Jason Alley’s Statement of Belief
and Teaching Position
Prepared for consideration as a candidate for ordination and submitted to:
Pleasant View Bible Church
Elder Board
Submitted on:
December 20th, 2020
Table of Contents
Biographical Summary and Call to Ministry
2
Summary of Qualifications:
3
Spiritual Disciplines
4
Explanatory Note:
6
Abstract:
6
Historical Creedal Affirmations:
6
Acknowledgements
7
Bibliology
8
Theology Proper
14
Christology
25
Pneumatology
29
Origins & Anthropology
35
Hamartiology
40
Soteriology
44
Ecclesiology
50
Missiology
67
Angelology & Demonology
72
Eschatology
76
Epilogue
82
1
Biographical Summary and Call to Ministry
I was born into a family on mission. My Dad (Steve Alley) was already a Children’s Pastor and
my Mom (Cora) was already leading children’s ministry programs when they met, fell in love,
and were married. By the time I was out of diapers, my Dad was serving as the first children’s
Pastor at Greg Laurie’s Calvary Chapel Riverside, which is known now as Harvest Church. My
parents have been heavily ministry-oriented their entire married lives, and I spent much time as
a child traveling with them around the country as God used their diverse talents to encourage
His church. This was the context of my childhood.
Like many Pastor’s kids, my response to my upbringing was a mixture of “I want to be like that!”
and “I’m never going to do that!”. I was serving in ministry as early as I could qualify to do so.
I’ve been giving my time to the church since I was 13 years old, but it was, for the first 30 years
of my life, always in the context of music and worship. Early on, I never thought I’d end up in
children or youth ministries. That’s what my Dad did. I served as a tour director with the
Continental Singers (part youth-ministry, part missionary work, part musical production) for 10
years. I was the first worship director of a church plant in college, and I served as worship
director at two others during and after graduate school. When my wife and I moved to Flagstaff,
I again found a church that needed a worship director and began to serve there. However, for
the first time, I was asked to work with children. I had been a Middle-school and High-School
teacher for many years, so I had a long-standing knowledge of and love for that age bracket, but
working with children scared me.
I had no idea how much I would fall in love with the work, and I was also shocked to see how
God worked through me to completely change the culture of the Children’s ministry there.
During this time, I also began teaching at a home Bible study and serving as an interim teaching
Pastor for a sister church looking for a new Senior Pastor. We were serving as missionaries as
well as church staffers (and I had a “day job” as well to pay the bills). When I finished my Th.M.,
God called us clearly to vocational ministry, and my first thought was to go full-time on staff at
our church in Flagstaff. While Pastor Mark and I loved working together, there just weren’t the
resources for another full-time staffer, so I received their blessing to look around for where God
was calling us.
He took us to Calvary Chapel of Honolulu, where there were both amazing blessings and very
difficult situations all rolled into one. 70% of my job there was as the only science teacher at
their Christian High School. I also led the AWANA ministry, continued to serve in the worship
ministry, taught a Home Bible study, and served as a part of the evangelism/decision counseling
team. However, after four years there, it became clear that this was not the forever position for
us.
That brought us to the point, in 2018, when God called us to serve here, at Pleasant View Bible
Church. It has been like coming home to the family I’d never known I had. There has never
been a ministry setting or location that felt more like home to my family and me. We are thrilled
that God has brought us to a place where our diverse experiences and gifts can come together
and be used by the Lord to impact His kingdom. In all of these years of ministry, this is the first
time that I have been honored with the title of “pastor,” while I have known that this was the call
on my life since 2010. I am blessed to finally be doing what God had been preparing me to do
for so many years.
2
Summary of Qualifications:
Education:
2012 Th.M. Blue Letter Bible Institute and Calvary Chapel Bible College. This was an
entirely self-paced and online 100 unit Theological Master’s Degree. It is not accredited,
but it required a phenomenal amount of work. Most academic organizations wouldn’t
recognize this for transfer credit, but my soul grew greatly!
2001 M. A. Ed., including a Single-subject Teaching Credential in Biology, Azusa
Pacific University, Azusa, CA.
1999 B.S. in Biological Sciences and Biblical Studies with a Minor in Musical
Composition and Conducting, Biola University, La Mirada, CA.
Primary Spiritual Gifting;
Evangelism: In all stages of my life, I have had the desire to share the gospel and
evangelize those in my area of influence. God has consistently provided me with these
opportunities, as well as with the insight into their lives to be able to present the word in
a way that resonates with the hearer. I have been used of the Lord to lead hundreds of
people to Christ.
Teaching: First as a high-school and middle-school teacher, and more recently in the
church, God has given me the gift of teaching. I am able to make complex ideas
accessible to everyone and present it in a way that they can retain. This gift has grown in
me as I have applied it not to biology in schools but to the word of God in His church.
Administration: In every position I’ve held, it has been recognized that God has given
me the gift of administration. Whether it was running faculty committees as a teacher, a
sales team as a sales manager, a large retail establishment like Petsmart, or worship or
children’s ministry teams, God has given me the ability to manage groups of people and
move them toward the goal with excellence.
Ministry Experience:
2018-Present: Pleasant View Bible Church, Warsaw, IN [~300 people]
● Children’s Ministry Pastor
● Worship Pastor
● Deacon Board Pastoral Oversight
● Home Bible Study Leader
● Coalition of Churches for Orphan Care Coordinator
2014-2018: Calvary Chapel of Honolulu, Honolulu, HI [~1,200 people]
● Teacher:
● Children’s Ministry/AWANA Director:
3
●
●
●
Worship Leader/
Home Bible Study Teacher.
Conversion Counseling/Prayer Team.
2004-2014, Grace Community Church, Flagstaff, AZ [~750 people]
● Worship Director.
● Children’s Ministry Director.
● Adult Theology Series Creator/Teacher.
● Home Bible Study Teacher.
● Youth Discipler.
2010-2014 Apartment Life CARES Team Missionary.
2011 Williams First Baptist Church, Williams, AZ [~120 people] Interim Teaching Pastor.
2001-2004 Evangelical Free Church of Corona, Corona, CA [~1,500 people]
● Assistant Worship Leader.
● Youth Choir Founding Director.
1999-2001 Arrow Highway Wesleyan Church, Azusa, CA [~800 people]
● Worship Director.
● College-Age Men’s Leader.
1996-1999 Canyon Hills Church (Conservative Baptist), Mission Viejo, CA [~200 people]
Church-Plant Worship Director.
1993-2003 (Summers) Continental Singers, Worldwide Tour Director.
1995-2002 Mu Sigma Gamma Fraternity Co-Founder
Spiritual Disciplines
I was greatly influenced as a young man in college by my fraternity’s book study through
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Whitney, D. S. (1991). Spiritual disciplines for the
Christian life. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress). It led us all to adopt seasons of fasting, silence,
and solitude into our initiation process and our normal practices throughout the year. As life
has gotten more “adult” and “complicated,” I recognize how hard it is to keep the most
important things in life in focus amidst all the competing calls for our attention.
Currently, the exercise of spiritual disciplines in my life involves morning daily scripture intake
with the help of the “Daily Audio Bible” podcast. I have listened to it for 8 years now, while I
make my family breakfast and get myself together in the morning. I am naturally a morning
person, so I tried for many years to make my first moments oriented around reading a physical
Bible, but I discovered that, while I wake up well, my attention is hard to harness to the level of
reading first thing in the morning. The ability to get through the Bible in a year through the
auditory medium has been a huge blessing. Reading the physical Bible is still a part of my life,
obviously, but my “morning devotional” time is primarily auditory.
4
Prayer happens throughout the day, but I’ve found that I am best able to focus and be
committed to lengthy conversation with the Lord in the evening, after I’ve said goodnight to
everyone, including my wife. I will spend 30-45 minutes in prayer in the dark before going to
sleep. It helps me to offload what has happened in my day and process what God would have me
do in the morning. In this practice, I am indebted to the general structure of John Eldgredge and
his “Daily Prayer” that he models and exposits in his book Waking the Dead (Eldredge, J.
(2004). Waking the dead: The glory of a heart fully alive. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press).
It’s not that I memorized and recite the prayer, which would be fruitless, but it does help me
move through the various and diverse things about which I need to converse with the Lord.
Fasting is still a part of my life, happening about once a quarter. As a “family man,” I have
discovered that family meal time is critical, and my absence around the table causes more
trouble than it’s worth. Consequently, I still attend the meals, even if I’m not eating. I also feel
that it’s a good role-modeling for my kids.
Journaling has been useful in my life in various ways at different times, but it isn’t something
that is a daily or even weekly occurrence. It seems that when I am dealing with something
intensely either in my own life or with the Lord, journaling has become useful to get my internal
dialogue out and lay it before the Lord. The majority of the times when I’ve heard a clear answer
from the Lord to something I’m praying about have been while I was journaling the prayer to
Him. Given its utility in difficult times, I wish I could say that it’s a constant part of my spiritual
life, but it isn’t. In seasons between crises, it gets lost in the business of life.
Silence and solitude, the entryway into our fraternity for all initiates after 1997, were huge in my
own spiritual life as an early adult. These are missing now, as I head a family of 6 and manage
an adult life and minister in a busy setting. I desire to find space for this again, but in honesty, I
don’t know how to set down all that I’m maintaining and pause all my relationships without
bringing harm to them or offending people. I get some of this in my nightly prayer in the dark,
but an extended few days with the Lord alone has a different effect, and it’s something I miss.
This is something I’m seeking wisdom about at this time.
As anyone who is honest will report, there are parts of my spiritual walk that I think are very
strong and parts that need to be reinforced. I am grateful that my spiritual formation is in part
my doing (Phil 2:12), but ultimately is the work of God in my life (Phil 2:13), and He will not fail
in His efforts in me (Phil 1:6).
5
Explanatory Note:
I am fairly ecumenical in my disposition. I prioritize the Universal church rather highly and
acknowledge that there aren’t multitudes of different real Universal Churches. Christ does not
have more than one body of believers extant on earth and in heaven. Quite a few more people
will be in eternity with us than any one tradition or denomination might expect. I draw lines
and define what I believe is orthodox in the following document, but I do so with three layers of
adherence.
Under each heading, I will begin with doctrines that I believe divide the saved from the
unsaved. Differences here separate Christians from adherents of different faiths. People who
differ with me on these questions are people with whom I do not expect to share eternity.
Differences here are not preferential or questions of tradition.
Following these, I will list a series of statements that I feel the need to defend. These
differences exist within the body of Christ, with fellow believers seeing some of these points
differently. On these questions, I have taken a stand, and I am willing to argue for the position
on which I have landed. However, I do expect to share eternity with those who differ with me in
these categories of theology.
Where appropriate, I will list a few questions on which I have chosen to defer. These, I believe,
are minor questions that, if they have divided the church, ought not to. On these questions, I
have opinions, but I will not illuminate them here. The question does not, in my view, rise to the
level of argument in this document. I mention them only as a placeholder to let the reader know
that I have thought about them and am aware that the question exists.
Following the outline presentation of each area of theology, I will include a brief narrative
application of how I see the subject playing out in my life or the life of the church. I do not want
this document to simply describe what I believe. It needs to also describe how those beliefs get
lived out (Jas 2:26).
Abstract:
I am conservative, protestant, trinitarian, a biblical literalist, dispensational, reformed (mostly,
although I don’t see that limited atonement and irresistible grace are mandated by scripture),
missional, and awaiting an imminent pre-tribulation rapture and a pre-millennial bodily return
of Christ.
Historical Creedal Affirmations:
I affirm the Apostle’s Creed
I affirm the Nicene Creed of AD 381 with the filioque clause.
I affirm the Chalcedonian Creed of AD 451 but regret the phrase “Mother of God” for Mary.
I affirm the Athanasian Creed of 500 AD, reading the “Catholic Church” to mean universal,
not that organization whose head is the Pope in Rome.
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Acknowledgements
Obviously, writing orthodox theology is a work of summary and restatement. If any of the ideas
that follow were original to me, I would by default be a heretic. While I have avoided any direct
quotations, the logical structures that follow are seldom original. My thinking was greatly aided
by the following works:
Dennis, Lane T, and Wayne Grudem, editors. ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version.
Crossway, 2008.
Garrett, James Leo. Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical. Eerdmans,
1990.
Grudem, Wayne A. Systematic Theology: an Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Zondervan,
1994.
MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible: English Standard Version. Crossway, 2019.
Swindoll, Charles R., and Roy B. Zuck, editors. Understanding Christian Theology. Thomas
Nelson Publishers, 2003.
Additionally, a number of pastors and shepherds have greatly impacted me on my journey of
life. First and foremost, my Father, Steve Alley, children’s pastor extraordinaire, not only laid
for me an excellent foundation for loving and serving Christ as my Father and counselor, but he
pastored his family first. I understood the power and love of God, the work of Christ, and the
need for evangelism before I began formal education in any other subject. He showed me not
only what it was to know about Christ but what it looked like to live a life oriented toward loving
God completely and making Him known to others, specifically to children. It is no mistake that
I am now walking firmly in the path he has blazzed so well.
My Youth pastor in High School, Tom Morris, taught me theology and doctrine in his messages,
as every pastor should, but what I learned from him most was the joy of living a life oriented
toward Christ. Tom really, really loves his Lord. Whenever he spoke of Jesus, his eyes would
shine, his smile would get wider, and he would often even bounce a little on the balls of his feet
as he talked about his God. He also really loved us, so it was a natural thing to want to love the
God that Tom loved so well.
The greatest preacher I’ve ever had the joy of sitting under was pastor David Hegg. When I
came to his church, I was decidedly NOT reformed in my theology. He was kind and endured
many questions and what, in hindsight, I can only see as obnoxious arguments. He faithfully
taught me the word of God, and with winsome but constant instruction, he was successful in
helping me embrace the God that the Bible so clearly describes as both sovereign and loving.
Thank you for introducing me to the greatness of our God.
To all of these men and many more, I owe my thanks. Your words still echo in my head, and
many of them have found their place on these pages.
7
Bibliology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christianity from other Faiths
A. The Word of God is a Person. While God the Father speaks in regularly
discernable human vocabulary and language, the going-forth of the commands
and power of God is actually part of the nature of the second person of the
Trinity. Before his incarnation in the man Jesus Christ, one of the ways that the
second person of the Trinity was revealed was as the Word of God.
1. Psa 33:4-9 ESV
2. Jhn 1:1-5 ESV
B. The Word of God comes with power. At the very beginning of the Bible, we read
about the Word of God going forth and having an amazing effect. The Word of
God changes the very nature of reality. It is creative and redemptive, and its
intent cannot be overcome.
1. Gen 1:1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 14
2. Isa 55:10-11
3. Heb 4:12
C. The Word of God is revealed in many forms:
1. Natural revelation, through His work of creation, is sufficient to hold
mankind accountable to the knowledge, fear, and worship of God.
a) Rom 1:19-20
b) Psa 19:1-4
2. Specific revelation was needed to understand the nature of God and the
means by which mankind may relate to God. (Rom 10:13-15)
3. God Spoke directly, in regularly decipherable human language, at many
times and to many people. Many of these communications were written
down for public learning.
a) Gen 2:16-18
b) Exo 20:1-3
c) Mat 3:17
4. In order to deliver His message to wider audiences, God often employed
prophets, people who had the unique calling and ability to speak the
actual words of God to His intended audiences.
a) Deu 18:18
b) Jer 1:7, 9
c) Eze 3:1-4
5. The words of God communicated either through directly spoken words or
through prophetic messages were, when God intended, written down,
either in the moment or afterward. This written record of the words and
messages of God are what has come down to us today and is referred to as
scripture.
6. The first inscripturated message of God was written by His own finger on
tablets of stone. (Exo 31:18)
7. Later, Moses became the first to write down directly-dictated words of
God. This began the process of inscripturation through human authors.
(Deu 31:9)
D. The Word of God’s inscripturation is overseen by the Holy Spirit, who guarantees
the result.
8
E.
F.
G.
H.
II.
1. 1Co 2:12-13
2. 2Ti 3:16-17
3. 2Pe 1:19-21
The Word of God is completely trustworthy in all that it reports and teaches.
1. 2Sa 7:28
2. Psa 119:142
3. Jhn 17:17
4. Heb 6:17-18
5. Rev 22:6
The Word of God leads to salvation, for it discloses and instructs in the means of
grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
1. Psa 119:93, 107, 155
2. Mat 4:4
3. Jhn 6:63
4. Jhn 6:68
5. 2Ti 3:14-15
The Word of God includes the 39 Books of the Old Testament, originally given to
the Jewish People as their Canon of Scripture, which are fully authoritative and
worthy of our study and submission.
1. Mat 5:17-19
2. Jhn 5:39-40
3. 2 Tim 3:16-17
The Word of God includes the 27 books of the New Testament, which are
inspired and inerrant, of equal standing with the Old Testament, and worthy of
all study and submission.
1. 2Pe 3:15-16
2. Marcion’s list of canonical scriptures in AD 120 is remarkably similar to
the final version in our hands today.
3. Iraeneus, in his work Against Heresies c. AD 180 quotes from 21 of the 27
received New Testament books and calls them scripture. Of the 6 he does
not quote, he mentions three by name and calls them scripture without
quoting from them. Only Philemon, 3 John, and Jude evade reference.
4. By the early 200’s, a fragment listing received NT scripture, called the
Muratorian Fragment, lists all of the NT books we currently receive as
inspired with two slight variations. What we call “Ephesians,” it refers to,
as did Marcion, as the letter to Laodicia. Also, it includes a book called
the Apocalypse of Peter, which we no longer have.
5. By the time of Origen, AD 367, the question of the inclusion of books into
the canon was referred to as settled. His list is complete and identical to
our own.
Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians.
A. The Word of God is Inerrant in its original manuscripts. This goes beyond a claim
to trustworthiness. The same body of scripture used to testify to the Bible’s
trustworthiness (Bibliology: I. E.) can be used to establish this statement as well.
The difference is the degree of resolution to which I feel these scriptures apply.
Not only can the Bible be trusted to be truthful in all the theological statements it
9
B.
C.
D.
E.
makes, but I believe that the Word of God is reliable concerning the historical,
geographical, scientific, anthropological, and political context in which the
theological assertions are made. While the Bible uses phenomenological
language and may record assumptions that were believed to be true at the time
and no longer are, nothing that the Bible directly teaches in any context contains
anything untrue.
The word of God should be read as simply and literally as possible. We ought to
consider what the original author intended to communicate to the original
audience in light of their cultural and historical context, taking at face value the
most common meanings of the words used, only employing figurative or
allegorical interpretations where they are clearly required and indicated by the
context.
The Word of God which came as law to Israel, most of which is contained in the
pentateuch, defined their dispensation given uniquely to the Jewish people and
those who would bind themselves to the law by becoming a proselyte. While it
teaches us true things of God and reliably illuminates a past dispensation, it is not
a defining aspect of how we, the Church of Jesus Christ in the age of grace, are to
relate to God.
1. Isa 53:11
2. Act 13:38-39
3. Rom 3:25-31
4. Rom 8:3-4
5. Rom 10:4
The Word of God does not include the deuterocanonical books found in the Old
Testament collections of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. I hold these as
valuable for their historical records and as excellent examples of Jewish thought
and theology of the period but as fundamentally different in nature from books of
Holy inspiration. They do not belong in the canon of scripture.
1. Except for Jude’s quote of 1 Enoch and a summary of a story from The
Assumption of Moses, they are never directly quoted by New Testament
Authors, while all but 4 books of the Old Testament are directly quoted by
New Testament Authors. Even when referenced in Jude, they are not
referenced as scripture. He does not put these texts on the same footing
as the Old Testament. They provide cultural reference points to help him
make an argument. In the same way, Paul quotes pagan poets without
calling what they said scripture.
2. They are not included in the earliest lists of inspired scripture by any of
the church fathers.
3. They bear some contradictory theological conclusions which are not
supported elsewhere in the accepted canon of the Old Testament.
The word of God is fundamentally comprehensible. The overarching themes and
doctrines of the Bible can be readily understood from its simple reading.
1. There are some portions that are hard to understand (2 Pe 3:16), but
those difficulties do not constitute the normal experience of its reading.
2. Especially when illuminated by the Holy Spirit in the heart of a believer (2
Tim 2:7), those difficulties can largely be worked through.
10
3. When believers disagree over the interpretation of a text, it is incumbent
upon them to understand that the problem does not lie in the text (Prov
30:5), but in their own fallen minds (Inscrutability of God, Theology
proper: I. L.).
F. The Word of God contained in the Bible is sufficient. We have, in the Bible, all
that is necessary for right knowledge of God, of mankind, and all the instruction
necessary to lead to a right relationship with God through salvation in Jesus
Christ. It contains all that is needful to lead one toward righteousness and for the
right functioning of Christ’s Church. Nothing else by means of special or novel
revelation is to be admitted to the canon of scripture. Nor are we to entertain
contrary teachings to what has been received in the text of the 66 books of Holy
Scripture.
