30K Subscribers Livestream Q+A

This livestream celebrates hitting 30K subscribers before I take a little break from YouTube for the summer.

[jonathanvickers]

Because of these YouTube videos (Gavin, Cooper, Winger, Horn, Pints, Gospel Simplicity, Matthew Everhard, etc) I hardly watch movies anymore either. It is fun! Always learning! Thanks :)

[adam]

I love brother Gavin for the work that he does. I am incredibly grateful.

[MrKingishere]

Thank you for strengthening my Faith in Protestantism specifically.

[careybryant]

I love that you are a partial preterist. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of us out there compared to other views.

[ProfYaffle]

Happy birthday. Congratulations.
Some great questions and answers. Sad not to mod cos was driving, but was praying for a well behaved chat. And will continue to pray for you and family. Have a great break 🎉

[ModerateMic]

Hope you enjoy your break Dr. Ortlund. Take care.

[anniebanderet]

Super glad you have a break! Looking forward to your fall lineup, which sounds fantastic. I sure appreciate you. God bless you.

[Real_LiamOBryan]

@Salomon Dahlberg

As for your question about Christian Essentials, here's a writeup that I did which seems to very much accord with Gavin's view on Christian Essentials.

I've heard it said that Russian church historian, Vasily Vasilyevich Bolotov (born c. 1855 died c. 1900), in his works entitled On the Question of the Filioque and Thesis on the Filioque, distinguished between three sorts of Christian belief. These distinctions are useful, but I would not categorize the beliefs using the same criteria as he did, nor would I use the exact same terminology for describing said beliefs. What are these three categories of beliefs?

Theological beliefs can be meaningfully divided into three categories (with a possible fourth for spurious doctrines). The first of these categories is dogma, the second is theologoumenon, and the third is adiaphoron. Dogmata are those beliefs which are absolutely essential for a Christian. Theologoumena are those beliefs which were held as opinions by the most eminent theologians of the church (such as the Church Fathers) and--so--are somewhat likely (epistemically, as opposed to ontologically, speaking) to be true. Adiaphora are those beliefs which are held as a matter of opinion and have no necessary moral weight.

It ought to be noted that people can be saved without being a "Christian" proper. Christians are those who have enough knowledge to place their faith in Christ and live according to His teachings. Included among those who may be saved without being such a Christian proper, but may be called Christians in some sense (having had the atoning blood of Christ applied to them in atonement for their sins), might be infants, Old Testament saints not under the Abrahamic or Mosaic covenants (such as Abel, Enoch, Daniel, Noah, Job, Melchizedek, Lot and The Queen of Sheba), Old Testament saints under the Abrahamic or Mosaic covenants, New Testament--pre-Gospel--saints (such as Cornelius, Nathaniel, the two disciples of John the Baptist (John 1:35), etc.

Below is a decent list of dogmas, or Christian essentials, with some notes.

(1) God's Unity (absolutely essential, but only for those who have enough knowledge of God)
(2) God's Tri-unity (there is a little room here for Unitarians and Binitarians who affirm the true humanity and true deity of Christ, yet one must know the one, true God to whatever degree one's knowledge allows)
(3) Christ's deity (absolutely essential, but only for those who have enough knowledge of Christ)
(4) Christ's humanity (absolutely essential, but only for those who have enough knowledge of Christ)
(5) Human depravity (absolutely essential; otherwise, there is no need for a savior)
(6) Christ's sinlessness (absolutely essential, but only for those who have enough knowledge of Christ; otherwise, there would be no possibility of atonement)
(7) Christ's atoning death and priestly intercession (absolutely essential, but only for those who have enough knowledge of Christ)
(8) Christ's bodily resurrection (absolutely essential because this is a bulwark against many early heretical, spiritualizing, beliefs and is necessary for atonement, but only for those who have enough knowledge of Christ)
(9) The necessity of grace (absolutely essential, but only for those who have enough knowledge of grace)
(10) The necessity of faith (absolutely essential, but only for those who have enough knowledge of faith)

Here are some scriptures which show the sufficiency of faith, by grace, for salvation. They spell out a sort of "Mere Christianity".

