Statement Of Faith

 

Statement on God

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I believe the God of the Bible is the one and only true God. I know that scripture describes God as one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

 

I believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. (Matthew 28:19)

 

​There is one God, self-existent and eternal, infinitely perfect, the Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of all things. (Genesis 1:1, 2:1–4; Exo 3:14; Deuteronomy 6:4, 33:27; Psalm 22:28, 103:19, 147:5; Isaiah 40:28, 45:18; Daniel 5:21; 2 Samuel 22:31; Nehemiah 9:6; Ecclesiastes 12:1–6; Matthew 5:48, 28:18; Mark 12:29–34; John 1:1–3; 1 Corinthians 8:4; Romans 16:26; Colossians 1:16–17, 2:3; Hebrews 1:1–3, 9:14; 2 Peter 3:9; Revelation 1:8, 4:11)

 

I believe that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. (Genesis 35:11; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 1:8; 1 Samuel 2:3; Romans 1:20, 11:33; Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 41:13)

 

​For God's own glory and by his creative power, the triune God created heaven and earth, time, and all things, visible and invisible, living and nonliving, material and non-material. (Genesis 1:1–2:3; Exodus 20:11, 31:17; Isaiah 46:9–10; Nehemiah 9:6; 1 Timothy 1:17; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 22:13)

 

​I affirm that the Triune God has revealed himself in scripture in the male gender with masculine pronouns and masculine titles such as Father, Son, God, King, Priest, and Prophet. (Psalm 5:2; Matthew 28:19; John 14:26)

 

Statement on Jesus

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator and only begotten Son of God, took on human flesh to be fully man and God incarnate. (Luke 24:39; John 1:1–3, 1:14, 1:18, 3:16, 8:58; Colossians 1:16; Acts 2:22; 1 Corinthians 15:47; Philippians 2:5–8; Hebrews 1:1–3)

 

I believe Jesus' conception was supernatural by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and lived a sinless life as the only begotten Son of God. (Isaiah 7:14, 53:4–6; Matthew 1:16–23, 4:1; John 8:29, 8:46; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:21–22; Luke 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15:45)

 

I believe Jesus died on the cross, making a complete and satisfactory atonement for man's sin. (Matthew 1:16–23; Luke 1:30–31; John 19:30; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Hebrews 9:11–12, 10:12–14; 1 Peter 1:17–19; 1 John 2:2).

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I believe Jesus is the only way to attain eternal life and a personal relationship with God. (John 3:15-16)

 

I believe that Jesus suffered humiliation, beatings, scourging, a crown of thorns, exhaustion, exsanguination, and brutal death on the cross as a once and forever willing sacrifice for everyone's sins. (Matthew 27:27-35)

 

I believe that Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead, ascended to heaven, and is currently seated at the right hand of God the Father as our Intercessor. He shall return in person (bodily and visibly) to this earth as judge of the living and the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3–5; Acts 17:31; Ephesians 1:17–23; 2 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 7:25).

 

I believe Jesus continued His ministry on earth for 40 days after his resurrection and was seen by over 512 eyewitnesses. Then, in the presents of several eyewitnesses, he was transfigured and ascended into heaven. (Acts 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:6; Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2)

 

Statement on the Holy Spirit

 

I believe that the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) is the third person of the Holy Trinity or Godhead and is fully God, who glorifies our Lord Jesus Christ and convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. (John 15:26, 16:8–11, 16:14; Genesis 1:2; Matthew 28:19; Acts 7:55)

 

​I believe that the Holy Spirit's work is necessary for sinners to repent and believe in Jesus Christ through the gospel call. (Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 2:6–14, 12:3; Titus 3:3–7)

 

I believe that after you are born again through faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you receive the Holy Spirit, and He dwells within you as a constant companion. (John 14:26)

 

​I believe that the Holy Spirit lives and works in each believer to produce the fruits of righteousness. (John 14:16–17; Acts 1:8, 4:31; Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:18–20; Galatians 5:22–23; Ephesians 2:19–22)

 

I believe that we must allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, and we can feel his presence with us everywhere we go and in every choice we make. We can equally reject His leadership (to our inexorable detriment). (Luke 12:10)

 

Statement on the Bible

 

I believe the 66 books of the Bible are divinely inspired, inerrant, and the infallible Word of the Almighty God. The Bible is supremely authoritative and sufficient in everything it teaches. Its assertions are factually accurate in all the original autographs. Its authority is not limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes but includes its assertions in such fields as history and science. (Deuteronomy 4:2, 9:10, 12:32; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; Revelation 22:18–19; Exodus 31:18)

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I believe in Sola Scriptura, in other words, the Holy Bible alone as scripture. (Deuteronomy 4:2-5; Proverbs 30:5-6; Revelation 22:18-19)

 

I believe the Bible is the most studied, scrutinized, and analyzed book in history and still stands true as genuine factual history from Genesis to Revelations. Its prophetic books stand as the only verifiable prophecy in any doctrinal text from any religion or secular source. The final guide to the interpretation of Scripture is Scripture itself. (Proverbs 8:8–9; Matthew 12:3–5, 19:4, 22:31; Mark 7:13, 12:10, 12:26; Luke 6:3; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Timothy 3:16–17)

 

I believe all the following are not Scripture: The Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness Bible (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures), and any other scripture from any religious sect or religion. This truth includes the writings of the religions Atheism, Agnosticism, Humanism, and Naturalism.