1. Deu 4:2
2. Psa 19:7-1
3. Pro 30:5-6
4. Gal 1:6-9
5. Rev 22:18-19
G. The word of God was believed by Jesus to be inerrant and sufficient. This gives us
reason to believe the same.
1. He believed that the Bible contains the actual words of God (Mat 19:4-6)
2. He believed in the miracles contained in the OT (Mat 12:38-40)
3. He resorted to the OT in times of trial (Mat 4:4, 7, 10)
4. He quoted it as authoritative in his teachings (Mat 24:37-39)
5. He used it as the definitive truth to settle arguments (Mat 19:4-6)
6. He died quoting scripture (Ps 22:1; Matt 27:46)
7. He referenced scripture to explain his suffering after his resurrection (Luk
24:26-27, 32)
H. The word of God is not inerrantly conveyed in any one English translation of the
Bible. I reject the idea that any one translation of the Bible itself stands as the
lone inerrant Word of God today above other translations of the Bible. God
originally gave His Word in ancient languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
Excellent manuscript science and the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit throughout
time has largely achieved the reconstruction of what those original autographs
contained with very high levels of certainty. Any other presentation of those
ideas in different languages must include some degree of interpretation in the
process of translation. Consequently, any English, French, Afrikans or other
language is as faithful to the original message as faithful translators can achieve,
but they are not perfect, and they certainly do not rise to the Biblical idea of being
inerrant. We can trust the work behind our modern Bibles, but we must
understand that, unless we are reading in the original biblical languages, we are
all reading close approximations. Certainly, this caveat is even more true with
older translations such as the King James Bible, which had far less manuscript
science supporting the received text behind its translation than its modern
counterparts.
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How then shall we live?
I take the Bible to be the foundational source of all my theology. A high view of the Bible
as the sole source of all truth about God, man, and the relationship between the two drives us to
several conclusions. First, it orients all we know and learn through all other disciplines of study
as subservient to the message of the Bible. It bridles our lust for knowledge and makes us
learners so that we can become better worshippers. I studied Biology not only so I could learn
the workings of living things but so that I can better serve and worship the Creator of those
living things. Similarly, we may study history not simply to understand the ebb and flow of
societies and people groups over time but so that we might give God the glory for his good and
right administration of His people and the means by which He is revealed in the lives of men.
Similarly, it restrains the power of our logic. I have had numerous conversations with
different people about my view of the sovereignty of God in salvation. I have had five different
people, whom I love and respect, tell me some variant of the same thing: “The more I thought
about it, the more I leaned toward Arminian theology, but then I would read the Bible, and it
seemed to support Calvinism.” Certain teachings of the Bible don’t “make sense” with our
logical structures. They don’t correspond with what humanity naturally assumes to be true or
right. Nevermind that God told us to expect this (Isa 55:8-9)! People will read a clearly
articulated point of doctrine in the Bible that doesn’t fit with their logic structures and will then
reason themselves and argue their listeners into a position that runs against the grain of
scripture because their logic drives them there. If our logic drives us somewhere scripture does
not take us, it is our logic, not the Bible, which must yield.
Furthermore, when the Bible is seen as the only source of orthodoxy, it restrains us from
idolatry. We cannot alter the image of God to fit our convictions, or culture, or our appetites.
We cannot recreate God in our image and worship it. While many professing Christians would
never bow down to a bronze statue, they have become idolators in that they worship a God of
their own making and call him LORD, as did the Israelites in Exodus 32. We must cling only to
what God has said about Himself and nothing else when we imagine whom we worship.
Lastly, this view of Bibliology unites the true people of God. As I stated above, I am fairly
ecumenical in my view of the Church. I do not believe that any one denomination of Christianity
has flawlessly figured out the mysteries of the faith and has therefore become the pure
representative of Christ’s Church on the earth. I don’t think that there are multiple bodies of
Christ which will populate multiple pockets of the new creation at the end of days. All those who
have a high view of scripture, cling to what it teaches about God, Man, Christ, and what his life,
death, burial, and resurrection have wrought through sincere faith, will enjoy a common home
and bliss in heaven. I, as a “Bible Church” pastor, will sit and dine with Anabaptist, Hussite,
Orthodox, Methodist, and Pentacostal believers who also placed their simple faith in the true
testimony of the Word of God about Jesus Christ. The dividing lines that we have drawn
between many (most) expressions of the Church do not rise to the level of salvific implications.
What unites us is our common faith in Christ, described by and carried to the ends of the Earth
in the infallible Word of God.
There are some teachers within Christianity who would not affirm this. There are those
pastors or theologians who will seek to validate the Bible by outside sources of knowledge or
natural/historical corroboration of its claims. For these teachers, the Bible is as true as it can be
proved to be through empirical observation or historical verification. This posture assumes that
human authorship, complete with its failings and flaws, is what actually lies behind the Bible.
This view weakens greatly the impact that scripture has in the life of the individual believer, the
church both local and Universal, and certainly any leverage it may be able to exert over culture.
12
I completely reject this view. Scripture must reign supreme over all other forms of knowledge.
Every other kind of learning is the human attempt to gain information of some category. In the
Bible alone do we have revealed knowledge coming infallibly from the God of all truth. The
Bible is to be believed by default, as an a priori source of truth. When human logic,
understanding, or discoveries are in conflict with its teaching, we must assume that the flaw lies
in what humans have discovered or concluded, not with the testimony of Scripture.
A less immediately obvious demotion of scriptural authority happens in churches where
it is taught that the life, words, and ministry of Christ contains all truth and that the Bible is only
true because it contains these teachings. The “Jesus First” view of revelation sounds good at
first. Of course, Christ is to be head over all things, and all scripture is about Christ! This
practically plays out in dangerous ways, though. When a passage does not directly teach about
or prophecy concerning Christ, that passage of scripture becomes less valuable. If it teaches
something cross-cultural or challenging to our modern sensibilities, it is easy to dismiss it as less
important than other passages of scripture. In fact, some have even taught that we shouldn’t
bother expositing and preaching through these passages. I stand in opposition to this view of
scripture and wholly reject it as a foundation of orthodoxy. We know that Jesus is the Messiah
because he fulfilled over 300 prophecies found in the Old Testament. We appreciate why He had
to come because we know about sin’s origin, consequence, penalty, and atonement, all of which
are established in the pentateuch. We understand the future hope of all creation in the erasure
of sin and ultimate restoration of all things because the OT prophets spoke about it copiously.
We understand that Jesus is King over all because His kingship was first prophesied in Genesis
and then clarified to David. We know that we ought to be at war with the Devil because he is
most clearly revealed and described in the OT. To “unhitch” our faith from the Old Testament is
to cease to be the Biblical people of God. It is a terrifying prospect that I will have no part of.
Another perversion of Bibliology that has worked its way into the body of Christ is
replacing scriptural authorship by the Holy Spirit with authorship by the Church. This is the
root error that lies at the heart of everything wrong with the Roman Catholic Church. Whereas
most Protestant branches of Christianity will claim that humans were used as vehicles of
inscripturation overseen and administered by the Holy Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit is the
proper author and authority over scripture, the Roman church teaches that the Church is the
rightful author of scripture. The apostles were functioning as agents of the Church when they
wrote scripture. The Church, being the author, therefore has the sole right and responsibility of
interpreting that scripture. Therefore, whatever the current head of the Church, the Pope,
declares ex cathedra, is of equal standing with scripture, since He represents the current officer
filling the chair of those whose words are potentially scripture. Paul, John, Luke, and Peter were
prior occupants of that office and different only in their place in time but not in their calling or
giftings from the current occupant of that office, the Pope. When human teaching is allowed to
equate to scripture, all the wheels come off the cart, and we end up with purgatory, a divine
Mary who was likewise immaculately conceived and ascended into heaven, the buying of
indulgences, and the burning of fellow believers at the stake. I likewise completely reject this
version of Bibliology.
For these reasons and others, I stand completely on what can be understood by the
simple, literal (whenever possible), and clear reading of the Bible. I do my best to allow it to
change me, through the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit, into the person God called me to
be for the sake of my Savior who died to redeem me. I echo what Martin Luther famously
replied when asked to recant what he believed and had written: “My conscience is bound by the
Word of God… God help me. Here I stand. I can do no other.”
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Theology Proper
I.
Doctrines which divide Christians from Other Faiths
A. God is one, and there is no other.
1. Deu 4:35, 39
2. Deu 6:4
3. Jhn 17:3
4. Jas 2:19
B. God is Triune. He has eternally existed in three persons:
1. God, the Father:
a. Isa 63:16
b. Deu 32:6
c. Isa 44:6
2. God, the Son:
a. Psa 2:7, 11-12
b. Isa 7:14
c. Jhn 1:1-3, 14
d. Col 1:15-20
e. Heb 1:1-4
3. God, the Holy Spirit
a. Act 5:3-4
b. 2Co 3:17-18
c. Heb 9:14
d. The words of the Holy Spirit are the words of God:
1) 2Ti 3:16
2) 2Pe 1:21
e. When the Holy Spirit Fills us, we are filled by God:
1) 1Co 6:19
4. These three persons are distinct and not modal or functional exhibitions of one
person. This is seen clearly in moments when multiple persons of the Godhead
are seen to exist distinctly from one another simultaneously.
a. Isa 48:16
b. Mat 3:16-17
c. Mat 12:28
d. Mat 28:19-20
e. Jhn 15:26
5. These three persons are of one nature and substance, co-equal in glory and
power.
a. Jhn 10:30
b. Phl 2:5-7
c. Heb 9:14
d. The Father glorifies the Son
1) Psa 2:7-8
2) Psa 110:1
3) Jhn 8:54
4) Phl 2:9-10
e. The Son Glorifies the Father:
1) Jhn 17:1, 4-5
14
2) Phl 2:9-11
f. The Spirit glorifies the Son (Jhn 16:13-15)
g. The Son honors the Spirit in special judgments for those who sin against
the Spirit (Mar 3:28-30)
6. There is neither ontological nor substantial hierarchy within the Godhead. This
is attested to, in part, by the fact that in the listings of the persons of the Godhead
in scripture, no one person is always listed first. In fact, every possible
arrangement of the three persons can be found in scripture:
a. Father, Son, Spirit (Matthew 28:19)
b. Father, Spirit, Son (1 Peter 1:2)
c. Son, Father, Spirit (John 14:16; 2 Cor 13:14)
d. Son, Spirit, Father (Ephesians 2:18)
e. Spirit, Father, Son (John 14:26)
f. Spirit, Son, Father (John 15:26; 1 Cor 12:4-6)
7. The subordination within the Godhead of one person to another has to do with
submission rather than subjugation. Christ, being equal to the Father in nature
and essence was not forced to submit His will to the Father out of fear of
retribution or domination. Neither is the Holy Spirit Coerced into glorifying the
Son. Rather, such submission is willful and voluntary, out of love and unity of
purpose.
a. Jhn 5:19-20, 30
b. Phil 2:5-7
8. The three persons of the Godhead are all involved in all the works of God,
although they play different roles in those processes.
a. The Father is Creator (Gen 1:1)
b. The Spirit is Creator (Gen 1:2)
c. The Son is Creator (Jhn 1:3)
d. The Father is Savior (Isa 43:10-11)
e. The Son is Savior (1Jo 4:14)
f. The Spirit Saves:
1) Jhn 3:5
2) Eph 1:13-14
g. The Father Judges (1Pe 1:17)
h. The Son Judges (Jhn 5:22)
i. The Holy Spirit Judges (Jhn 16:8-11)
C. God is All-Sufficient. This attribute is frequently referenced when He is declared to be
“The Living God.” He relies on no other being for his existence.
1. Exo 3:14
2. Jhn 1:4
3. Jhn 5:26
D. God is Eternal. There was never a time when He did not exist; nor will there be a time in
the future when He does not. His reality lies outside of time. He is not, like mortals,
limited to an experiential moment-to-moment progression of reality, though He
generally interacts with people on that timeline.
1. Gen 21:33
2. Psa 90:2-4
3. 1Ti 6:13-16
15
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
4. Rev 1:8
God is Immutable. Because he does not experience time as we do, He cannot be in one
condition at one point in time that is different from his condition at another point in
time. Since this is what it means to change, God is therefore unchanging. His nature
and attributes are unchanging and constant.
1. Num 23:19
2. Mal 3:6
3. Heb 13:8
4. Jas 1:17
God is Omnipresent. He existed outside of space and time before He created space and
time. Therefore, just as He is unbound by time and therefore Eternal, He cannot be
bound by location and is therefore everywhere-existent. There is no place that He is not.
1. Psa 139:7-12
2. Isa 66:1
3. Jer 23:23-24
4. Amo 9:2-3
God is Transcendent. This is very much linked to God’s Omnipresence. He is
everywhere present in His creation, but He is not himself a part of it. He is present in
nature but is not part of the fabric of nature. He is above and behind all things but
cannot be manipulated by the manipulation of those things. As a derivative of this, all of
His attributes are “higher” or “other” than corresponding attributes of creation which
might share the same titles.
1. 1Ki 8:27
2. Isa 40:2
3. Isa 55:8-9
4. Heb 1:3
5. Col 1:17
God is Omnipotent. There is no limit to His ability to act that is not self-imposed. His
only restraint is His own will and His own nature. Nothing is too difficult for God.
1. Gen 17:1
2. Psa 33:9
3. Isa 40:28
4. Jer 32:27
5. Rev 19:6
6. Hebrews 1:3
7. Colossians 1:17
God is Completely Free. This is a close derivative of His Omnipotence. His will is
unrestrained by anything except itself and His nature. He is absolutely free to act in any
way except those which His own nature will not allow.
1. Isa 40:13-14
2. Dan 4:35
3. Rom 9:18-21
4. 2Ti 2:13
5. Jas 1:13
God is Holy. By this, I mean that God is wholly other, distinct, and incomparable. There
is no being like Him and nothing in all of creation to which perfect analogy can be drawn.
He is the highest and greatest being which can be conceived.
16
K.
L.
M.
N.
O.
1. Exo 15:11
2. 1Sa 2:2
3. Psa 77:13
4. Isa 6:3
5. Isa 40:25
God is Morally Perfect. Very closely tied to God’s Holiness, so much so that Holiness is
also used to describe it, is God’s moral perfection. His actions are always “good.” In fact,
His actions are the definition by which we are to measure goodness. It is part of his
“completely otherness” that He cannot sin, cannot act in a way contrary to his nature.
Neither does He tolerate such failings in His presence nor His servants. It is this aspect
of his overarching goodness which causes the separation between God and sinful men,
the bridging of which lies at the heart of the gospel.
1. Exo 34:6-7
2. Lev 19:2
3. Deu 32:4
4. Hab 1:13
5. Rom 12:2
6. Isa 5:16
God is Inscrutable. Another consequence of His “completely otherness” is the fact that,
while He has invited us to know Him and has taken the initiative to reveal Himself to us,
He cannot be completely comprehended. No man can conceive rightly of the fullness of
God’s nature. This is not due to a failure in God’s revelation. It is due to a failure in our
minds to rightly comprehend a being like God.
1. Deu 29:29
2. Jdg 13:18
3. Isa 55:8-9
4. Rom 11:33-36
5. 1Co 2:11
God is Knowable. While God cannot be completely comprehended or described in his
totality by fallen human minds , he does invite us to know Him, and knowledge of Him is
essential to the Christian life.
1. Knowledge of God is to be our greatest delight
a. Jer 9:23-24
b. 1Co 2:2
2. It is the Basis of attaining eternal life (Jhn 17:3)
3. It is the central aspect of the new covenant (Jer 31:3)
4. It inspires Godly love of mankind (1Jo 4:7-8)
God is Love.
1. Exo 34:6-7
2. His love flows out of the relationship between the persons of the triune Godhead.
a. Jhn 3:35
b. Jhn 17:24
3. God’s love is made most evident in the work of God, the Son, Jesus Christ.
a. Jhn 3:16
b. 1Jo 4:8-10
God is Gracious. He gives what is not earned freely to those whom He loves.
1. Exo 34:6-7
17
2. 2Ki 13:23
3. Isa 30:18
4. Eph 2:4-5
P. God is Merciful. The companion attribute to God’s graciousness is His Mercy. While He
delights to give what we have not earned (graciousness), He also rejoices in withholding
the wrath we deserve for our sin. This is Mercy.
1. Exo 34:6-7
2. Dan 9:9, 17
3. Rom 9:15-16
4. Eph 2:4-5
5. Heb 4:16
Q. God is Omniscient. He is aware of all things and has perfect knowledge. Because He is
also Eternal, this knowledge is perfect for all future events as well.
1. 1Ch 28:9
2. Psa 139:1-6
3. Psa 147:5
4. Isa 40:28
5. Heb 4:13
R. God is Just (and Judge). Because God is morally perfect, all knowing, perfectly free, and
all good, He is the only being fit to judge with perfect justice. He repeatedly asserts that
this is an aspect of his nature and His absolute prerogative alone.
1. Isa 33:22
2. Act 17:30-31
3. Rom 14:10-12
4. Jas 4:11-12
II. Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians.
A. God is Sovereign in All He Decrees. The decrees of God constitute His eternal plan for all
things, which He is working out according to His will in His time and for His glory.
1. God’s decree includes Nature
a. Gen 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26
b. Psa 119:89-91
c. Psa 148:4-6
d. Heb 11:3
2. God’s decree includes all real events, past and future.
a. Pro 16:4
b. Isa 14:26-27
c. Rom 13:1-2
d. Rev 17:17
3. God’s decree includes the salvation of His elect.
a. Act 17:26-27
b. Rom 8:28-30
c. Eph 1:11-12
d. Eph 2:10
4. God’s decree cannot be annulled or defeated.
a. Job 42:2
b. Psa 33:10-1
18
c. Isa 14:27
d. Isa 46:8-10
e. Phl 1:6
B. God is Zealous for His Own Glory. God acts always and primarily for His own
magnification and exaltation. To be sure, there are also other reasons why God will act,
but these are always secondary.
1. In everything He does, He seeks to display His glory:
a. Hab 2:14
b. Rom 11:36
2. He created the cosmos to display His glory:
a. Psa 8:1-4
b. Psa 19:1
3. He created mankind to display His glory (Isa 43:6-7)
4. He called Israel into existence to display His glory:
a. Isa 49:3
b. Jer 13:11
5. He raised up Pharaoh so that He might display His glory in judgment (Exo 14:4,
17-18)
6. He delivered Israel from Egypt to display His glory (Psa 106:7-8)
7. He gave Israel victory over Canaan to display His glory (2Sa 7:23)
8. He did not forsake Israel despite their idolatry in order to display His glory (1Sa
12:20-22)
9. He restored Israel after the deportation in order to display His glory (Eze
36:22-23)
10. Jesus sought the glory of the Father in all he did:
a. Jhn 7:18
b. Jhn 17:4
11. He saves us to display His glory
a. Isa 43:25
b. Isa 48:9-11
c. Psa 79:9
d. Matt 6:13
e. Eph 1:4-6
f. Romans 3:25-26
g. Heb 2:9
12. We are to do good works so that God gets the glory:
a. Mat 5:16
b. Phl 1:9-11
c. 1Th 2:12
d. 1Ti 6:13-16
e. 1Pe 2:12
f. 1Pe 4:1
g. Seeking to magnify the glory of God is a prerequisite to saving faith (Jhn
5:44)
13. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to display the Glory of God (John 16:14)
14. Worship is primarily about declaring the glory of God:
a. 1Ch 29:11
19
b. Psa 108:5
c. Isa 6:3
d. Neh 9:5
15. Even the mundane aspects of our life are meant to display His glory:
1Co 10:31
16. Jesus’ second coming will be to display His glory:
a. Isa 60:19-21
b. 2Th 1:9-10
c. Rev 21:23
17. Judgment comes to those who fail to glorify God:
a. Act 12:23
b. Rom 1:22-23
c. Rom 3:23
18. Even in the exercise of His wrath, God’s aim is to display His glory (Rom 9:22-24)
C. God is infinitely good and infinitely powerful, even in the face of evil (Theodicy).
1. God is infinitely Good.
a. Exodus 34:6-7
b. 1Ch 16:34
c. Psa 33:5
d. Psa 34:8
2. The infinite goodness of God is declared, repeatedly, with reference to His
treatment of mankind.
a. Psa 23:6
b. Psa 25:8-9
c. Jer 33:11
d. Nah 1:7
3. God is omnipotent (I. H above).
4. God is completely free to act (I. I. above).
5. God is morally pure (I. K. above).
6. Despite all of these truths, evil, which afflicts those whom He loves and corrupts
His good creation, exists.
7. Points of correction:
a. God is not working for our happiness but His glory (II. B. above).
b. Subservient to the increase of His glory, with regard to our own situations,
God is not working for our happiness but our good, which are not the
same thing.
1) Psa 32:3-5
2) 2Co 1:3-4
3) 2Co 12:7-9
4) Jas 1:2-4
5) 1Pe 1:6c. This world is broken by our sin and not the same “very good creation” that
God made. The source of suffering is mankind’s sin, not the decree of
God.
