Since the Word of God is foundational and absolutely essential to worshipping God in spirit and truth, we believe that the most important function of this local church, and its central thrust, is the preaching of God's Word, the Bible (2 Timothy 4:2). We believe the Bible to be God's Word, inerrant in all matters, and authoritative for all generations. The following list of questions and answers address basic and common issues found in God's Word that are often asked. For an expanded list of questions answered, see our Pastor's page.
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Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451)
Following, then, the holy fathers, we unite in teaching all men to confess the one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This selfsame one is perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man, with a rational soul and a body. He is of the same reality as God as far as his deity is concerned and of the same reality as we ourselves as far as his humanness is concerned; thus like us in all respects, sin only excepted. Before time began he was begotten of the Father, in respect of his deity, and now in these "last days," for us and behalf of our salvation, this selfsame one was born of Mary the virgin, who is God-bearer in respect of his humanness.
We also teach that we apprehend this one and only Christ-Son, Lord, only-begotten -- in two natures; and we do this without confusing the two natures, without transmuting one nature into the other, without dividing them into two separate categories, without con- trasting them according to area or function. The distinctiveness of each nature is not nullified by the union. Instead, the "properties" of each nature are conserved and both natures concur in one "person" and in one reality . They are not divided or cut into two persons, but are together the one and only and only-begotten Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus have the prophets of old testified; thus the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us; thus the Symbol of Fathers the Nicene Creed has handed down to us. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 May 2010 20:26 |
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Where Do People Go After They Die? |
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Where did Old Testament believers go when they died?
When Old Testament believers died, their spirits went immediately into the presence of God. For example, in Psalm 16:11, the psalmist was anticipating leaving this world and going into the presence of God to find pleasure and fullness of joy forever. Again, Psalm 23:6 shows the psalmist anticipating being in the presence of the Lord after his death. Job expressed a similar idea when he stated "in my flesh I shall see God" (Job 19:25?27).
Furthermore, it is clear from Jesus' words in Matthew 22:23-32 that He taught that Old Testament believers go directly into God's presence upon death. In that passage, Jesus is rebuking the Sadducees, who argued against the idea of a resurrection (22:23). Notice what He said in verses 31-32: “But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Those words have meaning only if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-all Old Testament saints-were presently and consciously living in the presence of God. Old Testament saints will receive their glorified bodies at the Second Coming of Christ which is yet future (Ezek. 37:12?14; Dan. 12:1?2; Matt. 25:46; 1 Thess. 5:1?11; Rev. 20:4-6). But in the meantime, their spirits dwell in the presence of God.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 May 2010 20:26 |
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Can a Person Lose His/Her Salvation? |
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Introduction
The simple answer to the above question is NO, not if he is an elect Christian, one predestined to know Christ from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-14). Unfortunately there are many who believe a person can lose what God has so graciously and mercifully given. Because of this the simple answer “no” doesn’t just do away with the seeming contradiction to the scriptures that clearly teach that people do walk away from God. Furthermore, most of us know someone who has walked away from God and even renounced their faith in Christ. Some of these people might have even played an important role in our own salvation. All too often this causes us to believe that once a person is saved he isn’t actually always saved. The following essay will show that the Bible clearly does teach that once true salvation comes to a person he/she can never lose it. It will also show that there are in fact certain biblical references that show how a person once came to a knowledge of Christ only to renounce Christ. We will also look at the difference between “falling from grace” and “losing one’s salvation.”
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 May 2010 20:26 |
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Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, Sex, and Singleness in the Bible |
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SHOULD A PERSON GET MARRIED?
Marriage is a good institution. Genesis 2:18-25 and 1 Corinthians 7:1-2, 7 present clear biblical teaching that marriage is a good thing – a creation and an institution created and given by God Himself to man and woman. Only false teachers and heretics can teach otherwise, for 1 Timothy 4:1-5 says, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, 3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; 5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.” Marriage might not be for everyone, but it is a good thing because it is a God-thing.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 May 2010 19:58 |
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What is Dispensationalism? |
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Dispensationalism
The biblical dispensations are stewardships by which God administers His purposes on the earth through man under varying responsibilities. The changes in the dispensational dealings of God with man depend upon changed conditions or situations in which man is successively found with relation to God, and that these changes are the result of the failures of man and the judgments of God. Different administrative responsibilities of this character are manifest in the biblical record, they span the entire history of mankind, and each ends in the failure of man under the respective test and in an ensuing judgment from God. Three of these dispensations of rules of life are the subject of extended revelation in the Scriptures-the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, the present dispensation of the church, and the future dispensation of the millennial kingdom. These are distinct and are not to be intermingled or confused, as they are chronologically successive.
The dispensations are not ways of salvation nor different methods of administering the so-called Covenant of Grace. They are not in themselves dependent on covenant relationships but are ways of life and responsibility to God which test the submission of man to His revealed will during a particular time. If man does trust in his own efforts to gain the favor of God or salvation under any dispensational test, because of inherent sin, his failure to satisfy fully the just requirements of God is inevitable and his condemnation sure. According to the "eternal purpose" of God (Eph. 3:11), salvation in the divine reckoning is always "by grace through faith," and rests upon the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. God has always been gracious, regardless of the particular dispensation in effect at any point in history, but man has not at all times in past history been under the dispensation of grace (the Church is presently under this dispensation of grace) (1 Corinthians 9;17; Ephesians 3:2, 9 [NASV]; Colossians 1:25; 1 Timothy 1:4 [NASV]).
It has always been true that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6), and all the Old Testament saints were saved by faith in a coming Savior and Redeemer. However, due to the progress of revelation, it was historically impossible for them to comprehend to the same extent as Christians do, the nature of the prophecies and sacrifices that they portrayed, the incarnate, crucified Son, the Lamb of God. They did have some understanding of the prophecies and types of the suffering Savior and other details (1 Peter 1:10-12). This faith, vague as it was, was counted unto them for righteousness (Romans 4:3-8; Genesis 15:1).
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 May 2010 20:27 |
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