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My preferred English versions of the Bible are the King James Version, the New King James Version, and the New American Standard Bible.

 

​Statement on Holy Ordinances

 

There are only two ordinances, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper.

 

Statement on Baptism

 

I believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water as a representation of our Savior's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, through Whom I died to sin and rose to a new life. Baptism is performed under the local church's authority, and it is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. (Galatians 3:27; Matthew 28:19)

 

Statement on the Lord's Supper

 

I believe the Lord's Supper commemorates Jesus' death until He comes again and should be preceded by solemn self-examination. I believe that the Biblical order of the ordinances is baptism first and then the Lord's Supper, and partakers in the Lord's Supper should be born-again believers. (Acts 2:41-42; 8:36, 38, 39; John 3:23; Romans 6:3-5; Matthew 3:16, 28:18-20; Colossians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 11:23-28)

 

Statement on the Church

 

I believe a local church is an organized congregation of baptized believers associated with a covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel. They observe the ordinances of Christ and accept governance by His laws, and exercise the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word. Its officers, including pastors and deacons, are qualified, claim, and have duties by their officer definitions in the Scriptures. (John 3:16, 3:36, 11:25; Acts 16:30–31; Romans 10:8–10; Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18)

 

I believe the church's true mission is the faithful witnessing of Christ to all men as we have the opportunity. I hold that the local church has the absolute right of self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals, organizations, or governments. And that the one and only leader of the church is Christ through the Holy Spirit. Each local church is the sole judge of the measure and method of its cooperation, and on all matters of membership, governance, discipline, and benevolence is the will of the local church. (1 Corinthians 11:2; Acts 20:17-28; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Acts 2:41-42)

 

I believe in the unity of all Bible believers in the church, the Body of Christ. All Christians are to live in fellowship with a local, Bible-believing church, uniting in its worship, supporting the great commission, and loving one another with pure and sincere hearts. (Acts 15:13-18, 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:17–33, 12:12-13, 16:2; Hebrews 10:23–25, 13:17; Ephesians 1:22-23; 3:1-6; 4:11; 5:23; Colossians 1:18)

 

I believe we should attend a Bible-believing church with a pastor who preaches the Word of God without deviation from the scripture. (2 Timothy 4:2)

 

I believe God knows all who have or will accept Christ from before He created the universe. Further, I believe in the doctrine of being free to choose Christ as our Lord and Savior and that God has foreknowledge of our decision but doesn't choose for us. (Acts 15:11, Romans 5:9, Romans 10:13)

 

Statement on Marriage, Gender, and Sexuality

 

I believe that God, through genetic design, creates each person as male or female. These two distinct yet complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. Gender and biological sex are equivalent and cannot be separated. A person's gender is determined at conception (fertilization), coded in the DNA, and cannot be changed by drugs, hormones, or surgery. Rejection of one's biological sex (gender) or identifying oneself by the opposite sex is a sinful rejection of how God made that person. These truths must be communicated with compassion, love, kindness, and respect, pointing everyone to the truth that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking God's mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. (Genesis 1:26–28, 5:1–2; Psalm 51:5, 139:13–16; Jeremiah 1:5; Matthew 1:20–21, 19:4–6; Mark 10:6; Luke 1:31; Acts 3:19–21; Romans 10:9–10; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; Galatians 3:28)

 

Based on the creation ordinance in Genesis 1 and 2, I believe the only legitimate marriage sanctioned by God is the joining of one naturally-born man and one naturally-born woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in scripture. God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other and has commanded that no sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. Any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, prostitution, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexual conduct, beastiality, incest, pornography, abuse, or any attempt to change one's gender or disagreement with one's biological gender, is sinful and offensive to God. (Genesis 1:27–28, 2:24; Matthew 5:27–30, 19:4-5; Mark 10:2–9; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, 18; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–7; Hebrews 13:4)

 

I believe that a man should not wear clothes made for a woman, and a woman should not wear clothes made for a man. (Deuteronomy 22:5; 1 Peter 3:3-4)

 

I believe that to preserve the purpose and integrity of https://www.davidleebrown-christianauthor.com/ as my web-based ministry and to provide biblical edification to the readers of my website and the community, and I must adhere to this Statement on Marriage, Gender, and Sexuality. (Matthew 5:16; Philippians 2:14-16; 1 Thessalonians. 5:22)

 

Everyone deserves compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. (Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31.) Hateful and harassing behavior directed toward any individual is to be rejected and is not in agreement with scripture nor the doctrines of https://www.davidleebrown-christianauthor.com/. I believe that dismissing sin and sinful acts is inappropriate and that sharing the truth in Biblical scripture must be done with kindness and respect. (1 Corinthians 6:18)

 

I believe God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. (Acts 3:19-21; Romans 10:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.)