1) Gen 3:14-19
2) Rom 5:12-14
3) Rom 8:18-23
20
d. Even in His relationship with His Son, God’s perfect and righteous will
included “crushing” the One He loved the most (Isa 53:10).
e. God’s sovereignty is absolute (II. A. above), and yet the free will of man is
real, and mankind’s choices are actual and consequential. Both of these
truths are supported in scripture.
1) Deu 30:19-20
2) Pro 16:9
3) Isa 55:6-7
4) Mat 26:24-25
5) Act 4:8-10
f. We do not have any right to question the moral value of the actions or
decrees of God.
1) Job 38:1-4
2) Rom 9:20
3) 1Co 2:16
g. The problem of evil is often stated something like, “How can a good God
allow bad things to happen to good people?” There are two faults here:
1) There is no such thing as a good person:
a. Rom 3:10-18, 23
b. Mar 10:18
2) We assume that our definition of good and bad events are the
same as God’s. They are not.
a. Isa 55:9
b. 1Co 2:6-10
h. God is Eternal (I. D. above), and so His actions, done in eternity, are
instantaneous and complete for Him. We still have to wait for the
fulfillment of many of them from our temporal perspective.
1) Jos 21:45
2) Jer 1:12
3) Lam 2:17
4) 2Co 1:20
5) 2Pe 3:9
8. The power of sin and of death has already been broken and defeated in Christ.
Mat 16:18 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
9. The permanent restoration of all things has already been accomplished in the
eternal realm.
a. Rev 21:3-6
b. Rev 22:3-5
10. Righteous reaction as exemplified in Habakuk:
Hab 3:17-19
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How then shall we live?
Every aspect of the above section deserves a narrative defense, but this is already a
frighteningly-long document. I will camp on only a few topics which I feel most clearly shape
how the Church that worships this amazing being ought to behave.
Firstly, and of greatest importance, is our recognition that God seeks first His own glory.
If all God does is to reveal and magnify His glory, we ought also to work toward that aim in
everything. There are many church models out there, but the first and greatest call of the People
of God is to make much of our Creator, Judge, and Savior before a watching world. This desire
to exalt the Lord should drive our church structure, our programing, our budgets, and our
staffing decisions. The gateway to green-lighting a function of the church ought to be the ability
to define how this action will glorify God in the church. If something points people or dollars at
the glorification of a person or a congregation, it ought to be rejected. If it grows the
organization but not the magnification of God, it should not be done. Resources need to be
jealously guarded as tools by which we can demonstrate the beauty, holiness, judgment,
compassion, and magnificence of our God to our neighbors and to each other. If this is the lens
through which church activities are judged, God will be glorified, and He will bless that which
glorifies himself.
Secondly, while I categorized the sovereign decree of God as a doctrine that is secondary
and not one which divides Christians from adherents of other faiths, I lean heavily on my
understanding of God as sovereign over all in my theology and my daily life. I know that not all
theologians or pastors agree with me, neither in the Church as a whole or even on the pastoral
staff on which I serve. However, for me, no greater joy, peace, or hope can be known than that
God has placed me, by an act of His will, into the exact circumstances in which I find myself, and
that He governs to the uttermost those things which He allows into my life. C.H. Spurgeon
famously and beautifully declared:
“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom
more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the
steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand
of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the
rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of . . . leaves
from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.”
Believing in the decree of God forces one to deal with the problem of evil in a more
thoughtful way, as many people who began believing that all lies in the hand of God have ended
up rejecting either the goodness or omnipotence of God. I laid out my argument above, but for
the sake of this narration, I see the solution to this problem as multi-faceted.
Part of the solution to this problem is that God has wrought His victory over sin in its
totality outside of time, from the “foundations of the world” (Rev 13:8), and yet we are living
inside time, and at a place in time where the battle has been won in Christ’s death and
resurrection, but Satan and sin still are fighting a losing battle on their way to their final
destruction. We are in the “already and not yet” of the church age, and we cannot see the final
situation from where we stand in time. All we can do is trust in the God who has proven Himself
good and faithful in the past to continue to be so forever.
Further, we must try to see God through all of His attributes. It is not only His
sovereignty, His Love, and His Power which are at play here. He is also Judge and Holy, Free
and Self-reliant. He is unknowable in totality and yet has revealed Himself to us. There are
22
many mysteries and difficulties that we encounter when we try to understand God. The failing is
not on the part of God, in that He is somehow internally inconsistent or logically incohesive.
The failing is on our part. We cannot rightly hold all of the truths of God simultaneously in our
minds and resolve all the aspects of His nature. As I said in the narrative portion of Bibliology,
we must restrain our desire to logically conquer all that there is to know. Sometimes, we will
have to subject our logical machinations to the revealed Word of God and say, along with the
faithful father of the child in scripture, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”
The most vile abuse of justice in the history of the cosmos is the crucifixion of the
righteous Lord Jesus on a cross for my sins. He did not deserve that torture. I did. And yet,
God was able to take this horrible misapplication of punishment and use it for my salvation (1
Cor 15:21). There is no greater abuse of innocence; nor is there any greater showpiece of the
goodness and omnipotence of God. As a consequence, I lean even deeper into the sovereignty of
God when I am faced with the terrors of this life. Seeing children dying of no fault of their own
is gut-wrenching and horrible, but it is not as wicked as the death of Christ, which has wrought
my salvation. Consequently, it does not make me hate the God in whose universe this occurs.
Rather, I lean into the hope and faith that is supported by my big view of God and declare that
this, too, must be able to be used for God’s glory and our good (Rom 8:28).
Lastly, understanding that God is about His own glory and holds all of reality within the
confines of His will, I am overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude that this amazing,
self-glorifying omnipotence has condescended to love mankind in general and myself in
particular. Only after you attempt to understand the vast otherness of God and the zealousness
with which he desires to magnify Himself in all things can you rightly declare with the Psalmist
in Psalm 8:
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Only by holding a “big” view of God does the amazing love and mercy carried in the gospel take
on its full effect. If we are something approximating the worthiness of God, then it makes sense
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for God to sacrifice His son to save many of us. Every father serving in the army risks the
well-being of his children for the greater good. The thing is that this analogy is completely in
error. We have to understand that we are nothing at all in comparison with the greatness of God
before we can explode in praise like the psalmist or echo the words of Paul in Romans 11:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are
his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be
repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory
forever. Amen.
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Christology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christians from other Faiths:
A. Jesus Christ is God
1. Addressed already in the doctrine of the trinity: (Theology Proper: I. B. 2.)
2. Christ’s own testimony:
a) His authority. Jesus did not appeal to OT prophets or Moses as
the foundation of his teaching or the root of his authority. Rather,
he claimed divine authority himself in his teachings as evidenced
by the many times he said, “You have heard it said… , but I say to
you…” (Matt 5:22, 20, 32, 34, 39, 44).
b) Christ’s words are on par with the prophetic words of the OT:
(1) Mat 5:18
(2) Mat 24:35
c) His power to judge. While the right to judge is understood in the
OT to reside with God, Jesus claims that right for himself. (Mat
7:21-23)
d) Jesus claims to be the Son of Man, a clear reference to the
prophetic character in Daniel 7, to whom is given the eternal
kingdom, and the worship of all peoples, a situation which is only
appropriate for God to enjoy.
(1) Mar 2:27-28
(2) Dan 7:13-14
e) Jesus received worship. As a Jew, leading a band of Jewish
disciples, He would have vehemently rejected the worship his
disciples gave him on several occasions if he did not believe and
teach that He was, in fact, God.
(1) Mat 14:33
(2) Mat 28:9, 17
(3) Jhn 9:35-38
(4) Jhn 20:27-28
(5) As a counterpoint, when believing Jews accidentally are
worshipped, they immediately reject that activity (Act
14:13-15)
f) Jesus equated himself with the Father numerous times:
(1) Jhn 5:17-18
(2) Jhn 8:58-59
(3) Jhn 10:30-33
(4) Mar 14:61-64
3. The testimony of those who knew Him best:
a) Peter (2Pe 1:1-2)
b) James (Jas 2:1)
c) John: (John 1:1-4, 14)
d) Matthew (Matt 28:9, 17)
e) Thomas: (John 20:27-28)
f) Paul (Col 1:15-20)
B. Jesus Christ is completely human.
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1. Jesus was physically born of Mary by means of a miraculous conception,
wrought by the Holy Spirit:
a) Luk 1:30-35
b) Mat 1:16-18
c) Gal 4:4-5
2. Jesus experienced all the physical realities of a natural body while on the
Earth:
a) Growth (Luk 2:52)
b) Hunger (Mat 4:2)
c) Thirst (Jhn 19:28)
d) Tiredness (Jhn 4:6)
e) Death (Luk 23:46)
C. Jesus Christ is of a compound nature. The interaction of his divine and human
natures is a difficult point to articulate perfectly, as scripture gives us numerous
facts but precious few statements of systematic synthesis on the topic. We must
affirm:
1. Jesus is fully God (Theology Proper: I. B. 2.; Christology: I. A.).
2. Jesus is fully man (Christology: I. B.).
3. Jesus, as God, is sinless (Theology Proper: I. K.).
4. Jesus exhibited several instances when he did not have all knowledge
while on earth:
a) Mar 13:32
b) Luke 2:52
5. Jesus seems to have relinquished the full exercise of his divinity in accord
with his will, relying rather on the leadership of his Father’s will and the
action of the Holy Spirit through him.
a) Jhn 5:19-20, 30
b) Luk 4:14
c) Isa 11:1-3
d) Mat 12:27-28
e) Phl 2:5-7
f) 2Co 8:9
6. The conclusion arrived at by the Council of Chalcedon has been the
orthodox description of Christ’s nature, based on these pieces of evidence,
for more than 1500 years: “full Deity and perfect humanity… without
mixture, change, division, or separation in one Person forever.”
D. Jesus Christ was, because of his real humanity, subject to all means of
temptation, which he endured without ever committing any sin:
1. Heb 4:15
2. Luk 4:1-2
3. 1Pe 2:22-23
E. Jesus Christ was killed by Roman soldiers by means of crucifixion, and his death
was real and actual.
1. Mat 27:50
2. Mar 15:37-39
3. Luk 23:46-47
4. Jhn 19:30-35
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F. Jesus Christ rose literally and physically from the dead to eternal unperishing life
in a real and physical, glorified body.
1. Luk 24:39-43
2. Act 1:3
3. 1Co 15:20-23
G. Jesus Christ’s glorified body ascended to heaven, where He currently ministers as
High Priest and the only mediator between fallen man and a Holy God.
1. Luk 24:50-52
2. Phl 2:9-11
3. Heb 8:1-2
4. Heb 12:1-2
5. Rev 3:21
How then shall we live?
More than any other area of Christian Theology, the result of what one does with Jesus
Christ determines whether that person is or is not a part of the Church universal and is therefore
saved. I have been using the three-fold approach to defining my beliefs, categorizing them as
either doctrines which divide Christianity from other faiths or points that I choose to defend or
on which I will defer. When I wrote this section, I could not find anything that was less than
critical when it came to determining orthodoxy. I am not so conceited as to think that I have
rightly determined everything that can be truthfully articulated about my Savior, but neither
have I found some aspect of this section that I can imagine holding loosely.
As I have repeatedly stated, I believe that there will be more factions of Christendom in
heaven than we might think to expect living here on Earth. I don’t presume to know which sects
have strayed too far or invented too much to have a saving faith. I live with arms open as much
as I can. I believe and hope the best of as many of my brothers and sisters as I can. Christ
prayed that His followers would do so in John 17. Still, I believe the clear dividing line of who is
and who is not a part of the people of God is drawn upon one’s Christology. This body of
teaching separates those who have placed their faith in a real Savior and those who have placed
their faith in fairy tales.
This severity of judgment in my mind has made me very careful to define Christ correctly
to those I have had the privilege of teaching, and it has forced me to have some very clear and
sometimes painful conversations with friends and family when they have placed their eternal
hope in a different savior. The Jesus who saves is not the sinless prophet of Islam. He is not the
overly-impressed-with-himself Rabbi of Judaism. He has never been the Jesus of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses or Mormons. He is not only the Jesus of the social gospel movement. He is not only a
name to be shouted in a pentacostal worship service. He is certainly more than the rallying cry
of the conservative political movement. He is not our national hero. He never taught that if you
are a good person you get to be with him in eternity. He never asked us to trust our hearts or be
true to them. In fact, He cautioned us not to trust our hearts at all.
All of these errors and so many others pepper the landscape of human thought on the
question of Jesus. Here is where we need to draw our tightest lines and control our variables
more than anywhere else. Here is where our message must be clear, united, and exact. Jesus is,
as the Nicene creed declares:
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...the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;
of the same essence as the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.
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Pneumatology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christians from other faiths
A. The Holy Spirit is God (Theology Proper: I. B. 3.)
B. The Holy Spirit explicitly shares many of the divine attributes, so that it can be
inferred that He shares them all:
1. The Holy Spirit is eternal (Heb 9:14)
2. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent
Psa 139:7-10
3. The Holy Spirit is omniscient
a) Isa 40:13-14
b) 1Co 2:10-11
4. The Holy Spirit is omnipotent
Luk 1:35-37
5. The Holy Spirit is Holy
Rom 1:4
C. The Holy Spirit is a person, not an impersonal force.
1. The many trinitarian verses (listed above, Theology Proper: I. B. 6) put
the Holy Spirit on the same plane as the Father and the Son, who are
undeniably and inarguably persons.
2. Jesus, in referring to the Holy Spirit in John 16, claims that the Holy
Spirit will replace him functionally as their helper and comforter. A force
cannot be thought of as bringing comfort as well as Jesus did as a person
with whom they could relate.
3. While there are some instances of the Holy Spirt being referred to with
neuter pronouns, there are also multiple instances in which he is referred
to with masculine personal ones, implying personhood.
a) Jhn 14:16-17
b) Jhn 14:26
c) Jhn 16:7-8
4. The Holy Spirit does things that people do, not things that impersonal
forces do:
a) Comforts (John 14:16-17)
b) Teaches (John 14:26)
c) Speaks
(1) Act 8:29
(2) Act 13:2
d) Makes Decisions (Act 13:2)
e) Grieves over sin (Eph 4:30)
f) Overrules human actions (Act 16:6-7)
g) Searches out and possesses knowledge (1Cor 2:10-11)
h) Determines the distribution of gifts (1Co 12:11)
i) Interprets and brings prayers to the Father (Rom 8:26-27)
j) Assures us of our adoption
(1) Eph 1:13
(2) Eph4:30
(3) Rom 8:16
k) Bears witness to and glorifies Christ
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(1) Jhn 15:26
(2) Jhn 16:14
D. The Holy Spirit was active in the earthly life of Christ:
1. He conceived the physical body of Christ in the womb of Mary:
a) Luk 1:35
b) Mat 1:20
2. He anointed Jesus for His earthly ministry:
a) Mar 1:10
b) Luk 3:21-22
3. He filled Jesus (Luk 4:1)
4. He empowered the earthly ministry of Jesus (Luk 4:1, 14, 18)
5. He raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 8:11)
E. The Holy Spirit is at work in the life of a believer. Because of this, certain traits, or
“fruits of the Spirit,” will be evident. No believer is perfect, but these
characteristics ought to be more and more the dominant descriptors of one’s life
as they walk with God.
1. Rom 6:22
2. Gal 5:22-23
3. Col 1:9-10
4. 2Pe 1:5-8
F. The Holy Spirit is active in the life of the Church.
1. The Holy Spirit birthed the church at Pentecost (Act 2:37-38, 41-42)
2. The Holy Spirit speaks to and guides the leadership of the local church.
a) Act 13:2-4
b) Act 15:28-29
c) Act 16:6-10
3. The Holy Spirit indwells the church of God, composed of individual
believers. (Eph 2:19-2)
4. The Holy Spirit empowers the growth of the Church (Eph 4:4, 11-12)
II.
Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians
A. The Holy Spirit is active in the salvation of the individual believer:
1. The Holy Spirit allows fallen man to understand the Holy Scriptures by
interpreting them for the reader (1Co 2:7-13)
2. He regenerates the minds of fallen men in response to the reading and
comprehension of the word of God.
a) Eze 36:26-27
b) Jhn 3:5-8
c) 1Co 2:14-16
3. He imparts the gift of saving faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
(Eph 2:8)
4. He seals the believer for ultimate glorification and spiritual inheritance as
a co-heir with Christ.
a) Eph 1:13
b) Eph 4:30
c) Rom 8:16
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5. At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into
Himself:
a) Act 1:5, 8
b) Act 2:38-39
c) Rom 8:9-11
d) Eph 4:4-6
6. He works sanctification in the life of the believer
a) Rom 15:15-16
b) 1Pe 1:1-2
B. The Holy Spirit, indwelling every believer, gives diverse spiritual gifts to every
believer as He wills.
1. 1Co 12:4, 6-7, 11
2. Rom 12:4-6
C. The Holy Spirit’s gifts, listed in several places in scripture, include:
1. Offices which come with their own complement of giftings (Eph 4:11):
a) Apostle
b) Prophet
c) Pastor/Teacher
d) Evangelist
2. Gifts, which may be exercised by members not holding to any particular
office within the church:
a) Romans 12:6-8 lists the following gifts:
(1) Prophesying
(2) Serving
(3) Teaching
(4) Encouraging
(5) Giving
(6) Leadership
(7) Mercy
b) 1 Cor 12:4-11 includes:
(1) The Word of wisdom
(2) The word of knowledge
(3) Faith
(4) Healing
(5) Miraculous powers
(6) Prophecy
(7) Distinguishing between spirits
(8) Speaking in tongues
(9) Interpretation of tongues
c) 1 Cor 12:28 includes:
(1) Miracles
(2) Healings
(3) Helps
(4) Administration
(5) Diversities of tongues
D. The Holy Spirit’s greatest gift is the gift of Love. It is listed as a fruit of the spirit
(something that should be present in the life of every believer) as well as the
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defining characteristic of the followers of Christ. It is the exercise of love that
serves as the earmark of a believer, not the exercise of any other one gift.
1. 1Co 12:29-13:3
2. Jhn 13:34-35
3. 1Jo 2:7-10
E. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer at the moment of their salvation. There is
no “second blessing.” Those who do not have the Holy Spirit indwelling them are
not saved.
1. Romans 8:9
2. Gal 3:2, 4-5
3. Gal 4:4-7
4. Jde 1:18-19
5. You cannot fail to have the indwelling Spirit of God, once He has been
given in truth.
a) John 14:16-17
b) The sealing Holy Spirit remains until our gorification
(1) Eph 1:14
(2) 2Co 1:21-22
c) The church at Corinth was carnal, not walking in obedience to the
truth, yet Paul affirmed that the Holy Spirit indwelt them
(1) 1Co 3:16
(2) 1Co 6:19
F. The Holy Spirit fills people at His own choosing.
1. In the Old Testament, individuals were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit, so
when He “came upon them” to accomplish a work in a through them, they
were said to be “filled with” rather than “indwelt by” the Holy Spirit.
a) Exo 31:1-5
b) Num 27:18-19
c) Jdg 14:6
d) 1Sa 10:9-11
2. This “Old Testament” kind of filling continues into the New Testament in
several examples around the birth narrative of Jesus.
a) Luk 1:14-15
b) Luk 1:41-42
c) Luk 1:67-68
3. There are a few instances when being “filled with” the spirit seems to be
synonymous with being baptized in the Spirit or receiving the initial
promised indwelling:
a) Act 4:7-10
b) Act 6:3-4
4. After Pentecost (Acts 2), the Holy Spirit constantly indwells every
believer. As such, you cannot get “more” of the Spirit. However, there
seem to be times when the Holy Spirit intentionally exerts greater control
or influence in a believer’s life so that they are equipped to accomplish a
certain feat or ready to face a particular challenge.
a) Act 4:7-10
b) Act 4:31
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c) Act 13:9-10
5. There is only one command in scripture to “be filled with the Holy Spirit,”
found in Eph 5:18:
a) Eph 5:18
b) The command is in the present tense and the passive voice, which
has caused several expositors to render it: keep on allowing
yourself to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
c) This is something we should seek, “keep allowing yourself.”
d) It is not something we can effect. We can only continue to avail
ourselves of the Holy Spirit’s will and work in our lives. He
indwells, and it is He who fills.
6. It is frequently taught that the filling of the spirit is the opposite of the
grieving or quenching of the Spirit .
a) This is logically sound, although not directly stated in scripture.
b) The degree to which you are yielded to and useful for the work of
the Holy Spirit through your life is the inverse of the degree to
which you are resisting His work.
III.
Doctrines on which I will defer and choose not to argue.
A. Does the Holy Spirit still give the full suite of gifts to believers today which He
chose to use during the apostolic age?
