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The Bible
Key truths and where they are found:
- "Inspired" (2 Timothy 3:16 - "God breathed").
Inspiration means that "God superintended human authors so that,
using their own individual personalities, they composed and recorded
without error in the words of the original autographs His revelation
to man." (Charles Ryrie definition).
- All scripture is equally inspired by God (Matthew 4:4
& 5:18).
- "Without error" We believe in "inerrancy,"
the truth that God did not make any mistakes in the Bible (Titus 1:2;
John 10:35). This still allows for approximations, free quotations,
figures of speech, and different (though not contradictory) accounts
of the same event) etc.
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God
Key truths and where they are found:
- God is a personal being, meaning that He has intellect
(Psalm 139:1-6), emotions (1 John 4:8-10) and will (Dan 4:35).
- God is a spiritual being, meaning that He has no material
body (John 4:24)
- God is a Tri-unity (Trinity), meaning that He is one
unified being (Deuteronomy 6:4; James 2:19), yet he exists in three
distinct and eternal persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians
13:14).
Proof of the Triune nature of God is found in that Father,
Son and Holy Spirit are all described in the Bible as having infinite
characteristics (attributes) that are only true of God (eternality,
omnipresence, omnipotence, etc.). All three persons also are shown to
do things that only God can do (create, forgive, resurrect, etc.)
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Jesus Christ
Key truths and where they are found:
- Jesus existed eternally (Micah 5:2; Isaiah 9:6).
- His virgin birth – Jesus was born of the Virgin
Mary (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:16; Luke 1:34,35).
- His "incarnation" – Jesus became man
without ceasing to be God (John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-11).
- He was truly human (Galatians 4:4; Luke 2:40,52).
- He was truly God (John 1:1; 5:18; 8:24,28,58; Romans
9:5).
- He lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15).
- His death on the cross was payment for our sins (Matthew
20:28; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
- Christ was resurrected from the dead (John 20; 1 Corinthians
15, etc.).
- His resurrection was literal and physical in that
His actual body was transformed into an eternal and glorified body
(John 20:20-28).
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The Holy Spirit
Key truths and where they are found:
- The Holy Spirit is God (Creator - Genesis 1:2; omnipresent
- Psalm 139:7ff.).
- He convicts unbelievers of sin (John 16:8,9).
- He regenerates (saves) those who trust Christ (Titus
3:5).
- He seals (eternally secures) the believer (Ephesians
1:13).
- He baptizes (places us spiritually) into the body
of Christ, which means we are spiritually united to Christ and to
every other believer (1 Corinthians 12:13).
- He indwells all believers permanently (1 Corinthians
12:13), which enables us to understand the Bible (John 16:13), pray
effectively (Romans 8:26) and be assured of our salvation (Romans
8:16).
- He fills (controls) believers who yield to Him, which
means that it is the Holy Spirit who empowers the believer to live
obediently to God. Only as we submit to the Spirit’s control
(filling) can we, with God’s power, make the necessary changes
in our life (Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:22; Romans 8:13).
- He gives "spiritual gifts," which are supernatural
abilities to serve God’s purposes in ministry (Romans 12:3-8;
1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:7-16; 1 Peter 4:10,11). There are a
wide variety of spiritual gifts clearly given in this age (mercy,
evangelism, giving, teaching, encouraging, helping, leading, etc.)
- The "sign gifts" (apostleship, tongues,
prophecy in the sense of direct revelation from God, healing and other
miracle working,) seemingly ceased after the age of the apostles.
These spectacular gifts were used by God in the early days of the
church to substantiate the new message of the Gospel and to give God’s
direct words to the apostles before there was a complete Bible (Acts
2, Acts 14:3; Hebrews 2:3,4; 1 Corinthians 13:8; 2 Corinthians 12:12).
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Angels and Demons
Key truths and where they are found:
- Angels were all created by God and were good (Colossians
1:16)
- Angels are spirit beings that serve God and help believers
(Hebrews 1:14).
- Satan is a real being, who once was the highest ranking
of the angels (Ezekiel 28:11-19), but then rebelled against God (Isaiah
14).
Satan and his demons oppose God in many powerful but deceitful ways
(1 Peter 5:8).
- Believers must understand Satan’s schemes (2
Corinthians 2:11), but need not fear him because we have the Holy
Spirit (1 John 4:4), and because he and the demons have limited power
(Ephesians 6:11).
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Man
Key truths and where they are found:
- Man was created specially by God (not evolved –
Genesis 2:7). We were made in God’s "image" (i.e.
Like God we are personal beings, having intellect, emotions and will
– Genesis 1:27) and we alone of God’s creation share in
God’s sovereignty (Genesis 1:26, 28).
- When Adam sinned all mankind became sinners (Romans
5:12). We are thus born sinful (Psalm 51:5; Ephesians 2:3) and totally
unable to remedy our own sinfulness (total depravity – Romans
3:23).
