My Spiritual Beliefs

Since some have asked what I think about the unseen aspects of life, here it is. I would appreciate hearing from you whether or not you agree.

"...devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching." —1 Timothy 4:13

He must have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it. Titus 1:9 (NRSV)

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The Problem with Doctrinal Statements

I've found most Doctrinal Statements and Creeds of the Christian faith (which summarize the teachings of church fathers) difficult to read:
• They use academic or theological words most people today don't understand
  
• They use archaic words which people today don't undertand or, worse yet, confuse with other meanings. The Westminster Confession of Faith was drafted in 1646 England.
  
• Statements such as the Westminster Shorter Catechism cite scripture references but not the text of the verse -- forcing me to look them up.
  
• They also don't tell people what makes their statement distinctive over other denominations or belief systems.

Tyndale Seminary's statement and this sample Teaching Statement are in modern English.

Some Questions

First, let me ask you a few questions:

1. Would you consider yourself to be a good person?
2. Do you think you have kept the Ten Commandments?
3. If God where to judge you by the Ten Commandments, do you think you would be innocent or guilty?
4. Do you think you would go to heaven or hell?

So here is where I stand among my Christian friends on controversial issues:

1. Yes, I'm a “Born Again” believer. This label means belief in the creeds to the right. Here is where I stand on the differences in theological beliefs among denominations:

2. I try to focus on making the best use of what I have rather than pouting about what I don't have.
   I don't ask God, as some do, to "take every infirmity away." I don't believe that God planned for everyone to have a physically abundant life all the time. (I believe John 10:10b refers to an abundant spiritual life.) Here is one instance how I don't take the Bible literally. Some diseases and problems are a gift to us as opportunities to help us get closer to God. (John 11:4) I have faith that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called to His purpose. I don't "claim" verses in the Bible for myself.

   I don't believe that every promise God made to the Isrealites apply to me or my church to "claim".

3. I seek to live a pure life, but fail miserably.
   I know that my body is part of Christ's church. (Ephesians 5:30) This is because every born-again person is a spiritual "bride" of Christ. So I try to do what my Lord asks rather than obey my own lust. But I think it's wrong to have a sense of superiority about self-control, which is a gift of the holy spirit. When we fall into addictions, I think it helps to remember that Christ died on the cross for all my sins (past, present, and future). With grace comes freedom, since there is no need to rebel.

   Being a Christian is not a hobby as one would "try" yoga, meditation, or exercise equipment. It's a fact of life like gravity: appreciate it or ignore it, it still affects us.

   I don't believe in that one has to make Jesus "Lord" of our lives in order to be saved. But if godliness is not preeminent in our thoughts, something less is, and we have not completely repented. (Luke 13:3)

4. Please don't call me "religious".
   I devote my time reading the Bible, listening to sermons, and listening to church music because I am grateful to God for giving the faith to believe an almost unbelievable story: that just believing in Christ being God is enough to get my "ticket punched" for an eternity in heaven rather than eternal hell.

   I believe that a professed Christian cannot lose salvation, but won't be invited to all the really cool parties in heaven hanging' with Job and Boaz. This is why I still need to work on an analysis of the 5 points of Calvinism vs. Armenianism.

   I don't believe that baptism by total immersion in water (getting "dunked") is required for salvation, but I do it as a matter of submission. Baptisms make for a good "Kodak moment". For me, being baptized in the Jordan river was a great reason for me to visit Isreal.

   And I don't feel speaking in tongues is evidence of salvation (as AOG do).

5. I have a "Spiritual" (not "moralistic") viewpoint.
   I despise Christians who burn abortion clinics. God will judge and punish us all when the time comes.

   I also think that boycotts of businesses by Christians are bound to fail. Instead, why not pray wisdom for their leaders?

   As we shared together our feelings about the study groups, we realized that we were not meeting together each week for an intellectual exercise: some thing very real and significant was taking place.  We were coming to know that the Christian faith is not primarily an ethic; it is not the struggle to do good or be good, but an encounter with Christ, of which morality and ethical living are by-products. -- Harold R. Fray, Jr., “The Spirit Making New"

   Our battles are not about economics or morals, but the spiritual. ( Ephesians 6:12) Why are Christians trying to change the environment when the real problem is the heart?

6. I didn't make the rules!
   I agree that "fundamentalist" Christians seem arrogant. Many bristle at anyone who says "this is the only way".

   One of the weirdest aspects is that the Bible says people are basically bad. “Totally depraved” is the term Calvin used.

   Even though preachers have to live to a higher standard, we should expect a few unscrupulous leaders (“wolves in sheep's clothing”) who claim to be ordained by God but do lustful, selfish acts. That's because they are human. That's why we need to analyze the Bible for ourselves. I believe that the Bible is a book unlike any other because it is God's way to communicate to us. I believe that there are phases to history. I think that the Bible is "complete" in that no other communication is needed from God because the Bible presents penalties for adding to it.

