My name is William Watson Birch, a very flawed believer in Jesus, but one who defends, loves, and seeks to honor the Word of God.
But don't let that fool you: I am a wicked sinner saved solely by the free grace of God through faith in and by the merits of Christ Jesus alone.
But don't let that fool you: I am a wicked sinner saved solely by the free grace of God through faith in and by the merits of Christ Jesus alone.
Theology is the Study of God, not the Study of Knowledge, and therefore the heart of theology is to know Him savingly. The LORD Himself says He spoke to Moses "face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend" (Exod. 33:11), and then Moses responds to God: "let me know Your ways so that I may know You" (Exod. 33:13). Knowing doctrine, knowing confessions, creeds, and statements of faith, and knowing what the Word of God says is great. But if all that effort is merely for the prideful sake of gaining knowledge then we have missed the entire Message and Purpose of the Bible.
The apostle Paul said: "I want to know Christ" (Phil. 3:10). Jesus said that eternal life is to know God the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3). This is the meaning of life! Let us come to the Bible to know God in Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; to know the ways of God; to know the mind of Christ; to know the love, mercy, and grace of God toward us redeemed sinner-saints in Christ by the effectual ministry of the regenerating and indwelling Holy Spirit; and let us know the heart of God for sinners in the only inerrant revelation of God, the Word of God, to be interpreted and to be read not necessarily "between the lines," but as the direct, divine revelation of God to all of His creation!
I was raised Southern Baptist and remained so through much of my redeemed life. I am grateful for being nurtured in this tradition--a tradition that led me to Jesus and taught me to love and honor Scripture for what it is, the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16 ESV), the revelation of the sovereign God who created and redeemed us (John 1:1, 2, 3, 14; 20:30, 31; Heb. 4:12). I earned a BA in English and a BA in Biblical Studies from a Southern Baptist college (now Judson College) where I was taught not what to think but how to think. I also once blogged on the life and theology of Jacob Arminius during my college years (2006-2011) and afterwards to 2015. I embraced Reformed theology in the Spring of 2022 and, so, I am Reformed Baptist. I am quite wordy by nature, and I can't help it, but I would rather offer far too much than too little Scripture and theology.
Allow me some boldness here: If you came here to fight, to argue and to smear, you have come here in vain. You are welcome to disagree and to argue against what I offer. But I expect you, as a follower of Christ, to do so respectfully, as the same Holy Spirit indwelling you also dwells within me, for we are redeemed by the same blood of Jesus and we worship the same God of Scripture. We are adopted children of the same Father. We may see the scriptures differently here and there but we most likely have far more in common than not. If you are not a believer, and you have questions, then I welcome your questions. If you are an atheist or an agnostic, you are welcome to comment if you so choose, but I expect you to be gracious to me and to others who may comment. None of us will benefit from demeaning, degrading, offensive and bombastic slander. Consider that the one with whom you disagree may be quite sincere in his or her beliefs without assigning or presuming the worst motives possible.
Since I came to faith in Christ by the grace of God, in May of 1995, I have maintained interests in textual and canonical studies of Scripture, early-Church history, including, oddly, a two-year stint (2020-2021) reading / studying the life and theology of Pelagius (354-420), and Systematic Theology. I care about Church history, and Creeds, but I love the truth of God's inerrant Word. My focus and greatest love for writing is primarily theology, Reformed theology, as represented in the Five Solas of the Reformation--the Latin word sola meaning alone. We are saved by Grace alone through Faith alone in Christ alone as found in Scripture alone to the glory of God alone. The work of salvation is entirely God's work and His work alone:
A sinner is saved only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and in no sense possible by good works, or good deeds done for others, or by trying to be a good, decent, and moral human being (Gal. 3:21). Jesus didn't die a viciously cruel death for "good, decent, and moral" people; and, if you claim to believe Scripture as the Word of God, there are, ultimately, no "good, decent, and moral" people: only God is good (Mark 10:18; Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23). Jesus came to save sinners. Good people don't go to Heaven. Saved people go to Heaven. How can you be saved from sin and the wrath of God (John 3:36; Rom. 5:9; Gal. 5:19, 20, 21; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; 5:6; 1 Thess. 1:10; 2 Thess. 1:9; Rev. 6:16)? By trusting in the Person and Work of Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:23; 10:9, 10; Eph. 2:8, 9). See my Statement of Faith below as well as my Theology page.
All emphases of Scripture or of quoted authors are added by me on this site whether or not indicated as such. All pronouns of the deity / divinity of the Godhead Trinity (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit) on this site, whether from English Bible translations or from authors quoted, are capitalized by me. I do this out of personal conviction to magnify and sanctify the LORD God in Trinity; and also to clearly distinguish between male references in passages where either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit are referenced along with a male figure in the inerrant biblical text.
The apostle Paul said: "I want to know Christ" (Phil. 3:10). Jesus said that eternal life is to know God the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3). This is the meaning of life! Let us come to the Bible to know God in Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; to know the ways of God; to know the mind of Christ; to know the love, mercy, and grace of God toward us redeemed sinner-saints in Christ by the effectual ministry of the regenerating and indwelling Holy Spirit; and let us know the heart of God for sinners in the only inerrant revelation of God, the Word of God, to be interpreted and to be read not necessarily "between the lines," but as the direct, divine revelation of God to all of His creation!
I was raised Southern Baptist and remained so through much of my redeemed life. I am grateful for being nurtured in this tradition--a tradition that led me to Jesus and taught me to love and honor Scripture for what it is, the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16 ESV), the revelation of the sovereign God who created and redeemed us (John 1:1, 2, 3, 14; 20:30, 31; Heb. 4:12). I earned a BA in English and a BA in Biblical Studies from a Southern Baptist college (now Judson College) where I was taught not what to think but how to think. I also once blogged on the life and theology of Jacob Arminius during my college years (2006-2011) and afterwards to 2015. I embraced Reformed theology in the Spring of 2022 and, so, I am Reformed Baptist. I am quite wordy by nature, and I can't help it, but I would rather offer far too much than too little Scripture and theology.
Allow me some boldness here: If you came here to fight, to argue and to smear, you have come here in vain. You are welcome to disagree and to argue against what I offer. But I expect you, as a follower of Christ, to do so respectfully, as the same Holy Spirit indwelling you also dwells within me, for we are redeemed by the same blood of Jesus and we worship the same God of Scripture. We are adopted children of the same Father. We may see the scriptures differently here and there but we most likely have far more in common than not. If you are not a believer, and you have questions, then I welcome your questions. If you are an atheist or an agnostic, you are welcome to comment if you so choose, but I expect you to be gracious to me and to others who may comment. None of us will benefit from demeaning, degrading, offensive and bombastic slander. Consider that the one with whom you disagree may be quite sincere in his or her beliefs without assigning or presuming the worst motives possible.
The middle picture is of me (left) and my younger brother (right), a three-year age gap, ages six and three years old respectively.
Since I came to faith in Christ by the grace of God, in May of 1995, I have maintained interests in textual and canonical studies of Scripture, early-Church history, including, oddly, a two-year stint (2020-2021) reading / studying the life and theology of Pelagius (354-420), and Systematic Theology. I care about Church history, and Creeds, but I love the truth of God's inerrant Word. My focus and greatest love for writing is primarily theology, Reformed theology, as represented in the Five Solas of the Reformation--the Latin word sola meaning alone. We are saved by Grace alone through Faith alone in Christ alone as found in Scripture alone to the glory of God alone. The work of salvation is entirely God's work and His work alone:
- Sola Scriptura--Scripture Alone: The Bible is the sole written divine revelation of God and alone can bind the consciences of believers absolutely.
- Sola Fide--Faith Alone: Justification is by faith: the merit of Christ, imputed to us by grace through faith, is the sole ground of God's acceptance of us.
- Sola Gratia--Grace Alone: Our salvation rests solely upon the work of God's effectual grace in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Solus Christus--Christ Alone: Jesus Christ is the only Mediator through Whose atoning work we are redeemed.
- Soli Deo Gloria--Glory of God Alone: To God alone belongs all glory for our salvation.
A sinner is saved only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and in no sense possible by good works, or good deeds done for others, or by trying to be a good, decent, and moral human being (Gal. 3:21). Jesus didn't die a viciously cruel death for "good, decent, and moral" people; and, if you claim to believe Scripture as the Word of God, there are, ultimately, no "good, decent, and moral" people: only God is good (Mark 10:18; Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23). Jesus came to save sinners. Good people don't go to Heaven. Saved people go to Heaven. How can you be saved from sin and the wrath of God (John 3:36; Rom. 5:9; Gal. 5:19, 20, 21; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; 5:6; 1 Thess. 1:10; 2 Thess. 1:9; Rev. 6:16)? By trusting in the Person and Work of Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:23; 10:9, 10; Eph. 2:8, 9). See my Statement of Faith below as well as my Theology page.
All emphases of Scripture or of quoted authors are added by me on this site whether or not indicated as such. All pronouns of the deity / divinity of the Godhead Trinity (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit) on this site, whether from English Bible translations or from authors quoted, are capitalized by me. I do this out of personal conviction to magnify and sanctify the LORD God in Trinity; and also to clearly distinguish between male references in passages where either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit are referenced along with a male figure in the inerrant biblical text.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
Included below are theological (meaning studies that are broadly related to God or God in Trinity), soteriological (meaning studies regarding salvation from sin and eternal separation), ecclesiological (meaning studies regarding church government), evangelical (meaning studies regarding the Gospel of Jesus Christ) and eschatological (meaning studies related to the end times) themes that are important to me:
- THE BIBLE, in the words of B.B. Warfield, is the Word of God in such a way that, when the Bible speaks, God speaks.
- GOD refers to the only living and true God: God in Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit--one God in three Persons.
- GOD THE FATHER refers to the God of Israel, the Father of Jesus, the Father of all redeemed and adopted children of God.
- GOD THE SON is the eternally-existent second member of the Godhead Trinity: God the Son and promised Jewish Messiah.
- GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT is the eternally-existent third member of the Godhead Trinity: God the Holy Spirit.
- THE CHURCH is Christ's universal body comprising of redeemed Jewish and Gentile believers in and followers of Jesus.
- THE CHURCH EXCLUSIVE is the insistence that the Christian Faith is the only true Faith--excluding all other so-called faiths.
- THE ORDINANCES are rites, ceremonial acts, initiated by Jesus for His people and include Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
- BAPTISM with water identifies God's people, born-again converts to Jesus by grace, as members of His Church by the work of the Spirit.
- THE LORD'S SUPPER is the giving of thanks to Jesus for His sacrifice--remembering His death, burial, and bodily resurrection until He returns.
- SPIRITUAL GIFTS are evidences of the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within all believers for their building up in Christ to God's glory.
- WORSHIP refers to the rightful demonstration of the eternal worth and majesty of our Redeeming-Creator God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- CREATION | FALL | REDEMPTION refers to the handiwork of God as divine Artiste, Originator of all that exists, seen and unseen.
- THE GOSPEL is Good News to Israel and to all Gentiles: trust in Jesus, Israel's Messiah, by the grace of God and you shall be saved.
- SALVATION | REDEMPTION refers to being delivered from the wrath of God against sinners by grace through faith in Christ.
- JUSTIFICATION refers to the act of God imputing Christ's perfect righteousness, and perfect obedience, to believers--considering them guiltless.
- MEANING OF LIFE is to experientially know God the Father, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to be known by God and to enjoy Him in the Holy Spirit.
- PROBLEM OF EVIL belongs not to God but solely to us who freely choose to enact sin and evil--yet under the sovereignty of God.
- ESCHATOLOGY refers to the events leading up to the Return of Jesus our King, Messiah our Savior, our LORD and God.
- ETERNAL STATE refers to the events following the Return of Jesus, our King and LORD, who brings about final justice to the world.
This Statement of Faith is a bit more in-depth than what is typically offered by some. Part of the reason why is because I am joyfully wordy by nature. I tend toward explaining my positions perhaps more than is at times necessary. See my Systematic Theology page for fuller Statements.
I believe that, from Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God," to Revelation 22:21, "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen," these books are collectively the Word of God, noted by the apostle Paul as being inspired or "breathed out" by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16 ESV), and noted by Jesus as being without fault (John 10:35 NET) in the original manuscripts, as written by the author chosen of God, and guided / oversought by the Holy Spirit. The "disagreements" or textual variants among the over 5,800 manuscript copies we have are often minor, e.g., copying mistakes, variant spellings, differing prepositions, etc., none of which negatively impact even one theological truth--as even Bart Ehrman admits in his Misquoting Jesus, first edition, pp. 207-08. The Bible is a collection of divinely authoritative texts for believers in Jesus, the Church of Christ Jesus made up of renewed believers, as they convey their experiences, thoughts, feelings, contexts and particular perspectives, being governed by the indwelling Holy Spirit, ensuring that what the authors write divinely conforms to the very intention of the God of Israel in word-choice and syntax, etc.
The Bible is the Revelation of God Himself, unerring, infallible and entirely sufficient. As B.B. Warfield argues, and with him I believe, "The Bible is the Word of God in such a way that, when the Bible speaks, God speaks." Scripture comprises the history of God with the people of God--a people who belong to God by His grace through a gifted faith in Jesus Christ. This Word of God, penned mostly by eye-witnesses, includes songs, poetry, prayers, instructions and warnings, and also works within the hearts of believers (1 Thess. 2:13), revealing and confirming to us the Gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16, 17) and the Salvific Plan of God for the ages to the believer (John 1:11, 12, 13; 3:16, 17, 36; Acts 4:12; 1 Cor. 1:21).
