Shepherd the Flock

The long answer to what I believe can be found in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (click on picture to read).

Another good example of my beliefs can be found in the 2006 Together for the Gospel statement.

I will also post a few bullet-point beliefs below for clarity-sake. I do this with the understanding that being objective in regards to such issues as Calvinism, Spiritual Gifts, Eschatology, etc., might indeed offend some readers to the point where they may never visit this site again. Unfortunately, avoidance of sensitive subjects in a kind of ‘political’ maneuver underscores much of the blog world today, as it does in many Christian leaders and ministries as well. Personally, I feel very strongly about the items listed below, but I am always open to the correction of my many faults. So I welcome the opportunity to defend these things with scripture. I pray that being upfront and honest about my convictions will lead those with opposing views to search the scriptures diligently.

A few specifics about my beliefs:

• I am a Calvinist (see LBC Chapter 9 & 10). That is, I affirm all 5 points of Calvinism as being undeniably biblical and thus unequivocaly true. The scriptures are crystal clear on this subject; there is no in-between. God’s sovereignty is the foundation upon which everything else in the Christian life and theology is built upon.
  • Man is completely dead in sin; he cannot save himself nor turn to God by his own volition: 1 Cor 2:14; John 6:65; Rom 3:10-11; Rom 8:8, etc.
  • God, before the creation of the world, loved an elect group of people and chose them unto salvation for His ultimate glory. This choice was completely outside of any supposed good works or foreseen faith in the creature, being out of His grace and out of His grace alone: Matt 22:14; Matt 11:27; Rom 8:28-30; Eph 1:4, 2 Thess 2:13, Rom 9:11, 15, 16, etc.
  • God the Father, in choosing His elect, sent the Son to accomplish their perfection. The Son, Jesus Christ, became sin on behalf of the elect, a subsitutionary atonement for the elect, and the elect alone did He love in this specific, sacraficial manner (though God does have a general love for all of mankind): Matt 1:21; Titus 2:14; Heb 9:12; Heb 10:14; John 6:38-39, etc.
  • God the Father, in choosing His elect, and God the Son Jesus Christ in perfecting the elect, sent the Spirit to appropriate faith in those chosen. All who have been chosen and purchased in Christ will indeed come to Christ in faith and repentance, which are wrought in the human heart by the work of the Spirit. Ez 36:26-27; John 6:37,44,45,64,65; John 1:12-13Acts 13:48, etc.
  • All true believers, upon being regenerated by the Spirit, placing faith in Christ and repenting of their sins towards God, having been justified by the blood of Christ once for all, will persevere in obedience to the faith until death, and will never turn away or abandon Christ as their only hope for righteousness before a holy and righteous God. Those who do profess and turn away thus manifest that they were never truly regenerated to begin with: Jer 32:40; John 3:36; John 6:37-39; Rom 8:29-30; Rom 8:1; Eph 4:30; 1 Thess 5:24, 1 John 2:19, etc.

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• I hold to a ‘Covenantal’ or ‘Reformed’ view of the law (see LBC Chapter 19) -as opposed to a Dispensational, Antinomian, Arminian, or New Covenant view on the law. That is, both the old and the new testament contain God’s moral perfection, found in His moral law, and are the rule for faith and practice in the life of all new covenant believers. Here are a few scriptures that better clarify this position:
  • “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim 3:16
  • “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,nor stands in the way of sinners,nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” -Psalm 1
  • “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right,rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.” -Psalm 19
  • “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” -Psalm 119:160
  • “Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.” -1 Cor 9
  • “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” -Matt 5

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• I am a Cessationist in that the miraculous gifts during the age of the apostles have passed away, being only given for a period of early church history. Thus, the gifts being claimed today as supposedly true manifestations of the Spirit, if they are examined in light of scripture, are clearly altogether different than the same gifts described in scripture, and are in every way inferior and falsified ‘versions’ of the gifts seen in scripture.
  • I believe in a closed canon, -no new scripture is being written and the Bible is the final word from God, thus I am a cessationist in regards to prophecy: Dan 9:24; Jude 3; Rev 22:18-9; Heb1:1-2, etc.
  • I believe that tongues were a warning sign to unbelieving Israel, a sign that God was about to judge them and turn to the gentiles, and that they ‘ceased’ with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70ad: 1 Cor 14:20-22; Isa 28:11; Dan. 9:24, 1 Cor 13:8, etc.
  • In regards to miracles: scripture implicitly indicates that miracles were a sign of an apostle, a part of the early building of the church, a confirmation that God has spoken (before the canon had been completed), and are thus no longer a specific gift in the church today. Healing still might occur through God’s general providence, and through prayer, but are not a specific spiritual gift in the church today.

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• I am Amillennial in my eschatology, affirming the scriptural truths that when Christ comes back to earth a second time, it is all over but ‘the end’.
  • Christ is clearly reigning on David’s throne right now: Acts 2:30-31, 36; Isa 9:7; Rev 1:5; Rev 2:27; Luk 1:22-23, etc.
  • The ‘Kingdom of God’ does not with signs to be observed by human eyes, and is not of this world: Luke 17:20-21; John 18:36; etc.
  • Satan, the ruler of this world, has been cast out, defeated, made a puplic spectacle of, and no longer has the power to deceive the nations (gentiles) from the light of the gospel: John 12:32; 2 Thess 2:6-7; Col 2:15; Rev 20, etc.
  • The judgment of this world, the final judgment, happens when Christ returns a second time, and is clearly not preceeded by a 1000year period: 2 Peter 3:3-13; 1 John 4:17; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-12; John 5:28-29; Matt 16:27; Matthew 25:31-46, 1 Cor 15:23-24, 54-55, etc.
  • Finally, an exegesis of 1 Cor 15:23-55, among other passages, shows without a doubt that when believers obtain their immortal bodies, which happens at Christ’s return, the last enemy death will have been defeated and we will enter the eternal state. Therefore, the concept of immortal believers walking around earth with other mortal beings, and that these mortal beings somehow rise up against Christ and the immortal beings (as premillennialists teach from Rev 20), is an idea that is both unbiblical and untenable.

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• I believe in Elder-Rule as the Biblical form of church government (see LBC Chapter 26).
  • God’s design for church government consists of a plurality of qualified elders who are equal in their authority over the church.
  • Elders must be confirmed as qualified from other qualified elders wherever possible. That is, not just anyone can declare themselves or others ‘qualified’ to be an elder. If just anyone can affirm or declare someone qualified, then any teacher who is popular, such as for example, Benny Hinn, could easily gather a group of people to confirm his ‘qualifications’. The flock does not determine if someone is qualified, the leaders do.
  • Elders must be qualified not only in appearance only, but also in practice. Any and every accusation that questions a leaders qualifications should be considered with the utmost of seriousness.
  • I reject the ‘one pastor’ type of ‘CEO’ church government that is most common today, along with congregational rule, deacon-rule, etc. Titus 1:5-9; 1 Tim 3:1-7, 1 Ti 5:24-25, etc.

If you have a question or contention about the beliefs stated here, please feel free to email the administrator, Nathan White.