He [Jesus Christ] died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins....We are so accustomed to this phrase that we miss the mind-blowing mystery.Not the last part of the statement.The first part.“He died…”In the previous blog I explained that we believe “Jesus Christ is true God and true man”.  He is “I AM”, the One who is, who has life in Himself.The one who does not die.Because He CANNOT die.Yet He die...  Read More

The third point of our statement of faith says:  We believe that Jesus Christ is true God and ‘true man, having been conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.We have talked about the first great mystery of the Christian faith:  that one infinite God exists in three persons.  This is what God has revealed about Himself.  We don’t comprehend it; we confess it and worship Him.The secon...  Read More

“We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect…”God is “I AM”:  a person who always was and always will be.  He is being.  He is life.  Existing before all things, He brought all things into existence.  As the Creator, He is the definer of the good and the perfect, the standard by which all values are measured.  What God loves and approves is good and what He disapproves and des...  Read More

“We believe in one God…existing in three persons…”Francis Schaeffer said everything originated either from nothing, from matter, or from a person with a mind.No one (that I know of) seriously proposes that everything came from absolutely nothing.  Even Stephen Hawking, who proposed that the universe popped into existence out of ‘nothing’, assumed that subatomic particles were inexplicably ‘there’ ...  Read More

“We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”God revealed His Name to Moses:  I AM (Exodus 3.14).  The One Who Is, the Existent One.  Uncreated and unbegun.  Just is – and therefore was.  Always was.  As He says about Himself:  “I am the first and the last; besides me there is no god” (Isaiah 44.6).I AM was...  Read More

We believe in one God … existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.Deuteronomy 6.4 announces perhaps the oldest Israelite creed (called “the Shema” (after the first word in the verse):  Shema Israel.  Adonai elohenu.  Adonai echad.…Shema Israel:  “Hear, O Israel”.   All Israelites – listen, agree, and confess this truth!…Adonai elohenu:  “I AM is our God.”  We belong to Him! …Adonai e...  Read More

“We believe in one God, Creator of all things…”The God of Israel revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM THAT WHICH I AM” (literal Hebrew of Exodus 3.14a) – “I AM” for short (Exodus 3.14b).  His name, I AM tells us about who He is.  He is being, existence, life itself.  He has life in Himself.  He doesn’t do anything to sustain His life.  He won’t die.  He can’t, because He is life.  He lives.  He is. ...  Read More

“We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”In my blog this year I’m explaining our church’s statement of faith.  We started with the Bible, our final authority on all things related to our faith.  The next point of our statement begins “We believe in one God…”.  We’ll take up the enormous subject of God i...  Read More

In my early walk as an evangelical Christian, I somehow thought one’s faith had to be certain and logically impregnable about everything.  If faith has doubts or questions, how can it be faith?  Why believe in something uncertain?  When I later developed serious questions about Christianity, I found my faith wasn’t impregnable.  I considered abandoning it, but had my faith restored by the simple r...  Read More

We believe the Scriptures … to be … without error in the original writings…We believe this because we believe the Scriptures are “God-breathed” – that what the Scripture says, God says.  When a prophet or apostle wrote, the words were both his words and God’s words.  We can’t describe the process much beyond that.The idea that Bible is without error isn’t directly taught in the Bible.  It’s a logi...  Read More

People sometimes argue that you can’t trust the Bible because it’s been changed over the centuries so much that what the apostles wrote is no longer recognizable.  I even heard a man once defiantly claim that a fly dropping deposited on a page could change a verse’s meaning – so how could we trust the Bible!  These arguments demonstrate only the ignorance of one arguing.The New Testament is the be...  Read More

We believe the Scriptures … to be … without error in the original writings…This final point of our statement of faith regarding the Bible – inerrancy, the belief that there are no errors in the Bible – has been a point of contention in Christianity throughout the last half of the 20th century.  Traditional conservative Christianity concluded that the Bible doesn’t have any “errors” in it because:W...  Read More