B.B. Warfield, rightly I think, states: "The Bible is the Word of God in such a way that, when the Bible speaks, God speaks." The Bible is the only authoritative, infallible, verbal-plenary inspired, inerrant, written Revelation of the nature, character, and sovereign will of our God; and God has made Himself known to us in and through His Word, in His Son Jesus, through the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
What the believer should recognize and then ask is this: "We have the inerrant Word of God. Now, what does it say, and what does it mean?" The Word of God is the sufficient revelation of the nature, character, and sovereign will of God. He desired to create humans in His image for daily fellowship. He gave us all of life to enjoy (Gen. 1:26-31; 2.1-25) with one exception (Gen. 2:16, 17)--and, by some trickery of the Devil, still we freely and most willingly did the one thing God commanded us not to do--and that disobedience brought sin into God's created order (Gen. 3:1-24). But God was not willing to leave us in our fallen state: He would provide redemption for those who, by the gracious inner work of God the Holy Spirit, trust in His Suffering Servant, Messiah Jesus (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 53:1-12; Rom. 5:12-21; Eph. 1:3-14; 2:1-10; Titus 3:4, 5), all of this redemptive work within His fallen creatures serving to bring Him glory (Ps. 72:19; Prov. 16:4; Rom. 11:36; Eph. 1:6; Rev. 5:11-14). This is the only Gospel, and it's not about money and health, and not about making us happy. The Gospel is all about God in Christ and the glory of His grace.
The Word of God is sufficient for the believer today, granting us all that we need to know, and for this life all that we must know. God has not revealed to us all that is knowable. He reserves for Himself much knowledge, many private and secret truths, but what He has revealed to us in His Word belongs to us (Deut. 29:29). The believer has no need of private revelations, private words or secret knowledge from God, because each born-again believer has the very Word of God--the very revelation of God that He has inscripturated and breathed out (2 Tim. 3:16 ESV) for us in the Bible (2 Pet. 1:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). I agree with Dr. John Frame when he says that there is "a sense in which God's Word is God Himself" because the Word, which is His particular living and active Word (Heb. 4:12), is also effectual (1 Thess. 2.13), and the Word communicates to us God's essential nature. God is, "among all His other attributes, a speaking God" (The Doctrine of the Word of God, 47-48). He speaks to us still in His all-sufficient Word: if people won't open God's Word then the so-perceived miraculous will be of no help (Luke 15:29, 30, 31). While some believers are looking for a "fresh word" from God, all they truly need is to open God's already-established, authoritative, infallible, and inerrant Word, and drink it deeply into their souls for the refreshing and satisfying of their spirits.
The Bible is the Revelation of God Himself, unerring, infallible and entirely sufficient. As B.B. Warfield argues, and with him I believe, "The Bible is the Word of God in such a way that, when the Bible speaks, God speaks." Scripture comprises the history of God with the people of God--a people who belong to God by His grace through a gifted faith in Jesus Christ. This Word of God, penned mostly by eye-witnesses, includes songs, poetry, prayers, instructions and warnings, and also works within the hearts of believers (1 Thess. 2:13), revealing and confirming to us the Gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16, 17) and the Salvific Plan of God for the ages to the believer (John 1:11, 12, 13; 3:16, 17, 36; Acts 4:12; 1 Cor. 1:21).
B.B. Warfield, rightly I think, states: "The Bible is the Word of God in such a way that, when the Bible speaks, God speaks." The Bible is the only authoritative, infallible, verbal-plenary inspired, inerrant, written Revelation of the nature, character, and sovereign will of our God; and God has made Himself known to us in and through His Word, in His Son Jesus, through the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
What the believer should recognize and then ask is this: "We have the inerrant Word of God. Now, what does it say, and what does it mean?" The Word of God is the sufficient revelation of the nature, character, and sovereign will of God. He desired to create humans in His image for daily fellowship. He gave us all of life to enjoy (Gen. 1:26-31; 2.1-25) with one exception (Gen. 2:16, 17)--and, by some trickery of the Devil, still we freely and most willingly did the one thing God commanded us not to do--and that disobedience brought sin into God's created order (Gen. 3:1-24). But God was not willing to leave us in our fallen state: He would provide redemption for those who, by the gracious inner work of God the Holy Spirit, trust in His Suffering Servant, Messiah Jesus (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 53:1-12; Rom. 5:12-21; Eph. 1:3-14; 2:1-10; Titus 3:4, 5), all of this redemptive work within His fallen creatures serving to bring Him glory (Ps. 72:19; Prov. 16:4; Rom. 11:36; Eph. 1:6; Rev. 5:11-14). This is the only Gospel, and it's not about money and health, and not about making us happy. The Gospel is all about God in Christ and the glory of His grace.
The Word of God is sufficient for the believer today, granting us all that we need to know, and for this life all that we must know. God has not revealed to us all that is knowable. He reserves for Himself much knowledge, many private and secret truths, but what He has revealed to us in His Word belongs to us (Deut. 29:29). The believer has no need of private revelations, private words or secret knowledge from God, because each born-again believer has the very Word of God--the very revelation of God that He has inscripturated and breathed out (2 Tim. 3:16 ESV) for us in the Bible (2 Pet. 1:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). I agree with Dr. John Frame when he says that there is "a sense in which God's Word is God Himself" because the Word, which is His particular living and active Word (Heb. 4:12), is also effectual (1 Thess. 2.13), and the Word communicates to us God's essential nature. God is, "among all His other attributes, a speaking God" (The Doctrine of the Word of God, 47-48). He speaks to us still in His all-sufficient Word: if people won't open God's Word then the so-perceived miraculous will be of no help (Luke 15:29, 30, 31). While some believers are looking for a "fresh word" from God, all they truly need is to open God's already-established, authoritative, infallible, and inerrant Word, and drink it deeply into their souls for the refreshing and satisfying of their spirits.
I believe the authors of Scripture do not defend the existence of God but merely presume the eternal existence of God because God revealed Himself to them. From Adam to Abraham and Moses, from the Prophets to Christ Jesus Himself, God has made His existence known--even in all that He has created (Ps. 19:1, 2, 3, 4; Rom. 1.18, 19, 20). Had God not revealed Himself, in immediate Presence, in the Incarnation of Jesus and in His Word, then we could never personally know the God who created all that is, seen and unseen, and that He holds together every minutiæ of creation, at this very moment and for all time, by the Word of His Power (Heb. 1:1-3; cf. Col. 1:16-17; John 1:1-3, 14, 18). We believe in:
God is Spirit, without material body, and invisible until He manifests His presence. God has no beginning and cannot have, and will have, no end. God is eternally self-causing, with no Creator to bring God into existence, and God is self-sustaining; God also sustains every molecule in all of existence. God is Light--blinding Light upon which no mortal can look. God is omniscient--all-knowing--God knows all that can be known and He possesses this exhaustive knowledge by God's own Essence / Being / Nature (2 Sam. 2:3; 2 Chron. 28:9; Job 12:13; Ps. 139:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; 147:5; Heb. 4:13); God is omnipresent--everywhere all at once (Ps. 139:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)--not in every thing (object) but in every place all at once; and God is omnipotent--all-powerful--God possesses all power by God's own Essence / Being / Nature; God creates whatever has been created, physical or metaphysical, and God holds all that is, or all that has being or existence, by the Word of His Power (John 1:1, 2, 3; Heb. 1:1, 2, 3).
There is only one indivisible Being called God (Deut. 6:4; 6:4; 2 Sam. 7:22; 1 Kings 8:60; 1 Chron. 17:20; Isa. 46:9; Mark 12:29). God is one indivisible Being / Essence and, yet, this one Being called God exists in Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Three Persons--God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, share One Being / Essence. God the Father is often referred to as the First Member of the Trinity, the Godhead, the Three-Personed Community of the one and only living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9)--God in compound unity. Mathematically we refer to the monotheism of God in terms not incorrectly as 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 but the true calculation of 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. There is only One God and this indivisible God exists in Three equally-divine Persons: the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Spirit is God; who are co-equal, co-eternal, and one in purpose and will, thought and intention, even though each Person possesses His own distinct role within the Economy and divine and eternal Relationship of the Trinity, the Trinity in Unity, "neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance," as stated in the Athanasian Creed.
The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. God has revealed God's Self to us as One God (Isa. 42:8; 1 Cor. 8:6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4, 5, 6; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2:5; James 2:19; Jude 1:25) in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--not three gods, not one God and one (or two) demi-gods, not one God pretending to be three persons (sometimes Father, sometimes Son, and sometimes Holy Spirit), but one, sovereign, indivisible God shared in three co-eternal and co-equal Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we affirm in the Athanasian Creed: "The Father was eternally uncreate (sic.), the Son eternally uncreate, and the Holy Spirit eternally uncreate. The Father is incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty. The Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord. The Father is eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. Yet there are not three uncreated, nor three incomprehensibles, nor three Lords, nor three eternals, nor three almighties, but one Uncreate, one Incomprehensible, one Almighty, one Lord, and one Eternal." We love, trust, worship and serve one God.
How can three equally-divine Persons be one God? The answer is a compound unity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit possess one mind, one will, one purpose and one eternally-unifying intention for the history of the universe under God's sovereign rule. No other compound unity of persons (e.g., husband and wife, or angels) is capable of a minute-unified co-existence of equally-divine Persons sharing one divine Nature / Essence / Being: one God, one Nature, one Essence in three co-eternal Persons. For example, no three angels, and no three mortals could ever attain or share one eternal mind, one eternal purpose, one eternal intention or one eternal Nature / Essence. The divine Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always existed from eternity past, exist now, and will exist into the future forever. This compound unity of three equally-divine Persons is one God; not one Person (Unitarianism) but one God (Monotheism); and not three gods with varying purposes (Tritheism).
We must emphatically insist that, because this God has revealed God's own eternal nature and God's eternal purposes in the earth, this God is the only living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9 CSB; cf. Jer. 10:10; John 17:3; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2:5, 6), and because God Himself, who graciously revealed Himself to us (and this is how we know Him), claims that He alone is God (Isa. 5:5, 6, 14, 18, 21, 22; 44:6; 46:9) and He Himself knows of no other god or gods: "Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none" (Isa. 44:8); "understand that I Am and that, before Me, there was no God formed and there will be none after Me" (Isa. 43:10; cf. Jesus at John 8:24, 28, 58 where Jesus emphatically states that, unless we believe that He is the I Am, cf. Ex. 3:14, 15, we will die in our sins and be separated from God); and, because Jesus insists in no uncertain terms that He is the only Way to the Father (John 14:6), then Pluralism is a farce at best and a damnable heresy at worst. There is no Muslim Allah of Islam, no Indian Brahmā (Creator), no Vishnu, Shiva or Krishna, no Greek or Roman gods nor any other gods imaginable (nor is there divinity in fallen humanity), for God, the only living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9), knows of no other eternally-sovereign deity, no other enlightened force or being in existence, except the only eternal God in compound Tri-unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--one God in Three eternally-divine Persons.
The oddest aspect of atheism, then, is its innate self-betraying and self-refuting irony. God creates each human being in God's image and, in the words of Wayne Grudem, creates the person to be like God and to truly represent God. We cannot, therefore, have any semblance of human essence / nature without an ultimate Essence / Nature since some-thing, some substance, cannot derive or self-originate out of no-thing or no substance. Therefore, when someone denies the existence of God, the individual is essentially denying his or her own essence, her or his own reality, his or her own being human. So that, denying the existence of God is crucially as intellectually suicidal as even denying one's own reality--and, yet, this tragic fad is trending substantially in our woefully self-professed "enlightened" (spiritually blind) Western culture.
- God in Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (cf. Job 3:4; Ps. 104:30; Isa. 42:1, 2, 3, 4; 43:10; 48:16, 17; Matt. 3:16, 17; 28:18, 19, 20; Luke 3:22; John 1:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 18; 5:17, 18; 10:33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38; 14:26; 16:7; 17:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; Acts 2:33; 13:2; Rom. 8:9; 14:17, 18; 15:30; 1 Cor. 6:11; 8:6; 12:4, 5, 6; 2 Cor. 3:3-18; 13:14; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 1:17; Col. 1:15, 16, 17, 18; Titus 2:13; 3:6; Heb. 1:1, 2, 3, 8; 1 Pet. 1:1, 2; 1 John 5:20);
- the Eternal Deity (Micah 5:2; John 1:1; 8:24, 28, 58; 17:3; Heb. 7:3), Incarnation (John 1:1, 2, 3, 14, 18), Sinless Life (John 8:46), Atoning Death by Crucifixion and Burial (Isa. 53:10; John 1:29; 6:51; Rom. 3:21-26; 10:9, 10), subsequent Bodily Resurrection (Acts 3:15; Rom. 1:4; 6:4; 8:11; 10:9, 10; 1 Thess. 4:13), Ascension (Luke 24:50, 51, 52, 53; Acts 1:6, 7, 8, 9), and Return of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:10, 11; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; Rev. 1:7; 19:11-19);
- the Eternal Deity and LORDship (Job 33:4; Ps. 104:30; Matt. 12:32; John 14:16; 15:26; 16:12, 13, 14, 15; Acts 5:3, 4, 9; Rom. 5:5 2 Cor. 3:17; Heb. 9:14; 10:29) of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:15, 16, 17; Rom. 8:9, 26; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19), who effects our faith and salvation in Jesus Christ (John 6:63; Rom. 15:13; 1 Cor. 2:14; 12:3; Titus 3:4, 5), and preserves our salvation to the very end (Rom. 8:16; 2 Cor. 1:21, 22; Eph. 1:13, 14; 4:30);
- and Scripture as the only and final (Ps. 19:7, 8, 9, 10, 11; 119:160; 2 Pet. 1:19), inerrant (Ps. 12:6; Prov. 30:5; Matt. 24:35; John 10:35; 17:17; Heb. 6:18), infallible (Isa. 40:8; John 10:35; 17:17), effectual (John 5:38; Rom. 1:16, 17; 10:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23) authority (Isa. 8:20 NLT; Isa. 40:8; Luke 24:27; John 5:38; 2 Pet. 1:19) for Doctrine and Practice (Ps. 119:105; Luke 11:28; 2 Tim. 3:14-17 ESV; 2 Pet. 1:16, 19, 20, 21).
