articulate our views. I'm okay with adding 2 more essentials to the list, because in retrospective these are core to the faith.

We could add a # 9 to the list quite easily and I'd have no issues with it.

9. We are called to abide in Christ and to exhibit a life of obedience: Pure-Simple-Straight Forward. We are called and desired to these kind of things: Trusting Christ, Life application of the Scriptures daily, standing inside of God's will, keeping oneself unblemished from the world, not straying from our master, obedience of the Scriptures. God desires this and has sent us a helper in the Holy Spirit and in His Word. God will refine us, work on us, prune us--sanctifying us until the day he Glorifies us. For we have already been Justified through our faith, so now he prepares us for eternal life with Him. When we mess up, He will be found faithful to forgive us when we confess and repent and have forgiveness ourselves towards others.

And if we did that we would need to add a #10, and I'd be perfectly fine adding this as well.

10. We are not perfect, but Forgiven: God wants us and desires us to be without sin and to obey, but we are fallen and cannot achieve perfection. But we are still called to strive for that and do not have license to ignore God or sin anyway. We are called to seek after God and to trust and lean on Him..we are called to abide in Christ. Yet we still fail so often. God's Grace, Mercy and Love forgives us of our sins (commission and ommission) when we come clean and confess our sins, repent/turn from our sins, and have a heart of forgiveness towards others when we are sinned against. We can't earn salvation based on our works, how good we are, how well we obey because we cannot achieve perfection. God's Grace does the work of salvation. God is perfect and requires us to be perfect to be with Him, so since we can't be He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the perfection crucified for our sins so that we may abide in Him through Christ and He freely gives it through his Grace.

Bottom line is this: The Gospel message of Christ is the essential. When we love Christ we will obey. We are to abide in Christ as He will abide in us. Christ's command is for us to love as Christ loved us. God is Gracious and forgives us when we fall short.