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Salvation
Key truths and where they are found:
Christ’s atonement – Christ died in our place
satisfying God’s righteous wrath toward sin ("Propitiation"
– 1 John 2:2; 4:10).
Why was it necessary for Christ to die? What really was
accomplished when Christ died? Answering those important questions is
what the "atonement" is all about.
It starts with our sin, which violates God’s righteousness.
Since God is perfect ("holy") and fair ("just"),
He cannot overlook sin, but must judge it. But because God loved us,
He chose to bear the punishment for sin Himself (1 John 4:10). To do
that Christ (God in human form) came to earth as a man (See Christ,
"incarnation" above) and voluntarily died on the cross. When
Christ died, God was pouring out his judgment on sin upon Christ instead
of us. In this way God’s righteous wrath was "satisfied"
(or the technical word is "propitiated") by Christ dying in
our place.
Personal faith – A person must individually choose
to trust in Christ in order to have eternal life (John 3:16, 36).
The message of the gospel is that Christ died for our sins and rose
again (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). The response a person must make to the
gospel is to "believe" (put one’s entire trust) in Christ's
death alone as the payment for their sin.
Approximately 100 verses in the New Testament teach plainly
that the only thing one must do to have eternal salvation is "believe"
(=trust in Christ’s "atonement" – see above).
Believing in Christ is also called "faith" in many of these
verses (John 1:12; 3:16,36; 5:24; 6:40,47,48,51; 7:37,38; Acts 10:43;
16:30,31; Romans 1:16; 3:22, 27,28; 5:1; 6:23; Galatians 2:16; 3:22;
Ephesians 1:13; 2:8,9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; 1 Timothy 1:15,16; 2 Timothy
3:15; Titus 3:4-7; 1 John 5:11-13; etc.).
The point is that a person cannot earn their way into
heaven (Ephesians 2:8,9). No human effort of being "good"
or following certain rules or undergoing religious rituals (baptism,
communion, etc.) in any way helps to pay for our sin or get us to heaven.
If we could earn salvation then we would take the credit and Christ’s
death for our sins was not necessary. To get to heaven we must admit
that we are sinners, acknowledge that Christ paid our entire penalty
for sin and then choose to put our entire trust ("believe")
in Christ alone.
Eternal Security – Once a person has placed their
trust in Christ, they cannot "lose" their salvation. The reason
our salvation is secure is that salvation was accomplished by Christ
not us and so it is guaranteed/secured by Christ as well. Once we put
our faith in Christ, salvation depends upon God’s nature, God’s
power and God’s promises. ("Shall never perish" –
John 10:28,29; "no condemnation" – Romans 8:1,33; "nothing
can separate us" – Romans 8:38,39; "sealed" –
Ephesians 1:3,14; "hidden with Christ" – Colossians
3:3; "kept/protected by the power of God" – 1 Peter
1:5).
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The Church
Key truths and where they are found:
The church exists in two forms:
- The universal church consists of all believers during
the present "church" age. The Holy Spirit joins all believers
to "the body of Christ," which is the universal church.
The "church" began when the Holy Spirit came on the day
of Pentecost (Acts 1:5 2:1-4).
- A local church is a group of believers in this age
meeting regularly and organized biblically to do God’s will
(For example: Romans 16:1, 3-5,14-16).
There are two ordinances (physical rituals) to be performed
by the local church that Christ prescribed to illustrate spiritual truth:
Baptism (Acts 2:41) and the Lord’s Supper/Communion (1 Corinthians
11:23-26). These are discussed more fully in another paper.
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The Future
Key truths and where they are found:
- The Rapture is when Christ returns in the air to take
believers to heaven at the end of the church age and before the Tribulation
[pretribulation rapture view] (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians
15:51-57; Revelation 3:10).
- The Tribulation is a 7 year period of unequaled war
and supernatural disaster during which the Antichrist asserts himself
as the world ruler and God resumes His plan of bringing many Jews
to salvation (Daniel 9:27; 11:36-45; 12:9-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3;
2 Thessalonians 2:4; Matthew 24,25; Revelation 4-18)
- The 2nd Coming is when Christ returns to the earth
to end the Tribulation. As He comes, He judges the Antichrist and
unbelievers while rescuing the many Jews who turn to Christ as their
Messiah (Zechariah 12, 14:1-15; Matthew 14:29-31; 2 Thessalonians
2:8; Revelation 19:11-21).
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The Millennium is a 1,000-year period on earth following
the Tribulation in which Christ rules and the Old Testament promises
to Israel are fulfilled. Satan is released at the end of the millennium
and rebels once more (Revelation 20:7-9). Then Satan is judged as
well as all unbelievers (The Great White Throne Judgment –
Revelation 20:10-15).
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