Inspiration of Scripture
To know the one and true living God, one requires the means through which we can know a totally transcendent and holy God. This revelation of God’s eternal truth to mankind is the holy scriptures of the Bible, which I believe to be both inspired and verbally inerrant. Although penned by mankind, it is God who has given us a revelation that is perfectly true and infallible (Psalm 119:160, 18:30) and has come to us in its inerrancy from God via those whom He appointed to speak and write it (Jeremiah 1:9, 30:1-2; Romans 3:1-2). As Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” God breathed life into Adam to give him life (Genesis 2:7: Davis), Jesus breathed on his disciples in order to gift them with the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), and now available to each of us are the scriptures that are filled with the life-giving breath of God.
The Person of God
The Divine Attributes
These inspired scriptures provide for us a thorough, if not total, understanding of both the nature and character of God. I say that it is not total because God, being infinite, cannot be totally understood by His limited creation. Yet there is nothing that we don’t know or understand about God that would contradict what He has revealed to us in His word about Himself (Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29).
First and foremost, I believe that the Scriptures assert God’s existence (Genesis 1:1) as one that preceded the existence of anything else. His existence is also made plain to us in His work of creation (Psalm 19:1), and in the inward testimony of the human conscience (Romans 2:14-15).
God is perfectly existent; that is to say that God’s reason for existence is in Himself (John 5:26). He is not caused by anything else but rather all things find the cause of their existence in Him (Genesis 1:1; Revelation 4:11). God is not aided or assisted by anything (Isaiah 40:13-14, 44:24) nor does He need such assistance.
He is a spiritual being. God does not have a body, in contrast to Pantheistic assertions to the contrary. Rather God is spirit (John 4:24), and is therefore invisible (1 Timothy 1:17) but can make Himself visible to the senses should He choose to do so as He did in the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), and also in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the revelation of God made flesh (John 1:1-3). However, I do not believe that Jesus Christ currently has a physical body although His body here was most certainly physical (Luke 24:36-39). As God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 12:29) and Jesus is God, He was with the Father in the beginning (John 1:1-3) before the creation of the universe (Genesis 1:1). Being eternally existent, He came down and assumed the fullness of humanity as the prophet writes, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given (Isaiah 9:6).” The child is born because it is made from flesh; however the son has existed before the flesh He would inhabit and is given to us in the form of a child, the very Son of God.
I believe, and am thankful for the fact that, God does not change. He is always consistent with Himself (Hebrews 6:17), never contradicts Himself (Psalm 33:11), and never does what He does not want to do (Numbers 23:19). I cannot, in my fallible human will, bend God to my desires, nor is it possible of me to interfere with God’s plans as Jonah tried to (Jonah 1). It is only when Jonah cries out to God that salvation belongs to God and God alone that he is released from the belly of the whale (Jonah 2:9-10). God’s plan belongs to God alone, and I can’t change Him. I also believe that, for the unbeliever, God’s immutability can be terrifying (Isaiah 46:12-14) but it is something for which I am quite glad. Similarly, God is of one nature; there are no internal divisions or tensions (Deut. 6:4). There is only one true and living God who exists in solidarity.
God is eternal. Just as His nature does not differ from one moment or century to the next, neither is He limited to or changed by whatever else may be going on (Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 51:15), despite the claims of Process Theology which assert that God is in process with us and that we contribute to His own growth and understanding.
God is not limited or confined by space but rather is present throughout all space (Psalm 139:7). There is no place that is further from God than any other where we may hide ourselves from Him, whether we believe or not (Jeremiah 23:23-24; Romans 8:39). Yet God will eventually separate those who reject Him from those who accept Him, assigning them to the places prepared for them (Matthew 22:13; John 14:12)
God is omnipotent and can do any and all things that do not contradict His righteousness or His will (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17). Nor can any work of mankind frustrate the works of God (Isaiah 14:27, 43:13). Furthermore, God is omniscient (Isaiah 40:28, 46:10) and therefore knows all things that are past, present and future (Hebrews 4:13) as well as all things that could be and all things that are (Psalm 139:1-4).
The Moral Attributes
Apart from revealing to us the metaphysical nature of God, the Scriptures also testify to His moral nature. God is holy; set apart from His creation (Psalm 22:3). He is also pure and free from all unrighteousness (1 Peter 1:15). Furthermore, God is just (Acts 17:31; Romans 3:25-26) and righteous (Psalms 36:6, 88:14).
