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Statement of faith

  • Know what you believe, and know how to defend that belief in love.
  • Value specific and absolute truth of the whole counsel of God.
  • This statement of faith is personal, not corporate, in focus.
  • If you are uncertain in faith, the lowest common denominator of doctrine leads to a spiralling decay of truth.

Scripture

Ones position on the authority of Scripture is a clear differentiator of doctrine. It is an essential truth.

What is scripture

  • The 66 books consisting of the Old and New Testament

I hold to the 66 books of the Old and New Testament as the complete, closed canon of Scripture — nothing to be added, nothing taken away. It is one unified story across two testaments, written by many hands over many centuries, yet with one Author behind it: 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV) — "All Scripture is breathed out by God."

Scripture is the infallible word of God

  • Scripture, in its original writing, is without error and fully trustworthy in everything it affirms.

Because Scripture is God-breathed, it carries God's own authority and cannot fail: 2 Peter 1:20-21 (ESV) — "no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation... men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." Psalm 119:160 (ESV) says plainly, "the sum of your word is truth." I take that as my starting point, not a conclusion I arrive at after everything else — Scripture judges my reasoning; my reasoning does not get to judge Scripture.

Scripture alone is the revelation of truth

  • The Bible is the final authority for what I believe and how I live — above tradition, feeling, or personal experience.

Tradition, experience, and reason all have a place, but none of them sit in judgment over Scripture — Scripture sits in judgment over them. The Bereans were commended for testing even an apostle's teaching against the text itself: Acts 17:11 (ESV) — "they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." Isaiah 8:20 (ESV) puts the test bluntly: "To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn."

One God in Three

The nature of God as revealed in Scripture is a second clear differentiator and essential truth.

I believe in one God, eternally existing in three distinct persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — each fully God, co-equal and co-eternal, yet one in essence, not three gods. Deuteronomy 6:4 (ESV) states the oneness plainly — "The LORD our God, the LORD is one" — while the baptismal command names three persons under a single name: Matthew 28:19 (ESV) — "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This is a mystery Scripture states rather than fully explains, and I hold it as Scripture gives it, not as I might simplify it.

God the Father

  • The Father is the first person of the Trinity, Creator and sovereign over all, and Father to those who believe in His Son.

The Father is the one from whom and through whom all things exist: 1 Corinthians 8:6 (ESV) — "for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist." He is not a distant deity but One who seals and keeps His own: John 6:27 (ESV).

God the Son

  • Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, virgin-born, sinless, crucified for sin, bodily risen, ascended, and coming again.

The Son is God become flesh, not a created being: John 1:1,14 (ESV) — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." He emptied Himself to take on humanity while remaining fully God: Philippians 2:6-8 (ESV). His death and bodily resurrection are not one option among many but the substance of the gospel itself: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (ESV) — "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures... he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." He ascended visibly and will return the same way He left: Acts 1:11 (ESV).

God the Holy Spirit

  • The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force — He indwells, seals, convicts, and empowers every believer.

The Spirit is the promised Helper who teaches and reminds believers of Christ's own words: John 14:26 (ESV). Every believer is sealed by Him as a guarantee of what's to come: Ephesians 1:13-14 (ESV). He convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8), and empowers believers to be Christ's witnesses (Acts 1:8 (ESV)) — which is exactly the transformation I have watched Him work in real, specific lives, my own included.

Creation

Understanding the nature of creation is a foundational belief for a wise worldview.

Creation is literal and deliberate act of God

  • God created all things out of nothing, by His word, with purpose — not by unguided natural process.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1 (ESV)) is a historical claim, not a poem to be explained away. Creation was made by faith-accessible divine command, not from pre-existing material: Hebrews 11:3 (ESV) — "the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." All things, visible and invisible, were created through Christ and for Him: Colossians 1:16 (ESV).

Creation is 6 days

  • God created the heavens, the earth, and all life in six literal days, and rested on the seventh.

Genesis 1 marks each day with "there was evening and there was morning" — ordinary-day language, not an epoch. The fourth commandment ties the Sabbath directly back to this as a historical week, not a metaphor: Exodus 20:11 (ESV) — "in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day." I take the plain reading as the intended one.

The fall and Sin

  • Adam's disobedience brought sin and death into the human race; every person since is born under sin's condemnation and needs a savior.

What began as one man's disobedience in the garden (Genesis 3) became the condition of every person since: Romans 5:12 (ESV) — "sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." No one is exempted by their own effort: Romans 3:23 (ESV) — "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Left there, the wage owed is death: Romans 6:23 (ESV). That verse doesn't end there, and neither does this statement — see Salvation, below.

Love

Understanding love as revealed by our creator is unique to mans own understanding. Indeed we would not know love without God, and we are called to walk in love.

  • God is love

"God is love" (1 John 4:8,16 (ESV)) is not a sentiment but a definition — love isn't a rule God happens to keep, it's who He is, and it's the reason there's a gospel at all: John 3:16 (ESV) — "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son." What that love looks like in practice is spelled out plainly: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV). Jesus made it the identifying mark of His followers, not doctrine alone: John 13:34-35 (ESV) — "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Wisdom

We are called by God to seek wisdom.

  • True wisdom begins with reverence for God, not human cleverness, and He gives it freely to those who ask.

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)) — wisdom starts with who God is, not with how clever I can be. It's also freely offered, not hoarded for the naturally gifted: James 1:5 (ESV) — "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach." What the world calls foolish — a crucified Messiah — is where God's own wisdom is actually found: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (ESV).

Salvation

  • I am saved by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone — not by anything I have done or could do.

This is the center of everything above. Because of sin, I owed a debt I could not pay myself, and God paid it: Romans 5:8 (ESV) — "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Salvation is not earned; it's received: Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) — "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Titus 3:5 (ESV) says the same thing from the other direction — "not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy." Belief, confession, and new life go together: Romans 10:9-10 (ESV). And I hold this exclusively, not as one path among several: John 14:6 (ESV) — "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

End times

  • There is a prophesied literal seven year tribulation period.

I hold a dispensational, pretribulational view of end-times prophecy. The church will be caught up to meet Christ before the tribulation begins — a real, physical event, not a metaphor for death: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (ESV) — "the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." What follows is a literal seven-year tribulation, the "one week" of Daniel 9:27 (ESV), a time of judgment on a world that has rejected God. It ends with Christ's visible, physical return to earth — not a spiritual metaphor but a King coming to reign: Revelation 19:11-16 (ESV). He then reigns for a literal thousand years (Revelation 20:1-6 (ESV)), after which comes final judgment for all who rejected Him (Revelation 20:11-15 (ESV)) and the eternal state — a new heaven and a new earth where God dwells with His people forever: Revelation 21:1-4 (ESV). See the prophecy studies for the fuller working-out of this.

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