God is Spirit, without material body, and invisible until He manifests His presence. God has no beginning and cannot have, and will have, no end. God is eternally self-causing, with no Creator to bring God into existence, and God is self-sustaining; God also sustains every molecule in all of existence. God is Light--blinding Light upon which no mortal can look. God is omniscient--all-knowing--God knows all that can be known and He possesses this exhaustive knowledge by God's own Essence / Being / Nature (2 Sam. 2:3; 2 Chron. 28:9; Job 12:13; Ps. 139:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; 147:5; Heb. 4:13); God is omnipresent--everywhere all at once (Ps. 139:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)--not in every thing (object) but in every place all at once; and God is omnipotent--all-powerful--God possesses all power by God's own Essence / Being / Nature; God creates whatever has been created, physical or metaphysical, and God holds all that is, or all that has being or existence, by the Word of His Power (John 1:1, 2, 3; Heb. 1:1, 2, 3).
There is only one indivisible Being called God (Deut. 6:4; 6:4; 2 Sam. 7:22; 1 Kings 8:60; 1 Chron. 17:20; Isa. 46:9; Mark 12:29). God is one indivisible Being / Essence and, yet, this one Being called God exists in Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Three Persons--God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, share One Being / Essence. God the Father is often referred to as the First Member of the Trinity, the Godhead, the Three-Personed Community of the one and only living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9)--God in compound unity. Mathematically we refer to the monotheism of God in terms not incorrectly as 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 but the true calculation of 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. There is only One God and this indivisible God exists in Three equally-divine Persons: the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Spirit is God; who are co-equal, co-eternal, and one in purpose and will, thought and intention, even though each Person possesses His own distinct role within the Economy and divine and eternal Relationship of the Trinity, the Trinity in Unity, "neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance," as stated in the Athanasian Creed.
The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. God has revealed God's Self to us as One God (Isa. 42:8; 1 Cor. 8:6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4, 5, 6; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2:5; James 2:19; Jude 1:25) in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--not three gods, not one God and one (or two) demi-gods, not one God pretending to be three persons (sometimes Father, sometimes Son, and sometimes Holy Spirit), but one, sovereign, indivisible God shared in three co-eternal and co-equal Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we affirm in the Athanasian Creed: "The Father was eternally uncreate (sic.), the Son eternally uncreate, and the Holy Spirit eternally uncreate. The Father is incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty. The Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord. The Father is eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. Yet there are not three uncreated, nor three incomprehensibles, nor three Lords, nor three eternals, nor three almighties, but one Uncreate, one Incomprehensible, one Almighty, one Lord, and one Eternal." We love, trust, worship and serve one God.
How can three equally-divine Persons be one God? The answer is a compound unity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit possess one mind, one will, one purpose and one eternally-unifying intention for the history of the universe under God's sovereign rule. No other compound unity of persons (e.g., husband and wife, or angels) is capable of a minute-unified co-existence of equally-divine Persons sharing one divine Nature / Essence / Being: one God, one Nature, one Essence in three co-eternal Persons. For example, no three angels, and no three mortals could ever attain or share one eternal mind, one eternal purpose, one eternal intention or one eternal Nature / Essence. The divine Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always existed from eternity past, exist now, and will exist into the future forever. This compound unity of three equally-divine Persons is one God; not one Person (Unitarianism) but one God (Monotheism); and not three gods with varying purposes (Tritheism).
We must emphatically insist that, because this God has revealed God's own eternal nature and God's eternal purposes in the earth, this God is the only living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9 CSB; cf. Jer. 10:10; John 17:3; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2:5, 6), and because God Himself, who graciously revealed Himself to us (and this is how we know Him), claims that He alone is God (Isa. 5:5, 6, 14, 18, 21, 22; 44:6; 46:9) and He Himself knows of no other god or gods: "Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none" (Isa. 44:8); "understand that I Am and that, before Me, there was no God formed and there will be none after Me" (Isa. 43:10; cf. Jesus at John 8:24, 28, 58 where Jesus emphatically states that, unless we believe that He is the I Am, cf. Ex. 3:14, 15, we will die in our sins and be separated from God); and, because Jesus insists in no uncertain terms that He is the only Way to the Father (John 14:6), then Pluralism is a farce at best and a damnable heresy at worst. There is no Muslim Allah of Islam, no Indian Brahmā (Creator), no Vishnu, Shiva or Krishna, no Greek or Roman gods nor any other gods imaginable (nor is there divinity in fallen humanity), for God, the only living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9), knows of no other eternally-sovereign deity, no other enlightened force or being in existence, except the only eternal God in compound Tri-unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--one God in Three eternally-divine Persons.
The oddest aspect of atheism, then, is its innate self-betraying and self-refuting irony. God creates each human being in God's image and, in the words of Wayne Grudem, creates the person to be like God and to truly represent God. We cannot, therefore, have any semblance of human essence / nature without an ultimate Essence / Nature since some-thing, some substance, cannot derive or self-originate out of no-thing or no substance. Therefore, when someone denies the existence of God, the individual is essentially denying his or her own essence, her or his own reality, his or her own being human. So that, denying the existence of God is crucially as intellectually suicidal as even denying one's own reality--and, yet, this tragic fad is trending substantially in our woefully self-professed "enlightened" (spiritually blind) Western culture.
I believe that, when the scriptures refer to "God," often the reference is to God the Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of Israel, the Creator of all that exists, the Sovereign LORD of the universe, Sovereign over the Church, which is the Congregation / Temple / Body of God the Son, Jesus Christ (Messiah), who is the Head or Ruler of the Body, by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. God is Father of all redeemed persons (Jew and Gentile alike), whom He effectually graces through the efficacious ministry of God the Holy Spirit, by applying the atoning blood of God the Son, Jesus, to the individual, in whom the Spirit birthed faith in Christ, to the glory of God the Father.
I believe that Jesus is not a Roman Catholic god but the long-awaited and promised Jewish Messiah of Israel for the Jewish people: Yeshua (Hebrew: יְהוֹשׁוּעַ, Yehoshua, from which we get the Latinized English name Joshua--there is no Y in Latin; Greek: Ἰησοῦς, Iésous, from which we get the Latinized English name Jesus--there is no Y in Latin) and the name was common in the history of the Jewish culture (cf. Matt. 1:21, 25; 27:16, 17; Luke 3:29; Acts 7:45; Col. 4:11; Heb. 4:8). He is the eternally-existing Second Member of the Trinity (He always existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit), incarnated (dwelling in flesh) by the Holy Spirit through the Virgin Mary and, thus, completely human with a human nature; and innate deity, completely divine as God the Son, LORD (YHWH) over all Creation and His blood-bought Church / Temple / Body. He pre-existed eternally within the Trinity (John 1:1 NLT) and became a man in true physical form on earth, possessing both uniquely divine and human natures in one Person, who also lived a sinless and obedient life to the entire Law of God, was willingly crucified to atone for the sin of the world (John 1.29), buried and rose again bodily on the third day after His death on the Cross. His physical / bodily death and His physical / bodily resurrection is necessary Christian doctrine for orthodoxy (right belief) and the rejection of the same is heresy.
Jesus is Christ the King and He is Sovereign over all people (even unbelievers), He is LORD (YHWH) over His Church / Temple / Body, and He will return in Person, bringing Heaven to Earth, lovingly and justly ruling forever over all nations of redeemed and renewed people of God (Jew and Gentile alike)--people whom God called out to be His own treasure--occurring by grace through faith / trust / belief in Jesus the Messiah--redeemed people over whom He exults in His redeeming them in Jesus (Zeph. 3.17). Jesus is the one and only way to the Father, to Heaven, as Jesus Himself said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14.6). Note the exception.
Any teaching suggesting that one can reach Heaven apart from the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ is suggesting either that Jesus Himself is grossly mistaken (John 14:6), or that this biblical record of His words in John is entirely mistaken, and that the words recorded here are merely attributed to Him but do not, in truth, belong to Him. But how could anyone possibly know with certainty that to be true? By what revelation can anyone make such a claim? No one can be saved by trying to be a good and decent human being, or by attempting to keep the Ten Commandments, or by good works done toward and for the benefit of others (Rom. 9:32; Gal. 2:16; 5:4; Eph. 2:8, 9); how could you possibly know that you had performed enough good works to be saved by God? Know that we are not all children of God. We must become children of God through faith in Christ (John 1:11, 12, 13). God made the Way to Salvation, the Way to Himself, so easy, so clear, by giving us only one Way and that Way is solely by the grace of God through faith in His one and only Son, our only LORD, Savior and King, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is Christ the King and He is Sovereign over all people (even unbelievers), He is LORD (YHWH) over His Church / Temple / Body, and He will return in Person, bringing Heaven to Earth, lovingly and justly ruling forever over all nations of redeemed and renewed people of God (Jew and Gentile alike)--people whom God called out to be His own treasure--occurring by grace through faith / trust / belief in Jesus the Messiah--redeemed people over whom He exults in His redeeming them in Jesus (Zeph. 3.17). Jesus is the one and only way to the Father, to Heaven, as Jesus Himself said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14.6). Note the exception.
Any teaching suggesting that one can reach Heaven apart from the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ is suggesting either that Jesus Himself is grossly mistaken (John 14:6), or that this biblical record of His words in John is entirely mistaken, and that the words recorded here are merely attributed to Him but do not, in truth, belong to Him. But how could anyone possibly know with certainty that to be true? By what revelation can anyone make such a claim? No one can be saved by trying to be a good and decent human being, or by attempting to keep the Ten Commandments, or by good works done toward and for the benefit of others (Rom. 9:32; Gal. 2:16; 5:4; Eph. 2:8, 9); how could you possibly know that you had performed enough good works to be saved by God? Know that we are not all children of God. We must become children of God through faith in Christ (John 1:11, 12, 13). God made the Way to Salvation, the Way to Himself, so easy, so clear, by giving us only one Way and that Way is solely by the grace of God through faith in His one and only Son, our only LORD, Savior and King, Jesus Christ.
I believe the Holy Spirit is the eternally-existing Third Member of the Trinity, being God the Holy Spirit, who also seeks out to regenerate the hearts of the elect who are trusting in Christ for salvation, who trust solely in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ to be saved from sin (1 Cor. 1:21), and that through the effectual power of the Gospel (Rom. 1:16, 17) in the effectual inner work of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12, 13; Titus 3:5--regeneration precedes faith); and so we are saved solely by the grace of God (not of merit or works) through faith in the Person and Work of Jesus--through the means God provided (Eph. 2:8, 9): we have received faith (2 Pet. 1:1) in the same way that we have received Christ (John 1:11, 12)--by the grace of God. The Holy Spirit convicts sinners of sin (of all that is right, just, and holy) and of the coming reckoning of all (John 16:8-11); while the person understands that he is a sinner who cannot redeem himself nor perfectly obey God's Law and, thus, he stands in need of the righteousness of Christ imputed to him (Rom. 3:21-26). One's faith is solely in Jesus' atoning and justifying work on the Cross and His resurrection (Rom. 10:9, 10). The Holy Spirit also dwells within, empowers, sanctifies (makes progressively holy) and preserves the believer.
Note carefully: the Holy Spirit preserves the believer in Jesus. The apostate--the one who at one time claimed to have believed in Jesus and was saved by God's grace but who later rejects Christ and remains in that condition--is entirely without hope (Heb. 6:4-8; 10:26-31). What apostates prove is that they were never really a born-again believer who belonged to Jesus or else they would have remained with us (1 John 2:19). They did not lose their salvation. Born-again believers cannot lose their salvation because their salvation was predetermined by God from eternity past (Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:4, 5; Rev. 13:8; 17:8), they are presently being kept for salvation (Eph. 1:13, 14; 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6, 7; Jude 1:24, 25), and God has determined beyond all shadow of doubt that they will be saved (1 Cor. 1:30, 31; 2:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 15, 16; Eph. 1:11; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; Phil. 1:6; 3:20, 21; Col. 3:1, 2, 3, 4; 1 Thess. 1:2, 3, 4, 5). The late John MacArthur was right: "Salvation is meaningless if it isn't eternal."
The Holy Spirit also guides the believer into essentially-biblical truths--i.e., truths regarding the Triune God, the deity of Jesus and salvation by God's free grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus alone--and grants spiritual gifts to be exercised among and for the benefit of the Church to the ultimate glory of God in Christ. The eternally-existent Holy Spirit (meaning that God the Holy Spirit eternally co-existed with the Father and the Son) magnifies and brings glory to Jesus; while Jesus ever lives to magnify and bring glory to God our Father; One God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We remain entirely lost without the sovereign, effectual work, and the providential guidance and the powerful indwelling of the eternal and divine Person of God the Holy Spirit--who is also called the Spirit of God the Father and the Spirit of Christ Jesus.
