Doctrinal Statement
Doctrinal Statement
Systematic Theology is the process used to help us clearly organize the ideas and principles written in the Bible. It ascribes terms sometimes not seen in scripture to help summarize themes found throughout the Bible. Below are my personal convictions about what the scriptures say. I pray that as my faith grows my theology will develop and that my convictions will continue to come from what is written in the Bible, not my emotions or flawed human mind. I submit that much of what I believe stems from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Belgic Confession of Faith and Heidelberg Catechism. I believe these three confessions are not inspired but do a successful job in clearly organizing the teachings of the Bible.
Bibliology
The 66 Books of the Bible starting with Genesis and ending with Revelation is the word of God. I believe these books have a divine authorship and are words directly given to us from God (2 Pet. 1:20-21). These words are from God, but these words were written by man. In light of this, I believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture. The people who composed scripture were guided and purified by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet 1:21). The writings gave us sufficient knowledge of who God is and that a life of eternal salvation comes through believing in Jesus Christ as our savior. It is only through the guidance of the Holy Spirit that a person can properly understand and interpret the dogmatic stems of Christianity (Eph. 1:17). I believe that through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, all believers have the ability to understand the Gospel message. I believe the Bible gives us sufficient knowledge of who God is, what God has done for us, and what God will do for us in the coming age. I believe that anything learned about God that isn’t rooted in scripture is errant (Gal. 1:8). The Bible gives us adequate knowledge of whom God is, but does not give us an exhaustive understanding of who God is.
What is God?
Through scriptures, we understand that there is only one almighty God. God is Spirit (John 4:24), in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection; all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious and abundant in goodness and truth. There is only one God. (Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8; 45:5,14,18,21,22; 46:9; 47:8; John 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:5-6; Gal. 4:8-9) God is one being, distinct in three persons: Father, Son and Spirit. These three are one true, eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory; but distinguished by their personal properties. The Father begets the son, and to the Son to be begotten of the Father, and to the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son from all eternity. The trinity is mentioned directly by the apostles in many verses. (Matt. 28:19, 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 2 Cor. 13:14, Eph. 4:4-7, 1 Pet. 1:2)
Revelation
Revelation is the content and process of God making Himself known to people. All knowledge of God comes by way of revelation (Rom. 1:20). God reveals Himself to people through two modes; special and general revelation. General revelation is the knowledge of God’s existence, character and moral law which comes through creation to all humanity. General revelation is understood by observing nature, history or an inner sense of God’s existence and that he has placed his laws inside every person. General revelation only gives limited knowledge of who God is. A person cannot understand the gospel through general revelation. For a person to fully understand God’s character, one must receive Special revelation. Special Revelation is that which is given to us through Prophets, the Bible, and even visions and dreams (Num. 12:6-8). The ultimate in revelation is the incarnation of Jesus because He came to reveal the Father to us (Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22; Heb. 1:1-3) and to communicate to us the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4) by which comes salvation.
Christology
Christ has come to do the will of the Father (John 6:38), to save sinners (Luke 19:10), to fulfill the Old Testament (Matt. 5:17), to destroy the works of Satan (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8), and to give life (John 10:10,28). Christ is holy (Luke 1:35), righteous (Isaiah 53:11), sinless (2 Cor. 5:21), humble (Phil. 2:5-8), and forgiving (Luke 5:20; 7:48; 23:34).
Christ is a part of the Trinitarian union. I believe Christ has two distinct natures, noted as the hypostatic union of Christ; He is both 100% man and 100% God. (John 1:1,14) God became a man by taking on a true body, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance and physically birthed by her, yet without sin. Christ was born without a sinful nature. Due to Christ’s divine nature, I believe Christ was unable to sin.
It was required that Christ was a man so he could fulfill the role of the second Adam. It was required that Chris was fully God and man in one person so that the proper work of each nature might be accepted of God for us and relied on by us as the works of the whole person to fulfill the law and remove the curse of the law from us. Through Christ’s fulfillment of the law we are now under the covenant of Grace. God’s grace is manifested in the second covenant, in that he freely provides and offers to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation by him; requiring faith as the condition to interest them in his promises (Heb. 13:20). God gives His Holy Spirit to all his elect, to work in them that faith, with all other saving graces (Rom. 8:9-14; Gal. 4:6).
Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinitarian union. The Holy Spirit is fully God. The Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father in Spirit in His work. The work of the Holy Spirit is to manifest the active presence of God in the world, and especially in the church. (John 15:26) The Spirit demonstrates his purpose in aiding believers to do God’s work in the world. The Spirit aided the authors of the Bible (2 Pet. 1:20-21). To unbelievers, the Holy Spirit works to convict the world of sin (John 16:8-11). To believers, the Holy Spirit cleanses us from sin and sanctifies us (Rom. 15:16). In scripture, the Holy Spirit gave revelation to Prophets and Apostles. The Holy Spirit empowers believers (1 Thess. 1:5). The Spirit gives us access to God in prayer (Eph. 2:18). I believe the Holy Spirit gives evidence of God’s presence (Gal. 4:6). I believe the Holy Spirit guides and direct God’s people to fulfill God’s holy will (John 16:13; Rom. 8:14). I believe the Holy Spirit provides a Godlike Atmosphere when he manifests his presence (John 16:8-11). I believe the Spirit gives us assurance that we are children of God united in Christ. The Spirit guides believers in interpreting Scripture (1 Cor. 2:1,1 1 Cor. 2:1,14; Eph. 1:17)
God’s Providence
I believe God’s providence are his most holy (Psalms 145:17), wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures (Nehemiah 9:6); ordering them (Joshua 7:14), and all their actions to his own glory. These actions monitored are not meticulous. Through this, I believe in libertarian free will; we have the ability to choose what we wear, who we marry, what our careers will be etc. I believe that inside of our free will, humanity does not have the ability to alter or destroy God’s holy plan to redeem the Church at the end of the age (1 Kings 22:30). God in his providence makes use of means yet is free to work without, above and against them. God’s infinite goodness manifests in all things including the first fall and all other sins of angels and men. God does not approve of sin. All men and creatures are bound to their sins in full responsibility. God does not retain the ability to sin as it goes against his nature, God is holy and righteous and could not be the author or approver of sin. God does often times leave his own children to manifold temptations and the corruption of their own hearts to chastise them of their former sins and humble them. God then raises man’s dependence up to a more close and constant state to make them more aware of future sin and other just and holy ends.
I agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith upon God’s providence to non-believers that, “God as a righteous judge, for former sins, blinds and hardens hearts; from them he not only withholds his grace, where they might have been enlightened in their understandings and wrought upon their hearts; but sometimes also withdraws the gifts that they had; and exposes them to such objects as their corruption, makes occasion of sin; and withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan, where it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God uses for the softening of others” I also believe that God’s grace applies to believers. God still provides for non-believers food and clothing. He also allows them to freely live according to their wants and allows them to succumb to their lustrous desires.
Conclusively God’s providence reaches out to all creatures (Psalms 145:9), but in a special way, His providence takes care of His Church and disposes all things in order to achieve ultimate goodness according to His standards (Proverbs 16:9).
God’s Providence toward man
God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and the woman of the rib of the man (Genesis 2:7). He gave men living and immortal souls. God created man his own image. God gave man knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. God placed the law on everyone’s hearts and power to fulfill the law of God
I believe God’s original providence toward man was placing man in paradise, appointing him to dwell in it, giving him freedom on earth. God put the creatures under his dominion and ordained marriage for man’s help. Furthermore, I believe God’s providence had a condition, man needed to obey God’s one decree; don’t eat from the tree of knowledge. Even though created in the image of God, man possessed the ability to fall and disobey God’s law. Adam, the first man, created in God’s image disobeyed God’s only rule – forbiddance from eating of the tree of knowledge. (Gen. 2:15-17) Adam disobeyed this decree, so all of mankind was brought into an estate of sin and misery. Sin is the want to conform against any law of God.
The penalty for breaking God’s decree was death. (Rom. 6:23). God’s ongoing providence is shown through the work of the Spirit, ongoing fulfillment of His second covenant and manifestation of His work until the end of the age.
Anthropology
In Genesis, God created man in His image (Genesis 1:21). Man possessed the ability to sin. Our first parents, seduced by the temptations of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. By the sin, man fell from their righteousness and communion with God, so became dead in sin, and defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body. Adam and Even being the root of mankind, the guilt of sin was imputed and the same death in sin and corrupted human nature conveyed to all their posterity (Rom. 5:12-15). Their sins descend to us through each generation. From this original sin, we are totally sinful, disabled and made opposite to all good and wholly inclined to all evil do proceed all actual transgression. Even though our natures were corrupted, we still retained the image of God. We can see this practically in our ability to experience emotions; just as God has emotions, as well as in our ability to reason; just as God reasons. Scripturally, the image of God is revealed in Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). The corruption of human nature during our human lives remain in those that are regenerated and although it be through Christ pardoned, yet all the things we do are truly and properly sin. Every sin, both original and actual is a transgression to God’s righteous law and brings guilt upon every sinner where all of man is bound over to the wrath of God and curse of the law. Because of this all people are subject to death with all miseries, spiritual temporal and eternal.
The distance between God and people is so great that we could never have any fruition of him, as their blessedness and reward (Isaiah 59:2). Man is incapable of seeking after God (Rom. 3:10-12). Man is slave to sin (Rom. 6:14-20). I believe that it is only by God’s voluntary will that he is pleased with any of us by way of covenant. The first covenant of works is where life was promised to Adam and in his posterity Adam was called to be perfect in obedience to the lord. Man, by the fall, made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was freely made a second covenant of grace; He freely offered sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13; 3:16; Rom. 10:9-10). He requires us to have faith in him, that they may be saved, and promising to give to those that are ordained by Him by his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe. God’s covenant of grace is set forth in the Bible in reference to the death of Christ and to the everlasting inheritance, with all things belonging to it. The covenant of grace was given to us differently in the Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb and other types of decrees delivered to the Jews, all pointing to the coming of Christ, which were for that time sufficient for the Spirit to come through, instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promises Messiah, by whom they had full forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation. In the New Testament, when the ordinances of grace are full dispensed in preaching the Word and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
In Reference to MBI Doctrinal Statement
On the listed topics I believe I have a tendency to agree with the Moody doctrinal statement. As a non-denominational school the doctrinal statement is not rigorous or tedious. This is because Moody’s main goal is to preach the word to non-believers and reach out to them for Christ. Even though Moody’s doctrinal statement is not rigorous it does a good job defining the dogmatic principles that makes this school Christian.
As far as the employee doctrinal statement on the given topics I also agree with most of them with the exception to doctrinal parts of article V. However, the parts I disagree with were not mentioned in my doctrinal statement so no need to explain (eschatology). I believe the doctrinal statement does a good job of listing the dogmatic truths about Scripture, Christ , humanity etc. There are no major contentions that I have.