God loves all of His creation (Jeremiah 31:3) and in His love, He also reveals to us His genuine affection and delight for us (Deuteronomy 33:12; Zephaniah 3:17) so not only does God love me, but also likes me and enjoys my affection, fellowship and love. God’s love is utterly scandalous to our human sensibilities and it flies in the face of what anyone is capable of (Ephesians 2:4-5) because while we were yet God’s enemies and under His wrath, He loved us first and foremost and died for evil, unrighteous and depraved people (Romans 5:6-8). Unlike human love, His love is perfect and is freely offered to all (John 3:16) and never falters or runs dry (Isaiah 49:13-15). God will never abandon us (Deuteronomy 4:31) nor forsake us but took our sentence upon Himself (Ephesians 2:16) out of love (John 3:16) and even in the face of my struggle, and all believers’ struggles with sin (Romans 7:23-25) He will not abandon me, or anyone (2 Timothy 2:13).
God is good and generous towards those who believe in Him (Lamentation 3:25). His attitude towards His faithful is one of consistent loving kindness, mercy (Psalms 145:8-9; James 1:5,17) and forgiveness (Hebrews 8:12). He is also patient towards those who earn and deserve His wrath (Numbers 14:18; Psalms 86:15; 2 Peter 3:9).
God is utterly dependable in thought, word and deed; He is truthful in all things (Psalms 33:4; John 14:6; Romans 3:3-4). He is perfectly faithful in keeping His promises (Deuteronomy 7:9; Josiah 23:14) as well as towards those who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Timothy 2:13).
God offers joy to His followers in all circumstances and buoys the faith of His faithful with His joy (Nehemiah 8:10) because He rejoices and sings in delight over those who have turned to Him (Zephaniah 3:17; Luke 15:11-32). His ordinances and precepts are joyful to those who keep them (Psalms 19:8).
The Trinity
Although God is one in essence, He exists eternally in three separate persons. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit, the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son; yet all are God (Matthew 28:19). This is confirmed by Christ’s command in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) that people be baptized in the name of all three, thus asserting their equal divinity. The Father sends the Son (John 6:57), the Son testifies to the one and only truth of the living God (John 18:37) as He himself is the living embodiment of God and His revelation (John 1:1-2, 14), and He undergoes God’s justice for us (John 12:27). The Son also sends the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). The Holy Spirit is the spirit of love shared between them (Luke 10:21; John 1:32), and is at work as it dwells within the believer (1 Corinthians 6:19; Hebrews 9:14) to bring about God’s will on Earth as it is in Heaven (Acts 1:2).
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit provides power to Christians (Acts 1:8) to proclaim the Gospel to the world. He also teaches us what to say when we are in need of words to proclaim Christ (Luke 12:11-12) and helps us to pray in our weakness (Romans 8:26). The Spirit is omnipresent (Psalms 139:7), and personable as demonstrated by its ability to be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). He is our perpetual contemporary and ongoing fellowship with God (2 Corinthians 13:14), and God’s agent of our sanctification (1 Peter 1:1-2) for God’s greater glory.
Jesus Christ
The person of Christ is absolutely essential for the professing Christian; without Christ, there would be no Way (Acts 18:25), no Christianity. Like the Father, Jesus Christ is eternal; He has always existed, will always exist (John 1:1-3) and He dwells beside the Father in Heaven (John 6:38). Jesus Himself acknowledges His own eternality (John 17:4-5) in His prayer just prior to His arrest. He is also of the same nature of the Father (Philippians 2:5-7). Jesus Christ was conceived within and born of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38). Thus, He was not merely a man or a prophet, but the very begotten son of God. In being conceived by the Holy Spirit, He was born free from original sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), and although truly tempted by Satan did not give in to that temptation (Hebrews 4:15) so that He would be the perfect sacrifice to meet the justice that God demands (Hebrews 7:26; 1 Peter 1:18-19).
Jesus was fully human in his natural appetites for food and sleep (Matthew 4:1-2, 8:23-24), His ability to grow tired (John 4:5-6) and feel sorrow (John 11:35). His body was a physical and real one (John 19:34; Luke 24:39) that was a necessary part of the salvation plan for Him to make atonement for us men and for our salvation (Hebrews 2:14, 17-18).
