Throughout the history of the Christian church, men have endeavored to record the core fundamental beliefs of their faith. Through creeds, catechisms, and other writings, they have sought to summarize and memorialize their beliefs and convictions. I am not a theologian…just a simple sinner saved by the grace of Almighty God. That said, as Christians we are all members of a royal priesthood, and I believe that it is important to know what we believe and to be able to state it clearly for others. As a father and a worker in Children’s Ministry, I have found that this is especially important in order to be able to answer questions raised by kids with clear, concise, and generally brief answers.
So, I decided a useful exercise would be to begin to record my Christian beliefs in short concise statements (I hope). I do not intend for these to represent my own personal systematic theology or to cover all aspects of the Christian faith. It is not my intent to expand on the why of my beliefs, but simply to list what my beliefs are. I also don’t have a plan for how frequently I might put one of these entries together. Instead they will represent my feeble attempt to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit think a little more deeply about what I believe about selected doctrines and issues. That said, I want these entries to represent what I believe and not just what “I feel.” The heart is, after all, “deceitful above all things.” So, I will endeavor to include scripture references wherever possible. I think of it as a cheat sheet for what I believe.
So, that is WHAT I am doing. The next logical question is, WHY am I recording them here on my blog. There are actually three reasons,
- Why not? I’ll already have them written down.
- I hope in some small way that they may help someone to clarify their own beliefs.
- I am hoping that the readers of this blog can help me out. I am not a trained theologian. I’ve never been to seminary. The closest I’ve ever come to a class on Systematic Theology is that I own Wayne Grudem’s book. I read my Bible, but I don’t consider myself a scholar. If I miss something or misstate something, I hope that someone will point it out!
I’ve decided to start with my beliefs on the issue of sin. There have been a lot in the news stories recently where people have been ridiculed, lambasted or otherwise ridiculed for their beliefs on particular sins (be that abortion, homosexuality, marriage, divorce, or anything else). Rather than addressing each sin individually, it seemed like a good time to step back and examine my beliefs on sin in general.
Here’s what I believe: Continue Reading…