Note carefully: the Holy Spirit preserves the believer in Jesus. The apostate--the one who at one time claimed to have believed in Jesus and was saved by God's grace but who later rejects Christ and remains in that condition--is entirely without hope (Heb. 6:4-8; 10:26-31). What apostates prove is that they were never really a born-again believer who belonged to Jesus or else they would have remained with us (1 John 2:19). They did not lose their salvation. Born-again believers cannot lose their salvation because their salvation was predetermined by God from eternity past (Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:4, 5; Rev. 13:8; 17:8), they are presently being kept for salvation (Eph. 1:13, 14; 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6, 7; Jude 1:24, 25), and God has determined beyond all shadow of doubt that they will be saved (1 Cor. 1:30, 31; 2:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 15, 16; Eph. 1:11; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; Phil. 1:6; 3:20, 21; Col. 3:1, 2, 3, 4; 1 Thess. 1:2, 3, 4, 5). The late John MacArthur was right: "Salvation is meaningless if it isn't eternal."
The Holy Spirit also guides the believer into essentially-biblical truths--i.e., truths regarding the Triune God, the deity of Jesus and salvation by God's free grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus alone--and grants spiritual gifts to be exercised among and for the benefit of the Church to the ultimate glory of God in Christ. The eternally-existent Holy Spirit (meaning that God the Holy Spirit eternally co-existed with the Father and the Son) magnifies and brings glory to Jesus; while Jesus ever lives to magnify and bring glory to God our Father; One God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We remain entirely lost without the sovereign, effectual work, and the providential guidance and the powerful indwelling of the eternal and divine Person of God the Holy Spirit--who is also called the Spirit of God the Father and the Spirit of Christ Jesus.
I believe the Church refers to all worldwide local churches anywhere on earth, the bodies or congregations of believers in Jesus the only Savior, and includes all of those people, Jew and Gentile, who are baptized into Jesus, into His Church, into His Kingdom by the effectual grace of God through a gifted faith in Jesus Christ; who, most significantly, having been efficaciously born again by God the Holy Spirit (John 3:3, 5, 6, 8; Titus 3:4, 5), by the grace of God the Father (James 1:18), and who then naturally exercises faith in Jesus His Son (John 1:11, 12, 13; Eph. 2:8, 9), are they who then also seek to follow His teachings in devoted love as LORD and Savior, not out of fear of punishment, nor from attempting to earn grace (an impossibility), but out of a graciously-changed heart of love toward Him; who also worthily partake of Christ's ordinances--the two religious customs of Baptism--initiation into new life in Christ by grace through a professed faith in Christ--and the Lord's Supper--reaffirmation of new life in Christ--as we give Him thanks while remembering in devotion His atoning body and blood given for our salvation; and whose mission on earth is to spread the Gospel of Christ and to make disciples of all the diverse people-groups from all the nations of the earth (Matt. 28:19, 20), to rightly preach the authoritative and inerrant Word of God, encouraging God's people to submit to Jesus living His life through them (Gal. 2:20), so as to bring honor, glory, and worship to our only God, through Jesus His Son, by the inward-working of God the Holy Spirit. His Church is called the Bride of Christ. A true church is one which rightly preaches the Word of God and rightly administers the sacraments of Christ our King.
The Church is first governed by apostolic authority granted by Jesus Himself. The apostles appoint "elders [presbýteros] for them [followers of Christ] in each church" (Acts 14:23); the local churches do not appoint their own Bishops / Elders / Pastors; Paul writes to Titus: "I left you behind in Crete for this reason, so that you should ... appoint elders [presbýteros] in every town" (Titus 1:5); the Bishops / Elders / Pastors hold spiritual authority within Christ's Church to govern and to shepherd God's flock (Acts 20:17, 28, 29, 30; cf. Luke 9:1, 2; 10:1; Acts 20:17; 21:18; 1 Cor. 16:15, 16; 1 Thess. 5:12; Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 5:1, 2); the Greek words presbýteros and episkopḗ (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1) are often used interchangeably as Bishops / Elders / Priests / Pastors. While congregations are permitted to elect their own Deacons--lit. servants (Acts 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) who can teach and preach the Word--the roles of Bishops / Elders / Priests / Pastors are elected by those with spiritual authority over them within the Church, those who hold an apostolic office (e.g. Paul, Peter, James, John, etc.). The early Church fathers continue the tradition, holding that Bishops / Elders / Priests / Pastors are to be ordained and commissioned by those who are already ordained by apostles, thus continuing in apostolic succession.
Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone of His Church (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6), the One who is building His Church (Matt. 16:18), maintains all authority in His Church (Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:22, 23; Col. 1:18) and governs His people through the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:15, 16, 17, 26; Acts 1:8; Rom. 5:5; 8:9, 10, 11, 14, 26; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19) by the effectual working of the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:14, 15, 16, 17; 2 Pet. 1:16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). We Reformed Baptists suggest that each local church is to govern itself under the Headeship of Christ by the Word of God (Matt. 18:15-20; Acts 2:37-47; 11:26; Eph. 1:22; 2:11-22; 3:10; 5:1-33; Col. 1:16, 17, 18; 1 Tim. 3:15; 5:17). The local churches (and local church autonomy) are, we say, granted emphasis in the New Testament (cf. Matt. 18:17; Acts 5:11; 11:22, 26; 12:1, 5; 13:1; 14:23, 27; 15:3, 4, 22; 18:22; Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 4:17; 5:12; 11:18; 16:19; Gal. 1:13; Eph. 1:22; 3:10, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 21; Phil. 4:15; Col. 1:18, 24, 25; 4:15, 16; 1 Tim. 3:5, 7, 15, 16; Philem. 1:2; Heb. 12:23; James 5:14; 3 John 1:6, 9, 10; Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14) as being in Christ, and under Christ, but not under any other human authority like a Bishop or a Pope.
Paul writes that, "If any man aspires to the office of overseer [cf. Acts 20:28], it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent," etc. (1 Tim. 3:1, 2), and so this rules out at least two categories of individuals to the office of Pastor or Priest or Elder or Bishop: this person must be a man, not a woman (1 Tim. 2:8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16), which I think is clear from even a cursory read of the New Testament (cf. 1 Cor. 14:34, 35; Eph. 5:22, 23, 24, 33; Titus 2:3, 4, 5; 1 Pet. 3:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7); and a heterosexual man (cf. the husband of one wife, 1 Tim. 3:2), thus disqualifying same-sex-attracted men, even if such are celibate unto the Lord. If you imagine that God has called you to be Pastor / Priest / Elder / Bishop and you are a woman or a same-sex-attracted man then ask yourself how you are biblically qualified to the office when there are clear restrictions and guidelines regarding such a ministry in the Word of God. Leadership belongs to godly men.
The Church is first governed by apostolic authority granted by Jesus Himself. The apostles appoint "elders [presbýteros] for them [followers of Christ] in each church" (Acts 14:23); the local churches do not appoint their own Bishops / Elders / Pastors; Paul writes to Titus: "I left you behind in Crete for this reason, so that you should ... appoint elders [presbýteros] in every town" (Titus 1:5); the Bishops / Elders / Pastors hold spiritual authority within Christ's Church to govern and to shepherd God's flock (Acts 20:17, 28, 29, 30; cf. Luke 9:1, 2; 10:1; Acts 20:17; 21:18; 1 Cor. 16:15, 16; 1 Thess. 5:12; Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 5:1, 2); the Greek words presbýteros and episkopḗ (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1) are often used interchangeably as Bishops / Elders / Priests / Pastors. While congregations are permitted to elect their own Deacons--lit. servants (Acts 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) who can teach and preach the Word--the roles of Bishops / Elders / Priests / Pastors are elected by those with spiritual authority over them within the Church, those who hold an apostolic office (e.g. Paul, Peter, James, John, etc.). The early Church fathers continue the tradition, holding that Bishops / Elders / Priests / Pastors are to be ordained and commissioned by those who are already ordained by apostles, thus continuing in apostolic succession.
Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone of His Church (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6), the One who is building His Church (Matt. 16:18), maintains all authority in His Church (Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:22, 23; Col. 1:18) and governs His people through the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:15, 16, 17, 26; Acts 1:8; Rom. 5:5; 8:9, 10, 11, 14, 26; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19) by the effectual working of the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:14, 15, 16, 17; 2 Pet. 1:16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). We Reformed Baptists suggest that each local church is to govern itself under the Headeship of Christ by the Word of God (Matt. 18:15-20; Acts 2:37-47; 11:26; Eph. 1:22; 2:11-22; 3:10; 5:1-33; Col. 1:16, 17, 18; 1 Tim. 3:15; 5:17). The local churches (and local church autonomy) are, we say, granted emphasis in the New Testament (cf. Matt. 18:17; Acts 5:11; 11:22, 26; 12:1, 5; 13:1; 14:23, 27; 15:3, 4, 22; 18:22; Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 4:17; 5:12; 11:18; 16:19; Gal. 1:13; Eph. 1:22; 3:10, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 21; Phil. 4:15; Col. 1:18, 24, 25; 4:15, 16; 1 Tim. 3:5, 7, 15, 16; Philem. 1:2; Heb. 12:23; James 5:14; 3 John 1:6, 9, 10; Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14) as being in Christ, and under Christ, but not under any other human authority like a Bishop or a Pope.
Paul writes that, "If any man aspires to the office of overseer [cf. Acts 20:28], it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent," etc. (1 Tim. 3:1, 2), and so this rules out at least two categories of individuals to the office of Pastor or Priest or Elder or Bishop: this person must be a man, not a woman (1 Tim. 2:8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16), which I think is clear from even a cursory read of the New Testament (cf. 1 Cor. 14:34, 35; Eph. 5:22, 23, 24, 33; Titus 2:3, 4, 5; 1 Pet. 3:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7); and a heterosexual man (cf. the husband of one wife, 1 Tim. 3:2), thus disqualifying same-sex-attracted men, even if such are celibate unto the Lord. If you imagine that God has called you to be Pastor / Priest / Elder / Bishop and you are a woman or a same-sex-attracted man then ask yourself how you are biblically qualified to the office when there are clear restrictions and guidelines regarding such a ministry in the Word of God. Leadership belongs to godly men.
I believe the apostle Paul when he writes that there is "one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all [who believe in Christ], who is above all [who believe in Christ] and [works] through all [who believe in Christ] and in all [who believe in Christ]" (Eph. 4:4-6). The Christian Faith is as distinct in the earth as is the Object of this Faith, Jesus Christ, the one and only divine Son of God (John 3:16), the one and only Mediator between God and mortal (1 Tim. 2:5), the one and only Way to the Father (John 14:6). The Jewish Faith rejects Jesus and therefore rejects union with God the Father, which is in Jesus His Son, attested by the work of the Spirit. The Muslim Faith rejects Jesus as the divine Son of God, as well as the Holy Trinity, and therefore rejects union with God the Father, which is in Jesus His Son, attested by the work of the Spirit. There are not Three Great Religions in the earth: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. That confession is a lie, or at least a grave error, taking ignorance into consideration. The Christian Faith is as exclusive and as exceptional as is the Object of this Faith, Jesus Christ, and this Faith is the sole work of the Gospel of God in Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Roman Catholic Church is not "the one true Church" holding the one true Faith. Our 1689 Confession, Baptist Faith and Message and Catechism, does not comprise tenets of "the one true Faith." Our Reformed Faith, with the Three Forms of Unity, is not the one true Faith. All who by the grace of God are trusting in Jesus, the crucified and risen Son of God, by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, who have thereby become adopted children of God and, hence, have been and are being indwelt by the Holy Spirit are those who hold to the one true Faith of Christ the King. The one true Faith does not belong to one Church, one Movement or one Denomination, but to anyone and to all who personally cling to the one and only Savior of humanity, the only Mediator between God and human beings, Jesus Christ. All of our respective confessions and catechisms are vital to our identity, and to our personal faith, but our true and eternal identity is in Jesus Christ alone.
The Roman Catholic Church is not "the one true Church" holding the one true Faith. Our 1689 Confession, Baptist Faith and Message and Catechism, does not comprise tenets of "the one true Faith." Our Reformed Faith, with the Three Forms of Unity, is not the one true Faith. All who by the grace of God are trusting in Jesus, the crucified and risen Son of God, by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, who have thereby become adopted children of God and, hence, have been and are being indwelt by the Holy Spirit are those who hold to the one true Faith of Christ the King. The one true Faith does not belong to one Church, one Movement or one Denomination, but to anyone and to all who personally cling to the one and only Savior of humanity, the only Mediator between God and human beings, Jesus Christ. All of our respective confessions and catechisms are vital to our identity, and to our personal faith, but our true and eternal identity is in Jesus Christ alone.
I believe there are only two ordinances, religious customs practiced among a body of people identifying them as belonging to Jesus, and these two ordinances are Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Throughout Church history the ordinances, historically referred to as sacraments, expanded from two to seven: 1) Baptism, 2) Lord's Supper, 3) Confirmation, 4) Reconciliation, 5) Anointing of the Sick, 6) Holy Orders, and 7) Marriage. Those of us in the Reformed Faith, including even non-Reformed Baptists, insist that, since the final five sacraments are not found explicitly taught in Scripture--meaning that neither Christ nor His apostles explicitly or even implicitly note that the five mentioned are sacraments proper--then only the first two are valid as being overtly and explicitly biblical in nature. Our aim should always be to think, and then to act, biblically.
