MY DOCTRINAL STATEMENT

PRIOR PHILOSOPHY

I believe that reality exists and that it is objective and knowable. Because of this, truth (that which corresponds to reality) is also objective and knowable. Truth, then, is absolute for all people in all places and at all times. It is not to be confused with one's opinion or taste, although statements regarding opinion or taste fall into the same category.

Communication of truth is possible through the medium of language (which is a set of signs that point to reality). Further, objective interpretation of language, whether written or spoken, is also possible due to the objective nature of reality.

These things being the case, people can know reality directly and truth can be communicated.

REVELATION

Natural

I believe that much truth can be discovered by any person to the degree that his intellect is capable of perceiving and understanding reality. This is Natural Revelation, which is the object of both scientific and philosophical inquiry.

Natural Revelation reveals a theistic reality - that being that a supreme God exists and is the source of all that is. Because all truth flows from the same source (God) these truths can serve as an interpretive structure for understanding additional truths revealed by God. This is known as Special Revelation, which is the object of Theology.

Special

I believe that the sixty-six books of the Protestant Canon (Bible), alone and in their entirety, are the verbally inspired Word of God, and that this is proved to be the case by miraculous confirmation. The divine inspiration of the human authors extends equally to all parts of the writings regardless of genre or topic. God superintended the writing so that it expressed exactly what He wanted to be communicated without destroying the human author's style. While copies of Scripture do contain minor deviations (which can be corrected by the multitude of copies), the original manuscripts are inerrant, the human authors being directed by a perfect God that can neither lie nor err. While Scripture was written to long-since-departed recipients, every portion of the Bible was written for mankind's instruction - specifically to introduce Christ. Finally, the Bible alone, rather than any church or tradition, is the supreme and final authority in all matters to which it speaks - be they doctrinal or otherwise.

GOD

Singular Nature

I believe in the existence of only one God Who is both creator and sustainer of all things. He eternally exists in three persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - who share the one nature, have precisely the same attributes and perfections, and are thus one God. God's attributes include, but are not limited to: simplicity, infinity, immutability, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, love, justice, mercy and truthfulness.

Three Persons

GOD THE FATHER

I believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love He is equally merciful and just. He hears and answers prayer, and He saves from sin and spiritual death all those who come to Him through Jesus Christ in accordance with His foreknowledge.

GOD THE SON

I believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, begotten and not made. He has precisely the same nature, attributes and perfections as God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. He is not only truly God but truly man, taking on an additional nature - that of humanity - while remaining unchanged in His deity. In His humanity He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He was sinless in His human life, and He fulfilled all that was written of Him beforehand in the Law and the Prophets. His death on the cross served as the only acceptable atonement for man's sins. He was buried and was raised on the third day in the same body, though glorified, in which He had lived and died. His resurrection body is the pattern of that body which, at the return of Christ, will be given to all resurrected believers. He later ascended into Heaven where He now sits exalted at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest, where He intercedes on behalf of His people.

GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT

I believe that the Holy Spirit - a person possessing emotion, intellect, and will just as the other two persons of the Godhead - indwells every believer at salvation forever sealing him, convicts men of sin, regenerates, baptizes, and sets believers apart to a holy life while empowering believers day by day. By His baptism He unites all believers with Christ in one body. There is only one such baptism, and it is not necessarily evidenced by any miraculous signs (such as unknown tongues), nor does it provide miraculous spiritual gifts. He also infills believers for acceptable worship, godly living, and service. Divine, enabling gifts for service are bestowed by the Spirit upon all who are saved. It is the duty of every believer to be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit, thereby bearing the fruit of the Spirit and exercising the spiritual gifts that He grants for the equipping of the saints to the work of the ministry and service for the building up of the body of Christ, and to glorify Christ. While there is a diversity of gifts, each believer is energized by the same Spirit, and each is called to his own divinely appointed service as the Spirit may will, that each believer is saved by grace, through faith and that not of themselves, yet created in Christ Jesus unto good works for His (the Lord's) glory.

CREATION

The Universe

I believe that God created all that exists (apart from Himself) in the special creation of the entire space-time universe including every basic form of life in the six historic days of the Genesis creation record. He did not create through natural processes but rather created the natural processes themselves. He not only created the universe, but continues to uphold its existence now.

Angels (Good and Evil)

I believe that God created a company of sinless, spiritual beings known as angels to worship Him and do His will. Most kept their holy estate and are before the throne of God, from whence they are sent forth as ministering spirits to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. However one of them sinned along with a company of angels that followed him in his fall. He became known as Satan and the others, demons. Believers are caught up in spiritual warfare against Satan and his followers. This warfare concerns the mind and the truths of God and requires no ritualistic actions to win - one must only resist Satan, have faith in the gospel of salvation, and in God's truth and righteousness.

