0 Essential Doctrines of Christianity

The Bible itself reveals those doctrines that are essential to the Christian faith.  They are 1) the Deity of Christ, 2) Salvation by Grace, and 3) Resurrection of Christ, 4) the gospel, and 5) monotheism.  These are the doctrines the Bible says are necessary.  Though there are many other important doctrines, these five are the ones that are declared by Scripture to be essential.  A non-regenerate person (i.e., Mormon or Jehovah's Witness, atheist, Muslim), will deny one or more of these essential doctrines.   Please note that there are other derivative doctrines of scripture that become necessary also, the Trinity being one.

0 Anathema

One of the things that the Roman Catholic Church does in its councils and in its official writings is to pronounce anathema upon those who would disagree with some of its declarations. Since the Roman Catholic Church has pronounced anathema upon those who would deny its teachings (the Council of Trent did this), we need to look at what is meant by the term so that we might better understand this curse.