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Since the Christian religion has its origin in a special revelation, and exists in a special community of believers and worshippers, its peculiar conceptions of God, in order to be understood, must always be considered in connection with the recognition of the Bearer of this revelation, and with the right appreciation of the Christian community. A system of teaching which ignores either the one or the other of these two elements will prove defective.
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Christianity claims to be the perfect religion, as distinguished from all other kinds and grades of religion, and to furnish man with that which in all other religions is striven after but is only dimly and imperfectly realized. That is the perfect religion in which a perfect knowledge of God is possible. This perfect knowledge of God Christianity claims to have, because its community originates in Jesus Christ, who as the Son of God ascribes to Himself perfect knowledge of His Father,1 and because it derives its knowledge of God from the same Spirit of God, in whom God knows Himself.2 These conditions of the existence of the Christian religion are referred to in our baptism into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.3
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To understand Christianity so as to appreciate its claim to perfection (§ 2), the point of view must be that of the Christian community. Because however in the course of history this point of view has often been shifted, and the intellectual horizon of the community clouded by outside influences, it stands as the foundation-principle of the Evangelical Church that Christian doctrine is to be obtained from the Bible alone.4 This principle has direct reference to the original documents of Christianity gathered together in the New Testament, for the understanding of which the original documents of the Hebrew religion gathered together in the Old Testament serve as an indispensable aid. These books are the foundation of a right understanding of the Christian religion from the point of view of the community, for the reason that the Gospels set forth in the work of its Founder the immediate cause and final end of the common religion, and the Epistles make known the original state of the common faith in the community, and moreover in a form not yet affected by the influences which as early as the second century had stamped Christianity as Catholic.
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The instruction in the Christian religion must be so divided that the conditions set forth in § 1 shall be preserved. Moreover, that portion of the doctrine which has direct reference to the life of the individual Christian will be governed by the mutual conditions of religion and of ethical development, as directly pointed out in the preceding divisions. The instruction in the Christian religion may be divided as follows:
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The doctrine of the kingdom of God.
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The doctrine of reconciliation through Christ.
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The doctrine of the Christian life.
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The doctrine of public worship.
Contents · Part First. The Doctrine of the Kingdom of God →