Mankind

I believe that man was created perfectly and without flaw in the image of God - not through any process, but as a singular, special, creation. Mankind began with the creation of Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all people. Man has a dual makeup of both physical and spiritual aspects combined into one being. He is made in the image of God as pertaining to His communicable attributes (which can inhere in a finite being).

SIN

Man, though created perfect, fell because of his willful disobedience and, as a consequence, forfeited his spiritual life (relationship) with God, becoming dead (separated from God) in sin. This spiritual death has been transmitted to the entire human race (Jesus Christ alone being the exception); and thus every person is born into the world with a sinful nature (proclivity) that possesses no spark of divine life. This tendency extends to his whole being. Without God's provision for sin, which is salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, no one could enter the kingdom of God.

SALVATION

I believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless born again. This new birth is made possible solely by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was made to be sin and a curse for us as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice dying in our stead. When any unregenerate person exercises faith in Christ he passes immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life and is sealed by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of salvation which cannot be lost. Salvation is a work of God done in accordance with His foreknowledge and is a free gift offered to all mankind by God through His Grace and appropriated through faith (belief with assent) in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, apart from any human work, merit, or ritual.

THE CHURCH

Nature

I believe that the universal Church is composed of all persons who, through saving faith in Jesus Christ, have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit being baptized into the one spiritual body that is Christ's regardless of race, sex, nationality, or any social, cultural, or ethnic differences. The Church has been grafted onto the spiritual tree of Israel as God's chosen people. Having become members one of another, Christians are under solemn duty to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, rising above minor differences, and loving one another with a pure heart, yet without tolerating gross sin or falsehood in their midst. The church is to be a place of refuge, fellowship, encouragement, worship, and the equipping of the saints for God's service. The local church is autonomous, as is the priesthood of every true believer, yet is also to be in unity with other churches so far as fundamental beliefs are concerned.

Practice

Believers are to meet together regularly, and are to be a light to the world of God's love. They are sent forth by God into the world even as He was sent forth by His Father into the world. Believers, then, are divinely commanded to be related to this world as strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and their primary purpose in life should be to make Christ known to the world. It is every believer's mission to preach the gospel and defend the Christian faith.

Negatively, believers are called with a holy calling to walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, and so to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But the flesh with its fallen nature, which in our earthly life is never fully eradicated, needs to be kept by the Spirit constantly in subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence in our lives to the dishonor of our Lord. Repentance is a vital part of the Christian walk and will inevitably occur in varying degrees as the Spirit is allowed to fill and control the believer's life.

Positively, God has appointed prayer, worship, Christian fellowship, giving, witnessing, encouragement of one another, Christian unity with the same mind as in Christ, and the study and application of Scripture in all areas of the believer's life as the means of grace and growth for His children. In the apostolic church there were certain gifted men - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers - who were appointed by God for the perfecting of saints unto their work of ministry. Today some men are called of God to be evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and that it is to the fulfilling of His will and to His eternal glory that these shall be sustained and encouraged in their service for God.

I believe that the Lord's Supper and water baptism by immersion are the only ordinances of the Church. They are symbolic in nature, the former proclaiming Christ's death and His establishment of the New Covenant in His blood, the latter proclaiming our membership in that covenant.

LAST THINGS

Christ's Return

I believe in the future physical return of Jesus Christ in His resurrected body to receive to Himself both His own who are alive and remain until His coming, and also all who have fallen asleep in Him, and that this is the blessed hope of Scripture for which we should be constantly looking. This event will not be preceded by any definitive set of conditions and cannot be predicted chronologically with assurance.

The Intermediate State, Resurrection, Judgment, and the Eternal State

I believe that at death the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence and there remain until the resurrection of their glorified bodies when Christ comes for them. There is no intermediate state of purgation, nor is the soul "asleep." At the resurrection soul and body are reunited and shall be with Him forever. Wholly apart from salvation benefits which are bestowed equally upon all who believe, rewards are promised according to the faithfulness of each believer in his service for his Lord, and that these rewards will be bestowed at the judgment seat of Christ after He comes to receive His own to Himself.

The souls and spirits of the unbelieving remain after death conscious of condemnation and in misery until the final judgment at the return of Christ. At Christ's return Satan and all of the angels who fell with him will be cast into the lake of fire which was prepared for them. Unbelievers will be resurrected and judged according to their works. Because of their unbelief they will not be found listed in the Lamb's book of life, and will therefore be condemned to everlasting separation from God in eternal conscious torment - not to be annihilated - day and night, for ever and ever.

After this the perfect creation will be restored and God will dwell with the saints forever.