Jesus Christ was also God, sharing in the divine nature with the Father. He is called Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6), and also Lord (Acts 2:21) in reference to and equation with the Lord of Joel 2:32. He is the only begotten son of God and admits this before the High Priest (Matthew 26:63-65). Christ’s divine nature is also evident in His omnipresence (Matthew 28:20; Ephesians 1:22-23), omnipotence (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:22), His perfect self-existence and sustenance (John 1:4, 5:26), His role in creation (John 1:3), His sustaining of the created world (Colossians 1:17), authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-7), His receiving prayer (Acts 7:59) and worship (Matthew 28:16-17; John 20:28), power to raise the dead (John 5:21, 11:25) and His final judgment of mankind (John 5:22,27). He also declares himself to be equal to God the Father (John 10:29-31, 14:8-9), and Peter identifies Christ and the Father as both being God (2 Peter 1:1).
Therefore, it is not possible, given the basis of scripture, to affirm that Jesus Christ was only a prophet, a teacher, a philosopher or a “good man.” Jesus Himself never affirmed these things alone, but all of these things, and far more; He claimed to be God Himself, incarnate in the flesh, for the salvation of all who believe (John 3:16).
The Works of God
The Work of Christ
Jesus Christ’s work was to atone for our sins (Mark 10:33-34, 45; Acts 2:23; Romans 3:25, Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 5:2) by dying a substitutionary death in our place on the cross. He replaced the lamb of ritualistic Jewish sacrifice with the perfect lamb of God (John 1:29) who died once and for all for our sake. Through this death, He serves as the perfect scapegoat that removes the sins from all who believe in order to make them presentable to God.
He taught this to the people of Israel and demonstrated the truth of His teaching by performing many miracles (Matthew 4:23-24, 7:28-29; Mark 4:33-34; John 12:37, 20:30-31). Christ’s life was one of humble servitude and obedience to God the Father (John 6:38, 8:29, 15:10; Romans 5:18-19). Finally, Jesus was bodily resurrected (Luke 24:36-39, 24:50-51; John 20:19) by the Father to not only complete the plan of salvation but also to vindicate His son’s teaching and ministry (Romans 1:2-4; 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, 17, 20; Philippians 2:9-11) and in accordance with Old Testament prophecy (Isaiah 53:11-12).
Salvation
It is Christ’s work on the cross that makes the free gift of salvation available to all people (John 3:16; Titus 3:5). For salvation to be made available, one must repent of one’s sins and depend upon the grace and mercy of the Lord God (2 Chronicles 7:14; Isaiah 55:6-7; Ezekiel 18:31-32; Luke 24:47-48). In order to be saved, one must be born again (John 3:5-7; 1 Peter 1:23), which is the work of God in which He gives a renewed nature to those who believe in Him (Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; Ephesians 2:4-5) and restores the believer’s relationship to God by adopting him (John 1:12-13) as a son. The normative method of salvation is the inner working of God within the heart of the lost (Acts 16:14) and the outer testimony of the saints to those who have not heard (Romans 10:14). God does not require anything of us, but in His will has graciously appointed us to bear the good news of salvation to all the world ( Matthew 28:18-20).
Election
Election is the act by which God chooses specific persons to be saved through the vehicle of Christ’s saving work. Part of my difficulty with the Calvinism/Arminianism debate is I do not believe that either side has the fullest understanding of God’s word on this matter. On the one hand there is a free human agent, and on the other a sovereign God. I would like to say that I may be incorrect in my understanding of election, but this is the only way I know how to make sense of it. I believe that some position that includes both sides is what the Scriptures teach. We cannot ignore verses in favor of either position because of our own ideas, especially not if we hold to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, that all of scripture is God-breathed.
That God commands us to believe in Him and to turn from our sins implies that we have a choice that we must make – to either accept God or reject Him (Joshua 24:14-15;Ezekiel 33:11; Mark 1:15). In so doing, we meet either Heaven or Hell in the afterlife. If we are not responsible for choosing to believe, then it makes little sense for God to command it of us unless the prior assertion is merely human reasoning and God’s understanding of election stands in total opposition to an Arminian interpretation.
