The Bible
I believe every and all words of Scripture are inspired by God (Verbal-Plenary) (Luke 24:25-27, Matthew 22:41-45). God superintended the writings of men to communicate His truth being in total control of the process without violating the human authors' role and personality (2 Peter 1:20-21, 2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is completely without error in the original autographs. The Bible affirms nothing false and only all that is true. Scripture holds absolute authority because it is the very Word of the only true God (Matthew 4:4,7,10; John 10:35). It is sufficient and the final standard for all of life and practice of the believer (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
God
God has revealed Himself logically and biblically (Psalm 105:4) as a Spirit, infinite (1 Kings 8:27), eternal (Psalm 90:2) and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. His attributes are not component parts of God. Each describes His total being. Some of them can be seen in us insofar as we are made in His image. Others we cannot possess; omnipresence (Acts 17:24-28), omniscience (Psalm 147:4), omnipotence (Genesis 17:1). There is one God who exists eternally as three persons; Father (John 6:27), Son (John 20:28), and Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4), yet all are of one substance, fully God (Deut. 6:4, Matt. 28:19).
Jesus Christ
If the Father is the One Who wills things to happen, the Son is the One Who carries them out. The person of Jesus Christ existed before His earthly birth and will exist forever (John 8:58, Isaiah 9:6). The apostles testified to the deity of Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3). He performed divine works of creation, preservation, revelation, forgiveness of personal sin, raising of the dead, and sending the Holy Spirit. He also displays the divine attributes of immutability, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Christ was born of a virgin (Matt. 1:22-23). He came "in the flesh" (incarnation) and is one person yet with two natures; He has undiminished deity (100% God) and perfect humanity (100% man) (Phil. 2:5-7). He had to be God in order to bear the world's sin upon Himself and He had to be man to be a sufficient sacrifice on behalf of the human race (1 Peter 4:1, Heb. 9:22; 10:1-10). He is the only means by which anyone can enter heaven (Acts 4:11-12, John 14:6). He died a penal substitutionary death, taking the wrath of God upon Himself and standing in our place when we were to receive that wrath (2 Cor. 5:21, Mark 10:45, Rom. 5:18). Christ was raised from the dead on the third day after He died (Luke 24, John 20, 1 Cor. 15). His raising from the dead was not unto another dying earthly body. He was the '"first fruits (1 Cor. 15:20,23) of a new kind of human life, a life in which His body was perfect..." His body was physical and real (Matt. 28:9, John 20:20, 27).
The Holy Spirit
If the Son carries out the Father’s will, the Spirit provides the power for His will to be carried out. The Holy Spirit is not an "it" but is revealed as a person in that He has intellect (Rom. 8:27), emotions (Eph. 4:30), and will (Acts 16:6-11). He is included with the other members of the Trinity (Matt. 28:19). He has titles reminiscent of deity (Heb. 9:14). He displays divine attributes (Job 33:4). He performs divine works (Gen. 1:2) and He is called God (Acts 5:3-5). He teaches (John 14:26, 16:13), testifies about Christ (John 15:26), affirms our salvation (Rom. 8:16), leads believers to live a holy life (Rom. 8:14), convicts of sin (John 16:7-8), commands believers (Acts 8:29; 13:2; 16:7), intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26), regenerates (John, 3:6, Titus 3:4-5), sanctifies (2 Thess. 2:13, Rom. 1:4), and bestows spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:4, Hebrews 2:4).
Man
Man was made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). The image was partly retained after the fall of man, but it was marred (Gen. 5:1). It can be partially restored by salvation through Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:10). Man willfully sinned against God (Gen. 3), thereby bringing all mankind into a state of sin (Rom. 3:23; 5), separation from God, and subjection to the power of Satan. We are not “all children of God,” but rather all those who are not born again are children of Satan (John 8:44, 1 John 3:10, Eph. 2:1-3). Man is born into a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5, Eph. 2:1-3) with a natural propensity to act in opposition to God and His Word (Rom. 8:7). This sinful nature makes man a slave to sin and dead in sin without the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (John 8:34, Rom. 6:6; 6:16, Col. 2:13-14).