Matthew 9:2; Mark 2:5, 16:16; Luke 5:20, 7:50, 8:12; John 1:12, 3:15-18, 36, 5:24, 6:37, 40, 8:24, 20:31; Acts 10:43, 13:39, 16:31; Romans 4:1-5, 14, 9:32, 10:9, 11:6, 20-23; 1 Corinthians 1:21; Ephesians 2:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Timothy 4:10; Titus 3:4-8; Hebrews 4:3, 10:39; 1 Peter 1:9; and 1 John 5:4.


Notice, Mark 16:16 doesn't say that baptism is requisite for salvation; rather, it says that someone "who has believed and has been baptized" shall be saved. This shows that belief and baptism are sufficient, though it does not show that baptism is necessary, for salvation. The necessity of belief in Christ for salvation is found all throughout scripture. The same applies to sanctification in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 as to baptism in Mark 16:16. Faith and sanctification are sufficient for salvation, but only faith is shown to be necessary by the unanimous witness of the biblical texts. Baptism and sanctification may be necessary causes, in the strict philosophical sense of the phrase "necessary cause", in that they will, necessarily, be a concomitant of saving faith--given enough time and opportunity--but they are not necessary in the broader sense of the term "necessary" that they are pre-requisite, or even requisite, for salvation. John 3:36, for example, says that "he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, ". It does not say, however, that he who does not obey believes in Christ. Believing in Christ is trusting in all he says in an attempt to, as Romans 2:7 says, seek glory, honor, and immortality. Therefore, believing in Christ, as opposed to merely believing that what Christ says is true, is quite at odds with not obeying Him such that whoever believes in Him obeys His commandments and has eternal life.

All other doctrines, unless I have forgotten some, are either theologoumena or adiaphora. This means that one can be saved, and even be a Christian, as long as they hold to the dogmas (allowing for differing amounts of knowledge, intelligence, and revelation).

Luke 12:48; John 3:16, 36; Acts 2:21; Romans 2:14-15, 10:13; James 3:1

[margarettownley]

Woohoo, that means it's already your birthday in my time zone! Felicitations 🎈

[psylegio]

I am happy to hear that you will take time off. All need that!
Many happy returns to you on your birthday! May you enjoy a wonderful day full of friends, family, cake and beer!
Funny thing about turning 40 is that when you go to the doctor about something like an arm hurting or something he or she will say " yeah, it will do that now" instead of mending it.

[matthewjlollz]

Would you please do a debate with James White on whether the soteriology of Catholics/Eastern Orthodox is the same as the Judaizers of Galatians that Paul damns?

[josegeda]

Welcome to the 4th floor and many happy returns 🎉🎉

[dennischanay]

Always love Gavin's teaching and ideas. My feed had a little delay in vid and audio? No biggie. Just don't know if it's my phone or on that end. Thanks for doing these!!!

[makahiadanielle]

Im so sad I missed it live!! Love your channel.

[davidjanbaz]

Really enjoyed listening: enjoy Heiser's book and HB day.

[HearGodsWord]

I'm about to turn 40 too, Gavin. Best wishes.

[ChadGrindstaff]

Man, am I sorry I missed this. All notifications are on now ha

[jakelund]

Would love to see you do a dialogue with Alex O'Connor!

[ottovonbaden]

Haven't finished yet - definite audio/video desync, but thankfully the audio is clear.

[dennischanay]

As far as the claim that it's imperialistic for one church like Catholicism or Orthodoxy to say they are the true way, I get it and agree that Christ is just as active in Protestant denominations. I'm a late life RCC convert but I also worship in an evangelical church and Gavin is my main go to guy these days. But.. Can't other religions discount Christianity as "the only way" based on the same criteria? Anyway thanks so much for this channel!!