I believe the Bible! I guess any professing Christian would say that, but I believe that the Bible is the very Word of God, it is inspired, infallible, totally trustworthy and without error. It is thus God breathed. I believe that God has preserved His very words in the transmission of the original autographs. The issue of best translation is a very deep issue and one that has many scholarly men on every side. I personally use the King James and the New King James for my devotional reading. I use many different versions in my private study, including the study of the Greek and Hebrew words that underlie the English translations. We must never attempt to limit God with, "this version is the Word of God for the English speaking people.". Within every version we will find words, phrases, or the like, that when compared to the Greek and Hebrew could have been translated better. We must remember that God saves using many different versions, God saves with a tract, God saves by a poor witness. God is sovereign! But God has preserved His Word for His church.
I believe in the sovereignty
of
God. He has always been sovereign, He will always be sovereign. Thus
even
at Calvary He was sovereign! I believe in the inability and the
unwillingness
of man to come to God apart from a sovereign work of God upon that man.
Thus no man "can come", thus man "will not come". Man is dead in
trespasses
and sins. Apart from the power of God man will have his first spiritual
awakening in hell! Man is still responsible for his sins. Because God
uses
the rebellion of man to accomplish His will in no ways frees man from
the
responsibility of his own sin! Thus we read in Acts 2:23:
"Him, (Jesus) being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and
by wicked hands have crucified and slain:"
Christ delivered by God's plan
that was planned before the foundation of the world. YOU, have taken,
you
have crucified, you have slain. The blood of Christ is on YOUR hands!
Thus
in this one verse we see the sovereignty of God, and the responsibility
of man. God makes mention of His using the wrath of man in Psalm 76:10:
"Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."
Yes God uses the wrath of man to
accomplish praise to Himself, to bring elect ones into the fold. But
notice
He holds wicked man in check for any wrath which cannot be used to His
glory, He restrains!
"BUT GOD" (Eph 2:4), But God who is rich in mercy, has for reasons known only to Himself set some apart for His own glory. The God who cannot change has loved some with an everlasting love from the very foundations of the world. The triune God has loved those whom the Bible calls His elect with an everlasting love! Thus God the Father elected them in eternity past, God the Son went to Calvary and paid their sin debt in full, became their substitute, bore their very hell, accomplished eternal redemption for them, and God the Holy Spirit is calling them out of the world. God the Holy Spirit is making them willing in the day of His power. Thus the God-head has one work directed upon the same people!
Do we call men to repentance? YES, not because we believe they can repent, but because we believe God can break their stubborn hearts and cause them to seek after Christ. We are to go into the world and preach the gospel. Knowing that God will ensure His word does not come back void, but accomplishes exactly what He intended it to accomplish. We are to preach Christ, we are to proclaim the full counsel of God. It is God the Holy Spirit who bears witness with that sinner that he is in fact a child of God!
I believe in a salvation that works, a person who is born of God will have fruits in his life that indicate his rebirth. At varying levels, yes. But fruit none the less. The Christian is in the world, but not of the world! Our brother James (under the inspiration of the spirit) said it best "faith without works is dead".
I believe that new life in Christ Jesus is characterized by JOY. John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as he spoke of the "Word of life" that one whom he had heard, whom he had seen, whom he had looked upon, whom he had handled, he wrote about Christ, that the church might have joy! Will we suffer trials and tribulations in this life? Yes! It is through much tribulation that we must enter the Kingdom of God. But we have the written word and we are indwelt with the living Word "that our joy might be full." We look forward to that day when Christ will give us new glorious bodies, that day when this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. But equally, right now we walk in the reality of the resurrection, right now the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ invades our life, day by day, for indeed the old man was crucified with Christ, we were buried with Christ, and we have been raised to newness of life in Christ.
I believe that Jesus Christ is on the spiritual Throne of David NOW (Acts 15:15-16). In fact His resurrection is proof for the church that He is indeed the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and He is right now seated at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:29-36). He is right now working all things for His glory and our good (Eph 1:4, Rom 8:28)! He has already made an open show of the defeat of Satan and his host, for He has "triumphed over them" (Col 2:15)!
The church is the Israel of God, the only plan for the physical nation of Israel is the plan for all men. Repentance and faith in Christ! The church is the circumcision, the church is the seed of Abraham. The church is the heir of the promises! The church is one with Christ! In all the vivid description of Hebrews Chapter 2, Christ is one with His church. Thus they are His "many sons", they are one in sanctification, they are His "brethren", they are the "children" which God gave Him, and at Calvary He laid hold of them, and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
I am a Baptist. I believe in those doctrines that make Baptist distinctively Baptist. I believe in Baptism, by immersion, upon profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. My site is called "Rich's Home Page of Reformed Theology." I chose this, because I intended to put material by men who are not Baptist, but who at least on that particular point I agree with. So this site is not Baptist, although you will find that all that is featured here is Historical Baptist doctrine, or to express it as I believe it should be expressed it is the doctrine of our Fathers in the Faith, it is the doctrine of John, Paul, Peter, and even Christ Himself.
Lastly it is my prayer that my
earnest desire will always be to please the one who called me out
of darkness into His marvelous light! I enjoy reading primarily the
Bible,
but also behind, John Owen, John Gill, John Calvin, A.W. Pink, C.H.
Spurgeon,
Philip Mauro, and some others, but those primarily.
OK, one more thing, I shaved
the mustache off a few months ago.