I believe the proper candidates for Baptism--properly immersion into water if possible--is the person who, by the effectual inner-working of the Holy Spirit (regeneration) by the preaching of the Gospel, subsequently trusts / believes / exercises faith in Jesus as LORD, Savior, God, and King--and only professing born-again converts to Christ Jesus our King. We understand that the promise of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit is "for you," believers in and disciples of Jesus Christ, "and your children" (Acts 2:39), but Peter qualifies that statement by adding "as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself" (Acts 2:39). Not every child of every believer will trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot assume or presume upon the grace of God that every child of every believer belongs to the election of God (cf. Rom. 2:28, 29; 9:7, 9, 14, 15, 16, 18). But we train them up in the Way of the Lord (Prov. 22:6), teaching them His Word and His Grace and His Salvation, praying for their salvation (Ps. 3:8; Jonah 2:9).
Are we, then, to regard our children as cursed, as belonging to the Devil, as evil Canaanites? No. "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his [believing] wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy" (1 Cor. 7:14). We think this means that God blesses and protects and provides for those who are connected to one of His children, as He did under the Old Covenant, for the sake of His holy Name (cf. Gen. 12:3; 41:53, 54, 56; Num. 24:9; esp. Ezek. 16:20; 23:37). Such is not a guarantee of salvation, which only comes by the grace of God through faith in Jesus (Eph. 2:5, 8, 9, 10), but the principle remains intact. Note that the unbelieving spouse or child is not saved / born-again / regenerated because of being connected to the believing person, nor due to being baptized as an infant of the believing person, but merely blessed temporally by the sovereign act and grace of God. Salvation belongs to the Lord (Rev. 7:10). New Covenant Baptism, like partaking in the New Covenant Ordinance of the Lord's Supper, is reserved for believers / disciples of Jesus and only disciples of Jesus.
But there are also those individuals who did not have believing parents, who were not considered "set apart" by any believing parent (1 Cor. 7:14), and yet the Lord our God calls such unto Himself by His own electing grace. These persons are called to baptism in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19, 20), and called to be a professing and confessing disciple of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9, 10). As an aside: there may be cause for consideration whether infant baptism is even valid, given that Baptism by its very nature is reserved for those who profess faith in Christ, and we see the apostle Paul rebaptize those Ephesians who had already been immersed into water--the "baptism of repentance"--by John the Baptist (Acts 19:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). John's baptism, according to Paul, was not a sufficient Christian, New Covenant, baptism. Baptism should be reserved for disciples.
Are we, then, to regard our children as cursed, as belonging to the Devil, as evil Canaanites? No. "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his [believing] wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy" (1 Cor. 7:14). We think this means that God blesses and protects and provides for those who are connected to one of His children, as He did under the Old Covenant, for the sake of His holy Name (cf. Gen. 12:3; 41:53, 54, 56; Num. 24:9; esp. Ezek. 16:20; 23:37). Such is not a guarantee of salvation, which only comes by the grace of God through faith in Jesus (Eph. 2:5, 8, 9, 10), but the principle remains intact. Note that the unbelieving spouse or child is not saved / born-again / regenerated because of being connected to the believing person, nor due to being baptized as an infant of the believing person, but merely blessed temporally by the sovereign act and grace of God. Salvation belongs to the Lord (Rev. 7:10). New Covenant Baptism, like partaking in the New Covenant Ordinance of the Lord's Supper, is reserved for believers / disciples of Jesus and only disciples of Jesus.
But there are also those individuals who did not have believing parents, who were not considered "set apart" by any believing parent (1 Cor. 7:14), and yet the Lord our God calls such unto Himself by His own electing grace. These persons are called to baptism in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19, 20), and called to be a professing and confessing disciple of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9, 10). As an aside: there may be cause for consideration whether infant baptism is even valid, given that Baptism by its very nature is reserved for those who profess faith in Christ, and we see the apostle Paul rebaptize those Ephesians who had already been immersed into water--the "baptism of repentance"--by John the Baptist (Acts 19:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). John's baptism, according to Paul, was not a sufficient Christian, New Covenant, baptism. Baptism should be reserved for disciples.
I believe the Lord's Supper (Communion / Eucharist) is the giving of thanks to Christ Jesus (Matt. 26:26, 27, 28, 29, 30; 1 Cor. 11:23, 24, 25, 26) for His atoning blood through His crucifixion (John 1:29) on the Cross of Calvary, remembering His death, His burial, and His bodily resurrection--the word Eucharist refers to giving thanks (cf. Eph. 5:20). Jesus is always present in the Supper, for He lives within us--as does God the Father and God the Holy Spirit (John 14:23; Rom. 8:10; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17), and our triune God will never forsake us (Matt. 28:20; Phil. 4:6, 7; Heb. 13:5, 6). Jesus' blood is given to cover / atone / take away and to provide forgiveness for our sins (John 1:29; Rom. 3:25; 4:7; Heb. 9:22; 1 John 2:1, 2; 4:10), to heal us spiritually (Isa. 53:4, 5), and to appease the wrath of God against sin (Rom. 3:25, 26; 1 John 2:1, 2; cf. John 3:36 NKJV; 1 Thess. 5:9). His bodily resurrection is God the Father's Seal of Approval of His Son and is the determining factor of God justifying the believer (Rom. 3:21-26; 10:9, 10).
I believe the Holy Spirit grants spiritual gifts to each member of Christ's Church, His holy Temple, for the benefit of all of God's people (1 Cor. 12:7) and to the ultimate glory of God. The exercising of a spiritual gift is known as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7)--visible evidence of the presence and of the manifest power of the Holy Spirit working in and among God's redeemed people. Various gifts are listed (Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:8-10; Eph. 4:7-13). These gifts "equip God's people to do His work and build up His Church, the Body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord" and "measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:12-13 NLT / CEB), in other words, until we practically become like Christ Jesus--which will ultimately be fulfilled and occur when Jesus finally returns and we are forever changed to become like Him, holy, sinless (1 Cor. 15:51-54).
I do not--not in any sense conceivable--believe in the Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave / New Apostolic Reformation (which rightly, in the words of pastor John MacArthur, is neither New nor Apostolic nor a true Reformation) notions of the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13) as a subsequent, post-conversion experience, that initiates the believer into the exercising of the revelatory or "sign" gifts noted at 1 Corinthians 12.8-10, but, rather, warn against such; nor do I believe that the Holy Spirit is manifesting His presence in Christ's Church through the gifts mentioned therein because such gifts are revelatory and there is no new revelation; so that, in my opinion and from my experience of being around Pentecostals for well over 25 years, the practice of "speaking in tongues" and the "interpretation of tongues," including the granting of so-called "words of wisdom," and "words of knowledge," etc., are mere wishful thinking, and little else, among those who believe they are practicing such "gifts." Such believers may be sincere, in motive and practice, but--and read this in love and not with a mean spirit (because I am not antagonistic with those who disagree with me)--I think that they are sincerely wrong in belief and practice.
The so-called "sign gifts" of 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 served a unique purpose for the founding of the Church of Christ Jesus by the ministry of the Holy Spirit but God is no longer building the foundation but the structure of His Temple--believers (Eph. 4:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; cf. 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16). Those particular gifts we call "sign gifts" performed their purpose: to signal the arrival of the Church Age in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the magnification of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. You follow a sign to a destination. But when you reach the destination you no longer keep following the sign, for you have arrived at the destination, and so you move on toward a greater purpose: growing "to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ" (Eph. 4:15 NIV). Can the Lord work in such fashion today? Of course He can! He is sovereign! The question is not Can He? but Does He? Typically, no, He does not.
I do not--not in any sense conceivable--believe in the Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave / New Apostolic Reformation (which rightly, in the words of pastor John MacArthur, is neither New nor Apostolic nor a true Reformation) notions of the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13) as a subsequent, post-conversion experience, that initiates the believer into the exercising of the revelatory or "sign" gifts noted at 1 Corinthians 12.8-10, but, rather, warn against such; nor do I believe that the Holy Spirit is manifesting His presence in Christ's Church through the gifts mentioned therein because such gifts are revelatory and there is no new revelation; so that, in my opinion and from my experience of being around Pentecostals for well over 25 years, the practice of "speaking in tongues" and the "interpretation of tongues," including the granting of so-called "words of wisdom," and "words of knowledge," etc., are mere wishful thinking, and little else, among those who believe they are practicing such "gifts." Such believers may be sincere, in motive and practice, but--and read this in love and not with a mean spirit (because I am not antagonistic with those who disagree with me)--I think that they are sincerely wrong in belief and practice.
The so-called "sign gifts" of 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 served a unique purpose for the founding of the Church of Christ Jesus by the ministry of the Holy Spirit but God is no longer building the foundation but the structure of His Temple--believers (Eph. 4:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; cf. 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16). Those particular gifts we call "sign gifts" performed their purpose: to signal the arrival of the Church Age in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the magnification of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. You follow a sign to a destination. But when you reach the destination you no longer keep following the sign, for you have arrived at the destination, and so you move on toward a greater purpose: growing "to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ" (Eph. 4:15 NIV). Can the Lord work in such fashion today? Of course He can! He is sovereign! The question is not Can He? but Does He? Typically, no, He does not.
I believe worship is, primarily, simple without being simplistic or puerile: worship is the privileged demonstration, in act or speech or song, of the worthiness of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our English word worship derives from the Old English word weorthscipe, worth-ship, to show the worthiness of an object or of a person. The manner in which someone, or a congregation, fulfills the joy to honor, worship, and praise God, to display God's eternal and divine worthiness, may differ--but do make note that the apostle Paul insists that God loves order and that He should be worshiped properly and orderly (1 Cor. 14:33, 40)--yet the goal is the same: manifesting, in word, song, prayer and posture (or disposition, mind-set, attitude), that our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is eternally worthy to be worshiped and magnified and highly praised far above any other being imaginable, to be devotedly obeyed, and to be appropriately enjoyed and loved with one's whole heart, mind, soul and strength--with one's whole life throughout every day we live on earth and forever throughout all eternity.
I believe God is Creator of all that exists, of all that is, seen and unseen, including various heavenly and / or angelic and other such beings (cf. Neh. 9:6; Ps. 33:6; Isa. 14:12, 13, 14; Ezek. 28:11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17), and also each human being who has existed or who ever will exist (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7; 5:1, 2; 9:6; Deut. 4:32; Job 4:17; 10:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 31:15; 33:4; 34:19; Ps. 8:3, 4, 5, 6; 89:47; 95:6; 100:3; 104:30; 119:73, 74; 138:8; 139:13-16; Eccl. 3:11; 12:7; Isa. 17:7; 42:5; 43:7; 44:24; 49:5; 64:8; Jer. 1:5; 27:5; Zech. 12:1; Mal. 2:10; Matt. 19:4; John 1:3; Acts 17:26, 27, 28; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; 3:10; Heb. 3:4; James 3:9; Rev. 4:11). God creates human beings in two genders, male and female, and, in the words of Wayne Grudem, to be unique representatives of the triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) upon the earth. There are only two genders--two sexes--male and female. God ordained a marital union between one man and one woman and this is the only legitimate marital union in God's created order.
A man is defined as a biological human being and a woman is defined as a biological female human being--both are also ontologically male and female respectively (ontology refers to the metaphysical / spiritual reality of each human being). God creates all of the "inward parts" (related to that which is metaphysical within us: the mind, the soul, the spirit) of our being and our existence (Ps. 139:13)--shaping us body, soul (heart or personality), mind (intellect) and spirit (cf. Heb. 4:12). Those who experience gender dysphoria, or homosexuality or bisexuality or any other sexual / gender-related abnormality, are loved of God and He welcomes every single individual to the saving mercy of His grace-filled and open arms through faith in Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit in, by, and through the Gospel of our Lord.
God does not create each human being ex nihilo, out of nothing, but with the material offered of the male and the female He created in His image. I reject the Traducian theory--that the material seed of Adam is capable of producing the spirit of any mortal--for Christ taught us that what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). The physical elements provided by Adam are not capable of producing an eternal spirit, for what is temporal cannot produce the eternal, and what is physical cannot produce what is metaphysical.
I believe that we, as personally and uniquely created by God, though born in sin (Rom. 5:18, 19) do not bear the guilt of sin necessarily until we first sin. The fallen nature we inherit from Adam guarantees that we will sin in due time. But the infant, the young child and the cognitively-impaired, may not know and understand and intentionally sin. I think this is how Jesus can say that Heaven belongs to infants and little children (Matt. 19:14; cf. Matt. 18:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)--this includes those who are cognitively impaired / incapacitated to understand sin and guilt and shame--because they have not intentionally and personally sinned. Someone who has not personally sinned is guiltless of sin.
I infer, in the case of such individuals, that God graciously and mercifully holds Himself sovereignly responsible for the salvation of such ones--because, let us just embrace the reality of God, He sovereignly permitted / determined at least in some sense the state of their being and of their death. Recall, for instance, God's own words about an entire city, Nineveh, "Should I not [a question of ought and self-responsibility] have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand [people who do not know right from wrong, NCV, cf. NET, NIRV; people living in spiritual darkness, NLT], as well as many animals?" (Jonah 4:11 NASB). So when "God saw their deeds, that they [the entire city] turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them--and He did not do it" (Jonah 3:10 NASB).
