My Statement of Faith         My statement of faith is as follows: 1.)   Jesus is the 'only' way a person can be saved ( not 'a way', as many believe now, that is - many have changed their faith and now believe that Jesus is one of many ways )  and make it to Heaven. It takes more than believing there is a God or even one God because the demons also believe this and are not saved. It also takes more than merely believing that Jesus is the Son of God. The demons and satan believe this too and are not going to Heaven. When I say that Jesus is the only way I mean it literally... not Jesus 'plus' being a member of a church organization, or giving to the poor or paying tithes or doing any good work. Jesus was enough for the 'thief on the cross' whom Jesus told would be with Him in Paradise that same day. The thief did not have time to do any good works... he was dying. He rested his faith in Jesus and believed Jesus was enough to get him into Heaven. Works that please the Lord will result 'after' one is saved, as James wrote in his epistle -'faith without works is dead' - James was not saying that works is required to be saved but rather that after one is saved he must live to please the Lord or his faith is useless. There is no contradiction here in Scripture as some try to suggest. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God is something some people do but is generally head knowledge. The idea of believing in Jesus is that you are convinced in your heart that Jesus is enough to get you into Heaven and that He not only died for your sins but that He can and certainly will forgive you for your sins - but only if you truly repent in your heart. A truly repentant heart is what God looks for and His response is to save you from eternal Hell and to save you from being enslaved to sin. But you must realize you are a slave to sin and that you need God to set you free, this of which not many people feel the need for... as they have calloused their conscience in this area of their life. 2.) Salvation is for anyone. Salvation is not 'appointed' to certain ones and not others, as many christians believe. Anyone who feels the need and knows in his heart that he needs God and knows that he is helpless without God and is truly repentant in his heart for his lifestyle can humble himself and ask God to save him - as long as he knows that it is through God's Son Jesus the he can be saved without the need for anyone or anything else. 3.) Jesus is both God and man. Jesus had no beginning since He was and is God, always living in eternity past and will forever live. When Jesus came to earth to die this was not His beginning... He has always existed. He came to earth and was literally God 'made' flesh as a human being like us. ( not just living 'inside' a human body as some christians believe ) Jesus is God who literally became flesh, blood and bone and lived among us. Jesus is God and He is to be bowed to and worshipped and prayed to as God. Jesus and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are all One and the same God. There are not 3 Gods but One God in 3 Persons. This is the complexity and mystery of the Holy Trinity. A person cannot be coerced into believing this... like with salvation, he or she either believes this or does not. 4.) There are only 2 destinies that await us after we die - hell and Heaven. The choice is ours. No one is forced into either place. We do not go to hell for being bad, nor do we go to Heaven for being good. We go to hell if we reject God's Son Jesus. We go to Heaven if we rest our faith in God's Son Jesus. I know that it is now considered offensive in today's society within both the christian realm and the world to tell someone he or she is going to hell without Jesus. I'm certainly glad that Jesus did not candy - coat the reality of an eternal hell. It is now more acceptable to say "eternally separated from God". However you choose to say it, it is still going to be hell where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Jesus said. 5.) The Holy Bible is a translation of copies of what the Biblical authors originally wrote, which was inspired by God. The copies of the original documents that were inspired by God that were used to translate our Bible from are reliable and today's translations (not paraphrases) are reliable. We do have The Word of God today as a result. The translations we use today are not at all misleading to the point of one not being able to be saved from reading the Bible. Bible critics try to tell us that the translations are full of errors. This is not true. Though it is not like the original letters that the Biblical authors wrote which are perfect and verbally inspired by God, we do have the meaning of what the authors wrote in translation form. There is no doubt that the Holy Bible today is trustworthy in the leading of a person's soul to salvation in Jesus. The translations we have today are 'absolute truth' books containing God's Word and one can rest his or her faith in it entirely. 6.) That there are only 2 categories of people in God's eyes. The saved and the unsaved. That there is a judgment by God reserved for the saved and the unsaved both. The judgment for the saved does not have to do with entering into Heaven since the saved are their by faith in God's grace in His Son Jesus. This judgment has to do with how the saved lived for the Lord after salvation. The judgment for the unsaved has to do with whether the unsaved accepted or rejected Jesus. 7.) Jesus lived here on earth about 2000 years ago, died and rose from the grave and lives forever... and will someday return to this planet to set up His Kingdom among us. HOWEVER, I think because of the worldly compromising condition of today's 21st century church of christian believers there will come a time of religious persecution in this country as is being done in other parts of the world, BEFORE Jesus returns - even before the event known as the Rapture. This will bring those of us who claim to be christian to a decision... either get on one side of the fence or the other. We all live with one foot in the world and the other in Heaven.  8.) The Holy Spirit is still as active today as He was 2000 years ago in the early church believers. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are still as active in the lives of 'some' believers today, as ever before. I'm sorry to say though, that many 'Spirit filled' christians today are now suppressing the moving of the Holy Spirit in their own life and attempting to do the same in the lives of other christians as well, as they do in the format of their church services. Born again christians can still speak in other tongues as the Holy Spirit gives utterance ( or language ).  Attributing a christian who is speaking in another language by means of the Holy Spirit of God to being that as the work of Satan or any demon is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God and consequently will not be forgiven in this life nor in the life to come, Jesus said. ***Don't kid yourself... christians that say that other christians speaking in tongues is an act on the part of the person, are still actually attributing this to an act of satan. I personally do not know a human being that can speak another language impromptu in the human realm. However, I do not believe that a christian must speak in tongues ( in another language ) to be saved, or to make it to Heaven... as is taught by some pentecostal churches. I was told once by a pentecostal church organization administrator, " Whatever might be keeping a christian from speaking in tongues could be keeping that christian from making it to Heaven. " My friend, this is not Biblical. This is basing salvation on works and therefore makes his faith null and void. Wayne Brown       Previous Page<<=== |                                                                    Next Page===>> ||