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 Statement of Faith

 

There is one God: the self-existent, eternal, triune Godhead consisting of three distinct and equal persons who share the same divine nature.  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the one God.

All things are created by God and for God’s glory.

God created man in His own image, thereby making man a living spirit with a soul that comprises all aspects of personhood.

Being created in the image of God necessitates man’s freewill.  The very nature of freewill infers the possibility for disobedience and rebellion. 

Certain other angelic beings, though not wholly created in God’s image, were also granted freewill.  Some of these angelic Books & Articles     Brief Bio     Statement of Faithbeings and Adam, the first man, employed their freewill defiantly.  While the angelic beings rebelled against God’s authority man willingly disobeyed His commandment.  By these acts the theretofore conceptual possibility of sin and its consequences became reality.

Adam’s single act of disobedience changed his nature from that of pure innocence to that of conscious disobedience.  He had sentenced himself and his descendants to the bondage of sin; subject to suffering the consequences of sin; subject to the penalty of death; and estranged from his once personal fellowship with God.  Thus, as the responsible agent of sin, man is also the responsible agent for the misery it breeds. 

In it all God remains righteous, even showing mercy to those whom He created in His own image.  Ultimately, man’s failure highlights God’s great love for His creation.  In His omniscience, which infers foreknowledge, God knew man would disobey.  And God knew the great price He Himself would have to pay.  He knew the only cure for this severed relationship would require a great personal sacrifice on His part. 

No effort on man’s part, no degree of goodness no matter how pious and spiritual it may be, can bridge this great gulf.  Sinful man cannot have, nor does he truly desire to have, honest fellowship with the righteous God.  Nor can God have intimate fellowship with man in his unredeemed sinful state. 

Therefore, out of love for those whom He created in His own image, the Creator entered intimately into His creation to experience it in the person of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead who, being born of a human mother by miraculous intervention, simultaneously possesses two natures, that of God and of man.  Thus, God became a man and dwelt among us, subjecting himself to the laws and limitations of the physical universe, and to the moral and ethical trials man faces. 

However, unlike his fellow man, Jesus remained righteous in the eyes of God.  Not having a human father, Jesus was free from the bondage of sin that had passed down from Adam.  As a result he became the only man to live a sin free life and as such the only man not exiled from God’s fellowship.

Nor was Jesus subject to the death penalty.  Nevertheless, out of love for his fellow man, though not being himself subject to death, Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice, a propitiation for man’s sin.  In so doing he voluntarily took upon himself the punishment for the sins of the world. 

By resurrecting to life three days later, he forever conquered sin and death, and opened the door for man to once again enter God’s presence and restore the lost fellowship.  It is for this reason that Jesus claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life.  No man, he said, comes to the Father but through him.  All who try to access the Father but through Jesus are robbers, thieves attempting to possess that which is not theirs.

In His mercy and love God offers salvation as a free gift, through the work of Jesus Christ, to every man and woman.  God’s forgiveness and the gift of eternal life are extended to all who simply confess that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, the savior of the world. 

Upon accepting this gift man is born anew by the Spirit of God and reinstated to fellowship with God.  Although man retains his sinful nature until death, the Holy Spirit, nevertheless, quickens man’s spirit with new life and a new nature that empowers man to overcome the sinful nature within. 

Obedience to God’s Word results in continued spiritual growth and thus spiritual health.  Although it is a determined battle with many failures for every believer, as the spirit of this new nature grows stronger the old sinful nature simultaneously grows weaker; thereby empowering and advancing the believer’s pursuit of personal righteousness and obedience.

The believer’s hope for this world is the soon return of Jesus Christ; at which time he will resurrect the righteous, purge the world of evil and establish his kingdom on earth. 

At the end of Christ’s reign upon the earth, God will establish a new heaven and a new earth in which sin and evil will never again materialize.

It is the task of every Christian to glorify God, to share this gospel with fellow sinners and to encourage spiritual growth in fellow believers.

 

Desmond Allen, PhD, MDiv

 

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Duet. 4:35, 39, 6:4;  Mark 12:29-32; Ex.  3:14, 15:11; Gen. 1:26, 3:22, 11:7; John 1:1,14, 6:27; Rev. 1:8-17; Jn. 14:26, 16:13; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 3:7-9

 

Col. 1:16-17; Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7.

 

Gen. 2:17, 3:1-24, Rom. 3:9, James 1:13-15

 

 

Ps. 8:5; Heb. 2:7; 1 Cor. 6:3; 2 Pet. 2.4; 1 Tim. 3:6; Matt. 15:16; Rom. 6:12-14, 7:8f; James 1:14f

 

 

 

Rom. 3:10, 3:23, 5:12, 6:23, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gen. 3:15, 12:3, 49:10; Ps. 2,  8, 16:1-12, 22; Isa 9:6, 28:16; 491-7; 53; Rom. 5:8;

 

 

 

 

 

 

John 3:14; Rom. 3:25, 10:9-13; Eph. 2:7-9; Heb. 2:9, 14, 9:26; 1 John 3:5

 

 

 

 

 

Matt. 1:18-2:11; John 1:14; 1 John 4:2f; Phil 2:7; Heb. 14:15

 

 

 

 

 

John 14:30; Acts 3:14;, 4:27; Heb. 14:15, 7:26; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Pet. 2:22f

 

 

 

 

 

Rom 3:25, 5:8; 1 Pet. 2:24; 1 John 2:2, 4:9-11

 

 

 

 

Matt. 28:17; Luke 24:37f; John 20:3-9; Acts 2:24, 32; Rom. 5:8-10; 1 Cor. 15:12-19; Rev. 1:17-18

 

 

John 8:24; 10:1; 14:6

 

 

Rom. 3:28, 5:15-18; 6:23, 10:9; Eph. 2:8; Heb. 6:4

 

 

 

 

John 3:16, 10:10, 28, 2 Pet. 1:4; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; 4:24; 1 John 5:11

 

 

 

 

1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 1:18; Phil. 2:13; Col. 3:10; 2 Thess. 3:5; Heb. 13:21

 

 

 

 

 

Matt. 24:1-25:46; Luke 17:2237; 1 Cor. 15:51-58; 1 Thess. 4:13-5:11; Rev. 19:11-21

Rev. 20:1-21::21

 

Matt. 28:19; Luke 24:46-48; Acts 1:8; Rom. 11:25, 15:6, 9: Eph. 1:5-18; 3:21, 4:12-16, 5:26; 1 Cor. 11:32; Heb. 12:10; 2 Thess. 1:12; 1 Pet. 4:11; 2 Pet. 3:18; ;