B. Is the gift of tongues the usage of a real language or a series of ecstatic utterances
meant for prayer? Or both?
How then shall we live?
Whether or not one expects to see nature-bending miraculous activity in the life of the
Church, the fact that the Holy Spirit empowers and gifts those whom He seals for salvation is
not a point of debate. We, the church, are filled with the Holy Spirit and given works to do with
these gifts. There is no such thing as a sidelined Christian, and least not by design.
If a believer is in truth a part of the Body of Christ, that person has been given a task and
has been resourced to accomplish it. Part of the failure of the contemporary church in the
creation of “professional” christians--pastors, missionaries, professors, evangelists, seminary
presidents--is that the laity of the church feel like there is no room for them to really get into the
fray and do the work of the Church. After all, that’s why they support these institutions which
employ professional servants of Christ. We have largely lost the sense of the priesthood of all
believers (1Pet 2:4-5,9; Rev 5:9-10) in the current Church framework. The laity needs to be
reminded that the offices of the church were given so that we can work “for the equipping of the
saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12). Yes, there are
officers of the church, but the work of ministry is to be done by the laity, through the gifting of
the Holy Spirit’s enabling powers for this purpose. The more that we can help the people of God
to see that ministry is their calling as well, not something that has been delegated to the
professionals, the healthier the Church will be and the more that it will properly function to
glorify God and extend the gospel.
On the question of Christ, I argued that there was very little that I could hold with an
open hand. Everything I described I categorized as critical, a dividing line between orthodoxy
and heresy. Scripture has so much information on the person of Christ--from Messianic
prophecies four thousand years before He was born through four biographies of his life to letters
33
written about him for sixty years after his death. Scripture is replete with information about
Messiah. Not so with the third member of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit, we know, shares all the
attributes of the Godhead. He was involved in all the projects of God from creation to salvation,
the writing of scripture, and the final eschaton. But He never self-discloses in scripture to nearly
the degree that He inspired authors to inscripturate knowledge about the Father or the Son. We
don’t even know His personal name, if He has one. Yahweh and Yashua have introduced
themselves, but He seems content to be in the background, glorifying and revealing the other
two members of the Godhead. His action makes the biggest scene when He acts in power, but
He never steps into the narrative and says, “Hi.” And yet, the other two members of the
Godhead make it very clear that He is God and is not to be trifled with or forgotten. Jesus even
says that sins against the Father and the Son will be forgiven, but sins against this “in the
background” member will not be forgiven.
Consequently, there is much wider diversity of opinion about who the Holy Spirit is and
what He does within what I believe are real branches of the Christian faith than on almost any
other issue. My experience demonstrates some of the spectrum of thought on this question.
I was raised in and most recently served on staff in a conservative charismatic church,
the Calvary Chapel movement, and I very briefly attended a Foursquare church in college. Both
of these churches agree that all of the gifts listed in scripture are for the church for all time, and
they both encourage their practice in the believer’s life. They differ, however, on how they are to
be practiced. Calvary Chapel does not exercise the sign gifts or tongues in the assembly, in
keeping with Paul’s preference in 1 Cor 14. Those things are for the edification of the believer in
private or the church outside of the main service. The Foursquare church does practice all the
gifts in the assembly, but they do their best to restrain them to the descriptions of 1 Cor 14. I
twice saw the pastor stop speaking because someone stood up to give a word of knowledge. It
was odd, but they were following how they read the Bible.
I also spent several years in Middle School and early High School attending an NACC
Christian Church, which does not believe that the gifts are for today. For them, all the fireworks
stopped with the death of the apostles and the dawning of the age of the Church, founded on the
completed canon of scripture. Oddly enough, only at this Church was I ever a witness to an
exorcism. All of us were out of our element then, but God showed up and was victorious. Later
in High School I saw my first adventure into Church staff or “official volunteer” life. From then
on, most of my church experience has been in cessationist Churches: North American Baptist,
General Baptist, Conservative Baptist, Evangelical Free Church, and even a very odd year at a
Wesleyan church. None of these churches expected a demonstrable Holy Spirit miraculous
activity, and it never happened.
I have had lots of opportunities to rub shoulders with believers of all kinds through my
ministry with the Continental Singers over ten years, and I very much enjoy the current spirit of
cooperation in the churches of Warsaw through the evangelism Co-op and the Coalition of
Churches for Orphan Care. I love and embrace a large swath of believers as brothers who do not
all agree on this question. For my part, I have never prayed in a tongue. I’ve never sought to.
Even if you believe that it is for today, Paul so clearly relegates it to the least important gift, that
I have taken his counsel and sought rather to excel in the greater gifts, most pointedly in love.
While scripture cautions us to be careful that we do not quench or grieve the Spirit, and
blaspheming the Spirit is unforgivable, it seems that the Holy Spirit has allowed a wide diversity
of opinion about Himself within the Church He fills, equips, directs, and empowers. Personally,
I do not make the question of one’s opinions on the current activity of the Holy Spirit a test of
fellowship. If He does not, how can I?
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Origins & Anthropology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christianity from other Faiths.
A. God is the only ultimate cause of the cosmos and its only and unique Creator. All
things, visible and invisible, came to be as a result of his agency and decree.
1. Gen 1:1-4
2. Psa 33:6, 9
3. Neh 9:6
4. John 1:1-3
5. Col 1:15-17
6. Rev 4:11
B. Mankind stands apart from the rest of creation in that he alone bears the image
of God.
1. Gen 1:26-27
2. Gen 5:1
3. Luk 3:38
4. Jas 3:8-9
C. Mankind is a compound being, part of which is rightly described as a biological
machine, a creature, and part of which is spiritual and eternal.
1. Mankind is an animal.
a) Gen 2:7, 19
b) Gen 1:20; 2:7
c) Gen 7:21-22
2. Mankind has an eternal spiritual nature not shared with animals:
a) Job 32:8
b) Ecc 12:7
c) Jhn 4:24
d) 1Th 5:23
e) Jas 2:26
D. Because mankind bears the image of God, even in a fallen or reprobate state
(more on this below), every person is worthy of respect and dignity.
1. Gen 9:6
2. Mat 10:29-31
3. Mat 7:12
4. 1Pe 2:17
5. Jas 3:7-10
II.
Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians
A. I believe that the clear, simple reading of the Bible argues that God created the
cosmos in six literal days in the relatively recent past.
1. Gen 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; Gen 2:1-2,
2. Exo 20:11
3. Exo 31:17
4. Jesus never stated that creation happened in six literal days, but he did
teach a young earth, and nothing he taught makes room for allegorical
interpretations of the Genesis account.
a) Adam and Eve existed “from the beginning,” not Billions of years
after the dawn of the cosmos (Mar 10:6).
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b) The fall happened very near the “beginning of creation.” (Mar
13:19)
c) Abel’s murder is included in the “blood of the prophets,” which
began with him at the “foundation of the world.” (Luk 11:50-51)
B. The spiritual aspect of man is that part of him which bears the image of God and
gives him unique attributes, distinct from among all other creatures of God’s
creation. It is impossible to exactly define what the image of God is. It is
important to know that we, in certain ways, are “like God.” To know all the ways
in which we are like God would require us to know both our own natures and the
nature of God completely. Both of these bodies of knowledge are incomplete.
Suffice it to say, these unique shared attributes include at least the following:
1. Creativity:
a) God is infinite creator
b) Mankind creates novel items, musical instruments, and tools very
early on (Gen 4:21-22)
2. Love and true emotion:
a) God’s love is a critical aspect of His nature (Theology Proper: I. N.)
b) Mankind’s ability to love is clearly discussed numerous times
throughout scripture. In its clearest and most meaningful
discussions, it is linked to our inheriting this aspect of our nature
from God:
(1) 1Co 12:29-13:3
(2) 1Jo 4:7
(3) 1Jo 4:10
3. Immortality:
a) God is Eternal (Theology Proper: I. D.)
b) Mankind’s spirit does not continue into eternity past, as does God
alone, but we do continue forever into eternity future:
(1) Jhn 5:28-29
(2) 2Th 1:9-10
(3) Rev 21:3-4, 8
4. Moral Free Will
a) God is absolutely Free (Theology Proper: I. I.)
b) Mankind makes morally meaningful free-will decisions.
(1) Isa 64:5-6
(2) Mat 7:17-19
(3) Rom 8:2
(4) Jas 1:13-15
(5) 1Pe 2:16
C. Mankind has dominion over creation, which makes him a consumer-manager of
the created world. We are free to use resources as we need them, but we must
manage their use in a sustainable way that both provides for their consumption in
the future and acknowledges that these resources ultimately don’t belong to us
but to the Lord.
1. Gen 1:26-28
2. Gen 2:15
3. Gen 9:1-3
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4. Deu 10:14
5. Deu 22:6-7
6. Lev 25:2-7
7. Psa 8:3-8
8. Jas 3:7
D. I understand that the clear and simple reading of scripture leads to a simple,
binary, view of gender. Men and women:
1. Represent the only genders--male and female--with no ambiguity or
blended definitions (Gen 1:27)
2. Are equal in standing before God in that they are both equal image
bearers and able to relate, individually and with equal meaning, to their
creator.
a) Gen 1:27
b) Gal 3:28
3. Are different in design, role, and purpose:
a) Gen 2:18, 23
b) 1Co 11:3, 8-9
c) Eph 5:23
4. Are meant to compliment one another in a harmonious relationship that
celebrates their differences and maximizes their individual strengths and
abilities.
a) Gen 2:24-25
b) Eph 5:24-25, 28, 33
c) 1Pe 3:1, 7
E. I believe in the responsibility of male headship in the home and in the specific
office of pastor/elder/bishop in the church.
1. Eph 5:24-25
2. 1 Pe 3:1,7
3. Num 30:2-8
4. 1Ti 3:2, 4-5
5. Tit 1:6
6. There are no new-testament portions of scripture which record a female
pastor/elder/bishop.
F. I believe that sexuality was designed as a beautiful gift from God to be enjoyed
only in the context of a marriage between one man and one woman. All other
exercises of sexual activity are sin.
1. Gen 2:24-25
2. Lev 18:22-23
3. Pro 5:18-20
4. Rom 1:26-27
5. 1Co 6:18-20
6. Heb 13:4
III.
Doctrines on which I will defer and choose not to argue.
A. Is man’s nature a dichotomy or a trichotomy?
B. Does scripture allow for a female Deacon?
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How then shall we live?
Origins is another area of Christian theology where there is a wide diversity of opinion
and held convictions. Unlike the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, though, this diversity is not because
of a low volume of revealed knowledge on the subject. The testimony of scripture is exact,
consistent, and clear. The spectrum of opinion is not driven by interpretation of scripture but by
the degree to which one is willing to submit to scripture. I don’t make belief in young-earth
creationism a test of orthodoxy. I believe there is a tenable place of real faith in the real God of
the Bible if you hold to some near-variant view (day-age or framework views, for example), but
certainly in order to understand why you must be saved, you must read real history in Genesis
1-3. If God is not the creator, then violating His will is meaningless. If we do not inherit original
sin, then there is no reason for the Savior. As Romans 1 lays out, the beginning of the cultural
slide away from God begins in abandoning faith in God as Creator (Rom 1:18-25) and continues
through moral and sexual decay to the point where sin is celebrated and seen as something to
encourage (Rom 1:26-32). America and Europe have taken this journey and find themselves
exactly where Paul told us we would be.
I started life as a young-earth creationist. My father always consistently modeled this
belief for me. All the pastors of my young life consistently taught that God was the Creator of our
cosmos in the recent past. Then, I went to college, and while I attended a conservative Christian
institution, millions of years and evolutionary adaptation were present in my biology classes.
Then, I took evolutionary zoology at a secular university to satisfy a teaching credential
requirement, and ran headlong into well-presented evidence-based evolutionary theory. I had a
real crisis of faith, and I began the journey described in Romans 1. As a retreat into what I
thought was a defensible position whereby I could still be a Christian and yet retain “intellectual
honesty,” I became a theistic evolutionist. This posture was accepted by my peers and my
professors at Biola. Only my father kept checking me and my baseline assumptions. I was quite
comfortable here for many years.
However, I started to see the next logical steps on the journey of the slide away from faith
when I spoke to other theistic evolutionists in the sciences who had also abandoned other
difficult passages of scripture. They no longer held to a literal flood, and certainly the book of
Jonah is an allegory. Several saw no need for eschatology to be grounded in reality, and a few
doubted the virgin birth of Christ. I didn’t want to go there. I still prided myself as being a
Biblical literalist… after chapter 3 of Genesis. Only about 10 years ago did I realize that I was a
hypocrite. I believed every word of scripture that did not go against what I thought science
demonstrated. I was prioritizing the knowledge of men over the revealed word of God. So, I
confessed my sin of pride and declared by faith that I believed every word of scripture, including
the account of creation with which God begins His revelation. To be clear, I did not argue myself
out of the science behind evolutionary theory. I declared that I placed greater faith in the
knowledge of God than in the knowledge of man. I am so glad I did.
I took the time to recount this history because it underlies the conviction I have that
Christians must believe in and worship God as Creator. I doubt very much that you can
maintain a saving faith while believing that you and your cosmos are an accident. You might
have “faith,” but it won’t be in the God of the Bible. You might, like Stephen Jay Gould, declare
that “the subject of God fascinates me more than any other topic of conversation… except
baseball” (Gould, S. J. (2007). Rocks of ages: Science and religion in the fullness of life.
Cambridge: International Society for Science and Religion.) Or like Neil DeGrass Tyson, the
renowned astrophysicist, you might believe that god is a mathematician, but you will not
understand the fullness of the revealed God of the universe unless you begin where He begins,
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with the Author of it all. Being, as I was, a Genesis-4-and-following Christian is a dangerous,
unstable, and unsustainable posture. One must either, as I did, submit to the whole counsel of
God in scripture or take the journey of Romans 1 and end in apostasy.
For this reason, I urge all members of the household of God to be very clear that God is
Creator. We must not yield this ground. His revelation of Himself began there with purpose. It
was not just for the sake of chronology. We must anchor our faith in the God who authored
reality. To do otherwise is to set our faith adrift on the currents of public opinion.
My commitment to a literal and simple Bibliology and reading of origins drives my view
of anthropology. Mankind is animal and spiritual simultaneously. He is the superintendent and
delegated manager of creation. Since every person bears the fingerprints of God in his person
and nature, we ought to love and respect every member of our species. There are no mistakes in
the billions of iterations of God’s original design that populate the planet today. Certainly, not
every action or intention of these image-bearers is righteous. Tolerance, as it is preached today,
is not Biblical, but universal respect, dignity, and love for one-another is. This all comes from
the first three chapters of the Bible which I once treated so lightly.
Masculine headship, which today is as unpopular as literal creationism, is also carried to
us clearly and consistently throughout scripture, and it is also first revealed in the opening
chapters of Genesis. Like the doctrine of creation, scripture consistently affirms this doctrine
everywhere it addresses leadership in the church or home, but both bodies of text point to
Genesis 1-3 for its foundation. God created men and women both in His image. Both are
valuable. Both are cherished of God and stand on equal footing before Him, but they fulfill
different roles in the home and Church. It is interesting that it was the intention of God to
create a delegated ruler of creation at the outset, in answer to which He creates man. Then,
man’s loneliness is seen as “not good,” in answer to which He creates woman. It is not man’s
headship which is sub-par. He is a fit delegated ruler as the workmanship of God on his own.
However, his heart and life will be incomplete alone. For this reason his helper, his lover and
friend, is created. The fact that male headship has been abused by sinful men does not mean
that the model is broken and needs to be replaced by egalitarianism. It means that men are
broken and are in need of a Savior, which is also based on Genesis 1-3.
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Hamartiology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christianity from other faiths
A. Sin entered the world when Adam, the head of our race, chose to disobey God’s
single prohibition in the garden, and in him all of mankind has inherited a
positional standing as a sinner against God.
1. Gen 3:6
2. Psa 51:5
3. Isa 59:2
4. Jer 17:9
5. Rom 5:12-14, 18-19
6. Eph 2:1-3
B. Sin is present in every person because, in addition to every person inheriting a
judicial standing as a sinner before God, every person has also chosen to sin of
their own free will.
1. Psa 58:2-3
2. Ecc 9:3
3. Rom 3:10-18, 23
4. 1Jo 1:8, 10
C. Sin is explained in scripture as:
1. Doing evil (Jdg 2:11)
2. Disobedience (Rom 5:19)
3. Transgression (Exo 23:21)
4. Iniquity (Lev 26:40)
5. Lawlessness (Tit 2:13-14)
6. Trespassing (Eph 2:1)
7. Ungodliness (1Pe 4:18)
8. Unrighteousness (1Jo 1:9)
9. Unholy (1Ti 1:8-9)
10. Wickedness (Pro 11:31)
D. Sin’s definition:
1. “Sin is anything (whether in thoughts, actions, or attitudes) that does not
express or conform to the holy character of God as expressed in his moral
law.” ESV Study Bible p. 2530
2. Sin is always against God (Psa 51:4)
3. Even sin against a brother is a sin against the good law of the Lord and the
inner ministry of the Holy Spirit which instructs us how to treat our
brothers. The above quote is taken from the context of David committing
adultery, deception, and murder. Certainly, these are against others. Yet
he confesses that, at its root, his sin is against the word of the Lord that he
had received and the inner leading of the Holy Spirit which he, rather
uniquely in his dispensation, enjoyed.
4. Sin’s spiritual consequence is “digital,” in that all sin, even only one sin,
serves to separate us from God.
a) Jas 2:10
b) Gal 3:10
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5. Physical, temporal, and relational consequences of sin are scalar. Some
have greater consequences than others based on knowledge, intent, kind,
and effect.
a) Eze 8:5-6
b) Mat 10:15
c) Jhn 19:11
d) Num 15:30
E. Sin must be judged and punished by God. He cannot pretend it isn’t there or
didn’t happen.
1. Gen 3:14-19
2. Exo 34:5-8
3. Isa 63:1-6
4. Rom 2:2-3, 6, 9-10, 12-13
5. Rev 19:11-16
II.
Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians
A. Sin’s consequences include the end of physical life in death.
1. Gen 3:19, 22-23
2. Eze 18:20
3. Rom 5:12-14
4. Rom 6:23
5. Jas 1:15
B. Sin is the cause of all animal death. I believe that it is a clear understanding from
the simple reading of Genesis 1-3 that animal death was also not a part of the
original plan of God and that animal death was also a consequence of the fall of
Adam.
1. Originally, only plants were given to Adam and Eve for food (Gen 1:30)
2. Animals which today are obligate carnivores and would see other animals
as a potential meal were brought together for Adam to name them in
apparent harmony (Gen 2:19-20).
3. No animal death is recorded before the curse in Genesis 3. The first
animal death was at the hand of God to prepare animal skins for clothing,
which has been interpreted as a foreshadowing of the principle of
substitutionary atonement, clarified later in the law, and ultimately
realized in the work of Christ (Gen 3:21).
4. In the Millennial Kingdom, where the curse of sin is partially rolled back,
animals who would naturally eat each other are pictured as resting
peacefully together. The assumed interpretation is that animals will no
longer seek each other for food. Explicitly, we are told that contemporary
carnivores will become herbivores again. This likely points back to a
restoration of the original intent, when animals were not meant to seek
one another for food.
a) Isa 11:6-8
b) Isa 65:25
C. Sin has so corrupted mankind that he is totally depraved. This means that
unregenerate mankind is unable to:
1. Live lives pleasing to God (Heb 11:6)
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2. Attain spiritual understanding (Heb 11:6)
3. Repent or trust Christ (Jhn 6:44, 65)
4. See or enter the kingdom of God (Jhn 3:3)
5. Obey God and therefore glorify Him (Rom 8:6-8)
6. Receive eternal or spiritual life (Eph 2:1-3)
D. Sin is defeated in the life of a believer. When a regenerated, repented, Spirit-filled
believer sins:
1. That person’s judicial standing before God is unaffected.
a) Rom 6:23
b) Rom 8:1, 29-30, 33-35, 38-39
c) 1Co 15:3
d) 1Jo 3:2
2. That person’s fellowship, witness, and effectiveness for the work of Christ
are damaged.
a) The Holy Spirit is grieved (Eph 4:30-32).
b) The Son is grieved (Rev 3:19)
c) The Father is grieved, and his discipline can be expected for the
correcting of character and growing in Righteousness (Heb
12:6-10)
d) There is a loss of heavenly reward, but not a loss of salvation (1Co
3:12-15)
E. Sin that is unpardonable.
1. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in the gospels happens in the context of
people who have known Christ, heard His teachings, seen evidence of His
power, and understand clearly who He is and what He has evidenced and
yet attribute those evidences to Satan.
a) Mat 12:31-32
b) Mar 3:29-30
c) Luk 12:8-10
2. In all of these contexts, the point of the story is that certain people were so
hateful toward Christ and His work that, although they had every reason
to understand and submit to His teaching, they willfully attributed his
miracles and the source of His power (the Holy Spirit) to Satan.