7. I live as if I will be raptured but arrange my life as if I won't.
   I'm trying to live my life as if Christ will come at any time. I agree that hope of being raptured may tend to cause people to slack off on evangelism efforts. Instead, the rapture is an incentive to holy living and faithful service (Titus 2:11-14).

   I'm not sure about the "Rapture", so I make long term investments and charge purchases to credit cards hoping that someday maybe I won't be around when I have to pay my bills.

   Yeah, the Great Tribulation will be a real drag. I don't know whether Armageddon will involve nuclear weapons or not. (contrary to movies like Micheal and City of Angels) I want to be taken up to heaven not just because I think it's a better lifestyle, but because I want to be with Christ and enjoy heaven with my friend. This should be the case with any friendship based on true love.

   I believe that the Holocaust of WWII really happened. But I don't believe the Holocaust was a payback for the Jews' role in the crucifixion of Christ. I don't pretend to understand God's plan. But I know he has one. Maybe it's to strengthen His beloved to be capable of greater service during the coming troubles.

8. The exact location of the next Temple and other theological controversies.
   I don't pour over news for signs of the times. "Watching" means checking on myself, not what Jews and Arabs are doing to each other. All that matters to me is that Christ had enough deity to pay for my sins.

   Frankly, I get my news from reading the joke pages. If something's important enough, someone will joke about it. The press will have some kind of "spin" on every story anyway, so why not take the funniest version first? Plus, I'll have an better time discussing current events.

9. Miracles, Signs, and Wonders!
   I am skeptical about miracles because not all miracles are from God. (2nd Thessalonians 2:9-10 warns "The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

   Some miracles are the work of the devil, who will empower the Anti-Christ with the power to perform miracles.
   I don't think that God talks to me all the time.
   I don't worry about the "historicity" of evidence for Jesus.

10. The Shroud of Turin, Angels, etc.
    Want to see God? Read the Bible. Do what it says. Then look in the mirror.
    I believe that the "church" exists in individual Christians, not in buildings or denominations.
    This is not because I'm into living "exactly" like early Christians.

11. "Bible Codes" (Equidistant Letter Spacing)
    Don't you think it is more fruitful to spend time reading commentaries on the Bible text itself rather than peripheral concepts? David Hunt's article on Bible Codes explains this issue well.

Systematic Theology: The Trinity

One of the reasons I enjoy telling others about my faith is that people ask me questions. I learn most from answering questions because it forces me to do my homework.

I don't feel that I have a confident grasp of the trinity. Lewis Sperry Chafer's book "Systematic Theology," which discuss doctrines in detail, calls the concept of a trinity

"the greatest mystery of all revealed truth. ... Probably no doctrine of the Word of God is more far-reaching in its implications than that of the Trinity."

This is such a difficult issue that I've heard Billy Graham, TD Jakes, and others have been criticized for explaining the Trinity as different "manifestations" like ice, water, and steam. Orthodox Christians say that this "modalism" is wrong because all three "persons" of the trinity are at work at the same time. Bible scholars say such thinking is "heretical" because it "creates God in their own image", and call it "Sebellianism" because this "heresay" was first identified by Sabellius (around 200 AD).

The late Dr. Walter Martin points out (Walter Martin, Essential Christianity, Vision House, Santa Anna, 1975, p. 21):

"No man can fully explain the Trinity, though in every age scholars have propounded theories and advanced hypotheses to explore this mysterious Biblical teaching. But despite the worthy efforts of these scholars, the Trinity is still largely incomprehensible to the mind of man."

Implied Concepts

The “Godhead” is a difficult concept partly because the word "trinity" itself never appears in the Bible. Easton's Dictionary notes that the word is derived from either the Greek word "trias," first used by Theophilus (A.D. 168-183) or from the Latin word "trinitas," first used by Tertullian (A.D. 220).

In the Old Testament, the "m" ending in the Hebrew word "Elohim" in Deut. 6:4, 1st Kings 8:60, Isaiah 44:6 and elsewhere refers to God in a plural form just as we add "s" to the word "car" to refer to several cars. But this plurality is more about intensification of majesty & creative power. Genesis 1:26 reads "And God said, Let us make man in our image."

In Deuteronomy 6:4, Moses quotes God as saying, "Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is One." That "One" is translated from the Hebrew word "Echad", which means "united One".

The doctrine of the trinity is implied in passages such as Matthew 28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," This passage, called "The Great Commission," was among the last words spoken by Christ before he went up to heaven. Also, 1 John 5:7-8 (KJV) says "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."

Purposefully confusing?

The "Reformers" and American Puritans used the Latin phrase finitum non capax infiniti to say that what is finite is not capable of understanding what is infinite. Perhaps God made it confusing so that we have to admit our human limitations and acknowledge a transcendance in God that we cannot understand until we meet God in heaven.
1 Corinthians 1:27 says "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise".

1 Corinthians 13:10 says "Now we see dimly. But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears".

However, Romans 1:20 reads For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Freeman Dyson (in Infinite in All Directions, Harper & Row, 1988) comments that "God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension".

