If you are reading something by a contributor to The Voice, here are some things that you can assume about what we believe:
One, we are Evangelical. This means that we hold to the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds; We uphold the Bible as inspired, infallible, and inerrant; We affirm that Jesus stood in our place and suffered to pay for our sins; We affirm that Jesus physically rose from the grave to give us a new hope for life eternal; We believe that our faith in Christ is the only thing that makes us acceptable to God.
One, we are Evangelical. This means that we hold to the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds; We uphold the Bible as inspired, infallible, and inerrant; We affirm that Jesus stood in our place and suffered to pay for our sins; We affirm that Jesus physically rose from the grave to give us a new hope for life eternal; We believe that our faith in Christ is the only thing that makes us acceptable to God.
Two, we are Reformed. This means that we stand in the tradition of the 16th Century voices of the Protestant Reformation, who declared that we are saved through faith alone, by grace alone, by Christ alone, for the sake of the glory of God alone, and that we have the Bible alone as our inerrant source of Christian truth. This also means that we believe in the God who stands as King over all things, and that He saves those whom He chooses, and that His chosen people can not resist His calling to the faith or subsequently fall from it, because He is both persistent and powerful and faithful to accomplish all that He sets out to do.
Three, we are Complementarian. This means that, to different degrees, we all believe in the God who made human beings distinctly male and female, with pre-ordained roles in the home and the Church, and that He did this to give us a picture of the relationship that He enjoys within Himself as a Trinity being consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe that men are to lead in their homes as loving husbands and within the church as godly and mature pastors.
Fourth, we are Missional. This means that we desire to work as hard as we can to see people come to know God. We work with the Holy Spirit in the task of evangelism, instead of trying to make Him work instead of us. Although we believe that it is ultimately God who chooses and saves whomever He wills, we hold this truth in tension with His command to make disciples. We believe in the God who works with His people and who generously invites us to do His work along side of Him.
OK... Thank you for clarification, Stunt... I must have misunderstood when you said reformed, because I tied it into Calvinism, a subject of which I know next to nothing about, a point of ignorance I should probably rectify... :p So I do qualify, as a Baptist, as all of these.
ReplyDeletePeace!
There's still some Calvinism in there, though. God "saves those whom He chooses" and "His chosen people can not resist His calling to the faith or subsequently fall from it." But we'll make you a five-pointer yet. You aren't writing articles so it's not as big a deal if you haven't got that predestination thing all figured out yet.
ReplyDelete*blushes**Hunts for the meaning of Predestination* If I ain't back in a week or so, you need to send the Saint Bernard's after me!
ReplyDeleteSean, send me some links for this stuff mate. I ain't liking what I am finding on Wikipedia (I don't really trust Wikipedia as far as I can throw it, but some parts of it are half-way decent.) I would appreciate it. I will facebook you my email that isn't a spam catch all ATM. Thanks in advance!
ReplyDelete