There were people deemed by God in Scripture as being "blameless" (cf. Gen. 6:9; 17:1; Deut. 18:13; 2 Sam. 22:24, 26, 33; 2 Chron. 15:17; Job 1:1, 8; 2:3; Ps. 18:23, 25; 19:13; 37:18; 37:37; 101:2, 6; 119:1, 80; Prov. 2:21; 11:5, 20; 13:6; 28:10; 29:10; Ezek. 28:15). Yet, "blameless" does not mean "sinless," but a person of integrity, an upright individual, one of high moral character who shunned evil and delighted in justice and righteousness. If such persons were sinless then they did not need saving: they innately merited Heaven by their own goodness. Such a notion is foreign to the entirety of Scripture (Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26). Still how, in light of Total Depravity, do we account for such persons? How, for example, do we account for Abel, who pleased the LORD, as well as for Cain, who did not please God (Gen. 4:1-7)? How do we account for a world gone mad and Noah with the seven members of his family who were faithful to God (Gen. 6:1-8, 11-13)? Do such persons freely and of their own self-caused and autonomous choosing devote themselves to the LORD?
We each "fall" into sin by virtue of being birthed into the world (Rom. 5:18, 19) and are responsible for our sins (Rom. 3:23), we spiritually die (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3) and thereby we stand in need of redemption (Rom. 6:23; 10:9 10; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15, 19, 20, 21), while the grace of God leads to redemption through faith in Christ the King (John 1:12, 13, 16; Rom. 2:4; Eph. 2:5, 8, 9, 10) by the work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4, 5).
Sin is defined as wrong-doing, missing a mark, overt witchcraft (1 Sam. 15:23) or even rebellion against that which is holy, pure, and innately just, righteous, what is right in God's mind. All sin is a defiant act of rebellion against a holy, just, and sovereign God and is utter contempt for God whether or not we may realize that fact because sin is an affront to an innately-holy Being. Sin is a problem with which justice must be dealt. We sin openly before and in the sight of God. The only redemption from this state of sin is the grace of God through faith in Jesus (not of merit or works)--the one and only Redeemer of sinners. God, as Creator, knows our frame, our nature, and that we are but dust (Ps. 103:14). He knows our fickle constitution. He knows our love for sin. Even regenerate believers long to love and obey Him one moment and then satisfy their greed for power the next. But, in Christ, God has dealt the death-blow of sin and death itself (1 Cor. 15:54, 55, 56, 57). Sin will have no dominion, no overwhelming power, over us who believe because we are not under Law but under Grace (Rom. 6:14). So, then, any individual who lives a blameless life does so not in and of himself but by the particular and effectual grace of God in the Holy Spirit.
God delights in all of His creation and is pleased when we treasure, cultivate, and protect God's creation (the earth)--our eternal Home with God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. God sustains all of creation in spite of and in conjunction with the stark reality of entropy (Rom. 8:20) and His subjecting all of creation to a state of futility due to our defiance and sin. Creation is a gift of God and He declared His creation, including the creation of human beings, as "very good" (Gen. 1:31). Though sin corrupted and damaged God's creation, sin did not utterly destroy His creation, as He will redeem all of nature. Creation still speaks to every one of His creatures of the glory of God (Ps. 19:1-6) so ignorance and atheism are no excuse (Rom. 1.20). God will renew the earth and all matter in the universe when He, one day, "makes all things new" (Isa. 43:18, 19; 65:17; Rev. 21:5). Creation myths cannot explain the origins of life; for, when pressed, when asked as to the origins of all matter in the universe that was seemingly compressed into one minuscule point in the universe that exploded into motion one day, advocates cannot answer as to how that matter came into existence or maintained its substance, its existence / its presence / its being, as well as its initial and its ever-constant motion of "stretching out" (Jer. 10:12). God created and presently sustains all matter--seen and unseen.
A man is defined as a biological human being and a woman is defined as a biological female human being--both are also ontologically male and female respectively (ontology refers to the metaphysical / spiritual reality of each human being). God creates all of the "inward parts" (related to that which is metaphysical within us: the mind, the soul, the spirit) of our being and our existence (Ps. 139:13)--shaping us body, soul (heart or personality), mind (intellect) and spirit (cf. Heb. 4:12). Those who experience gender dysphoria, or homosexuality or bisexuality or any other sexual / gender-related abnormality, are loved of God and He welcomes every single individual to the saving mercy of His grace-filled and open arms through faith in Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit in, by, and through the Gospel of our Lord.
God does not create each human being ex nihilo, out of nothing, but with the material offered of the male and the female He created in His image. I reject the Traducian theory--that the material seed of Adam is capable of producing the spirit of any mortal--for Christ taught us that what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). The physical elements provided by Adam are not capable of producing an eternal spirit, for what is temporal cannot produce the eternal, and what is physical cannot produce what is metaphysical.
I believe that we, as personally and uniquely created by God, though born in sin (Rom. 5:18, 19) do not bear the guilt of sin necessarily until we first sin. The fallen nature we inherit from Adam guarantees that we will sin in due time. But the infant, the young child and the cognitively-impaired, may not know and understand and intentionally sin. I think this is how Jesus can say that Heaven belongs to infants and little children (Matt. 19:14; cf. Matt. 18:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)--this includes those who are cognitively impaired / incapacitated to understand sin and guilt and shame--because they have not intentionally and personally sinned. Someone who has not personally sinned is guiltless of sin.
I infer, in the case of such individuals, that God graciously and mercifully holds Himself sovereignly responsible for the salvation of such ones--because, let us just embrace the reality of God, He sovereignly permitted / determined at least in some sense the state of their being and of their death. Recall, for instance, God's own words about an entire city, Nineveh, "Should I not [a question of ought and self-responsibility] have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand [people who do not know right from wrong, NCV, cf. NET, NIRV; people living in spiritual darkness, NLT], as well as many animals?" (Jonah 4:11 NASB). So when "God saw their deeds, that they [the entire city] turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them--and He did not do it" (Jonah 3:10 NASB).
There were people deemed by God in Scripture as being "blameless" (cf. Gen. 6:9; 17:1; Deut. 18:13; 2 Sam. 22:24, 26, 33; 2 Chron. 15:17; Job 1:1, 8; 2:3; Ps. 18:23, 25; 19:13; 37:18; 37:37; 101:2, 6; 119:1, 80; Prov. 2:21; 11:5, 20; 13:6; 28:10; 29:10; Ezek. 28:15). Yet, "blameless" does not mean "sinless," but a person of integrity, an upright individual, one of high moral character who shunned evil and delighted in justice and righteousness. If such persons were sinless then they did not need saving: they innately merited Heaven by their own goodness. Such a notion is foreign to the entirety of Scripture (Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26). Still how, in light of Total Depravity, do we account for such persons? How, for example, do we account for Abel, who pleased the LORD, as well as for Cain, who did not please God (Gen. 4:1-7)? How do we account for a world gone mad and Noah with the seven members of his family who were faithful to God (Gen. 6:1-8, 11-13)? Do such persons freely and of their own self-caused and autonomous choosing devote themselves to the LORD?
We each "fall" into sin by virtue of being birthed into the world (Rom. 5:18, 19) and are responsible for our sins (Rom. 3:23), we spiritually die (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3) and thereby we stand in need of redemption (Rom. 6:23; 10:9 10; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15, 19, 20, 21), while the grace of God leads to redemption through faith in Christ the King (John 1:12, 13, 16; Rom. 2:4; Eph. 2:5, 8, 9, 10) by the work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4, 5).
Sin is defined as wrong-doing, missing a mark, overt witchcraft (1 Sam. 15:23) or even rebellion against that which is holy, pure, and innately just, righteous, what is right in God's mind. All sin is a defiant act of rebellion against a holy, just, and sovereign God and is utter contempt for God whether or not we may realize that fact because sin is an affront to an innately-holy Being. Sin is a problem with which justice must be dealt. We sin openly before and in the sight of God. The only redemption from this state of sin is the grace of God through faith in Jesus (not of merit or works)--the one and only Redeemer of sinners. God, as Creator, knows our frame, our nature, and that we are but dust (Ps. 103:14). He knows our fickle constitution. He knows our love for sin. Even regenerate believers long to love and obey Him one moment and then satisfy their greed for power the next. But, in Christ, God has dealt the death-blow of sin and death itself (1 Cor. 15:54, 55, 56, 57). Sin will have no dominion, no overwhelming power, over us who believe because we are not under Law but under Grace (Rom. 6:14). So, then, any individual who lives a blameless life does so not in and of himself but by the particular and effectual grace of God in the Holy Spirit.
God delights in all of His creation and is pleased when we treasure, cultivate, and protect God's creation (the earth)--our eternal Home with God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. God sustains all of creation in spite of and in conjunction with the stark reality of entropy (Rom. 8:20) and His subjecting all of creation to a state of futility due to our defiance and sin. Creation is a gift of God and He declared His creation, including the creation of human beings, as "very good" (Gen. 1:31). Though sin corrupted and damaged God's creation, sin did not utterly destroy His creation, as He will redeem all of nature. Creation still speaks to every one of His creatures of the glory of God (Ps. 19:1-6) so ignorance and atheism are no excuse (Rom. 1.20). God will renew the earth and all matter in the universe when He, one day, "makes all things new" (Isa. 43:18, 19; 65:17; Rev. 21:5). Creation myths cannot explain the origins of life; for, when pressed, when asked as to the origins of all matter in the universe that was seemingly compressed into one minuscule point in the universe that exploded into motion one day, advocates cannot answer as to how that matter came into existence or maintained its substance, its existence / its presence / its being, as well as its initial and its ever-constant motion of "stretching out" (Jer. 10:12). God created and presently sustains all matter--seen and unseen.
I believe the Good News, the Gospel of God's salvation, actually contains Good News and Bad News: the Bad News is that we are lost and cannot save, atone, forgive, and redeem, nor regenerate ourselves. The Good News is that God saves and God graciously redeems sinners by His effectual grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Titus 3:5). The Gospel / Good News is mentioned throughout the New Testament (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 11:5; 24:14; 26:13; Mark 1:1, 14, 15; 8:35; 10:29; 13:10; 14:9; 16:15; Luke 2:8-14; 3:18; 4:18; 7:22; 9:6; 16:16; 20:1; Acts 8:12, 25, 40; 13:32; 14:7, 15, 21; 15:7; 16:10; 20:24; Rom. 1:1, 9, 15, 16; 2:16; 10:15, 16; 11:28; 15:16, 19, 20; 16:25; 1 Cor. 1:17; 4:15; 9:12, 14, 16, 18, 23; 15:1; 2 Cor. 2:12; 4:3, 4; 8:18; 9:13; 10:14, 16; 11:4, 7; Gal. 1:6, 7, 8, 9, 11; 2:2, 5, 7, 14; 3:8; 4:13; Eph. 1:13; 3:6; 6:15, 19; Phil. 1:5, 7, 12, 16, 27; 2:22; 4:3, 15; Col. 1:5, 23; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:2, 4, 8, 9; 3:2; 2 Thess. 1:8; 2:14; 1 Tim. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:8, 10; 2:8; Philem. 1:13; Heb. 4:2, 6; 1 Pet. 1:12; 4:6, 17; Rev. 14:6).
The Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ, and is God's Message to Jews and Gentiles alike: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be [future tense] saved" (Acts 16:31)--belief, faith, is the key for knowing that God has saved, regenerated, given spiritual rebirth to someone (1 Cor. 1:21). Are you trusting in Christ? The Gospel tells that salvation from sin, from Hell, from the wrath of God against sin and against sinners is offered to all who believe--all who will trust that what Jesus accomplished in His atoning death on the Cross, and in His resurrection from the grave three days later, He accomplished for them (Rom. 10:9, 10). Those who answer God's call to salvation (Rom. 8:30) will also be justified (Rom. 8:30; 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26--considered holy and sinless), and will seek to obey Him (John 14:15, 21, 23).
The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to the believer in Christ for the glory of God (Rom. 3:21-26): God reckons / considers / accounts the believer to be as holy and sinless as is Jesus: i.e., God takes all your sin and lays it on Christ and takes all Christ's righteousness and lays it on you. God now views you as though you have never sinned. This is the only Gospel, the Good News of God's Plan of Salvation, we can trust! The believer is then sanctified (Rom. 8:30), set apart from sin and from the world system of wickedness, and set apart to a holy life that pleases God. The believer exists positionally in a glorified state (Rom. 8:30)--in other words, from the viewpoint of God the Father, the believer is seen to be "in" Christ (Eph. 1:4, 5), viewed through the spiritual lens of Christ, and is seated with Christ (Eph. 2:6) in Heaven (Rom. 8:30) though he is not yet there and finally changed into his final state. From the perspective of God, the redeemed believer is already glorified (Rom. 8:30), present in Heaven with Christ and in Christ by His grace through faith by the work of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ, and is God's Message to Jews and Gentiles alike: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be [future tense] saved" (Acts 16:31)--belief, faith, is the key for knowing that God has saved, regenerated, given spiritual rebirth to someone (1 Cor. 1:21). Are you trusting in Christ? The Gospel tells that salvation from sin, from Hell, from the wrath of God against sin and against sinners is offered to all who believe--all who will trust that what Jesus accomplished in His atoning death on the Cross, and in His resurrection from the grave three days later, He accomplished for them (Rom. 10:9, 10). Those who answer God's call to salvation (Rom. 8:30) will also be justified (Rom. 8:30; 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26--considered holy and sinless), and will seek to obey Him (John 14:15, 21, 23).
The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to the believer in Christ for the glory of God (Rom. 3:21-26): God reckons / considers / accounts the believer to be as holy and sinless as is Jesus: i.e., God takes all your sin and lays it on Christ and takes all Christ's righteousness and lays it on you. God now views you as though you have never sinned. This is the only Gospel, the Good News of God's Plan of Salvation, we can trust! The believer is then sanctified (Rom. 8:30), set apart from sin and from the world system of wickedness, and set apart to a holy life that pleases God. The believer exists positionally in a glorified state (Rom. 8:30)--in other words, from the viewpoint of God the Father, the believer is seen to be "in" Christ (Eph. 1:4, 5), viewed through the spiritual lens of Christ, and is seated with Christ (Eph. 2:6) in Heaven (Rom. 8:30) though he is not yet there and finally changed into his final state. From the perspective of God, the redeemed believer is already glorified (Rom. 8:30), present in Heaven with Christ and in Christ by His grace through faith by the work of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit.