However, we cannot dismiss God’s omnipotence (Isaiah 14:26-27, 43:12-13) nor Paul’s assertions that God chose us before the creation of the world (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:4). Jesus Himself also asserts that all who believe in Him are given to Him by the Father (John 6:37). At the same time, Stephen’s rebuke of the Sanhedrin tells us that the human will can resist God’s omnipotent will (Acts 7:51). Jesus also claims that He came for the whole world, not just those whom God elected before the world began (John 3:16).
Ultimately, there is a human agent at work who either accepts or rejects God and is held responsible for his or her decision. There is also a sovereign God at work who has elected certain persons to eventually come to Him. Yet He is also a God who sometimes chooses to blind some to the truth or to harden their hearts, while opening the eyes of others (Exodus 4:21, 10:1; Romans 9:16-18, 22-24). I confess that I do not understand how it all plays out, apart from saying that both seem to be true and to trust that God can and does make it work justly despite my inability to totally reconcile the two because what is impossible with mankind is possible with God (Luke 18:27). Despite the difficulty of trying to reason this out, God is still praiseworthy for being so far beyond my ability to comprehend for my struggles with this doctrine are not struggles in the least for God. He is omniscient, and in so being I cannot comprehend all that He does in His greatness. For God not only has all power, goodness and love, but He is these things in their purest form (2 Corinthians 4:6).
On a more personal note, a Catholic friend of mine offered me this analogy for what he called the Catholic Church’s official position on the matter of election: that every person has fallen into a ditch, and requires help in being pulled out of the ditch of our sinfulness. Yet even the simple act of raising our hand requires God to already be at work to enable us to lift that hand in the first place.
Creation
I believe that God created all things (Genesis 1:1) that are seen and unseen, physical and spiritual. He is the giver of life (Nehemiah 9:5-6), and His creation of all things testifies to His all-encompassing wisdom and understanding (Proverbs 3:19). God needs nothing apart from Himself to create; He needs only to speak in order for His will to manifest (Psalms 33:6), and His son is the one through whom God created all things (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16).
His creation was originally of a good moral quality (Genesis 1:31) and was given to mankind to hold dominion over it (Genesis 1:26). I believe this is not a cruel lordship but rather a lordship intended to be characterized by a Christ-like attitude of leadership (Mark 10:45) and appropriate responsibility because it was through Adam’s sin that all of the creation was subject to the Fall (Romans 8:19-22). Therefore, We ought not to subject creation to even greater frustration by our sinful nature, nor to anger God by misusing or abusing that creation that testifies to His existence (Psalms 19:1-3).
Providence
Providence is the act of God, and God alone, in which he sustains and governs all of creation toward His chosen end of His eternal glorification; plant or animal, man or beast, protozoa or primate, believer or unbeliever. God is sovereign over all of the natural world and order (Job 5:10; Jeremiah 10:13; Matthew 6:26). He is sovereign over the governments and institutions of mankind (Jeremiah 27:5-6; Daniel 2:21; Acts 17:25-27), and over the circumstances of every individual person (Genesis 45:8, 50:20; Romans 8:28). Therefore, we are not cosmically adrift in our lives and in this world, but rather God sees and hears all things and has been aware of every nuance in all created things since before time itself began. It is because of His love for us and His all-encompassing wisdom and understanding that He is trustworthy.
Christian Life
Man
God created humanity in His image to exercise proper stewardship over His creation (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:8, 15; Psalms 8:3-6), thereby reflecting His image as the sovereign Lord who is at work in the world. The image of God within humanity also includes the conscience that God has given to all mankind (Romans 2:14-15) and entails having a soul (Luke 9:25) that is uniquely valuable.
However, of our own volition mankind chose to turn away from God’s edicts in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:16-17) and in so doing have delivered us into a state of original sin (Romans 5:12, 18-19; 1 Colossians 15:22; Ephesians 2:3). All human persons are born into sin (Psalms 51:5, 58:3), and thus perpetuate the original sin that all are created with (1 Kings 8:46; Proverbs 20:9; Romans 3:23).
The consequences of the Fall have caused all of creation to be corrupted by sin (Romans 8:19-22). This corruption is pervasive, affecting the human mind and will (Genesis 6:5; Matthew 15:19; Romans 7:14-15) and man’s desire to seek God (Romans 8:7-8). Thus, while we were created for fellowship with our heavenly Father, we are now His enemies; we hate and scorn Him, and are only willing to follow God’s ways if He is willing to follow ours (Luke 7:31-35). While we are lost in our sinfulness, we are determined to resist and run away from God (Acts 7:51) as we desire to be like God ourselves and claim total autonomy (Genesis 3:4).
