Core 1: Introduction
Welcome to the Core, a series about the center of Christianity. If you want to know what Christians believe, this series is for you.
This is part 1: Introduction.
I’ve called this “the Core” because what I want to do in this series reminds me of an apple. When you cut an apple open, you reveal two important things–the center and the seeds.
First, let’s start with the center of the apple. The core is the center of the apple. Once upon a time, that apple was a bud on a tree branch. That bud blossomed into a flower, was cross-pollinated by a bee, leading to the ovary of the flower being fertilized. That ovary produced seeds and started growing. It made layers which formed the core of the apple. The rest of the apple developed around that core until it reached maturity–meaning that it ripened into the fruit we call an apple.
Just as the entire apple developed from and around the core, so Christian faith in a person’s life develops from and around a few core concepts that are called “the Gospel.” The first reason I’ve called this series, “The Core,” is that I want to cut right to the center of the Christian faith so you can see the core concepts that a person believes to become a Christian.
In addition to being the center of the apple, the core of an apple contains seeds. Those seeds carry the potential to become more apple trees producing more apples. The core of the Christian faith–what the Bible calls the “gospel”–is a seed that can produce eternal life when it is received and believed by people. My desire is to see God use these videos to produce new Christians through faith in Jesus Christ.
So, what is the core of Christianity? Four concepts that are expressed in five words. Those five words are:
- God.
- Sin.
- Christ.
- Repentance and Faith.
That’s five words, but repentance and faith go together, so they’re one concept.
The next post is the second in this series, but it covers the first concept of the core which is God.