I believe Salvation and Redemption refers to the ultimate deliverance / redemption of all that is fallen and corrupted by sin: the individual from one's sin by the atoning self-sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for the believer--by grace through faith in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) through the power of the Gospel (Rom. 1:16, 17)--and all of creation (Rom. 8:19, 20, 21, 22). This salvation of God in and through Christ, by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (meaning that He alone brings about regeneration to the individual who then believes / trusts / places faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord), encompasses redemption (including the forgiveness of sin) and reconciliation, justification and sanctification, and an ultimate deliverance from that which brings about corruption of body, soul, and spirit. Salvation from the consequences of sin (eternal death and separation from God) is also a deliverance from the wrath of God to come (1 Thess. 1:10). Salvation, by the grace of the Holy Spirit through the gift of faith in Jesus, produces repentance: i.e., turning from sin and turning to God through Jesus Christ. Penance is an attempt to earn God's favor. Repentance is the product of God's gift of salvation for His glory.
There may be times when you doubt that you are truly saved, born again, forgiven forever of your sins and an adopted child of God. You may hear from pastors and preachers and Bible teachers that you should constantly be testing yourself to see if you are saved ("in the faith," from the words of Paul, 2 Cor. 13:5). That particular passage, in its context, is really referring to the believers in Corinth who are uncertain as to Paul's apostolic authority (2 Cor. 13:3, 5, 6). If they are uncertain as to the spiritual matters he is discussing then are they really saved?
Regardless, testing yourself to see if you are truly saved is not necessarily useless, and could help to answer your doubt. This is what I ask myself: "Do you love your sin?" No, I hate my sin, and I wish I could be without sin. "Do you love your Lord?" Yes, I love Him so much, and yet I wish I could love Him perfectly. "Do you ask Him to forgive you of your sin when you sin?" The reason I ask myself this question is because Scripture teaches that sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). But sin never separates God from us! When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid themselves from God (Gen. 3:7, 8), but He came looking for them just the same (Gen. 3:8, 9). He didn't forsake them. We feel bad, sinful, and a failure when we sin. We do not run to God but want to run away from Him. He knows all about it and wants us to run to Him. So I ask myself: "Do you ask Him to forgive you of your sin when you sin?" Yes, every time, and I loathe my sin. "Well, then, guess what? You're saved!"
How do I know that? Because the sinner who is not born again loves his sin--he doesn't hate his sin but loves his sin (Rom. 8:6, 7, 8; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:3, 4; Gal. 5:17, 19, 20, 21; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; 4:17, 18, 19; 5:3, 4, 5). The sinner who is not born again does not love the Lord--not in the least bit does he love the Lord. The sinner who is not born again does not ask God to forgive him of his sins. This is because he so very much loves his sin. Or he sees himself as "not really that bad" and, therefore, not in need of forgiveness. Such a person is completely deceived. Sure, test yourself, but ask the right questions. Don't ask yourself if you obey Christ completely. No one does! Not even those who think they do!
But know this: Sin cannot have the final dominion over you (Rom. 6:14), because the Seed of God dwells within you (1 John 3:9), meaning that God's eternal-life-giving Word dwells within you (James 1:18); and, in Christ, you have been set free from the total control of sin over you (John 8:34, 35, 36; Rom. 6:18; 8:2). This means that you will not live your life in Christ in complete and utter sin like the rest of the world. But this also means that remnants of sin still dwell in you (Rom. 7:17-20) and you will not become sinless (Phil. 3:12) until you are finally set free from "the body of this death" (Rom. 8:24), meaning, until our fallen condition is done away with, either at our death (2 Cor. 5:1-8 NLT), or at the return of Christ to collect us (1 Cor. 15:50-58). Jesus was the only sinless human being. One day we will finally be without sin (1 John 3:2). If your sin does not grieve you in the slightest then you have reason to doubt that you have been born again and are really saved.
The late pastor Adrian Rogers has rightly said that salvation comes with assurance. The person saved from drowning cannot lose his salvation from drowning! The person saved from being killed by an on-coming vehicle cannot lose his salvation! The truly born-again believer is saved to the uttermost! "Consequently, He," Jesus, is "able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25 ESV). Jesus, at the right hand of God the Father, constantly intercedes for you and me and that secures us in the state of eternal salvation. "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen" (Jude 1:24-25). If the truly born-again believer could stumble and fail to be presented blameless before the presence of God's glory then that passage of Scripture makes no sense whatsoever. God is the one who saved you and me and He proactively and effectually intends to keep us. "In Him," Jesus, "you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it" (Eph. 1:13-14 ESV). You couldn't save yourself, and you couldn't keep yourself saved, and God knew this full well. Your salvation by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ was His intention from before He even made the universe (Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:3, 4, 5; Rev. 13:8; 17:8). Rest assured, rest secured, in Christ Jesus.
There is a past-tense security of salvation in Scripture: you and I have been saved (Rom. 8:24; Eph. 2:8, 9). There is a present-tense reality of you and I having been saved by God in Scripture: you and I are being saved (1 Cor. 15:2; 2 Cor. 2:15). There is a future-tense reality securing our salvation, not by our efforts, or good works, or our attempts at sanctifying ourselves, but solely by the sovereign will of God our Creator and Savior: you and I will be saved (Rom. 5:9; 1 Thess. 5:9). You and I cannot be saved in a future tense if we have not been saved. You and I cannot exist within a present-tense state of being saved unless we have been saved. When God saved you and me by His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, our salvation was as secure for a future result as it was the instant we were saved. Why, then, warnings in Scripture about falling away?
The warning passages in Scripture regarding falling away from the Lord are real, and we see people truly fall away from the faith, and God means what He says when He warns us about falling away (Matt. 24:10, 11, 12, 13; Rom. 11:19, 20, 21, 22; 1 Cor. 10:12; 2 Cor. 11:3; 2 Thess. 2:1, 2, 3; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4, 9, 10; Heb. 3:12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19; 6:4, 5, 6; 10:26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; 2 Pet. 2:1, 2, 3, 20, 21, 22; 3:17). Ask yourself this question: Will an unregenerate person who thinks he is a Christian care about the warning passages? The answer is no. Will the regenerate person care about the warnings? Absolutely! When first-century believers saw people come into their churches, seeming like true believers but who later fell away, they asked about their spiritual condition. John answers: "These people left our churches but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not [really] belong with us" (1 John 2:19 NLT). While the warning passages are real, because God means what He says, the true state of the one who falls away is revealed: he was not really saved. The warning passages do not have a sanctifying effect on the unregenerate man. Why? Because he is not spiritually alive (1 Cor. 2:14).
Perhaps he imagines himself a "believer," because he's patriotic, politically and socially conservative, and believes in a historic man called Jesus. Yet he does not spend time in prayer, or Bible study, even if he attends church. He has no personal connection to God the Father through God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit. But he calls himself a Christian, and a believer, though his "faith" is not in the finished work of Jesus Christ to cover his offensive sins, being justified by the grace of God, in hope of the resurrection and eternal life. The Western Church has many of these so-called Christians. The point is this: The warning passages stir the truly born-again believer because he does not want to fall away. His heart has been changed. So he pursues the Lord all the more--not in his own strength but by the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The question you and I must always ask ourselves for assurance of salvation is this and this only: "Am I trusting solely in the finished work of Christ to save me?" Only the truly born-again believer will answer yes; and only faith in Jesus Christ secures the believer; and that faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8, 9; 2 Pet. 1:1). Don't look to your good works for security! Don't look to your good behavior for assurance! Look only to Christ Jesus!
There may be times when you doubt that you are truly saved, born again, forgiven forever of your sins and an adopted child of God. You may hear from pastors and preachers and Bible teachers that you should constantly be testing yourself to see if you are saved ("in the faith," from the words of Paul, 2 Cor. 13:5). That particular passage, in its context, is really referring to the believers in Corinth who are uncertain as to Paul's apostolic authority (2 Cor. 13:3, 5, 6). If they are uncertain as to the spiritual matters he is discussing then are they really saved?
Regardless, testing yourself to see if you are truly saved is not necessarily useless, and could help to answer your doubt. This is what I ask myself: "Do you love your sin?" No, I hate my sin, and I wish I could be without sin. "Do you love your Lord?" Yes, I love Him so much, and yet I wish I could love Him perfectly. "Do you ask Him to forgive you of your sin when you sin?" The reason I ask myself this question is because Scripture teaches that sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). But sin never separates God from us! When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid themselves from God (Gen. 3:7, 8), but He came looking for them just the same (Gen. 3:8, 9). He didn't forsake them. We feel bad, sinful, and a failure when we sin. We do not run to God but want to run away from Him. He knows all about it and wants us to run to Him. So I ask myself: "Do you ask Him to forgive you of your sin when you sin?" Yes, every time, and I loathe my sin. "Well, then, guess what? You're saved!"
How do I know that? Because the sinner who is not born again loves his sin--he doesn't hate his sin but loves his sin (Rom. 8:6, 7, 8; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:3, 4; Gal. 5:17, 19, 20, 21; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; 4:17, 18, 19; 5:3, 4, 5). The sinner who is not born again does not love the Lord--not in the least bit does he love the Lord. The sinner who is not born again does not ask God to forgive him of his sins. This is because he so very much loves his sin. Or he sees himself as "not really that bad" and, therefore, not in need of forgiveness. Such a person is completely deceived. Sure, test yourself, but ask the right questions. Don't ask yourself if you obey Christ completely. No one does! Not even those who think they do!
But know this: Sin cannot have the final dominion over you (Rom. 6:14), because the Seed of God dwells within you (1 John 3:9), meaning that God's eternal-life-giving Word dwells within you (James 1:18); and, in Christ, you have been set free from the total control of sin over you (John 8:34, 35, 36; Rom. 6:18; 8:2). This means that you will not live your life in Christ in complete and utter sin like the rest of the world. But this also means that remnants of sin still dwell in you (Rom. 7:17-20) and you will not become sinless (Phil. 3:12) until you are finally set free from "the body of this death" (Rom. 8:24), meaning, until our fallen condition is done away with, either at our death (2 Cor. 5:1-8 NLT), or at the return of Christ to collect us (1 Cor. 15:50-58). Jesus was the only sinless human being. One day we will finally be without sin (1 John 3:2). If your sin does not grieve you in the slightest then you have reason to doubt that you have been born again and are really saved.
The late pastor Adrian Rogers has rightly said that salvation comes with assurance. The person saved from drowning cannot lose his salvation from drowning! The person saved from being killed by an on-coming vehicle cannot lose his salvation! The truly born-again believer is saved to the uttermost! "Consequently, He," Jesus, is "able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25 ESV). Jesus, at the right hand of God the Father, constantly intercedes for you and me and that secures us in the state of eternal salvation. "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen" (Jude 1:24-25). If the truly born-again believer could stumble and fail to be presented blameless before the presence of God's glory then that passage of Scripture makes no sense whatsoever. God is the one who saved you and me and He proactively and effectually intends to keep us. "In Him," Jesus, "you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it" (Eph. 1:13-14 ESV). You couldn't save yourself, and you couldn't keep yourself saved, and God knew this full well. Your salvation by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ was His intention from before He even made the universe (Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:3, 4, 5; Rev. 13:8; 17:8). Rest assured, rest secured, in Christ Jesus.
There is a past-tense security of salvation in Scripture: you and I have been saved (Rom. 8:24; Eph. 2:8, 9). There is a present-tense reality of you and I having been saved by God in Scripture: you and I are being saved (1 Cor. 15:2; 2 Cor. 2:15). There is a future-tense reality securing our salvation, not by our efforts, or good works, or our attempts at sanctifying ourselves, but solely by the sovereign will of God our Creator and Savior: you and I will be saved (Rom. 5:9; 1 Thess. 5:9). You and I cannot be saved in a future tense if we have not been saved. You and I cannot exist within a present-tense state of being saved unless we have been saved. When God saved you and me by His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, our salvation was as secure for a future result as it was the instant we were saved. Why, then, warnings in Scripture about falling away?
The warning passages in Scripture regarding falling away from the Lord are real, and we see people truly fall away from the faith, and God means what He says when He warns us about falling away (Matt. 24:10, 11, 12, 13; Rom. 11:19, 20, 21, 22; 1 Cor. 10:12; 2 Cor. 11:3; 2 Thess. 2:1, 2, 3; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4, 9, 10; Heb. 3:12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19; 6:4, 5, 6; 10:26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; 2 Pet. 2:1, 2, 3, 20, 21, 22; 3:17). Ask yourself this question: Will an unregenerate person who thinks he is a Christian care about the warning passages? The answer is no. Will the regenerate person care about the warnings? Absolutely! When first-century believers saw people come into their churches, seeming like true believers but who later fell away, they asked about their spiritual condition. John answers: "These people left our churches but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not [really] belong with us" (1 John 2:19 NLT). While the warning passages are real, because God means what He says, the true state of the one who falls away is revealed: he was not really saved. The warning passages do not have a sanctifying effect on the unregenerate man. Why? Because he is not spiritually alive (1 Cor. 2:14).
