Friday, October 21, 2016

My Doctrine

   It has become more and more apparent to me that giving a doctrinal statement somewhere would help my ministry and life efforts, so I am going to freely give it right here. (thankfully, I won't have to write or rewrite a whole creed or confession.) I am hoping that it will help heal schisms, mainly through persons being reconciled to God through Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:18).
   My doctrine is Protestant and Reformed. The closest confession or creed to how I actually believe is the Westminster Confession of Faith. I hold to the five points of Calvinism in "tulip" form which are: 1) Total Depravity 2) Unconditional Election 3) Limited Atonement 4) Irresistible Grace and 5) Perseverence of the Saints.  I hold to Sola Scriptura and agree the canon is closed. I am noncessationist on the topic of spiritual gifts. The modern giving of prophecy, however, is not equivalent to revelation of canonical importance unless it's mirroring something already said in the scriptures (like what I wrote about here), and in that case since it's already in the Bible, and so then one is not adding to canon in that case anyway. The Scriptures contain sufficient teaching for life, morals, and salvation. I am not the only person with a Reformed Theological stance who is a noncessationist when it comes to spiritual gifts. With me on that viewpoint of noncessationism would also be Vincent Cheung and Wayne Grudem.

1 comment:

  1. Regarding my book "A Dragon Comes As Well," I can tell people are already concerned about the form of prophecy implied. It's partial symbolic fulfillment at a personal level buffered by a mirror of personal prophecy (or simply types and shadows of what is to come, at a personal level). The actual events as personally prophesied are not of Biblical proportion (or fulfilling the prophecy in the Biblical text). They only fulfill the personal prophecy that mirrors the Biblical prophecy in Isaiah.

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