
The cardinal doctrines
of ProtestantsCommon Protestant & non-Protestant
beliefs. Niagara Bible Conference. Conflicts.
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Common Protestant beliefs:There appears to be a general
consensus by conservative and some mainline Protestant faith groups that a list
of common beliefs might include:
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The Trinity,
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The deity of
Jesus,
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The sinless life of Jesus,
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Jesus' bodily resurrection,
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Jesus' ascension towards Heaven,
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The atonement
as a result of the life, and particularly the death, of Jesus,
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Personal
salvation by grace,
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The inerrancy
of the Bible
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The inspiration
of the Bible's authors by the Holy Spirit
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God's inspiration of the Bible's authors,
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The virgin
birth, and
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The anticipated
second coming of Jesus.
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But there does not appear to be an agreed upon single list that most
Protestant faith groups accept as the most important or "cardinal doctrines." 
Beliefs of non-Protestant groups:This essay deals with the cardinal beliefs of Protestant groups. However,
Protestants do not form the entirety of Christianity. Consider just two other
groups:
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The very earliest Christian
movement were the Jewish Christians. This was a group originally formed in Jerusalem under
the leadership of two of the principal disciples of Jesus: James the "brother" of Jesus and Peter. They were the main followers of Jesus' teachings in the period immediately
after Jesus' execution and before the arrival of Paul. They might not be
considered Christian by today's standards. That group apparently did not believe
in the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, salvation by grace, or the virgin birth and many other beliefs that other Christian groups later developed.
They attended services in the Jerusalem Temple, sacrificed animals, considered themselves Jews, circumcised their male children, followed the Mosaic Code, etc. They expected that Jesus' second coming would occur sometime in the first
century CE, not millennia later.
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The Roman Catholic Church expects its members to believe
in a much larger list of cardinal beliefs than is listed above. One example
that is not shared by Protestants is the assumption of the Virgin Mary into
Heaven at death. Pope Pius XII wrote in Munificentissimus Deus:
"... we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely
revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary,
having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and
soul into heavenly glory. Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare
willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let
him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic
Faith." 1
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Cardinal doctrines according to the Niagara Bible Conference:
The Bible Conference of Conservative Christians at Niagara, initially
known as the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, was organized in 1868
and met annually from 1883 to 1897 at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. In
1878 they created the "Niagara Creed" -- a list of fourteen fundamental
points of Christian belief. Among the fourteen points, the five principal beliefs were:
These were later discussed in The Fundamentals -- a series of
pamphlets published between 1910 and 1915. From these pamphlets, the term
"fundamentalism" developed; before that time, fundamentalists were referred to
simply as conservatives. 2,3 
A conflict over cardinal doctrines:In 1910, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA (PCUSA)
derived the following essential tenets from the Westminister Confession of
Faith. This is the foundational document that they share with other Reform
denominations:
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The inerrancy of Scripture. |
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The virgin birth of Jesus. |
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The substitutionary atonement. |
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Jesus' bodily resurrection. |
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The miracles generated by Jesus were authentic. |
In 1916 and 1923, their General Assembly ruled that all ordination candidates
had to agree with all of the above beliefs in order to be accepted. A fundamentalist / Modernist split occurred in the denomination
that focused around this requirement for ordination. Some ministers suggested
that the Bible was not necessarily
inerrant on matters
of science and history. Others believed that there were other valid principles
by which the
functioning of the atonement could be explained. Debate reached a fever pitch, much like the conflict over
ordination of women
and ordination of gays
and lesbians in loving committed relationships were to generate conflict
within some denominations in later decades. Some liberals in the denomination
met at the Auburn Seminary in northern New York state in 1924 and
agreed on the Auburn Affirmation. It stated, in part:
"...we are united in believing that these are not the only
theories allowed by the Scriptures and our standards as explanations of
these facts and doctrines of our religion, and that all who hold to these
facts and doctrines, whatever theories they may employ to explain them, are
worthy of all confidence and fellowship. 4
It asserted that Presbyterians at
the time should:
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"Safeguard liberty of thought and teaching of its ministers";
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Prohibit restricting the church to rigid interpretations of scripture
and doctrine; and
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Refuse to rank ecclesiastical authority above the conscience swayed by
the [Holy] Spirit. 4
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That document prompted the 1925 General Assembly to form a Special
Theological Commission "to study the present spiritual condition of our
Church and the causes making for unrest....to the end that the purity, peace and
unity and progress of the Church may be assured." Their report influenced
delegates to the 1927 General Assembly to institute a type of local option
within the denomination. They declared that it is the individual presbyteries,
not the General Assembly, which would determine what their clergy must affirm
theologically. A schism occurred in 1936 when Fundamentalist members left the
PCUSA to form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in America under leader
J Gresham Machen. 5,6 Another
schism happened later over female ordination. There is a concern that a similar schism may happen in the future to
mainline Presbyterian, Methodist and
Episcopalian denominations over issues related to
homosexuality. 
References used: The following information sources
were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not
necessarily still active today.
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Pope Pius Xii, "Munificentissiumus Deus," Vatican, 1950-NOV-01, at: http://www.ewtn.com/
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David O. Beale, "S.B.C. House on the Sand?" Although this essay
is available on the Internet, the publisher states that "Permission must
be obtained...to link to this page." We have requested such permission.
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Mark Sarver, "Dispensationalism," Sermon Links, at: http://www.sermonlinks.com/
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Text of the 1924 "Auburn Affirmation" is online at: http://www.presbyweb.com/
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"Lesson 2: On the history of the church's ordination standards,"
Ordination Standards: Biblical, Theologican, and Scientific Perspectives,
North Como Presbyterian Church, Pages 139 - 140. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
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D.G. Hart, "Machen and the OPC," Orthodox Presbyterian Church, at: http://www.opc.org/machen.html

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Copyright © 2006 to 2011 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally posted: 2006-MAR-10
Latest update: 2011-JAN-19
Author: B.A. Robinson 
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