Justification
Justification is God’s act of forgiving our sins and declaring us righteous in His sight, a righteousness which we have received not through works (Romans 3:20) but from Christ’s sacrificial death on our behalf (Isaiah 53:11; Romans 3:23-24) that is His gift to us. Faith in God and His son Jesus Christ is the means through which we receive justification in God’s sight (Ephesians 2:8-9). There is nothing I can do that will merit the awesome grace of God; due to my essentially sinful nature I am able to do naught but respond with thanksgiving and worship Christ who has saved me.
In a world that struggles with the value of human life, I believe that Christ’s washing us in His blood to make us justified before God is the ultimate affirmation of the essential dignity of mankind. Our dignity is not a contrived addendum or afterthought, but it is an essential part of our identity, and on that basis God considers the killing of a human being to be an attack upon Himself (Genesis 1:27, 4:10).
Furthermore, in light of what God has done for us, it behooves us not to respond in what love we have, which pales in comparison to Him, by working with Him to be sanctified and thus glorify Him all the more.
Sanctification
After being born again, the person of Christ works within the heart of the believer to remake him increasingly into His likeness (Luke 9:23). Although begun in this life, the work of regeneration will not be completed until the next (Philippians 3:12; 1 John 1:8-9) for the wages of sin is death and we will all die one day. A life that is undergoing the process of sanctification is marked by the repeated working of the Holy Spirit within that life (1 Corinthians 12:13, 14:4-5).
Sanctification is a process in which we participate with the Holy Spirit by submitting ourselves to Him (Galatians 5:25). We are to be responsible for our actions and live lives that are holy and pleasing to Him (Matthew 5:48). Part of being responsible is to pursue God by correct belief and correct doctrine, as well as dedication to God and the good works He would have us do (Mark 12:28-31). Therefore, following Christ is not mere intellectual assent but the commitment of all aspects of one’s life to the service and glorification of God.
I believe that mere intellectual assent, or nominal belief, is a perversion of the intention of Christ to restore people to true fellowship with God (Matthew 7:21). This type of belief is not the vehicle of salvation (James 2:14-19) and is, at best, merely a dead orthodoxy without the life of God. That is not to say that those who are true believers with saving faith will never stumble (Romans 7:24) but rather that the life of the true believer is characterized by the process of increasing sanctification.
Perseverance
I believe that those who have truly made Christ the Lord and Savior of their lives cannot lose their salvation (John 6:37,39). There is no power capable of prying us from the loving hands of the faithful and true God (John 10:28-29; Romans 8:38-39; 2 Timothy 2:13).
I also believe that those verses which speak about people falling away, or of seemingly losing their salvation, apply to those who think they are Christians but really are not; that is, nominal believers. The author of Hebrews’ use of the word “tasted” seems to imply only someone who has sampled (Hebrews 6:4-6), and not fully consumed. Furthermore, both Hebrews 6:7-8 and Matthew 13:20 use the analogy of poor land for growing crops that has been touched by the seed. For someone to be a nominal believer, he or she must have heard the word and assented to it to some degree, probably only an intellectual level (James 2:19) but not to a degree that speaks of the commitment of one’s entire life, or at least the desire to commit one’s life.
The Church
The Christian Church is the universal body of all faithful believers (Romans 12:4-5), called to be holy and pure just as God is (Leviticus 11:45; 1 Thessalonians 4:3,7). But in being called away from the world (John 15:19, 17:14,16), the church has been adopted into a restored relationship with God and fellowship with one another (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). Therefore, there should be no internal divisions, factions, or even cliques. The church, being universal, should recognize no ethnic or cultural separations or privileges (Galatians 3:26-28). Being called to live in community, the church is to strive towards sanctification as all Christians are, both individually and corporately.
The church is the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:23), and His body (4:15-16), and is therefore caught up in a deep and intimate relationship with Him. It is composed of those who worship and witness (1 Peter 3:15) to the triumphant and risen Christ.
Christ has called the church to serve as his holy priesthood, and the believers themselves, not the building they gather in, is where God desires to build His home (1 Peter 2:4-5) and in so doing to make the entire life of the Christian directed in worship.
