(By my friend Mike Simms, posted here with his permission).
Statement Of Faith
What follows is basically the same statement of faith I submitted to the Ordination Council back in 1982 when I was examined and subsequently ordained for Christian Ministry. I have included a statement of faith because some people want to know at a glance where I’m coming from (or where I’m going), while others need to know if they can confidently recommend the website to others. Upon reading this statement of faith you may decide that I fit neatly into a particular “theological camp”. However, I hope you don’t, because I have never been one for theological systems. Rather, I undertook theological study and continue to read theological books seeking to weigh up what I read against what has been disclosed in the Bible. Also, I continue to read the Bible trying not to impose upon it any “system” of interpretation. Rather, my hope when I read is that God, in His mercy, will grant me an awareness of what the text meant to the first readers and then show me how to apply it to my own life, if at all. Although I have no commitment to any particular system of theology or interpretation, I am undoubtedly, to some extent, a product of my theological training and church experience. In fact, I am very grateful for the men and women who have been used by the Lord to stimulate and enrich my own thinking and understanding. After reading my statement of faith, I pray that you will launch into the website for yourself and encourage others to do the same, with great joy and anticipation. For our God is a great and glorious God. Seek Him and study His Word with all your heart. And may He grant you the wonder of knowing Him better and better and of growing in grace and truth.
“GRACE AND TRUTH” STATEMENT OF FAITH
I believe in the one and only God, the Creator of all that is. He is sovereign over the universe and rules justly. Although He is distinct from His creation, He is intimately involved with it. God is love and therefore acts with care and everlasting mercy. God is light and therefore will ultimately destroy all darkness or evil. God exists as one Being, and yet is three persons, known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; this mystery is called the Trinity.
God is a communicator; He desires to express and reveal Himself. He has communicated via His creation and through acts of redemption and judgment within history, which find their focus in the person and coming of Jesus Christ. God speaks today in a variety of ways, including the continuing witness of creation. All apparent communication from God must be assessed in the light of the Bible.
Man, male and female, is God’s special creation, made in God’s own image. Therefore, every person has unique dignity and worth. Man was created good and as a free moral agent, yet willfully chose to rebel against the Creator. All of us are estranged from God due to this rebellion and deserve the wrath of God. We are unable to bring about our own reconciliation with God or to make up for our sin.
God, the Father, has sought a people for Himself all throughout history. He has worked at restoring people since man’s rebellion. In the fullness of time He sent His Son to secure an everlasting relationship with us and to endure the penalty for sin in our place. The Father longs to adopt us into His family that we might enjoy the relationship with Him for which we were created.
Jesus Christ is fully God, the unique Son of God, the one mediator between God and man. He is the incarnate Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He fully shared our humanity and lived his life in perfect obedience to the Father. He came to destroy the works of Satan, who is the deceiver of men, the evil one. By his sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus took upon himself the sins of all people and expressed God’s eternal love for the world. In this way, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Reconciliation with God and forgiveness of sins is experienced through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. God, in Christ, has opened the way for everyone, but we must respond personally by receiving His grace. After his death and burial Jesus was vindicated, when God raised him bodily from the dead. Jesus has triumphed over sin and death! He then returned to the Father from where he sent the Holy Spirit. Jesus continues to lead and to pray for his followers.
The Holy Spirit is God’s empowering presence, active in the world. He convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment, leads them to repentance and faith, and seals them into God’s family. The Holy Spirit lives inside every follower of Jesus Christ, and through faith transforms and renews them. By the power of the Spirit we are freed from the grip of sin and made able to live like Jesus Christ. The Spirit enables believers to experience the presence of the Father and the Son. He also glorifies and honours the Father and the Son, not himself.
The Bible or the Scriptures is the unique record and interpretation of God’s redemptive acts in history, of value for teaching, guidance and correction. By its nature it demands the attention and response of man to God, Who reveals Himself and speaks through it. The Bible is the word of God in the words of men; as with the incarnation it is fully of God and fully of man. Since the Bible is an historical document, it demands historical interpretation. It is to be read and heard in context, and obeyed according to its demands.
The Church is the Body of Christ in the world, comprised of those who confess Jesus as Lord. The local church is the Body of Christ in its own sphere, with Jesus as the head. People become members of Christ’s Church by responding to the call of God with faith in Jesus Christ. The Church is “called out” of the world, and “set apart” for God. Further, the Church is those who have been assembled by the Spirit, indwelt by the Spirit, and gifted for use by the Spirit. Therefore, the Church is a dynamic, charismatic, rejoicing, holy community of worshippers. Since following Jesus Christ means living the life of the cross the Church serves God and humanity by identifying with and caring for broken, sinful people. But, since following Jesus also means displaying his resurrection, the Church takes the healing, forgiveness and new life of God to individuals and societies. The Church is the salt of the earth and the light of the world, halting corruption, doing good to others and bringing glory to God. The Church is entrusted with the gospel of Jesus Christ, through which others are enabled to put their faith in Christ and be reconciled to God. The distinguishing mark of the true Church is love.
Baptism in water is administered by the Church, through a believer or believers, to someone who has repented of sin and come to faith in Christ. No one baptizes himself. Through baptism a person expresses faith in Jesus Christ and submission to him with their whole being. Baptism identifies a person with the death and resurrection of Jesus and, when administered by immersion, dramatically symbolizes the death of the old man and birth of the new. Baptism also proclaims the on going power of Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism is intended to be the major component of initiation into Christ and his Body, the Church.
The Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist or Communion is a sacramental feast. It is a remembrance and proclamation of the gracious, sacrificial death of Jesus on behalf of all mankind. Communion is also a celebration of the fellowship which every believer enjoys with Jesus and with all other believers. The Lord’s Supper anticipates, with hope, the marriage feast of the Church (the Bride) and Jesus Christ. Through faith, believers are forgiven, fed and strengthened by God as they partake of the elements which symbolize the broken body and blood of Christ.
In the future Jesus Christ will return to earth and be finally and fully united with his followers. His people will inherit a new heaven and earth, and experience unbroken peace in the presence of God. They will know unspeakable joy together as they personally experience God’s eternal creative purposes. Satan and his followers or allies will be punished. Those who have rejected Christ will miss God’s purposes for themselves, endure His wrath and depart from His presence forever.
God created everything for His own pleasure. He rejoices when a sinner repents and He experiences no joy at the death and punishment of a wicked person. His ultimate purpose is to bless any and all who trust in Him.
Mike Simms
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