Perhaps he imagines himself a "believer," because he's patriotic, politically and socially conservative, and believes in a historic man called Jesus. Yet he does not spend time in prayer, or Bible study, even if he attends church. He has no personal connection to God the Father through God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit. But he calls himself a Christian, and a believer, though his "faith" is not in the finished work of Jesus Christ to cover his offensive sins, being justified by the grace of God, in hope of the resurrection and eternal life. The Western Church has many of these so-called Christians. The point is this: The warning passages stir the truly born-again believer because he does not want to fall away. His heart has been changed. So he pursues the Lord all the more--not in his own strength but by the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The question you and I must always ask ourselves for assurance of salvation is this and this only: "Am I trusting solely in the finished work of Christ to save me?" Only the truly born-again believer will answer yes; and only faith in Jesus Christ secures the believer; and that faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8, 9; 2 Pet. 1:1). Don't look to your good works for security! Don't look to your good behavior for assurance! Look only to Christ Jesus!
I believe the Doctrine of Justification to mean that God declares us, by grace through faith in Christ, to exist "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned. This gracious act of God is a judicial declaring of the believer by God, the Righteous Judge, to be just (accounted worthy though not worthy, pure though not pure, guiltless though most certainly guilty of sin), to be righteous (right, upright, conformed to God's standards), declared innocent and absolved of all charges of wrongdoing. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to the believer--meaning, God takes all of your sin and lays it on Christ and takes all of Christ's righteousness and lays it on you. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from [failed attempts at keeping] the Law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it--the righteousness of God through faith
in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:21-26 ESV); and to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness (Rom. 4:5 ESV).He who attempts to keep God's Laws in an effort to gain God's favor, God's approval, for a display of his own imagined righteousness, will fail (cf. Isa. 64:6). If a person fails to keep God's holy standards in the slightest degree then he is forever lost. None of us can keep God's Law perfectly (sinlessly, guiltlessly, justifiably) except Christ Jesus, the sinless Son of God, Redeemer of believers. No one can attempt to be good, or to do enough good, to be accounted by God as righteous, pure, holy. Any attempt to circumvent God's Plan of Redemption is an affront to God's holiness, omniscience (since He knows our state and that accomplishing such is futile), His love (out of which He chose to send His only Son to redeem believers, 1 Cor. 1:21), His grace and mercy (demonstrating His willingness to save us from our sins, cf. Eph. 2:8; Titus 3:5).
I believe that, to know God redemptively by grace, is life (John 17:3)--that personally knowing God is the meaning of life. God made us for Himself (Prov. 16.4) and for His own pleasure (Rev. 4:11). Our existence, our very being, is to bring God glory and honor. Those who refuse to know Him cannot attain to the meaning of life. See the post "The Meaning of Life" for an examination. To know God redemptively in Jesus Christ, and, better still, to be known by God (Gal. 4:9; 1 Cor. 8:3; 2 Tim. 2:19; John 10:14, 27; 13:8; Jer. 1:5), is ultimate meaning, is ultimate purpose, is, ultimately, life--even eternal life. Are you known by God? We live and move and have our being in God (Acts 17:28 ESV), for His own purposes, and for His own delight! We exist to live in Him, with him, and for Him forever! Apart from God there is no meaning to life, no purpose, no future hope. "This is eternal life," says Jesus, "that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3 NASB, emphasis added). Jesus, the eternal God the Son, should know the meaning of life. I will trust Him.
I believe the problem of evil in the world is our problem, not God's problem (contra Bart Ehrman and his ilk), since sin and evil derive from our hearts (John 2:25 NLT), from our evil and wicked desires and thoughts and words and actions (Matt. 12:34; James 1:13, 14), not from any direct and immediate intention of God--decreed or otherwise. God is the One who "works all things after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11 NASB), so that no event catches Him by surprise, and as Sovereign King of the Universe God is ever-steady, unshaken, and in complete and utter control at all times. A God who is not sovereign is not God--full stop. God is not, however, manipulating / controlling / impelling / compelling people toward evil (contra anyone who argues otherwise), even though each one of us lives and moves and has our being in Him (Acts 17:28 ESV), leading us to conclude that no one can think, say, or do anything apart from His absolute, omniscient, knowledge / foreknowledge, His sovereign permission, and His ultimate and exhaustive Will (Isa. 46:10). No one can blame God of doing evil because He is utterly incapable of performing evil and incapable of tempting anyone to commit evil (James 1:13). We are the problem of evil.
What of the natural problem of evil--tragedies that occur because of nature (hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, tsunamis, and earthquakes)? Due to our sin we exist within a fallen universe (Rom. 8:20). The first law of thermodynamics explains that all energy in the universe can be neither created nor destroyed. We ascribe to God not only creative power (Gen. 1:1, 2; Rom. 4:17; Col. 1:16, 17; Heb. 1:3) but also power to deconstruct energy (Matt. 10:28). If God retains the power to create energy out of nothing (ex nihilo) then He, de facto, retains the power to disassemble energy. The second law of thermodynamics explains that, as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted. Matter is breaking down because God subjected the universe to decay (Rom. 8:20). Even though God in Christ is sustaining the universe (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3), He does so commensurate with the reality of entropy, until He re-creates the universe (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21:1).
Until that Day, then, we exist in a fallen and corrupting world of nature that is also breaking down. Could God not protect us from every disaster at least by stopping or restraining or preventing natural disasters? This appears as a question of potentiality, of power, but will soon digress into a moral question. Yes, God retains the power or capacity to stop every single tragedy of fallen nature, but has chosen not to do so. Enter the moral argument: If God retains the power to stop natural evil then does He not love us enough to prevent those natural evils? Now His love, grace, and mercy are under the scrutiny of fallen sinners with suspect motives. If God allows us our freedom to commit sin and heinous evil, even heinous evil like the rape or molestation of a two-year-old, then why should we expect God to exhaustively intervene in so-imagined evil of fallen nature? The problem of evil should not be an excuse for some to justify their unbelief / agnosticism / atheism.
Dr. Bruce A. Little, in his book A Creation-Order Theodicy, is right to state this fact regarding the problem of evil--whether moral, ethical, or that of nature. If we suggest that X + 5 is the worst evil imaginable, and we want God to prevent the most heinous of sins and of evil from occurring, then X + 5 would never occur. In such a scenario, then, we would never know X + 5. We would, then, only know of the worst evil of X + 4 and we would still long for God to prevent what we know as the most heinous evil. We would, then, not be satisfied until God prevented every single known evil imaginable--natural and moral--and that context is most unrealistic--it is, from our perspective, not natural; because what is reality is that we sin, and we want to sin, and when we want to sin we do not even want God or anyone else to prevent us from sinning. We cannot have our cake and eat it too. We cannot have a God who permits us to perform evil when we want to perform evil and also expect Him to prevent evil. We also cannot live in a material world that is decaying and expect God to intervene in each case of that decay when the decay threatens human survival or well-being. We live in reality. We must accept this as our reality for now.
Disasters that occur from nature are not, strictly considered, evil even if they are considered to be heinous and a threat to our well-being and the survival of our species. Hurricanes and tornadoes are mere weather conditions without a motive for committing evil. Earthquakes are the result of tectonic plates moving between each other without a moral motive for committing evil. Tsunamis are the natural result of earthquakes. A storm behaves as storms naturally behave within this current state of entropy. The earthquake occurs due to the manner in which the earth currently exists. Events of nature lack motive and evil intent. If you are going to reject the existence of God and all that pertains to God then I suggest you look for a better justification for atheism than freely-willed evil or disasters that occur due to nature.
What of the natural problem of evil--tragedies that occur because of nature (hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, tsunamis, and earthquakes)? Due to our sin we exist within a fallen universe (Rom. 8:20). The first law of thermodynamics explains that all energy in the universe can be neither created nor destroyed. We ascribe to God not only creative power (Gen. 1:1, 2; Rom. 4:17; Col. 1:16, 17; Heb. 1:3) but also power to deconstruct energy (Matt. 10:28). If God retains the power to create energy out of nothing (ex nihilo) then He, de facto, retains the power to disassemble energy. The second law of thermodynamics explains that, as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted. Matter is breaking down because God subjected the universe to decay (Rom. 8:20). Even though God in Christ is sustaining the universe (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3), He does so commensurate with the reality of entropy, until He re-creates the universe (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21:1).
Until that Day, then, we exist in a fallen and corrupting world of nature that is also breaking down. Could God not protect us from every disaster at least by stopping or restraining or preventing natural disasters? This appears as a question of potentiality, of power, but will soon digress into a moral question. Yes, God retains the power or capacity to stop every single tragedy of fallen nature, but has chosen not to do so. Enter the moral argument: If God retains the power to stop natural evil then does He not love us enough to prevent those natural evils? Now His love, grace, and mercy are under the scrutiny of fallen sinners with suspect motives. If God allows us our freedom to commit sin and heinous evil, even heinous evil like the rape or molestation of a two-year-old, then why should we expect God to exhaustively intervene in so-imagined evil of fallen nature? The problem of evil should not be an excuse for some to justify their unbelief / agnosticism / atheism.
Dr. Bruce A. Little, in his book A Creation-Order Theodicy, is right to state this fact regarding the problem of evil--whether moral, ethical, or that of nature. If we suggest that X + 5 is the worst evil imaginable, and we want God to prevent the most heinous of sins and of evil from occurring, then X + 5 would never occur. In such a scenario, then, we would never know X + 5. We would, then, only know of the worst evil of X + 4 and we would still long for God to prevent what we know as the most heinous evil. We would, then, not be satisfied until God prevented every single known evil imaginable--natural and moral--and that context is most unrealistic--it is, from our perspective, not natural; because what is reality is that we sin, and we want to sin, and when we want to sin we do not even want God or anyone else to prevent us from sinning. We cannot have our cake and eat it too. We cannot have a God who permits us to perform evil when we want to perform evil and also expect Him to prevent evil. We also cannot live in a material world that is decaying and expect God to intervene in each case of that decay when the decay threatens human survival or well-being. We live in reality. We must accept this as our reality for now.
Disasters that occur from nature are not, strictly considered, evil even if they are considered to be heinous and a threat to our well-being and the survival of our species. Hurricanes and tornadoes are mere weather conditions without a motive for committing evil. Earthquakes are the result of tectonic plates moving between each other without a moral motive for committing evil. Tsunamis are the natural result of earthquakes. A storm behaves as storms naturally behave within this current state of entropy. The earthquake occurs due to the manner in which the earth currently exists. Events of nature lack motive and evil intent. If you are going to reject the existence of God and all that pertains to God then I suggest you look for a better justification for atheism than freely-willed evil or disasters that occur due to nature.
I believe that Jesus will return and visibly reign upon Earth (eschatology refers to the end-times). I think Jesus will return, and all the world will know it together, and He will bring about justice / righteousness and a just judgment according to His holy standards (John 5:22, 23): He will make right all that has been made wrong. I think the next event on God's calendar, if you will, is the bodily return of Christ Jesus to collect His Bride, His Church, His gloriously Redeemed. How this will all unfold, however, is in God's eternal plan. The subject of eschatology frustrates me to no end.
I put so very little stock in End-Times charts from believers obsessed with the topic. We will see what happens. I was raised pre-Tribulational, Premillennial, and Dispensational. I reject the premise of Dispensationalists while acknowledging that some events could unfold as they hold. We should not wish, however, for a Third Temple, and that the Jewish people would again start animal sacrifices for atonement, because that is an affront on the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, God's own Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)--the entire book of Hebrews concurs! We should pray for the unsaved Jewish people to come to faith in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus. He alone saves.
I put so very little stock in End-Times charts from believers obsessed with the topic. We will see what happens. I was raised pre-Tribulational, Premillennial, and Dispensational. I reject the premise of Dispensationalists while acknowledging that some events could unfold as they hold. We should not wish, however, for a Third Temple, and that the Jewish people would again start animal sacrifices for atonement, because that is an affront on the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, God's own Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)--the entire book of Hebrews concurs! We should pray for the unsaved Jewish people to come to faith in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus. He alone saves.
I believe in Heaven and in Hell, that both are eternal, real places where real people spend a real eternity. While some may think of Heaven as our eternal Home, wherein we walk streets of gold and live in separate mansions, God, in Christ, will bring Heaven to Earth and this is where we shall abide for all eternity (Rev. 21:2). God's salvation is holistic: all of His creation will be saved--nature will be renewed to its intended state and the redeemed will receive their glorified bodies and have their old habitually-sinful habits eradicated. In this eternal state, we will be renewed, in body, soul, and mind. Thank God--no more sin, no more evil, only perpetual holiness!
We will live and reign with Jesus upon the earth, enjoying God, living forever singing and bringing praises to our King Jesus. I saw no temple in the City of God, for "the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the City has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (Rev. 21:22-27 NASB). Will you not trust in Christ Jesus today by His grace and be saved?
Daily we hope and pray for God's Kingdom to be visibly manifest upon the earth. Maranatha!, meaning, Our Lord, come! (1 Cor. 16:22). We daily watch and pray for His return to bring in everlasting justice, everlasting righteousness, everlasting peace. Maybe today is the day!
We will live and reign with Jesus upon the earth, enjoying God, living forever singing and bringing praises to our King Jesus. I saw no temple in the City of God, for "the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the City has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (Rev. 21:22-27 NASB). Will you not trust in Christ Jesus today by His grace and be saved?
Daily we hope and pray for God's Kingdom to be visibly manifest upon the earth. Maranatha!, meaning, Our Lord, come! (1 Cor. 16:22). We daily watch and pray for His return to bring in everlasting justice, everlasting righteousness, everlasting peace. Maybe today is the day!
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