What is essential about ...?

Article l:

God and all God's attributes?
The Trinity?

How was God known in the OT?
Was there a so-called "Trinity"? If not, where did it originate and when?
Is it essential for us today? Why or why not?

Article ll: Of Revelation.

God is revealed through several media, including inanimate things such as history and nature. Yet, God reveals Self also through a group of spiritual men, called prophets. Yet, God is said to reveal Self only through one man perfectly. 
Q) Do we still have prophets of the same caliber today? 
Q) What was so special about their relationship with God that it no longer seems to exist, or does it?
Q) Given the fact that God reveals Self through nature, are people like David Suzuki prophets in the same meaning of the word?

The Holy Scriptures are said to contain the only "infallible rule of faith and life".
Outside certain circles not too many people (including members of the United Church) go along with that statement.
Q) Is this then still essential, and if so, for what purpose?

Article III. Of the Divine Purpose. 

Man is said to always have a choice between Good and Bad.
Q) If God is not the author of sin, who is? Does humanity have to choose between two creators? These questions are the more urgent since God is said to "make all things work together in the fulfillment of His sovereign design". i.e. nothing happens till God OK's it, yes? 
Q) If that is the case, why doesn't God straighten things out once and for all?

Is this clause essential, which parts?

Article IV. Of Creation and Providence. 

We believe that God is the creator, upholder and governor of all things; that He is above all His works and in them all; ...
Q) Does this mean that God creates by extension or by separation?

...that He made man in His own image, meet for fellowship with Him,
Q) Does this mean that human beings look physically like God?
Q) What does it mean that humanity is "meet for fellowship with Him"? What does that say about the qualities humanity is supposed to have that make him an "image of God"?
Q) Being in possession of Godlike qualities (which ones?), is humanity living up to its potential? If not, is regress or progress noticeable, or is it pure status quo till one particular moment in the future? If so, how will our God-like nature manifest itself?

Article V. Of the Sin of Man.

We believe that our first parents, being tempted, chose evil, and so fell away from God and came under the power of sin, ...
Q) Does anybody really believe in this day and age that there was one pair of parents who "fell" at one particular moment?
Q) Is it essential that we believe this? If so, for what purpose? i.e. What do we gain or loose by sincerely believing or disbelieving that proposition?
 

Article VI. Of the Grace of God.

We believe that God, out of His great love for the world, has given His Only begotten Son to be the Saviour of sinners, ...
Q) How was that salvation to take place?

... and in the Gospel freely offers His all sufficient salvation to all men.
Q) Where in the  Gospels do we read this, and are we to take that "all" men literally?

 ...We believe also that God, in His own good pleasure, gave to His Son a people, an innumerable multitude, chosen in Christ unto holiness, service and salvation.  
Q) Who are these "people"? Are they part of "all" men, mentioned above or are they a select group?
Q) Given that humanity is "meet for fellowship with God", are the people God gave to His son service people or free agents?

What is essential here?

Article VII. Of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe in and confess the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, who, being the Eternal Son of God, for us men and for our salvation became truly man, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, yet without sin. ...
Q) Where is it ever suggested in the OT that humanity needed a Mediator in order to get in contact with God? Is it not so that anybody has access to God at any time?
Q) Is it essential that Christians believe that Jesus was born "from a virgin"? What difference does it make whether Christians do or not? Which brings up the question about the non-Christians. What is it they *have* to believe in order to be saved?

Q) What is it exactly that Jesus did on the cross, and is it essential that this be believed?
Q) Jesus, the Jew, told the parable of the prodigal son. This underscores the Jewish mindset of "salvation by return" rather than by "substitutionary atonement". 
Q) How essential is this believe in "substitutionary atonement"?

We take a jump to 

Article Xl Of Justification and Sonship. 

We believe that God, on the sole ground of the perfect obedience and sacrifice of Christ, pardons those who by faith receive Him as their Saviour and Lord, accepts them as righteous and bestows upon them the adoption of sons, with a right to all privileges therein implied, including a conscious assurance of their sonship.

Q) Is it only those who by "faith receive Him as Saviour and Lord" who will receive "conscious assurance of their sonship"?
Q) What about the billions of others who haven't heard the story or refuse to believe a polluted version?
Q) When will the Children of God receive this assurance? During this life, or upon some date in the future?

What is essential about this particular Article?

And so the questions pile up, one after the other.

Although the questions are there, it is not to be assumed that the replacement of the 20 Articles of Faith be contemplated. The 20 Articles of Faith are significant historical documents as they were the instrument which allowed the three denominations to merge into one body. However, given the fact that they were the product of a mindset that is alien to us today, it behooves us to re-identify the theological problems that challenge us and re-state our beliefs in contemporary terms. 

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