3. The warnings in Hebrews 4-6 and 10 fit this same context. Someone who
has seen and understood much and then treats with contempt what Jesus
has done by attributing it to Satan or calling it of no account has no hope
for forgiveness.
a) Heb 6:4-8
b) Heb 10:26-31
4. It is therefore the sin of hating the understood gospel and railing against
the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who is working to illuminate and apply
this same gospel in the lives of a believer, calling that activity instead
Satanic, which is unpardonable.
5. It is not something that someone who has legitimately been saved needs
to worry about doing. If they are tender to the ministry of the Holy Spirit
in convicting them of sin and calling them to repentance, then they have
not committed the sin of rejecting that same ministry.
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6. If someone rejects the ministry of the Holy Spirit and rails against the
gospel for years but then repents, they have not committed Blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit. This is the story of the Apostle Paul, who lived the
first stage of his life in warfare against the work of Christ but later
humbled himself to the work of the Holy Spirit and was used greatly by
God.
How then shall we live?
Sin is one of the key doctrines needed for saving faith. Before you can repent of your sins
and ask Jesus to save you, you must be honest about your need for such a transaction.
Consequently, there exists very little latitude in this conversation. If you don’t agree with the
Bible’s testimony about your condition, you will not agree with its testimony about the remedy.
There are sections of Christendom that have watered down their stance on what is sin. I don’t
hold much hope for those who adhere to these diluted doctrines. God is very severe in His
description of what will happen to those who do not rightly deal with their sin before His
judgment. We must not shrink back, as a church, in calling sin what it is and holding the culture
to which we belong accountable for its actions. If people are not made aware of their sin, there
will be no appetite for a Savior.
The diversity of opinion that has existed within orthodox Christianity from near its
inception revolves around the degree to which our spirits have been affected by our sin. How
dark is the unregenerate soul? Augustine was the first to systematically and thoroughly define
human depravity, and his work is still venerable after all these years. Calvin dialed up the
severity of the condition in his coining of the term “total depravity.” I think he was right to do
so. Paul, after all, called us “dead” (Eph 2:1). There is no worse prognosis.
Depending on how bad you think the situation is to begin with, you will need different
actions on God’s part to solve the problem. It is because Catholics, Arminians, and Calvinists
begin with different degrees of severity in their definition of sin that they imagine different steps
God takes in saving mankind. I think all three formulas of hamartiology, if not soteriology, can
be supported by scripture. So, whether your definition of sin is Augustinian, Arminian, or
Calvinist, you can and will find real saving faith in bringing your sin to Christ in faith and
repentance. Our part is to confess, repent, and invite the Holy Spirit to change us. God will do
what He does to save those whom He saves regardless of whether or not the penitent person
understands all the details of the transaction.
Therefore, while I am decidedly on “team Calvin” when it comes to defining sin, I don’t
place those who disagree with me on this outside the veil of orthodoxy, so long as they
understand that the definition of sin that matters is the one given to us by God in scripture, is
inherited and volitional, that it separates them from God, and that the only remedy for this
problem is the atonement wrought by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Soteriology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christianity from other faiths
A. Salvation is wholly the work of God.
1. Psa 3:8
2. Isa 43:10-11
3. Hos 13:4
4. Mat 19:25-26
5. Eph 2:8-9
6. Tit 3:4-5
7. Eph 1:4-7
8. 1Pet 1:1-2
B. Salvation is based on the atonement wrought by Jesus on the cross through his
death and resurrection.
1. Jhn 3:16-17, 36
2. Rom 3:21-26
3. Gal 2:15-16
4. Phl 3:8-11
5. Col 2:13-14
C. Salvation is on the basis of the grace of God, attained through faith.
1. Exo 33:19
2. Psa 116:4-5
3. Eph 2:8-9
4. 1Pe 1:10-11
D. Salvation is spoken of in several temporal senses. It is an accomplished work, an
ongoing process, and a future hope.
1. A person has been saved from the penalty of sin once they place their
faith in Christ, having been justified by the judicial declaration of God.
a) Jhn 5:24
b) Rom 5:1-2, 6, 8-9
c) Gal 3:24-26
d) Tit 3:4-7
2. A person is being saved from the power of sin as an ongoing experience of
sanctification by the working of the Holy Spirit in their life.
a) Act 26:16-18
b) 2Co 5:17
c) 1Th 4:3-7
d) Heb 9:13-14
3. A person will be saved from the presence of sin at their glorification.
a) Rom 8:29-30
b) 1Co 13:8-10, 12-13
c) 2Co 3:18
d) Phl 3:20-21
e) Col 3:3-4
f) 1Jo 3:2
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II.
Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians
A. Salvation begins with the election of God the Father of certain people from
eternity past for reasons known only to Him. I reject the “long telescope” view of
salvation which would place the power of choice in the hands of men and make
God’s election simply a reflection of His knowledge of what they would choose.
Salvation begins with the Sovereignty of God.
1. Jhn 6:37-39, 44, 64-65
2. Jhn 8:47
3. Jhn 10:26-28
4. Jhn 15:16
5. Act 13:48
6. The entirety of Romans 9 goes to great pains to make this point very clear.
B. Salvation includes the effective call of God.
1. Rom 8:29-30
2. 1Co 1:9
3. 2Ti 1:8-9
4. 1Pe 2:9
C. Salvation involves the regeneration of those whom God calls. The calling of God
produces a regenerated person that, once spiritually dead, is now spiritually alive
and able to perceive and desire the things of God.
1. Jer 31:33
2. Eze 11:19-20
3. Jhn 3:3, 5, 7
4. Jhn 5:24
5. Act 16:14
6. Eph 2:1, 4-5
D. Salvation involves the regenerated heart of man receiving saving faith as a gift of
God.
1. Act 3:16
2. Eph 2:8
3. Phl 1:29
4. 2Pe 1:1
E. Salvation occurs when the living spirit of a regenerated man, empowered and
motivated by saving faith, employs these new spiritual abilities as an act of their
free will, repents of his sin, and seeks forgiveness based on the work of Christ.
1. 1Jo 1:9
2. Act 3:19
3. 2Co 5:21
F. Salvation is confirmed when, having been saved by the will and work of God, a
forgiven person makes a declaration of this fact before men and to God. The
public affirmation of one’s salvation is not the saving act. All saving acts are done
by God on our behalf. However, it is the public attestation to the saving of a
person’s soul by that person which informs the community at large that the
action has happened. Likewise, it confirms in that person’s heart the new
standing that they have before God. Also, in some mysterious way, it is part of
the transaction that this confession is made. Scripture commands it to occur and
puts weight in its execution that the transaction has, in fact, occurred. Can a
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person secretly confess in their heart that a transaction of saving grace has
occurred in their life without speaking this to others? I feel that this would fall
under the category of “faith without works,” which James condemns.
1. Mat 10:32-33
2. Jhn 20:26-29
3. Rom 10:9-10
4. Phl 2:9-11
5. 1Jo 4:2-3
G. Salvation is efficacious. From this point forward, the life of a Christian is of a
different economy than his life before. He is:
1. No longer bound to sin.
a) Rom 6:3-4, 6-7, 10-11
b) 2Co 5:17
2. Empowered by the Holy Spirit
a) Act 1:8
b) Phl 4:12-13
c) 1Jo 4:4
3. Able to perform good works, although these are still the work of God
through him.
a) Mat 5:16
b) Gal 2:20
c) Eph 2:10
d) Phl 2:13
4. Called to actively pursue and participate in their sanctification. While
God the Holy Spirit is the active agent in our sanctification, and certainly
the posture of passive receptivity to His work in our life is scriptural, so is
the call to be about the work of living a life that more and more
approximates Christ’s life. We are not saved by these works, but we are to
work! This active application of our wills toward righteousness can be
called a doctrine of separation or an active work of sanctification.
a) Rom 12:1-2
b) Phl 2:12
c) 1Th 4:3
d) Heb 12:14
e) 1Jo 3:3
5. Able to please God.
a) Rom 12:1-2
b) Jas 2:14, 17
c) 1Jo 3:21-23
6. Enjoying some of the blessings of eternal life in this life, with the hope and
promise of perfection in the life to come.
a) Jhn 3:16-17
b) 2Co 4:16-18
c) 2Pe 1:3-4
d) 1Jo 5:11-12
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H. Salvation is irrevocable. Once a person is saved, they are saved forever. They are
not in danger of sinning to the point of unforgiveness. There are several lines of
argument which can support this conclusion.
1. Since perseverance in the faith is a work of God, and not a work of man,
no work of man can undo a work of God.
a) Isa 59:16-17, 20-21
b) Jhn 10:28-29
c) Rom 8:31-39
d) Jde 1:24-25
2. When God pledges to do a work, He cannot lie, and His faithfulness and
trustworthiness demand that He completes what He begins in the life of a
believer.
a) Romans 8:29-30
b) 1Co 1:4-9
c) Eph 1:13-14
d) Phl 1:6
e) 1Th 5:23-24
f) Heb 12:2
3. Having once been spiritually dead and then having been made alive (Eph
2:1-10), having been once without mercy and then having received mercy
(1Pet 2:10), and having been made into a new creation of a different
nature than the old (2 Cor 5:17) we are entirely different sorts of beings,
and our transformation is permanent. It is more than an intellectual
ascent. We are entirely different kinds of beings which no longer reside in
the way of God’s wrath (Eph 2:1-3, 19).
4. Apparent departures from the faith are explained in scripture as evidence
that those who departed never belonged, not that they once belonged and
left.
a) Mat 7:22-23
b) Mat 15:8
c) 2Co 11:14-15, 25-26
d) Gal 2:4-5
e) 1Jo 2:19
5. Those who are genuine believers and “backslide” or fall away for a season
will not do so permanently. It is God who sustains them, not they
themselves. King David and Peter both serve as examples.
Luk 22:31-32
I. Salvation’s evidence and the resulting confidence in God’s work to complete it
comes from the experience of ongoing sanctification. If God has worked salvation
in a life (justification) and will complete this work (glorification), the evidence of
this is that the saint is currently in the process of sanctification.
1. Jhn 14:12
2. Jhn 15:2, 5, 8, 10
3. Gal 5:22, 23
4. Jas 2:18,
5. 1Jo 3:4-8
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J. Salvation’s total reliance upon the will and work of a sovereign God and his
preemptive election do not undermine the importance and reality of man’s need
to choose repentance and submission to God.
1. Eze 18:23
2. Jhn 3:18
3. Jhn 5:39-40
4. 2Th 2:9-12
K. Salvation is a struggle. Because a believer in this life is sealed for future
perfection (glorification) but still living in this fallen world, their life is one of
conflict. Perfect eradication of sin in the life of a believer in this world is
impossible, but God the Holy Spirit provides means for victory over sin in
increasing degrees as one lives a life submitted to God, informed by His word,
and a part of His church.
1. 1Co 10:12-13
2. Gal 5:16-24
3. Phl 3:12-14
4. Col 3:9-10, 12-14
5. 1Pe 1:13-16
L. Salvation’s resources in Christ’s sacrifice are unlimited. I reject the idea of
“Limited Atonement” as typically formulated: that the efficacy and merit of
Christ’s death and resurrection is available only to the elect. This idea is logically
cohesive with other doctrines which I affirm (Total depravity, unmerited election,
etc.) but it is completely without scriptural affirmation. In fact, a few passages
teach that the forgiveness of God is available to those whom He sovereignly
chooses to damn in denying them regeneration.
1. Isa 6:8-10
2. Mat 13:10-13, 16-17
3. 1Jo 2:2
How then shall we live?
Efforts to systematize soteriology shipwreck on the rocks of human logic. Augustinian,
Arminian, and Calvinist systems all start with readily demonstrable Biblical truths and then
force all other ideas to mesh with what they clearly see as Biblical starting points. They force
logical conclusions that aren’t necessarily taught by scripture, such as limited atonement, the
necessity of participating in the sacraments, or the fear of losing your salvation. I have done
everything in my power to resist the logical but unscriptural conclusions of any systematized
soteriology. I am very diligent in my efforts to believe what the Bible, simply read, testifies. This
leads to some “illogical” tensions, but as I have said numerous times in these narratives, I have
decided to submit my logic to scripture, until my logic can catch up with what God has clearly
said.
For example, I believe that God is uniquely responsible for who is and is not saved. He
controls the regeneration of the hearts of men. He gifts saving faith. He allows dead things to
come to life. I also believe that the damnation of the unrepentant is on their own shoulders.
They chose to sin, although they could not do anything else. These statements seem mutually
exclusive. They are all scriptural. If the copious amount of information in the Bible pertaining to
salvation leads us to these places where we simply have to raise empty hands and say, “I don’t
really understand it all,” we are in good company. Paul did so at the end of Romans 11, which I
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have already quoted. All we can do is worship the God that has revealed Himself and trust his
good character to do what He said He will do with those who turn to Him in faith.
It is my conviction, then, that the Church must teach the whole testimony of God,
cover-to-cover, line-by-line, and precept-upon-precept, expositing every verse as carefully as we
can with our limited intellect, and resist the desire to teach topically a systematized theology at
the expense of Biblical theology. If a fellow pastor, doing his level best at this same task, arrives
at a variant shade different of a conclusion than we do, we need to have grace and extend
fellowship to them as well. Honestly, Augustine, Calvin, and Arminus are all sitting around a
banquet table somewhere in heaven laughing about how each of them got something wrong. So
long as your faith is anchored completely in the work of Christ, applied to you through faith
alone, you are my brother.
There are obvious limits to this. Martin Luther was right to light the fires of reformation.
The Roman Church had strayed too far. What they were teaching was not saving faith in Christ
alone. Jehovah’s witnesses, Mormons, Christian scientists, and some fringe groups of
Christendom have lost the central truth of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ
alone as described in the Bible alone. We need to be clear in our evangelism of these groups who
do not teach saving faith. We need to introduce them to the God who saves. Certainly the
majority of our society does not have saving faith in Christ. The harvest is plentiful. We need to
cooperate with our fellow believers in the spreading of the faith.
Also, the church needs to do a much better job discipling people as they mature in their
faith. I grew up in a church movement that is awesome at evangelism. It’s part of their DNA.
They are great at teaching the word of God simply and completely, but I do think that there is
truth behind their frequent criticism that their people are largely immature believers. Many
churches spend so much time “putting the cookies on the bottom shelf” that they never draw
people into the deeper study of the meat of the Word. The church of my youth certainly isn’t the
only church that suffers from this problem. It seems that, in my experience, churches either
excel at evangelism or fostering maturity. I don’t see too many churches that do well at both
calls, and yet they happen one right after each other in the great commission.
Mat 28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them
to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end
of the age."
The Holy Spirit draws, regenerates, applies the work of Christ, and sanctifies the believer, but
He calls us, especially those who lead local manifestations of His church, to be the tools by which
these things happen. We ought to be all-in on both counts. In my experience, the church still
has a lot of room for improvement in being a tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit at every stage of
the journey of salvation.
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Ecclesiology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christians from other faiths.
A. The Church is a Universal body.
1. Every true believer, having been predestined to and receiving saving faith,
is immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into the body of saved people on
earth and in heaven, known as the Universal Church. This is the “called
out assembly” of people who are saved and who will be preserved
blameless until the day of Judgement. It does not correspond to any one
movement, tradition, or denomination of Christianity today.
a) 1Co 12:12-13
b) Eph 4:4-6
2. Christ alone is the head of the Church Universal.
a) Eph 1:22-23
b) Eph 4:15-16
c) Col 1:18
3. The Church Universal began at Pentecost (Act 2:1-5, 37-43)
4. Analogies of the Universal Church
a) A body, with Christ as its head. This analogy speaks of unity in the
clearest sense. For nobody thinks of their arm or foot as a
different entity. Paul uses this picture to encourage care and
concern for one another and the sharing of burdens. It is also the
favorite picture employed when spiritual gifts are discussed,
illustrating that all the parts of the body are different but unified in
their differences for one purpose. Also, it makes it very clear that,
should Christ’s leadership ever be abandoned by a group of people
within the church, whatever those groups might be thereafter, it
would not be the living Church. A body cannot function without
the head.
(1) Rom 12:4-5
(2) 1Co 10:16-17
(3) Eph 5:23
b) A bride, with Christ as the bridegroom. This picture helps us
understand the Church’s role of submission and support to Christ.
In fact, it is the context in which the teachings about the order of
the Christian home are laid out. We enjoy the provision and
protection of Christ. He receives our worship and submission.
(1) Eph 5:31-32
(2) Rev 19:7-8
(3) Rev 21:9-10
c) A family of God, with Christ as the firstborn son of the Father.
This metaphor is instructive when it comes to discussing new
converts entering the church as adopted sons and daughters. It
also is used by Paul to instruct individuals in the church how they
are to treat one another.
(1) Mat 12:49-50
(2) Rom 8:15
(3) 2Co 6:17-18
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(4) Eph 1:5
(5) 1Ti 5:1-2
d) A temple made of living stones, in which Christ dwells by the
Spirit. This picture of the church is easiest to identify in this
present age, when the church meets in sanctuaries and buildings
around the world. We all compose a piece of what we think of as
the church, and we all facilitate some aspect of the work and
worship of the Church Universal. We all play a comparably small
part in the grand scheme of things, but just as a building would be
weakened if just one stone were removed, we must all realize that
our individual small parts contribute to the strength and success of
the whole.
(1) Eph 2:19-22
(2) 1Ti 3:14-15
(3) Heb 3:6
(4) 1Pe 2:4-5
5. The unity of believers
a) Not all people who profess to be “Christians” are in fact members
of the Universal church. There are aberrant groups who disqualify
themselves by believing wrong things about central doctrines of
the church.
(1) Mat 24:11, 24
(2) 2Pe 2:1
(3) 1Jo 4:1
(4) Rev 2:6, 9
(5) Rev 3:9
b) However, across Christendom, there is widespread agreement
upon the central tenants of the faith and the meaning of the
gospel. The huge majority of Christian churches, denominations,
and movements would affirm things like the Apostle’s creed, the
Nicene creed, and the Athanasian creed. This unified belief should
give us a reason to and a hope that we can function as one unified
body, recognizing that Christ is the head of all true believers:
(1) Psa 133:1
(2) Jhn 17:11, 22
(3) Eph 4:3, 13
(4) 1Pe 3:8
c) The necessary mark of the Universal Church is that the gospel is
faithfully and accurately preached.
(1) Mat 28:18-20
(2) Mar 16:15-16
6. The ordinances of the Universal Church
a) Christ and his apostles taught that there are two necessary
ordinances which the faithful church of Jesus Christ will observe:
Baptism and Communion.
b) Baptism is the first obedient act of a saved person:
(1) Matt 18:19
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(2) Mark 16:15-16
(3) Act 22:16
(4) Rom 6:3-4
(5) Gal 3:27
c) Communion is the regular affirmation of the fact and efficacy of
the atonement of Jesus.
(1) Jhn 6:53-54
(2) 1Co 10:16-17
(3) 1Co 11:23-26
B. The Church is a local body
1. There is ultimately only one church, the body of all believers, chosen of
God in eternity past and destined to be glorified in the fulfillment of all
things in the future. This Universal and invisible church is too vast in
geographic and temporal scope to be useful to the individual believer for
fellowship, instruction, and accountability. For the efficacy of the church
in the life of an individual believer, it is necessary to have local
manifestations of the Universal church with which they may interact,
which they may serve, and to which they may be held accountable. This is
the local church.
2. The local church exists in a geographically-described region to serve the
believers living there, and it is the responsibility of an individual believer
to belong to one such local church.
a) Mat 18:19-20
b) Rom 16:3, 5
c) 1Co 1:2-3
d) Col 4:15
e) Heb 10:24-25
3. The local church is to be responsible for the teaching of the word of God to
the people living there.
a) Act 2:42
b) Rom 10:14
c) 2Ti 4:1-2, 5
d) Heb 13:7
4. The local church’s principal focus is the adoration and glorification of
God.
a) Eph 2:19-22
b) Col 1:18-20
c) 1Pe 2:9
5. The local church is to be a body of praying individuals.
a) Act 2:42
b) Jas 5:14-16
6. The local church is the principle tool used by the Holy Spirit to make
disciples
a) Eph 4:15-16
b) Heb 13:17
c) 1Pe 5:1-2
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7. The local church is responsible for the administration of the ordinances of
the church.
a) Act 2:38, 41-42
b) 1Co 11:18, 20-21, 27, 33-34
8. The local church is responsible to hold its members accountable and bring
discipline where needed.
a) Mat 18:16-18
b) Gal 6:1
c) 1Th 5:12-15
9. The local church is to facilitate body life, fellowship, and “one-anothering”
as commanded in scripture.
a) Act 2:44-47
b) Gal 6:2, 9-10
c) Jas 5:13-16
10. The local church is the setting in which the majority of the gifts of the
Spirit are meant to be exercised for the benefit of those belonging to the
local church.
a) Eph 4:11-12
b) 1Co 14:12
II.
Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians.
A. The age of the church and ethnic Israel
1. I believe that the church is distinct from Israel and does not replace or
merge with the body of God’s chosen people born of the seed of Abraham.
a) Several passages call out a trichotomy of peoples extant on Earth
during the church age: Ethnic unbelieving Jews, Unbelieving
gentiles, and the church, which is made up of people of faith and
for whom ethnicity is not a factor. This shows that the church did
not replace Israel but is a new thing entirely, including some Jews
who also place their faith in Christ but excluding those who do not.
(1) Rom 9:3, 22-24
(2) 1Co 10:32-33
(3) Gal 3:24-28
(4) Eph 2:11-19
b) We have distinct origins.
(1) The Jewish race and its calling are rooted in Genesis 12,
and reiterated numerous times to each generation of the
Patriarchs:
(a) Gen 12:1-3
(b) Gen 15:1, 5-7
(c) Gen 26:3-5
(d) Gen 28:13-15
(2) The Church was born at Pentecost. For the general line of
argumentation here, I am indebted to Arnold G.
Fruchetnbaum’s work Israelology: The Missing Link in
Systematic Theology (1989: Ariel Ministries, Tustin, CA).
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(a) The birth of the church was yet future when Christ
changed Simon’s name to Peter in Matthew 16:18.
(b) The church is the body of Christ (Col 1:18).
(c) The entrance into this body is through
spirit-baptism (1Co 12:13).
(d) This spirit baptism was yet future when Christ
ascended (Act 1:8).
(e) This spirit baptism occured in a phenomenal and
visible way the first time it occured, which was on
Pentecost, although it is not called spirit-baptism in
that passage (Act 2:1-4).
(f) This event is referred to as the first spirit-baptism
in Acts 11, where Peter, addressing the other
apostles about the Holy Spirit’s falling on gentiles,
refers back to Acts 2 and calls it the baptism of the
Holy Spirit (Act 11:15-17).
c) We have different signs of covenant:
(1) The Jewish sign of covenant is circumcision (Gen 17:1,
9-11)
(2) The Church’s sign of covenant is baptism:
(a) Mat 28:18-20
(b) Act 2:38-39
(c) Eph 4:4-6
d) We have different salvific destinies.
(1) Israel has, for a time, been blinded so that the totality of
the gentile church may be realized in God’s sovereign plan.
(Rom 11:5-6, 11-12)
(2) The church age will end with the rapture of the church
(more on this below in Eschatology), leaving Israel as the
only testimony to God on the Earth (1Th 4:15-18).
(3) Israel will be brought to belief nationally and fully during
the tribulation and will be effective witnesses to the gospel
of Christ during the seven years of the outpouring of God’s
wrath.
(a) Dan 12:1
(b) Rom 11:12, 15, 23-24
(c) Rev 7:3-8
(4) Israel will enter the Millennial kingdom, which has always
been their promised destiny, along with the resurrected
church, after Christ returns to set up His kingdom on
Earth.
(a) Isa 65:9, 16-20
(b) Dan 12:2-3
(c) Rev 20:4-6
2. The distinction which is drawn here should impact the way we read the
Old Testament.
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a) We should not insert ourselves, as gentile believers, into the
promises made to Israel, assuming that these promises were made
to us. They were, are, and ever will be the promises to Israel.
(1) Rom 9:4-5
(2) Rom 11:1-2, 29
b) We should not submit ourselves to the civil or ceremonial
components of the law. The law was specifically for Israel, and the
church was never meant to be under its yoke. This has already
been dealt with in detail above (Bibliology II. C.)
3. The distinction drawn here should impact the way we treat modern ethnic
Jews. We ought not to disparage or belittle God’s chosen people in the
current age. Although they are not all saved, and in fact most hold very
little faith toward God in their hearts, they are still God’s elect, the apple
of His eye, and He will still love, protect, and defend them, preserving for
himself a remnant for his use in the end times.
a) Rom 9:3
b) Rom 11:28-29
c) Several commentators see a warning against anti-semitism in the
parable of the Sheep and the Goats, where Christ judges people
based on their treatment of “these brothers of mine” (Matt 25:35).
Whether this is a reference to Christ’s fellowship with the poor and
downtrodden in general or a specific reference to His fellow ethnic
Jews is contested. It is at least worth considering that it could
viably be interpreted this way, therefore becoming a warning to us
to look after those whom God has pledged to love with an undying
love (Jer 31:3).
B. The offices of the Church
1. In the listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the church has historically also
included the church offices listed most concisely in Ephesians 4:11. The
offices are often seen as roles to which one is called and equipped by the
imparting of certain conglomerations of gifts which fit one to that office.
Being an apostle, prophet, pastor, etc. is testified to by possessing a
certain “gift set” which can be externally verified and celebrated by the
church at large. This celebration and recognition usually happens in the
context of ordination for ministry and the laying on of hands. God calls;
men respond to the evidenced calling and equipping and formally install
the man to his office.
a) Jhn 15:16
b) Act 6:3-6
c) Act 14:23
d) 2Ti 2:15
2. Apostles
a) In the first years of the church, there were certain men who were
specially set apart as pillars of the church, who were uniquely
gifted to testify to the truth of the gospel and launch the initial
movement of Christianity.
b) Apostles’ qualifications (Act 1:21-26)
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c) The apostles seemed to have a unique apportioning of the gifts of
the Spirit in that, according to a simple reading of scripture, they
were able to do most (see exceptions below) miraculous acts at will
in order to demonstrate their authority and the validity of the
gospel message.
(1) Act 2:43
(2) Rom 15:18-19
(3) 2Co 12:12
(4) Heb 2:2-4
d) There are at least four instances in scripture where the Apostle
Paul desired to exercise a gift of healing and was unable to do so.
This tempers the view that apostles were miracle workers without
limit.
(1) Paul’s son in the faith, Timothy, was given to some form of
stomach ailment. Paul could not miraculously heal him.
Instead, he encouraged the medicinal use of wine (1Ti
5:23).
(2) The messenger from the church of Philippi, whose arrival
and questions to Paul served as the impetus for Paul’s
writing of the epistle to the Philippians, fell gravely ill, and
Paul was grateful that God allowed him to recover,
although he was thought to be lost. Paul makes no
mention of him being able to heal his friend and fellow
worker (Phl 2:25-27).
(3) In his closing comments at the end of 2 Tim, Paul mentions
that he had to leave a 7-year traveling companion behind
because he was too sick to move on. This would not have
happened before Paul would have prayed for his friend’s
healing (2Ti 4:20).
(4) Paul himself had a physical ailment, most likely to do with
his eyesight, which he prayed for God to heal three times.
God chose not to comply, forcing Paul to rely on God for
his strength (2Co 12:7-10).
e) The apostles in scripture seem to form a discrete set of men who
satisfy the requirements of Acts 1:21-26. Most important among
the qualifications of an apostle is someone who witnessed the risen
Lord and was personally instructed by Christ in the flesh.
(1) The apostles are enumerated in each of the synoptic
gospels. Some slight incongruities in the list can be
explained by one gospel writer using a personal name while
another uses a family name. Or, it is possible that one
author chooses a greek name while another chooses a
Hebrew name (ie. Cephas vs Simon or Bartholomew vs
Nathaniel).
(a) Mat 10:1, 3-4
(b) Mar 3:13-19
(c) Luk 6:12-16
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(2) Lastly, Paul is listed as an apostle, “born out of time.” He
was the last of this group of men. He did see the
resurrected Christ, and he was taught directly by Christ,
but all of this was miraculously facilitated, as Christ had
already resurrected and ascended to heaven by the time
Paul was converted.
(a) Act 9:3-7
(b) 1Co 15:3-9
(c) Gal 1:11-18
(3) The “lowercase ‘a’” apostles: There are several men who are
called “apostles” beyond Paul and the twelve. In every case,
these people are called apostles in that they were
associated with one of the apostles and included in a group
with accepted apostles in the context of the scriptures
which call them apostles.
(a) These include: Barnabas (Acts 14:14-15); Silas and
Timothy (1 Thess 1:1 c.f. 2:5-6); Apollos (1 Cor 4:9);
James (Gal 1:18-19); Andronicus and Junia (Rom
16:7); and Epaphroditus (Phil 2:25).
(b) There are three ways of dealing with this:
(i)
These men, and perhaps others, were
apostles in their own right, having also in
some undisclosed way seen the risen Lord
and received instruction from Him. This is
unlikely.
(ii)
These men were full apostles in their own
right, and the requirement for having seen
the risen Lord is not an authentic
requirement of being an apostle. This
would go against the clear teaching of other
scriptures, above.
(iii)
These men are included in groups of
authentic apostles, are allied in the
pioneering missionary work of apostles,
share the burdens and dangers associated
with the work of apostles, and so are
honored by being included in lists and
pronouns headed by the title “apostles.”
(a) Grammatically, there is precedent
for this in that groups with mixed
gender are collectively referred to
with plural masculine pronouns, etc.
(b) This is also evidenced by the fact
that none of these “apostles” are
called an apostle in isolation. When
they are referred to apart from Paul
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or the twelve, they are never called
an apostle.
f) The conclusion one draws from all of this is that the office of
apostle was a discrete set of supernaturally-equipped missionaries
whose burden and privilege was to take the gospel to new fields
and serve as the human agents of inscripturation in the nascent
age of the church.
(1) This office is closed today, as no modern person (nor
anyone outside of the first century A.D.) can claim to have
seen the risen Christ and been personally instructed by
Him.
(2) The persistence of pioneering missionaries who are
“apostles” (little “a”) in the sense of being sent-out to new
fields of ministry, will continue as long as the church does
(Eph 4:11). However, a distinction should be made
between the use of the title for those qualified in the Acts 2
sense and those who simply open a new field of ministry
for the gospel which had not previously been open.
(3) The authority and super-conglomeration of spiritual gifts
associated with this office cannot be claimed by anyone in
the modern age. This authority now rests in the settled
canon of scripture (2 Pet 2:16-21).
(4) To say that the office of apostle is closed and so the
super-conglomeration of spiritual gifts which accompanied
that office no longer exists does not logically force the
conclusion that each of the gifts individually which the
apostles enjoyed en masse are also individually
unavailable. It is not logically necessary.
3. Prophet
a) In the Old Testament, the office of prophet was one whose duty
was to reveal new knowledge to the people of God, serving as
God’s mouthpiece to His people to reveal his nature, instruct their
personal, ritual, and civic behavior before there was a written law,
when new instructions were needed to continue their
sanctification, to foretell the plan of God to His people, or to reveal
judgements that awaited them if they did not repent.
(1) Exo 4:11-12
(2) Jer 1:9
b) In the New Testament, this foretelling and forthtelling ministry
continued for at least the season of time during which
inscripturation was still ongoing. New Testament prophets, in the
same sense in which there were prophets in the Old Testament,
continued in the person of John the Baptist (Matt 11:9; Luke 1:76),
Agabus (Acts 11:28), the four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8-9),
and undisclosed persons in the church of Antioch (Acts 13:1).
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Certainly, as a mouthpiece of God no person ever rose to the level
of Jesus Christ himself.
c) The office of prophet, similar to the office of apostle, represented a
conglomeration of supernatural gifts of the Spirit which the Holy
Spirit used to cause inscripturation of His word.
(1) Eph 2:19-20
(2) 2Pe 1:19-21
d) While there is no necessary tie between the office of the prophet
and a vision of or instruction by the risen Christ, it seems that the
purpose of the office of the prophet has been fulfilled in the
completed canon of scripture. There are certainly people
throughout church history who are used by the Lord to bring
direct words of instruction and speak on His behalf, but it is
questionable whether anyone since the first century has held an
office of prophet in the same sense that the Old Testament or a
discrete list of New Testament people did. Paul’s strong
admonition not to seek new revelation beyond the teaching of the
apostles is clear. Also, the sense of closure with which the book of
Revelation (the last book of inspired scripture to be received) ends
strongly discourages the reader from looking for further novel
inspiration in the future.
(1) Gal 1:8-9
(2) Rev 22:18-21
e) A distinction should be made between the office of the prophet,
which Paul never told anyone to seek, and the gift of prophecy,
which Paul encourages everyone to seek.
(1) 1Co 14:1-5
(2) The gift of prophecy in this sense is not tied to
inscripturation. In the instructions for how to handle this
gift, which fills all of 1 Cor 14, we are never told to write
down what people with this gift say and share it with the
church as a whole.
(3) This gift is repeatedly and explicitly described as edifying
the church (14:3, 4, 5, 12, 19, 22, 29, 39).
(4) The words given in this way are to be tested by the widely
received, inscripturated word of God, to see if they align
with what God already says (Deut 18:20; 1Thess 5:21-22).
In this way, we do not expect any new universally
applicable revelation, but rather that God will encourage,
console, and convict the church by reminding them, in
specific settings and using personal language, of what He
has already stated elsewhere.
(5) This gift of prophecy, encouraged by Paul, is among the
three specific gifts which he says will fade away in 1 Cor
11:8-13. The timing of this has been debated throughout
church history. Many streams of church tradition hold that
“the perfect” referenced in this passage is the completion of
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the canon. In this view, not just the office of the prophet
but also the gift of prophecy are currently unavailable.
Others hold that “the perfect” is the eventual glorification
of the believer. In this case, the gifts of tongues, prophecy,
and knowledge are still extant. I do not take a firm stand
on this question, although I lean toward seeing it as
referencing glorification.
4. Evangelist
a) This office clearly continues into the modern age. Whereas the
office of apostle was clearly tied to the launching of the church and
the office of prophet became unneeded after the conclusion of the
canon, the office of Evangelist has no such date of obsolescence.
In fact, if the apostles and prophets birthed the church (Eph 2:20;
3:5), it is God working through the Evangelists which keeps it
growing.
b) The only person ever named to the office by title is Philip “the
evangelist.” He was not an apostle, but he was a Deacon (Act
21:8).
c) Paul encourages Timothy to execute this office simultaneous with
the office of pastor of the church of Ephesus (2Ti 4:5).
d) The fact that the only person to be named as an Evangelist was
also a Deacon and the only person commanded to do the work of
an Evangelist was also a pastor seems to imply that this is not an
exclusive office, but one that can be taken up by men called to
execute other offices as well.
e) In some sense, all members of the church are called to evangelize,
which is explicitly part of the great commission (Matt 28:18-20),
but there is a conglomerate of gifts which the Holy Spirit gives
certain individuals whom he calls uniquely to take up the
preaching of the gospel as their principle (or one of their principle)
way(s) of serving the church.
5. Pastor/Elder/Teacher/Shepherd/Overseer (Bishop)
a) Several words are used in the New Testament to describe the office
of those men who oversee the local church. While certain
traditions of church history have sought to use this diverse
vocabulary to separate the office of pastor into distinct offices, I
see them all as diverse adjectival nouns which point out the many
responsibilities of a pastor fulfilling this office. Certainly, different
individual men will have slightly different conglomerations of gifts
and therefore slightly different areas of excellence in executing the
office. Still, I believe that there is one office of pastor to which men
may be called and equipped by the Holy Spirit.
(1) My principal reason for seeing the many titles pointing to
one office is that, in 1 Pet 5:1-3, we see many of these terms
used interchangeably of one office.
(2) 1Pe 5:1-3
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b) Biblical qualifications of the pastor/elder/teacher/shepherd/
overseer (bishop):
(1) 1Ti 3:1-7
(2) Tit 1:5-9
c) As has already been stated, I believe in masculine headship in the
church and home. Women may do any number of things in the
church, but the office of pastor is excluded from their many
options (1 Tim 3:2; Tit 1:6).
6. Deacons
a) The office of Deacon is one of servant-leadership. According to
Acts 6, they are focused on meeting the needs of the body
physically, freeing up the eldership of the church to meet the needs
of the body spiritually.
b) Qualifications of Deacons.
(1) 1Ti 3:8-13
(2) This passage twice implies that Deacons are also
universally male (vs 11, 12). Acts 6:3 also mandates that in
the original selection of Deacons, they were to be “men of
good repute.” However, in Romans 16:1, Phoebe is called a
Deacon by Paul. It is contested as to whether this was an
official office which she filled or if she was simply a
“servant” of the church. Also, vs 11 of 1 Tim 3 can just as
clearly be translated, “women, too, must be dignified…,”
since the possessive “their” is not in the text but included
by translators. This reading of verse 11 would then become
instructions for female Deacons which largely parallels
their male counterparts in verses 8-10, allowing for women
Deacons. This wouldn’t remove the obstacle presented in
vs 12, however. This is another issue on which I will defer.
I, personally, would have no problem affirming a woman
Deacon, leaning on the precedent of Paul in Romans, but it
is not something for which I will argue in either case.
c) I reject the idea of Deacon leadership of the church, something
which has crept into many evangelical Christian traditions.
Functionally, I think most churches who refer to the council of
men who lead as “Deacons” are in fact elder-lead without careful
nomenclature. However, to have the same body of men
responsible for the physical needs of the congregation as well as
the spiritual ones is not a pattern demonstrated in scripture.
Attention and energy is needed in both of these spans of care, and
to do it all is to do none of it well. That is the reason for the
division of labor, and it is wise to follow scripture’s instruction
here.
C. The efficacy of the ordinances of the church: Baptism and Communion.
1. Salvation is an act of God alone, predestined by the Father, purchased by
the Son, and applied by the Spirit. It does not depend in the least on the
actions of man (Soteriology: I. A, B, and C). If any action of man worked
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to actually save that person, the central tenet of Christianity that salvation
is a work of God would be invalidated. This must extend even to the
celebration of the ordinances.
2. As such, I reject the Roman sense that the sacraments are vehicles for the
impartation of grace to the sinner whereby they are saved. Saved people
celebrate the ordinances. People are not saved by their celebration. If
saved people do not celebrate the ordinances, they are disobedient, but
they are not reprobate.
3. The act of baptism is efficacious in identifying a person with the
community of the saved and publicly testifying to the work of Christ on
their behalf. It is not salvifically efficacious.
a) Act 10:44-48
b) 1Co 12:12-13
c) Col 2:11-12
d) Tit 3:4-7
e) 1Pe 3:18-22
4. The observation of the Lord’s supper is a command to remember and
celebrate what God has done through the atoning work of Christ on our
behalf, It is not a vehicle by which we partake in the actual, physical, body
and blood of Jesus and are thereby imparted salvific grace. I reject the
entire Roman structure of grace whereby we are “leaky vessels” and need
to be continually refilled with the saving merit of Christ through the
participation in sacrament of the eucharist.
a) Most people who see the Lord’s Supper as bearing the actual body
and blood of Christ do so based on their reading of John 6:51-58.
b) It is my assertion that this passage is not for the sake of those in
Christ’s audience who already were following Christ. Jesus speaks
in less extreme language earlier in the chapter, calling himself the
bread of life and drawing a contrast between the exodus
generation which ate one “bread from heaven” and still died and
those who will believe in and follow him and will live forever (Jhn
6:33-36).
c) The clear teaching of Jesus in this passage relies on an exercise of
faith, not what you put in your mouth. The non-believing Jews
keep fixating on food, what they will eat, and not on their heart
condition. Jesus pushes back several times on this
misunderstanding in the body of the passage before finally
pushing the argument to the point of absurdity to make a point
and demanding that they eat him. No follower of Christ has ever
had a piece of Jesus’ body enter their mouth. He pushed them
there to show the idiocy of fixating on physical food and then
rebuked them for not understanding that he was talking about
faith all along. By insisting that, in the communion meal, we
actually consume the body and blood of Christ is to align with the
unbelievers not the believers in the audience at the time.
d) No other reference to the celebration of the Lord’s supper contains
any sense in which we ought to expect the real flesh and blood of
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Christ to enter our mouths. In every other context, the language is
clearly symbolic and representative.
D. The traditions of the Church and human teaching vis-a-vis scripture.
1. A key distinction of the protestant reformation was the adherence to
scripture alone, “sola scriptura.” This adherence to the teachings of
scripture alone and the holding as second-rate the teachings of men not
directly founded on scripture is a bedrock of the tradition of the faith to
which I belong. However, it is not universally held in Christendom, so I
feel the need to defend this position, that I do not recognize church
tradition, canon law, or the decrees of any head of any church tradition as
equalling the weight and merit of scripture.
2. Scripture says repeatedly that the word of God is a unique level of
authority not equalled in any other source of knowledge.
a) Mar 12:24
b) Rom 15:4
c) 2Ti 3:12-17
d) Heb 4:12
e) 2Pe 1:19-21
3. Similarly, scripture warns that devious and even Satanic doctrines will
arise from false teachers and congregations of people longing to have
someone say what they want to hear. These teachings need to be
combatted, and the most effective way of doing so is to adhere to the pure
teaching of scripture alone.
a) 1Ti 1:3-7
b) 1Ti 4:1-2
c) 2Ti 4:3-4
d) Tit 1:10-14
4. In most cases of churches wandering off into heresy, the cause can be
clearly seen in first turning away from the clear teaching of scripture to
rather embrace the teachings of a person. This is certainly the root of all
the aberrant teachings of the Roman church as well as the cause of all the
near-Christian cults. By keeping all the teachings of men subordinate to
the teachings of scripture, such failures will be avoided.
