"Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so."

                                                                                                Hebrews 6:1-3

There are six key teachings in this passage that are considered elementary.

Repentance from sin

Faith in God

Instruction about baptisms

Laying on hands

Resurrection of the dead

Eternal judgment

In my time growing up in the church, I can say that I learned very small bits and pieces of all six but my knowledge of them is hardly what you could call adequate. I've been attending the same church for eighteen years and I must say that it's quite sad that I only have piecemeal information on the elementary teachings.

Repentance wasn't something I learned of until a few years ago. I learned plenty about confession but not repentance. Whenever I did anything bad I had to confess it to God and keep going. I learned nothing of turning around until one pastor came to my church and spent most of his time there pounding home the message of repentance over and over again. Even then, I'm not sure many people got it. Over time, not much has changed.

Faith in God has been preached but I've seen so little example of it. I can't say I haven't seen it because there have been individuals that have demonstrated a life of faith but for the most part, faith always has a backup plan. If God doesn't act, there's something else to fall back on. The funny thing is that when there's a fallback for God, we always hit it. God isn't one to work with fallbacks.

As far as baptisms, I've come across two types. There's the public baptism that is a confession of faith. There's also the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is something I've never heard concrete teaching on. All I've heard is that it happens when you're saved but the Bible contradicts this. I need to learn a lot more about this subject and hopefully experience it sometime soon.

Laying on of hands is something we've always done when praying for people but I don't know why. I've also read that the anointing of the Holy Spirit is done this way as well as healing but I haven't seen a lot of this. I certainly haven't heard a lot of teaching regarding it. I don't know if anyone back home knows a lot about it.

The teaching of resurrection of the dead just confuses me. Does this speak of the spiritual resurrection of the dead that is for all who are saved? Does it refer to a miraculous resurrection of the physical body or does it refer to the resurrection of Christ and what it means to us? I have no clarification on this. Once again, I find I have a lot of stuff to learn in elementary school still.

Eternal judgment is the one I probably know the least about. Since I'm saved, judgment is never brought up but the Bible states that even the saved are subject to some sort of judgment but I haven't the slightest clue what this entails. I need to learn a lot more about this.

Eighteen years strong and still in elementary school. Isn't that something…