Maybe God intends that one must recognize the humbleness of his/her own intelligence before being able to listen to God’s greater wisdom. Jesus alluded to this when He said to God

(in Luke 10:21) you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."

Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever..."

Some "New agers" believe that the human mind has infinite capabilities, yet disbelieve that God can know and help billions of living entities at the same time.

I think that the basic problem people have about the concept of a trinity reflects several basic questions about Christian faith:

1. Is there only one God? (The first commandment and Mark 12:29 & 12:32)
2. Is Jesus fully God?
3. Does God actively "manipulate" natural reactions today (not just to people described in the Bible)?
4. Does God "dwell" in us?

I (and, according to Barna, most Christian "fundamentalists") say "yes" to these questions.

It takes faith to know God. Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:29 "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

I think that the complexities of the Trinity is God's way of inviting us to look at His character and to trust His plan. C. S. Lewis is quoted as saying of the Trinity

"it is either the most farcical doctrine invented by the early disciples or the most profound and thrilling mystery revealed by the Creator Himself, giving us a grand intimation of reality."

Jesus is God

Some say belief in the trinity is necessary for salvation because to be "born again," we need to believe that God became man in the person of Jesus and paid for our sins on the cross. John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

In John 17:5, when Jesus prayed to God, he said "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."

Hebrews 1:3 states "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."

Jesus said in John 10:30 "I and the Father are one." Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

This is perhaps one of the most hotly debated aspects of the bible.

Arguments for the deity of Jesus lies in that the Bible describes

1. Jesus performing miracles.
2. Jesus fulfilling prophasies in the Jewish Old Testament
3. Jesus rose from the dead.

Cults (such as Jehovah's Witnesses) that don't believe that Jesus Christ is God may point to the "and" in the phrase "God and our saviour, Jesus Christ" within the King James Version of 2 Peter 1:1 and Titus 2:13. "our God and saviour, Jesus Christ" would be a better translation of the original Greek according to the Granville Sharpe Rule of Greek grammar discovered after the KJV was translated, which prove that "God" and "Jesus Christ" both refer to the same person.

Jesus, God, and Spirit Have the Same Attributes

How can someone able to create the universe and do all those miracles described in the Bible be mortal humans? Yet, the Bible says we are made in God's image. So God must live in an entirely different dimension. This is the conclusion of John Owen's thesis on the Trinity written in 1720.

Attribute	The Son (Jesus Christ)	Holy Spirit
Creator	In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. —John 1:1-3 he existed long before I did. —John 1:15	For the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. —Job 33:4 Job 26:13
Eternal		For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. —Hebrews 9:14
All powerful (omnipotent)	Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. —Matthew 28:18	I have won them over by the miracles done through me as signs from God - all by the power of God's Spirit. —Romans 15:19
All knowing (omnicient)	In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. —Colossians 2:3	But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets. No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world's spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. —1 Corinthians 2:10-12
Ever present (omnipresent)	For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among them." —Matthew 18:20	I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. —Psalms 139:7-10
Holy	You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. —Acts 3:14	But when the Father sends the Counselor as my representative - and by the Counselor I mean the Holy Spirit - he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I myself have told you. —John 14:26

Godhead in Jesus

Jesus and God is referenced synomously in the Same sentence:
John 1:18 reads "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."

In Acts 5:3-4, Peter refers to the Holy Spirit and God synonymously when he said "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."

This is because Jesus IS the "Godhead"

Jesus is the father (isa 9:6) For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus is the son (Mark 1:1) Here begins the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.

Jesus is the Holy Ghost (John 14:18) ?

By the way, no one in the Old Testament called God "father". That's because people were not adopted as "co-heirs" until Christ took our place on the cross.

Borrowing from 2 Corinthians 13:14, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.

Michael Blume on Oneness

It's not a "religion"

The word "religion" has a negative meaning to born-again Christians, who use the word "Religionists" to describe those who worship God because of duty or obligation.

Unlike Catholics, most Christians in Protestant denominations focus less on religious ceremony and more on the message of the Bible.

Unlike Buddhists, Christian gratefulness is based on what Jesus Christ did, not what we ourselves do. This is the essence of why Christianity is a "faith" rather than a religion.

Christian faith is so dependent on what God does that faith itself is from God.

Christian faith is based on belief that Jesus represents mankind as Adam (with Eve) represented mankind. By allowing himself to die on the cross despite having committed no sin, Jesus (because he is also God) somehow "paid" for the psychic "debt" that we and all our forefathers incurred.

I personally don't understand why such a big deal was made with what Adam did and why I'm blamed for it. But my guess is it had to do with his rebellion toward God that Jesus, by his submission, justified. But I was nevertheless "born-again" when I recognized that Jesus hung on that cross partly for me individually.

I found peace when I submitted to Jesus as my representative and caretaker of my future.

You are reading this because God has given you a supernatural invitation to read or listen to the Bible and Bible-based preachers.

So I look forward to talking with you now via email or in heavenly eternity.