Salvation
Salvation is a gift of God by His grace alone and is not attained by works or human merit of any kind (Eph. 2:8-10, Titus 3:5). Salvation comes by repentance toward God and personal faith/trust in Christ alone (Acts 20:21, John 3:16, Eph. 2:8). Repentance is also gift of God (Acts 11:18, 2 Tim. 2:25). By repentance I mean a conscious turning from a self-orientation driven by sin to a God-orientation driven by a desire for holy living. This means an initial change of mind and heart that is more than simply mental assent to the facts of the gospel. It's an internal surrender and dying to self (Matt. 16:24). This brings a movement from slavery to sin toward slavery to Christ (Rom. 6:18-19, Eph. 6:6), without which it would not be evident a change of heart ever took place in the Christian's life (1 John 3:9) nor that the believer was now given a new nature and is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). I do not mean cleaning up one's life before being saved or becoming more moral to commend oneself to God nor am I saying a believer can reach perfection this side of heaven or doesn't struggle in the Christian life (1 John 1:8-10). Saving repentance and faith occur together in response to the gospel message. We see this clearly in the evangelistic preaching of Jesus and the apostles (Acts 26:16-20, 1 Thess. 1:9-10, Acts 14:15, Acts 2:38, Mark 1:14-15). At the moment of salvation God declares (justifies) a believing sinner (Romans 3:26; 5:9) to be righteous in His sight. This is the imputation of our sins to Christ (Colossians 2:14; 1 Peter 2:24) and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Those who saved are the elect of God, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1, 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Rom. 9:6-24) and are predestined of God for eternal glory (Romans 8:30).
Baptism and Communion
Baptism was instituted and modeled by Christ to symbolize the work of the Spirit identifying the believer with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. Baptism is commanded by Christ in the Great Commission and was practiced by the NT Church. It’s to be done by immersion after conversion (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 2:38-44, 10:33, 43, 47, 48, Romans 6:3-7, Colossians 2:12). Water Baptism is an outward representation of an internal invisible transformation. To explore if anything "happens" in the act of baptism is to lift and emphasize baptism beyond the place the Apostle Paul did (1 Cor. 1:7). To say there is any "saving aspect" to the earthly act of baptism is to walk a line that begins to introduce works into salvation by grace alone. To treat baptism as a symbol is not to diminish it, but it is to place it on a level clearly distinct from religions and denominations which hold to any form of baptismal regeneration and to give it an appropriate place in the life of a Christian. The Lord's Supper was instituted as a remembrance and a symbol, instructing the body by focusing worship upon Christ and His atoning work on the cross. Each believer is personally and individually responsible to not partake of the bread and the cup unworthily (Luke 22:7-38, 1 Corinthians 11:20-34). We are commanded to observe the Lord’s Supper continually (Matthew 26:26-30, Mark 14:22-26). We simply must confess we are eating and drinking substances produced by this world and manufactured in our day. They simply are not and never will be literally Christ Himself. Communion should only be partaken of by Christians who can do so with pure motives, all known sin confessed, therefore being in right relationship with the Lord. Unbelievers or those unsure of their salvation should not participate because they would be celebrating the death of a Savior whom they are rejecting. They would be explicitly celebrating the salvation of others and implicitly celebrating their own condemnation.
The Perseverance and Eternal Security of the Believer
When someone is saved by the power of God they cannot nor would they desire to un-save themselves. Salvation can never be lost. Once they are saved, they will persevere to the end (Rom. 8:1, John 6:37, John 10:27-29, Ephesians 1:13-14, Jude 1:24, Revelation 3:5, 1 Peter 1:4-5). The NT speaks of "eternal life" about 43 times and John 6:47 says, "He who believes has everlasting life." This is life that clearly lasts forever and is unconditionally based upon the irrevocable declaration of righteousness by God Himself.
Last Things
I am Premillenial, Pretribulational, and Progressively Dispensational. A day presently unknown to us will come when the children of God are caught up to heaven (Matt. 24:36). This is called the Rapture (1 Thess. 1:10, 1 Thess. 4:16-17, Rev. 3:10). After this a 7 year period of trial called the Tribulation will come. During this Tribulation there will be a span of judgments on the earth and those left in it. This period will be climaxed by the physical literal return of Jesus Christ (2nd Coming) (Rev. 1:7). At His return He will introduce the millennial age, bind Satan, restore Israel to her own land, give her the realization of God’s covenant promises, and bring the whole world to the knowledge of God (Ezekiel 37:21-28, Matthew 24:15-25, 46; Acts 15:16-17; Romans 8:19-23; 11:25-27). After Christ’s literal 1,000 millennial reign, Satan will be released and finally cast into the lake of fire. During this time also all those who rejected Christ will stand before the Great White Throne to receive final judgment and be thrown into a literal Hell, the 2nd death, the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10-15). The reality of Hell is a conscious experience of everlasting torment (Rev. 14:9-11, Matt. 25:41, Mark 9:43). The Church and Israel are distinct and yet both the people of God. Israel and the Church will share in some of the same promises and future blessings in the sense that they are unified by salvation through Christ and will be unified in the end before God in worship (Rev. 7:9). They are distinct in that to enter the church one must be baptized into it by the Holy Spirit. This could only first occur beginning at the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. The church and Israel cannot be one people of God without any distinction because to be considered a part of the church you needed the baptism of the Spirit contained in the order of salvation. No one could be a part of the church prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit. Progressive Dispensationalism is further confirmed by the “now, not yet” idea of the Kingdom of God presented in Scripture (cf. Luke 17:21; 22:18).
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