III.
Doctrines on which I will defer and choose not to argue.
A. Is one of the three common models of church government (episcopal,
presbyterian, or congregational) Biblically preferred?
B. Is official church membership a Biblical idea?
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How then shall we live?
We live in a time when traditional institutions like the Church are being questioned. We
are detached, isolated, tricked into thinking that our social-media “friends” satisfy the deep
needs of our heart for community. We have the things we need delivered to our homes rather
than going out into the marketplace where we would need to encounter others. We are all about
privacy, individuality, and self-referenced evaluations of what is good and needful. This is
exactly the opposite of the life to which the believer is called. God has raised up for Himself a
people for His own possession, not an aggregation of individual worshippers. The authorityreferenced norms of ages past are largely forgotten. Each individual person feels the need to
look for truth and salvation, but they will do so through means of their own discovery and to the
end of their own personal satisfaction with the results.
In drastic opposition to this, scripture clearly teaches that we are saved into a community
of people. We are stones of a temple, members of a family, a bride of a groom, sheep of a herd,
and branches of a vine. Not a single image of the church stresses the individual. None of them.
The Christian is never called a mercenary, an island, or a solitary worshipper. Every image the
Holy Spirit gave to express what the church ought to be drives us into community. We worship
together, serve together, learn together, grow together, discipline those who need it in
community, hold one another accountable, meet one another’s needs, weep and rejoice at each
other’s life events, and stand together with the community of others reliant upon the salvation of
Christ and filled with the Spirit in opposition to all that the Devil would throw at us. The Church
cannot be anything like what it was called to be if people try to do the Christian life in isolation.
Those who try to make this Christian life work on their own either spin out into something that
looks somewhat like Christianity but isn’t or give up. It’s too hard on your own. We weren’t
designed to do this alone.
There is one Universal church that the Father called into existence before the world came
to be. Christ appeared at the fullness of time to teach us how to live and then to pay for our
inclusion into this beautiful thing the Father had declared. The Holy Spirit draws us toward and
applies the work of Christ to us so that we may enter this Church. He maintains it, leads it,
empowers it, and equips it to do His work. The church is two-thousand years old and is made
up of people of every nation, tribe, and tongue. It exists everywhere there are gospel-following
people, and it will continue to grow and function as long as the Father chooses to extend this age
of grace. We need to realize our role within the Church, which the Holy Spirit has called and
gifted us to fill, and give ourselves to the task. We need to look at the fellow stones, sheep,
family members, or branches around us and see how we might encourage them to fulfill their
calling in greater and greater ways to the glory of God. We need to keep focused on the
essentials, those things which make us the people of God, and keep one another accountable to
these doctrines, while allowing for diversity of opinion on secondary issues.
The full power of the Universal Church cannot be realized, though, without the existence
of and participation in the Local Church. It is impossible to be part of the Church Universal
without participating somewhere on Sunday morning and submitting yourself to some body of
elders called to minister to a discrete group of Christians at some location. I think most
Christians would acknowledge the existence of Christ’s Church in one real body across time and
space, but fewer children of God would acknowledge that there meets a real local manifestation
of that glorious Church in the brick building down the road, and that they are obligated to be
there as well. Abstract spirituality, which has taken root in America, can mesh with the Church
Universal, but it gets scary for many to walk into a building and be submitted to real oversight
by actual people in a local church. This, I think, is the unique challenge of our day.
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Various forms of isolationist Christianity have historically been and are even today being
attempted, but these attempts, while often venerable in their courage, fail to accomplish what
was intended by Christ and the apostles for the church. Christianity is a relationship, as our
modern evangelists are correct to point out, and it cannot be fully experienced in this life
without a horizontal as well as a vertical component to that relationship. The church Universal
cannot exist in a local context without a community of believers relating to one another in the
bond of love and peace, overseen by anointed elders, and urged on by the ministry of the Spirit
through those who are called to teach.
Certainly, people throughout time and around the world have seen different
manifestations of the local church. In some settings, cultural or political realities have made
what is familiar to us not possible, or perhaps not even attractive. Still, it is my conviction that
there must be, wherever the church Universal has a real presence, a local church through which
the church Universal acts. It may not have a campus or even a meeting room. It may or may not
appear on maps or directories of the town in which it is found. It may be open or secret, but it
must exist in some form.
There is no particularly-anointed form of church governance. Episcopal or Presbyterian
models of church governance both have their scriptural support and historical precedent.
Congregationalism, while not based in scripture, can be used by God to move His church
forward in good faith. House churches and megachurches can both honor Christ and be used to
grow His kingdom, but they are churches all, local manifestations of that glorious and diverse
body which stretches through millennia and spans continents.
People talk about how to keep Christianity relevant. The gospel is eternally relevant.
Nobody questions their need to find peace with God. What our culture has rejected is the
conglomerate structure of the Church that comes with authority, dogma, traditions, and
authority-referenced morality. We don’t need to defend what the church is. We certainly don’t
need to transform it into something our culture will accept. We need to actually be what the
Church is called to be. We need to speak the words of Christ to a lost world. We need to mend
up the brokenhearted like Christ did. We need to speak love (not tolerance; there is a difference)
to the sinful and rebellious. We need to welcome into community those who are alone and
forgotten. Rather than spend so much time arguing about what we may not fully understand or
agree upon, we need to obey what we know God has said His Church should be and do. We don’t
need to make our local churches look like nightclubs or coffee houses in order to be effective or
relevant. We need to make them look like the body of Christ, full of people who follow the simple
teaching of scripture and pour themselves out in service to the gospel in the name of Christ and
the power of the Holy Spirit.
This glorious Bride of Christ is now nearly 2,000 years old. She has alternately been
persecuted by and fused with the government. She has been the conqueror and the bludgeoned.
She has been faithful and, at times, prodigal. Today, there are parts of the globe that are still
unfamiliar with her. There are languages into which her story has not been written. There is
much work yet to do before we can say that the command to, “go into all the world and make
disciples of every nation” (Matt 28:19) has been fulfilled. So there is still a significant portion of
the world which we should rightly call “unchurched” because they are “pre-churched.” They
have yet to hear and be able to believe (Romans 10:14-15).
Still, there are societies and cultures which are rightly called “unchurched” not because
the Word has yet to be proclaimed there but because, having been proclaimed, it has been
rejected, ignored, or become outmoded. These cultures have become identified as
“post-Christian,” which seems to imply that that people group has evolved past a need for faith
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in Christ participated in through membership in His Church. England and much of Europe
would self-describe this way. America is on the road to this destination, with the majority of
Americans claiming to be “Christian” of some stripe, but when asked about historically-affirmed
doctrines of the church, many of these are found to be Christians in name only, not in faith or
practice. Also, for the first time in American history, religious “Nones,” those with no affiliation
to any faith, form the second-largest population (Religious Landscape Study, Pew Forum, 2019
https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/). So how is the church of the west
doing? Not well, it seems. The number of new converts to the faith is far outpaced by the growth
of population. More churches close than open every year. Smaller portions of Christian youth
remain in the faith by the time they are 30 than ever before. We are on the road to becoming a
“post-Christian” society as well.
In certain parts of the world, this is not the story. In Africa and parts of Asia the church
is exploding among the unreached people groups of the world. The conversion of towns and
tribes is accelerating where the gospel is being preached to hungry hearers. Why is this? Why
does the Church grow in some regions and languish in others? I don’t pretend to know. Here’s
what I can affirm: Christ is the head of His church, and he made several promises about it.
First, He promised that the Church will neither be ultimately nor finally defeated by
darkness (Matt 16:18), so the slacking that we see in the west is not because Satan has “won”
over the message or work of Christ. The church militant and triumphant has not become the
church defeated. There is, I’m sure, cause to preach revival and exhort the Church to rise to her
call and redouble her efforts, but it is not the call of retreat that we hear. Ultimately, we know
the way the story ends. Christ is the victor indeed. His church shall not fail to hold forth His
testimony until He is done with her and calls her home.
Secondly, He foretold this languishing in part in the last days (2Tim 4:3; Rev 3:14-22).
Not that we need to resign ourselves to it, but it does give us understanding to know that this
dulling of the effectiveness of the Church is a sign of the times. The “post-Christian” age was a
known feature of the last days and recorded for us in scripture before the Church was 100 years
old. God’s plan for the unfolding of His Church included the “old growth” parts of the family tree
becoming less fruitful. Somehow, in the mystery of His will, Christ has allowed this.
Lastly, He promised that the ultimate task of the Church will be fulfilled. “And this
gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all
nations, and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). Our task will be completed before we are
taken home forever to be with Christ. So while there is yet work to do, we ought to look to its
effective execution and the provision of God for the task. We will not enjoy our rest until the
labors are accomplished. This understanding of Ecclesiology drives our Missiology, to which we
will now turn.
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Missiology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christianity from other faiths.
A. God’s zeal for His own glory drives Missions. God’s glory is the center of all He
does (Theology Proper. I. )
1. Hab 2:14
2. Isa 43:25
3. Isa 48:9-1
4. Psa 79:9
5. Matt 6:13
6. Eph 1:4-6
7. Romans 3:25-26
8. Heb 2:9
B. The story of the Bible begins with Missions.
1. At the very beginning, the mission of God was for His glory and dominion
to be extended through perfect humanity (Gen 1:28).
2. Immediately after the fall, God’s mission became the restoration of all
creation, so that we could once again (in the eternal state) eventually be
the image-bearing dominion-exercising demonstrators of God’s glory
(Gen 3:15).
C. God called Israel into being to participate in Missions (Gen 12:1-3 ).
D. God sent prophets, among other reasons, to drive Missions
1. Isa 45:19-23
2. Isa 56:3, 6-7
3. Zep 3:9-10
E. Jesus was sent to launch a new stage in Missions, purchased by his sacrifice and
empowered by the Holy Spirit.
1. Mat 16:18
2. Mat 28:18-20
3. Jhn 3:16-17
4. Jhn 12:46-47
5. Jhn 17:18-21
6. Act 1:8
F. The church age is largely described by its Missions
1. Act 2:41
2. Act 4:4
3. Act 8:12
4. Act 9:31
G. God will end this creation with a celebration of Missions
1. Rev 7:9-10
2. Rev 19:1, 6-9
II.
Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians.
A. God calls the church to Biblical Missiology.
1. In the Matthian version of the great commission, we are sent out to teach
what Christ has taught us (Matt 28:19-20). This is the subject matter of
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missions: the presentation of the gospel and the entire council of God’s
Word.
2. The missional believer lives the way he or she lives because they are
looking for an opportunity to share the gospel, after God has guided
someone to a place where they are able to receive it. It is this gospel
which saves (2Ti 2:24-26).
3. Peter closes his first epistle reminding people that it is the power of God
in His word that was presented to them and that provided the power for
conversion (1Pe 1:22, 25)
B. God expects the local church to govern the process of Missions.
1. In Luke’s recitation of the great commission in Acts, the formation of the
church (you will receive power…) precedes the going to be witnesses. This
is not just chronological, but causative and authoritative. There must first
be a church which will then call and oversee the process of missions,
directed ultimately by the Holy Spirit who birthed the Church in the first
place (Act 1:8).
2. There are multiple points in the story of the missionary journeys of Paul
when he submits to the eldership of local churches as a missionary.
a) Act 13:1-4
b) Act 15:2-4
3. Missions, universally, is an outgrowth of the Universal Church.
a) Eph 3:8-10
b) Eph 4:15-16
C. God calls the daily life of all believers to be one of Missions
1. The Matthian version of the great commission is usually translated so that
the command to “go” is seen as the main verb, and the reader believes
that obedience involves picking up from where you are and heading
somewhere else as the first step to obedience. In this perspective,
“missionaries” are those who move somewhere else. The verbs in this
passage are all participles, however, except for “make disciples.” When
faithfully translated this way, it becomes:
Matthew 28:19-20, my translation: “Therefore, as you are going,
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that
I have commanded you, and behold I am with you always, even
unto the end of the age.”
2. This teaches us that obedience to this verse may include picking up and
moving away, but it does not presuppose this. Obedience is not in
“going,” but in “making disciples.” Wherever we find ourselves, whatever
composes our daily existence, we are to be about making disciples while
we accomplish the rest of our life’s details.
D. God calls the church to interface with the world on Mission.
1. Pietism and asceticism edify the individual, but there are precious few
calls in scripture for the individual to build himself up at the expense of
the lost world. Quite on the contrary, the church is called repeatedly and
explicitly to interact with and be efficacious in the transformation of the
world through the power of the gospel and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
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2. Jesus’ calls to the church to be light and salt (Matt 5:13-14) are invasive
and integrating metaphors. Once salt has been put on something, it
dissolves into that thing. You can’t separate the grains of salt from that
which is salted. Similarly, once light has invaded the darkness, it is
present in that place and cannot be removed.
3. We are to be “in the world but not of it (Jhn 17:14-18).
4. We are to have an impact in the world while being unpolluted by it (Jas
1:27).
E. God calls us to live lives of holiness as tools for Missions.
1. Blamelessness and purity will gain the attention of a watching world and
cause them to inquire as to the source of our difference (Phl 2:14-16)
2. Good works done in this life point to the glory of God and His
transforming gospel.
a) 1Th 5:15
b) 1Pe 2:12
3. Our reputations reflect upon the gospel, so we ought to guard our
reputations as tools of missions (1Ti 3:6-7).
4. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, a gift of the Spirit, and the key indicator that a
person is saved. It is what first draws unbelievers to inquire as to the
difference in the life of the saved and is therefore crucial to missions.
a) Jhn 13:35
b) Jas 2:8
5. Along with love, mercy is a key descriptor of the way God interfaces with a
sinful world, and it must characterize the church as well.
a) Luk 6:36
b) Jas 2:12-13
6. Peacemaking. We are called to live lives of peace and to bring peace to the
world. Bringing peace leads to a harvest of righteousness because the
world will see our peaceful lives and be drawn to the gospel that
empowers it.
a) Psa 34:14-15
b) Rom 12:17-18
c) Jas 3:17-18
7. Unity. The world uses the infighting of believers as an example of
hypocrisy. We are called to peace and love, but then we throw darts at our
fellow believers. For those looking to show that the gospel is a fraud, this
is a prime piece of evidence. Rather, if we love the brothers as the Bible
instructs us, we demonstrate that we actually live what we preach. A
united church is a great help to the going-forth of the gospel.
a) Jhn 17:21, 23
b) 1Jo 4:20
F. God’s sovereignty in salvation gives us confidence to undertake Missions.
1. As has already been thoroughly discussed, I see God as completely
sovereign in the process of salvation. This means that I cannot argue
someone into faith. Their conversion is not dependent on how
well-spoken, researched, or flashy I am. My “relevance” is not dependent
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on my presentation but on what God is doing in the hearts of the unsaved
audience who listen to my presentation. It is God who saves.
2. Still, I am very clearly commanded to “make disciples as I go” about my
life. I am called to teach and to evangelize. The urgency to be involved in
missions is not lessened by my understanding that God is sovereign in all
things.
3. Part of God’s plan for missions, over which He is sovereign, is that I
should be going out and being a spokesman of the gospel. I am called to
be in motion and be effective. How, when, where, and to what end is up
to the Spirit’s leading. This theological stance has been called by some as
“Reformissional” evangelism.
a) Act 16:6-10
b) Rom 10:14
4. Examples of the simultaneous working of individual zeal for missions and
the sovereignty of God in salvation:
a) Act 13:46-48
b) Act 2:47
c) Rom 11:7
d) 2Th 2:13
III.
Doctrines on which I will defer and choose not to argue.
A. Is the role of acts of compassion and physical help central to the evangelization of
the lost?
B. What needs to be “transformed” in foreign contexts when the gospel is
brought--the hearts and lives of believers only, or cultural aspects as well?
How then shall we live?
The modern church, in the last three hundred years, has made missions a profession.
The phenomena of the professional missionary who is supported by a church or group of
churches and then launches out into a foreign land with the gospel in hand and no vocation to
get in the way is a new thing, relatively speaking, and in my opinion, it has done a disservice to
the advancement of the gospel. We read the command of the great commission as if “go” is the
operative word, the main idea of the command. Everything else we read that follows seems to us
predicated upon the “going.” If you haven’t “gone,” then you can’t really make disciples, teach,
or baptize people in obedience to the great commission. “Those who can’t go, send.” I have
heard this said so many times when a missionary shows up. “I know you all aren’t really able to
obey the command of God, so give $50 a month to me, and I'll do it for you.” There are
professionals to fulfill the command of God on behalf of all you regular people out there.
In fact, the functional verb of the great commission is to “make disciples.” That is to be
the focus of every believer. The initial verb is an adverbial participle, “As you are going…”
meaning, “while you live your life,” do this. If I am told, “pick up a dozen eggs on your way
home,” I understand that my action of buying eggs is to accompany my drive home. The buying
of eggs is to happen as a natural part of my normal flow of life. That is what evangelism is. Live
your life, whatever God has called you to do. As you are doing that, make disciples. You don’t
have to stop being a barber, a plumber, a teacher, or a nurse so that you can be a missionary. Be
whatever you are. Do whatever you do, and along the way, teach others everything that Jesus
has said, baptize those who accept your message, and make disciples of your circle of influence!
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This daily-life missiology is so critical, and it has been so lost in recent history. People can’t see
their way to becoming missionaries because they have invested so much energy, time, and
money into establishing their lives in some “secular” profession that that mountain is too high to
climb when they are called to “go.” This misses the point. You are “going” somewhere. You are
living your life already. Keep doing that, and become a missionary as you do so.
Certainly, people need to go to the “uttermost parts of the Earth” to carry the gospel
there, but if you look at what Paul did, you won’t see him gathering resources from his home
church to send him out and pay his way. Quite the opposite! He worked as a tentmaker all
along his journey and paid his own way (1Cor 2:17; 1 Cor 9:18; 1 Thes 2:9). He did gather
support from churches, but it was to send back home to the needy in Jerusalem (1 Cor 16:1-4; 2
Cor 8:1-9:15; Rom 15:14-32), the exact opposite of what most missionaries do today. There are
two instances where we know that the church in Phillipi did send Paul support to minister to
other churches (specifically the church in Corinth), but this is out of the norm. Paul praises them
for their faithful action in this way and points out that it was not the status quo of his ministry
(Phil 4:15-18). Paul was doing the work of an evangelist “as he was going.” With only a few
exceptions, every career that one might have in America one could likely use to support oneself
somewhere else. A barber, a plumber, a teacher, and a nurse can all be these things in a
far-flung part of the planet and there make disciples.
It is the job of the local church to get this right. We have to train our people to be
missionaries themselves, not to delegate that piece of their obedience to others. It should be a
part of our discipleship process, which I have already said is largely lacking, to make
missionaries out of our local church Christians. While we are training them to live righteous
lives worthy of their calling (Eph 4:1), we need to get them going on that calling! They can’t be
holy and stagnant. They must be multiplying, or else they are disobedient and therefore not
living a righteous life. Missiology is part of discipleship.
C.
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Angelology & Demonology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christianity from other faiths.
A. The origin of angels.
1. God created the angelic host. As such they are finite dependent beings
like humans, with a definite origin and an eternal future. We aren’t given
a firm answer as to when the creation of the angelic host occured,
although we know that they were extant at the creation of the earth.
2. Col 1:15-17
3. Psa 148:2, 5-6
4. Job 38:4, 7
B. The personhood of angels
1. They have names
a) Gabriel in Luke 1:19 and elsewhere.
b) Michael in Jude 9 and elsewhere:
2. They have longings and desires (1Pe 1:12 )
3. They have free will and can rebel (Jde 1:6)
4. They have emotional responses:
a) Job 38:6-7
b) Luk 2:13-14
C. The power of angels
1. They are greater in might and power than humans
a) Heb 2:6-9
b) 2Pe 2:11
2. Angels are of far less power than God
a) Eph 1:20-21
b) Heb 1:3-6
D. The purpose of angels.
1. To worship God and magnify His glory.
a) Psa 103:20-21
b) Col 1:16
c) Heb 1:6
2. To carry God’s messages.
a) Dan 8:15-17
b) Luk 1:11-13
3. To serve as agents of help.
a) Psa 91:11-12
b) Luk 22:43
c) Heb 1:14
4. To serve as agents of judgment.
a) Gen 19:12-13
b) Exo 12:23
c) Psa 78:49
d) Act 12:23
5. To serve as agents of warfare.
a) 2Ki 6:17-18
b) Dan 10:11-13
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c) Rev 19:11, 14
II.
Doctrines which I will defend against alternate views held by other Christians.