 

Statement on the Biblical Creation

 

I believe in the Biblical account of the creation of the physical universe, angelic beings, and mankind. That this account is neither allegory nor myth but a literal, historical account of God's direct, immediate creative acts without any evolutionary process and that man was created by a miraculous act of God and not from previously existing forms of life. All men descend from the historical Adam and Eve, the first parents of the entire human race. (Genesis 1:2, 1:26-27, Colossians 1:16-17; John 1:3)

 

I believe God created everything in 6, 24-hour days, then rested on the 7th day because the creation was complete, not because he was tired. The creation of the universe and everything in it was virtually effortless to Him. (Genesis 1 & 2:1-3)

 

I believe the Flood of Noah's day was a global flood that lasted more than a year, with obvious evidence throughout the geologic and fossil records. Noah was a genuine person who built an actual ship that carried 2 of each and 7 of some of all the created kinds of air-breathing land animals, birds, and the creeping things God created. He, his wife, his three sons, and their wives were the only flood survivors. (Genesis 6:8 - 8:19)

 

I believe eight people, including Noah, were the progenitors of all the people alive today and that the repopulation of our planet started about 4,400 years ago (give or take a century or two). (Genesis 6:17-18)

 

I believe the theory of evolution is nonsense. The theory violates the law of biogenesis, the rules of genetic heredity, and the Law of Information. No theory (notion or idea) that breaks well-tested, repeatable, and verifiable natural Laws can be valid. Darwin and his minions have had over 150 years to prove this outlandish theory and still haven't proven it, primarily because it's impossible to prove.

 

Statement on the Fall of Man

 

I believe man was created in innocence (in the image and likeness of God) under the law of his Maker. However, by voluntary transgression, Adam fell from sinlessness, and all men sin because of him and our inherited proclivities. The consequence of this is that all men are totally depraved, are partakers of Adam's fallen nature, and are sinners by nature and by conduct, and therefore are under just condemnation without defense or excuse. (Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 3:10-19; 5:12, 19; 1:18, 32)

 

Statement of Salvation

 

I believe that sinners must be born again for salvation and that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus. That salvation is instantaneous and not a process. The one dead in trespasses and sins is made a partaker of the divine nature by accepting the free gift of God, which is God's grace. Our sovereign God brings the new creation in a manner beyond our comprehension, solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, to secure our voluntary obedience to the gospel. Its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance, faith, and newness of life. (John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 5:1; Acts 16:20-33; 2 Peter 1:4; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13; John 3:8)

 

​I believe the doctrines of the Creator and Creation cannot be divorced from the gospel of Jesus Christ. (John 1:1–3, 1:14–18; Colossians 1:13–20)

 

​I believe that a born-again believer has repented, recognized the death of Christ as full payment for sin, and received the risen Christ as Savior, Lord, and God. (John 1:12–13; Acts 3:19, 16:31, 17:30–31, 20:21; Galatians 2:20–21; 1 John 3:9)

 

Statement Concerning Israel

 

I believe in the sovereign selection of Israel as God's eternal covenant people, that their dispersion was because of their disobedience and rejection of Christ, and that they are currently regathering in the Holy Land. After the church's completion, Israel will achieve salvation as a nation at the second advent of Christ. (Genesis 13:14-17; Romans 11:1-32; Ezekiel 37)

 

Statement on the Rapture

 

I believe in the pretribulation rapture of the church, an event that can occur at any moment, and at that moment, the dead in Christ shall rise in glorified bodies. Then those living in Christ shall be given glorified bodies without tasting death, and all shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before the seven years of the Tribulation. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 51-54; Philippians. 3:20, 21; Revelation 3:10)

 

I believe that the Tribulation, which follows the Rapture of the Church, will be culminated by the revelation of Christ in power and great glory to sit upon the throne of David in Jerusalem and to establish the millennial kingdom on earth. (Daniel 9:25-27; Matthew 24:29-31; Luke 1:30-33; Isaiah 9:6, 7; 11:1-9; Acts 2:29, 30; Revelation 20:1-4, 6)

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Statement of the Final Judgement

 

I believe there is a vast difference between the righteous and the wicked; only those who are justified (redeemed, born-again) by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by our God's Spirit are truly righteous and justified by God. Only those redeemed and justified will enter God's final kingdom.

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All that continue in unbelief are wicked and cursed in God's sight. Eternal punishment results from the unrepentant and unjustified sinner after death, in everlasting conscious suffering in the lake of fire. (Malachi 3:18; Genesis 18:23; Romans 6:17-18, 23, 7:6; 1 John 5:19; Proverbs 14:32; Luke 16:25; Matthew 25:34-41; John 8:21; Revelation 20:14-15)