The Sacraments
Baptism
Baptism is the command of Jesus Christ (28:19) given to His disciples. It is the outward sign of an inward forgiveness of sins and the renewing work by the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:14-15; Titus 3:5). I believe that only those people who have repented and believed in Jesus Christ as the one and only savior of mankind should be baptized due to the inability to separate faith, repentance and baptism as found in the New Testament (Acts 2:38, 18:8; Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 3:21). This is also necessary to combat the false beliefs of nominal Christians for their own sake that they might not fool themselves into thinking that they are truly saved (Matthew 7:21-13). While some passages call upon people to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38), I do not think that Baptism is the vehicle of salvation given the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43). Rather, if one is truly repentant, why wouldn’t someone become baptized as an outward sign of the inner work of Christ, considering that the scriptures testify to outward action based upon Christ’s transformation of the inner man (James 2:14-19).
The Lord’s Supper
The Lord’s Supper is a meal to remember the Passover (Exodus 12:24-27) as well as Christ’s atoning work on the cross for the sake of our salvation (Matthew 26:26-28). I believe that God is at least spiritually present at the Lord’s Supper and participates in it, (1 Corinthians 10:16; John 6:63).
However, I am willing to concede that the Catholic position of both Real Presence and Transubstantiation may indeed be the correct stance largely because of John 6. At the end of His discourse on being the bread of life, Jesus Christ replies to the grumbling of the crowds by asking
“’Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe’… from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him (John 6:61-64, 66).”
It is important to note that the people are offended by Jesus’ teaching to consume his body, which is the bread of life. If they had misunderstood Him about the gravity of His teaching, would He not have corrected their misunderstanding rather than let them leave?
I suppose that, being a minimalist by nature and not wanting to read too much into God’s holy Scriptures, I am reluctant to strongly affirm the Catholic position concerning the Lord’s Supper. However, I must at the same time realize that, much like concerning the deeply mysterious doctrine of election, I am a finite being struggling to follow an infinite God who may have intended for us to celebrate His supper with transubstantiation in mind.
Eschatology
Death
It is given to all people to die once as a result of the sin released at the Fall in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:16-17; Ecclesiastes 3:1-2; Romans 5:12). While this death is certainly physical (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27-28) it is neither spiritual nor eternal (Matthew 10:28; Revelation 1:18, 21:3-4). This death in no way contradicts the Scripture’s teaching on the resurrection or of receiving eternal life from God (John 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15).
The Second Coming
Christ will not return as He came first, humble and meek but as a conquering savior, in all His glory, come to bring peace at last (Matthew 25:31-32; Luke 21:25,27; Acts 1:10-11). At the end of the time appointed by God (Matthew 24:42,44; Colossians 3:4), Christ will return to bring about the final judgment (Matthew 12:36-37, 25:31-32; Hebrews 9:28), the resurrection from the dead (Acts 24:15; Romans 6:5) and the new creation (Romans 8:19-21). In the end, He will separate us into those bound for Heaven and those bound for Hell (Matthew 13:49-40; John 14:2-3; Revelation 22:3-5). Although there are signs given as to when these things will begin to occur, ultimately the day and the hour are not given for us to know, which is why Christ tells us that the coming of the end will be like a “thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2).” Therefore, given my hesitancy concerning Election and the Lord’s Supper, I will not attempt to ascertain any particular millennial view apart from leaving it up to God in faith that He knows what He is doing.
In light of this, and the exclusive claims of Christ (John 14:6), we should not be slow in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) nor content ourselves with universalism, that somehow everyone will be saved regardless of what we do as such an assertion runs contrary to what Christ teaches.
In conclusion, I can say that while my journey of spiritual growth in the Lord has certainly helped me to understand more about Him and His works, there is still much that I do not understand. I don’t want to use ignorance as an excuse for poor scholarship on my part, but when it comes to the issues of Election, the Lord’s Supper and the Millennial views, there are many good scholars on all sides of the issues that I feel like I can do nothing but confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior and pray, earnestly and honestly, for enlightenment and illumination.
While discerning the truth is important, and God is the basis of all truth and reality, I do not want to assert a position merely for the act of asserting itself. I do not want to be dogmatic. Apart from asking God for His illumination and understanding of His revelation, the only other thing to do is avoid a dogmatism of not being dogmatic. Rather, I hope that God would allow all of His elect, however we are to understand the term, not to become too embroiled with the disagreements that we pass judgment on disputable matters (Romans 14:1).