A. “The Angel of the Lord” is the pre-incarnate Christ.
1. He speaks as God, not as a messenger.
a) Gen 16:7, 10, 13
b) Gen 22:11-12
c) Jdg 2:1-4
d) Zec 3:1-2
2. He uses the covenant name YHWH. (Exo 3:2, 6, 14)
3. He receives worship
a) Jdg 6:12, 19-22
b) Jdg 13:3, 16, 19-20, 22
4. When people see the Angel of the Lord, they say that they have seen God.
a) Gen 32:30
b) Jdg 13:22-23
5. The angel of the Lord is distinct from the Father.
a) Gen 18:16-17, 22
b) Gen 19:24
c) Zec 1:12-13
d) Zec 3:6-7
6. Jesus referenced an encounter with Abraham in John 8. This was likely
the encounter between Abraham and the Angel of the Lord in Gen 18.
a) Gen 18:1-2
b) Jhn 8:56-58
7. The conclusion that is drawn from this is that The Angel of the Lord is
divine, rightly using the personal name of God and speaking as God. He
prophecies and makes covenants. He executes judgment and receives
worship. Yet, He is a different person from God the Father. This only
leaves God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. There is no precedent for the
Holy Spirit ever taking a physical form as a man. He never claims to have
interacted with any of the characters in the OT passages where The Angel
of the Lord appears. Christ, however, has always been the one Sent of the
Father. He also claims to have been seen by Abraham. Logically, the best
explanation for the uniqueness of this “angel” is that he is not an angel at
all but is God the Son before He was born in a manger in Bethlehem.
B. The “Fallen Guardian Cherub” is Satan
1. There is no clear didactic passage which addresses the origin of Satan.
The best we have are prophetic passages addressed to pagan kings as
pronouncement of woes upon them and their nations which seem to go far
beyond anything that could rightly be said about a mortal man. The
common interpretation is that these woes were written to literal Kings
because their sins echoed the sins of Satan, and so their rebuke is given in
the context of the Satanic history and fall, not just in the context of their
own more limited depravity.
2. Satan, as part of God’s originally-good creation, was created perfect and
blameless.
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a) Gen 1:31
b) Eze 28:12-13, 15
3. Satan was created as a high-ranking angel, luminous and musical in his
nature, who enjoyed the very presence of God. (Eze 28:13-14)
4. The sin of pride had its origin in his heart. He was not content to be a
leader of the worship of God (inferred by his closeness to the presence of
God and his musical nature). He wanted to be the object of worship.
a) Isa 14:12-14
b) Eze 28:2
5. God’s judgment of Satan included removing him from his rightful place in
the presence of God and casting him down to the earth.
a) Eze 28:16-19
6. However, he still has access in some regard to the heavenlies, as various
OT scenes include him discussing or debating in the presence of God.
a) Job 1:6-7
b) Zec 3:1-2
C. The angels which allied themselves with Satan at his rebellion are demons.
1. When Satan fell, he took a third of all the heavenly angels with him in
open rebellion.
a) Rev 12:3-4
2. Some fallen angels were involved in the creation of the Nephilim.
a) Gen 6:4
3. Certain angels when they fell were bound in chains immediately.
a) Jde 1:6
4. Other fallen angels roam the earth in service of Satan and in opposition to
the work of God.
a) Mat 8:28
b) Mat 9:32
c) Mat 12:22
d) Mat 15:22
e) Mar 5:15
5. Hell, or Hades, the temporary resting place of reprobate mankind after
their death, is populated by and was created for Satan and the demons.
a) Isa 14:11, 15, 19
b) Isa 33:14 1
c) Eze 28:8
d) Mat 25:41
e) Rev 20:13
6. The final abode of Satan, fallen angels, and reprobate mankind is the
Lake of Fire
a) Rev 19:20
b) Rev 20:10
c) Rev 20:14-15
III.
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IV.
Doctrines on which I will defer and choose not to argue.
A. Do individuals have assigned guardian angels?
B. Do angels/demons have only one or a few skills or areas of influence so that they
can be called “demons of fear” or the like?
How Then Shall We Live?
Angels are fellow servants of God along with the Church Universal. As such, we see in
scripture that they are frequently dispatched to assist and minister to the people of God as they
cooperatively carry out the will of God. There is much that can be learned about angels in the
Bible by watching them in action, but there is precious little given to us in a didactic passage
meant to help us understand them as an academic subject.
For me, the practical application of this area of theology is to participate actively in the
work of God through his Church and the warfare that goes on for its growth, knowing that I am
not alone in this struggle. We are never told to pray to or for angels. We are never told to seek
angels or their assistance. Our worship, faith, adoration, and labor are all to be focused on God.
Angels are sent to do the work of God at His discretion, and I am grateful for their help,
although I am, I’m sure, mostly oblivious to their agency. For the most part, I think that God is
most glorified when I serve Him diligently in the physical realm alongside the angelic activity
without spending too much of my energy looking for their fingerprints. They are sent out to
serve the church (Heb 1:14), not the other way around.
Many people have spent lots of their energy looking for the marks of angelic presence or
trying to command the angelic host to obey their wills. Worse yet, some have fallen into idolatry
by praying to and worshipping angels. This all misses the point. We are called to live lives of
righteousness and submission, being active in the glorification of God and the creation of
disciples. Angels are allies in the unseen realm, assisting in this work as God directs them.
Although they are our powerful allies, they can become snares if we devote too much attention to
them that ought to be focused on the worship and service of God.
There is more application for our lives and the life of the church in what we believe about
the enemy and the warfare that is constantly ongoing between the forces of heaven and the
hordes of hell. Whereas I think it is a common problem to give too much attention to angelic
activity, I think that a similar error lies in not giving enough attention to our combat with the
enemy. Satan is pleased when he is either spoken of too much or not at all. When we focus all
our thoughts on the potential demons hiding in every corner and behind every world event,
Satan is served by our sense of fear and trepidation. When we ignore him completely, he is
served by being able to act with immunity. We are a people at war, and the Christian life is
frequently painted in militaristic terms. We must resist the devil (Jas 4:7) and take our stand
against him (Eph 6:10-11). The average Christian does not participate in this struggle nearly to
the degree to which he is called in scripture. We must be active in our struggle with darkness,
empowered by God’s Word and Spirit (Eph 6:17), and assisted by the hosts of heaven (2Kings
6:17).
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Eschatology
I.
Doctrines which divide Christians from Other Faiths.
A. God’s plan was for a very good creation in which He enjoyed perfect fellowship
with mankind, who ruled as his image bearers over all of creation. The fall of
Satan and of mankind ruined this plan. His restoration of this plan is ongoing,
was substantially won at the cross, and will be realized in full in the future.
1. The original plan and purpose for mankind and his place in creation (Gen
1:26-28).
2. God’s intention to restore what was lost in the fall.
a) Gen 3:14-15
b) Psa 67:1-3
c) Isa 45:22-23
3. The substantial victory over sin and Satan was accomplished at the cross
a) Luk 10:18
b) Jhn 12:31-32
c) Jhn 16:8, 11
d) Col 2:15
e) Heb 2:14-15
f) 1Jo 3:8b
4. The intention to complete the work of redemption yet in the future.
a) Isa 25:8
b) Hos 13:14
c) 1Co 15:25-28
d) Heb 10:12-13
e) Rev 21:4
B. God’s plan includes two advents of his Son. Jesus’ first advent was to deal with
the power of sin’s hold over humanity. His second advent will be to punish Satan
and do away with the very presence of sin in the world.
1. Zec 12:10
2. Isa 53:8-12
3. Luk 24:25-27
4. Heb 9:27-28
5. Rev 19:11-16
C. God’s plan will be realized in full when He recreates the heavens and the earth
without the presence or possibility of sin. In this new creation, we will rule and
reign with Him over the recreated world.
1. Isa 65:17-19
2. Isa 66:22-23
3. 2Pe 3:11-13
4. Rev 21:3-7
II.
Doctrines I choose to defend against alternate views held by other Christians.
A. God’s plan reveals that the next event on the timeline of His redemption is the
rapture of the church.
1. There are several reasons to believe that the rapture of the church is the
next event on the prophetic calendar. .
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a) There is a strong Biblical precedent of God sheltering His elect
from the outpouring of His wrath. It is consistent with His nature
to believe that God will shelter His elect from the coming
tribulation as well.
(1) 2Pe 2:4-7
(2) God sheltered Noah and his family from the judgment of
the flood (Gen 7:1-6).
(3) God was willing to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
had there been just 10 righteous. As there were not, he
removed Lot and his family before destroying the cities
(a) Gen 18:32
(b) Gen 19:12-22
(4) God sheltered Israel from the fullness of His wrath during
the exodus
(a) Ex 8:22;
(b) Ex 9:4, 26;
(c) Ex 10:23;
(d) Ex 11:7
(5) God sheltered the prostitute Rahab and her family during
the destruction of Jericho (Joshua 6:17-23).
(6) Most clearly, the letter to the church of Philadelphia in Rev
3, Jesus assures the church that it will be sheltered from
the wrath of God which is about to be described to John in
the balance of Revelation (Rev 3:10).
b) The church is never mentioned on earth during the great
tribulation (Rev 6-18). All mention of the church in the Book of
Revelation exists in the form of letters written to the extant
churches of Asia Minor at the time of the Book’s authorship in the
waning years of the 1st century. Once the fully prophetic stage of
judgement begins to be described, all scenes of the faithful occur
in heaven (ie Rev 7:9ff).
(1) The word ekklesia is used 19 times in the first three
chapters of Revelation when addressing the church. After
this, it is only used once in Rev 22:16, when John again
directly addresses his extant readers with the term.
(2) The “saints” referenced in the body of the book of
revelation are redeemed Israelites who have become the
principle tools for evangelism during the tribulation age
(a) Rev 7:1-8
(b) Rev 14:1-5
c) The epistles contain many warnings of diverse kinds, but there are
no warnings to prepare for the “great tribulation” which will come
upon believers. The trials that are described in the epistles all
correspond to contemporary sufferings in line with historical
roman church afflictions and false teachers. Nothing that
corresponds to Daniel’s 70th week appears in the warning
passages in any of the epistles. Interestingly, when speaking to the
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Thessalonian church about the wrath of God coming in the great
tribulation, Paul does not tell the Thessalonians to prepare for it,
but he instead tells them that Jesus has come to take them away
from it (1 Thess 1:10).
d) John 14:1-3 and 1 Thes 4:13-18 are parallel passages that can only
fit a pre-tribulational rapture.
(1) Both passages are meant to encourage us while we suffer
through the normal trials of this life. The message is that
the next step in God’s plan is for hope and satisfaction, not
an infinitely greater degree of suffering.
(a) Jhn 14:1
(b) 1Th 4:18
(2) Both passages speak of going directly into the presence of
the Lord, not in meeting Christ in the air only to return
directly to the earth, as a post-tribulational rapture would
expect.
(a) Jhn 14:3
(b) 1Th 4:17
e) Paul emphatically links the revealing of the Antichrist with the
timing of the Rapture. Since the Antichrist is revealed at the
outset of the tribulation (below), I believe that the rapture will
likewise occur at the front edge of the tribulation (2Th 2:3-4).
2. The Exact timing of the rapture is undisclosed to us, but the
encouragement is to remain vigilant and engaged in the work of the
Kingdom until it occurs.
a) Mar 13:32-3
b) 1Th 5:1-6
c) 2Pe 3:9-10
3. When the rapture comes, those dead members of the Church of Jesus
Christ will be raised first into glorious, resurrected bodies. Those
members of the church who are still alive will be transformed in an
instant into their new glorious bodies and will be caught up to meet Christ
in the air. At this moment, Christ will not be physically seen by any left on
the Earth, but we will behold him “face to face” and will forever be with
God.
a) Mat 24:36-41
b) Jhn 14:1-3
c) 1Co 15:51-55
d) Phl 3:20-21
e) 1Th 4:14-18
B. God’s plan includes a 7-year period of time known as “the great tribulation,”
during which sin and Satan will be exposed and judged, the Jewish nation will be
redeemed and used as the principle vehicle of evangelism and testimony about
God, and the physical creation will be used as a demonstration of the wrath of
God.
1. The great tribulation fulfills Daniel’s 70th week (Dan 9:24-27).
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2. The great tribulation will begin with the desecration of a newly-built
temple in Jerusalem, called “the abomination of desolation.”
a) Dan 11:31
b) Dan 12:11-13
c) Mar 13:14-18
3. Satan’s influence will rise to unprecedented levels as he acts through the
agency of the Antichrist, who will rule a global government.
a) The spirit of Antichrist is a general rejection of the person and
work of Jesus Christ and the Father who sent Him. In this broad
sense, the spirit of Antichrist was already at work in the first
century. John clearly wrote against the persecutors of the early
church as being filled with the spirit of Antichrist during his day.
Even so, he acknowledged that the unique personal incarnation of
evil, known as “The Antichrist” was yet to come.
(1) 1Jo 2:18, 22
(2) 1Jo 4:3
(3) 2Jo 1:7
b) When the Antichrist comes, he will receive power from Satan to
execute demonic miracles and will rule the earth on his behalf.
(1) 2Th 2:9-12
(2) Rev 13:1-5
4. God will use the destruction of the physical creation as a tool for the
administration of his wrath.
a) Mar 13:19-20
b) Rev 6:12-14
c) Rev 16:3-4, 8, 10, 12, 17-18, 20-21
5. God will redeem ethnic Israel, who will turn to Christ and repent
nationally.
a) Jer 3:12-14
b) Rom 11:25-32
6. Ethnic Jews will be used as the principal vehicle for evangelism.
a) Isa 49:5-6
b) Isa 66:18-19
c) Rev 7:3-8
C. God’s plan for the end of this 7-year period is for the armies of the world, under
the leadership of Antichrist, to make war against Israel. Jesus will come for his
second advent, visibly and gloriously, leading the armies of Heaven and the
glorified church, and rescue Israel with a miraculous and violent judgment
against the followers of Antichrist.
1. Mar 13:24-27
2. 2Th 2:8
3. Rev 17:14
4. Rev 19:11-16
5. Rev 19:19-2
D. God’s plan to demonstrate His goodness and faithfulness to ethnic Israel features
a 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth as Israels’ King in the Millennial Kingdom.
During this time, Satan and his demons will be bound and unable to war against
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Christ, His people, and His Church. The resurrected faithful of Israel, the
raptured glorified Church, and the martyred tribulation Saints will enter the
Millennial Kingdom in eternal glorified bodies. Those who survive the tribulation
and the judgment of Christ at its culmination (demonstrating that they are
believers) will enter the Millennial Kingdom in physical bodies granted abnormal
longevity for this season.
1. Jesus’ world-dominating reign will fulfill the Davidic promises to Israel.
a) Isa 52:7-10
b) Jer 3:15-17
c) Zec 8:23
2. The rule of Jesus will bring in an unprecedented time of peace and
prosperity in the absence of Satanic influence.
a) Isa 35:5-10
b) Zec 9:9-10
c) Rev 20:1-6
E. God’s plan culminates with the final great white-throne judgment of all men, the
final judgment and punishment of Satan and his demons in the eternal lake of
fire, the destruction of the current creation with fire, and the recreation of the
heavens and the earth, again accomplished by the spoken word of God. In this
new creation, there will be neither the presence nor the possibility of sin. We will
reign along with all the redeemed (faithful Israel, the church, tribulation saints,
and millennial believers) as co-heirs with Christ over a perfect cosmos as
image-bearers and sons of God, as was originally intended.
1. Eternal life is a reality for all people. Everyone will be resurrected
eternally. At the last judgment, those who are saved will enter into eternal
bliss in the presence of God. The reprobate will enter into eternal
punishment.
a) Dan 12:2
b) Mat 25:45-46
c) Jhn 3:36
2. Eternal life for the elect, both the church and faithful Israel.
a) Isa 66:22-23
b) Jhn 3:16 16
c) Jhn 4:14
d) Jhn 5:24
e) Rev 22:3-5
3. Eternal punishment of the damned.
a) Isa 66:24
b) Mar 9:48
c) Rev 21:2
d) Rev 22:3-5, 15
III.
Doctrines on which I will defer and choose not to argue.
A. Is the Catholic Pope and the Church arranged under him the means by which
Antichrist will exert his influence?
B. What is the mark of the beast?
C. What is the role of America, if any, in the last days?
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D. Is Antichrist and Imam Mahdi, the long-awaited savior of Islam, the same
person?
How then shall we live?
More than any other area of theology, eschatology has been an area where believers have
needlessly found division. The nature of apocalyptic literature in the Bible is that it is
purposefully obscure and symbolic. There are only a few clear didactic passages that speak in
concrete language about dates and times in the future. When scripture does give us clear
language and follows it with application, the application is never, “understand all that you can
about this so that you are wise and can clearly describe the events in concrete language.” The
application is always about a peaceful heart (Matt 24:22-28; 1Thes 4:18; 5:9; 2 Thes 2:2),
righteous living (1 Thes 5:4-11), and fervent efforts in fulfilling the work of the church (Heb
10:24-25). Therefore, I have taken my cue from this.
As to what is clearly and concretely taught, we know that Christ is indeed coming again
to gather His Church, judge the world, and fulfill the Messianic promises made to Israel.
Otherwise, almost everything else we know comes to us as symbolic language. Winston
churchill described Russian foreign policy as “a riddle wrapped in mystery, inside an enigma.”
So much of eschatology presents itself this way. We are given symbols to interpret by other
symbols. So much is given to us in opaque language that even the prophets who received the
visions had to ask clarifying questions along the way, and even these questions were frequently
answered with, “you don’t need to know that” (Daniel 12:4; Acts 1:7).
When I teach eschatology, it is meant to comfort the hearts of those listening that God
will “keep them from the hour of trial that is about to come” (Rev 3:10). I tie my teaching of the
end times to the encouragement in scripture that the judgment of God is at hand, so we ought to
be careful to live lives of holiness (1 Cor 10:6-11). There is also a clear sense in which the timing
of the rapture is in some way linked to the fulfillment of the great commission in preaching to
the ends of the earth (Mat 24:14). This should motivate us to be working harder and harder at
the task of evangelism as the time grows short.
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Epilogue
In considering how to conclude what has grown into a potentially-off-puttingly-long
statement of belief, I want to leave the reader with what I feel is the most important thing to
which I adhere, the intended lasting impression of this self-disclosure. The lingering taste with
which I hope you will walk away from this is that I want to say “yes” to all that Christ has offered.
He has given me Himself in His word. There are parts that are hard to understand.
There are parts that are hard to receive. To all that I can comprehend, and even to that with
which I struggle, I want to say, “Yes, Lord. I believe.” The best way I’ve found to do this is to
read, at His invitation, like a child--simply, as much as possible, and with faith. There are
tensions that arise when I read this way, and perhaps drilling down into the minutia might tease
out some of the answers, but my observations of others’ lives who swim in the deep end of the
philosophical interpretive pool is that they usually drown there. Trying to be as wise and as
righteous as the author and understand perfectly all that He has written is not possible, and to
strive too valiantly at this task is either to become conceited with your own wisdom when you
feel like it approximates God’s or to become exasperated at your failure and give up on knowing
anything. I desire to say “Yes and Amen” at the conclusion of every line and lift up open hands
to the Lord when I can’t put a neat bow on everything.
Christ has offered Himself to me in His salvation. Fellow sharers in this gift and I
disagree on even how this gift is communicated to those of us who have received it. To this also,
I desire to say, “yes.” Yes to His inestimable sacrifice. Yes to His unmerited love. Yes to the
mysterious interaction of His election and my free choice. Yes to His sanctifying work in my life.
Yes to His right to rule and reign in my family. Yes to the joys and sorrows, delights and trials
by which His will is made known in my lifetime. Yes to all that I can do and all of those things
which I will attempt and at which I will ultimately fail.
Christ has offered Himself to me in the participation in His body. As has been repeatedly
stated, I hold my arms as wide as I can and embrace as fully as possible those to which Christ
has also said “yes.” I have been a part of many denominations in my past, and I have seen the
bond of peace in the Holy Spirit and the marks of the work of Christ in all of them. So, as much
as I can see that a fellow brother has put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation and
anchors their faith on the Word of God alone, I say “yes” to fellowship and recognition that we
are of one sheep fold, one body, one family of faith. Certainly, there are those groups I cannot
embrace, but I want to be known for those with whom I celebrate our common adoption as sons
in Christ, not as the one who, like an immature boy, must be disciplined by the Father for
squabbling with his siblings.
And so this document stands as the most recent “yes.” I knew the call of God upon my
life to the pastorate in 2012. It has been a good piece of time since then, in which God has
refined in my life, in my heart, in my disciplines, in my marriage, and in my professional and
cognitive skills those features which He needed to be present so that I might rightly execute this
calling. I’ve been serving at this office for over two years, and I’m grateful for the patience
extended to me by the elders of Pleasant View Bible Church while this process slowly ground to
completion. It is with great joy that I say “yes” to the invitation to produce and defend this
document, and I look forward to your “yes” as the long road since my calling in 2012 finally
reaches fruition.
Blessings in Christ,
Jason Alley
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