What I Believe About God (for non-theologians)

I believe that God is good. There is no evil, retribution or ill-intent in his nature. He supplies his children with new mercies each day. His love knows no end.

I believe that God has made all that is and he sustains it at all times. We cannot escape his creation. It is everywhere we look, and always surrounds us. We are a part of his creation and dependent upon him for our very lives and well-being.

I believe that God does not enjoy "acts of God." They are a result of the fallen nature of man. God is good and earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis only exist because the world, including humanity is in revolt against God himself.

I believe that God loves people. It is in his nature to love us. After all, he is love itself.

I believe that God is patient and long-suffering. Although we often violate the trust that God has in us, he sticks with us. He is faithful when we are faithless. He continues to love us, no matter what we say, do or believe.

I believe that God is not oppressive. He will not force or coerce anyone into believing in him. God offers us the choice to follow him, and then respects what we decide to do with the choice.

I believe that God is present and active in our lives. We may not always notice him, or recognize his work, but God is always there. In fact, he is all around us, all the time. We cannot escape him, no matter where we go or what we do.

I believe that God is close at hand. He is not far away and removed from our presence. He is right here. He is near to all who look for him.

I believe that God wants people to know him. It is his desire (and in our best interest) to spend time with God. We need to get plugged in to who he is and what he wants for us.

I believe that God knows everything- and that means EVERYTHING. He is knowledgeable on every topic. He knows all that we do or think. God knows.

I believe that God can do anything. There is nothing too great for him. He is not limited by our ideas of time and space. He is powerful, wise and strong.

I believe that God has everything under control. He is not surprised by current events. He knows what he is doing and is in charge all the time.

Me or Us?

There are two things that have been swirling in my brain. (Actually, there are a lot more than two things in there, but I am going to limit myself today.) First of all, in worship I have been preaching on the Seven Churches of Revelation (Revelation 1 and 2). In my study on this passage I have been reminded of the emphasis that is placed on the corporate-ness of these congregations. They are addressed as churches, not as individuals.

My tendency is to read the Scripture- and probably everything else, for that matter- in a very closed, selfish way. I want to get right to the personal application. "What's in it for me," so to speak. But these letters do not allow for that.

When Jesus stands at the door, it is not the door to my heart. He is wanting to enter the church.

When Jesus says that he will spit out the lukewarm, he is not talking about lukewarm Christians. He is fed up with lukewarm churches.

When he says, "I know your works," he is declaring that the activities of the congregation are known to him. In this passage he is not looking at every detail of every member.

That thought led me to my second thing. When I was a boy, I was given a bad interpretation of a very familiar Bible verse. John 3.16 says this: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." When I was a child, in an evangelical Sunday school class a well-meaning teacher gave me the evangelical party-line. She said, "You can put your own name in there, you know. 'God so loves Dewey...'"

You see, evangelicals believe that every person is valuable to God. And that every person must come to faith in Christ of his own will and initiative. I agree with that, by the way. Every person must have a personal relationship with Jesus. I am an evangelical after all. The problem is that John 3.16 is not an individual salvation verse. It is a corporate salvation verse- just like Revelation 2-3.

So, there is a conflict in Christian circles between those who believe in individual salvation and those who hold to corporate salvation. Let me weigh in with my opinion on the subject: Yes.

Every person must come to faith in Christ. Romans 10.9 teaches that it is the responsibility of each individual to come to faith in Christ. I am thoroughly evangelical. Each person must confess and believe for him/herself.

But, Jesus came for all people. There are requirements, commands for the "church" of Christ. There is no getting around our responsibilities to the body of Christ, the church, and to Christ himself.

The right answer is not either/or, but yes/and.

On Theology, Politics and Morals

As we get closer to the election- it is not only 40 days away- I am getting more and more tuned in to current events. I think that this is a natural phenomenon and I hope that I am not the only American who is paying more than the normal amount of attention to the race, the issues and all their implications.


One thing that has come up is a little troubling though. This is not a new situation, but I have become especially aware of it recently. There are two things that are very related. In the first place there is a general negative feeling toward the church in general and Christians in particular. People of faith, at least the Christian faith, are often marginalized, ignored or dismissed in the public square.


This has happened because so many Christians, particularly those who are adept at getting the attention of the media, are seen as narrow-minded, bigoted and judgmental. There is little tolerance in our "tolerant" society for negativity or hate. Christians are lumped together and the assumption is that we all think that we are right, and everyone else is wrong. And since God is on our side, everyone else must be condemned to hell. It is no wonder that Christianity has an image problem.


The second, and related problem is that the term "evangelical" has come to have a political meaning. Historically and traditionally evangelical has served as a designation for a school of theology that maintained a high view of Scripture, the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus and a lifestyle that reflects Christ-like value. However, in today's climate evangelical has taken on new meanings.

• Evangelical is now a political term, a voting constituency. Those who are a part of the most conservative part of the Republican party and are also Christian, are considered evangelicals. The reverse of this assumption is that if you are an evangelical Christian, you must be a Republican.
• Evangelical is now a moral term. Evangelicals are those who follow a particular code of morals. In recent years those morals include an opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Although there are other issues that these "evangelicals" are concerned with, these two are the most important and significant to them.
• Evangelical is now a social term. Where once we knew that evangelicals were united by their theological beliefs, now they are united by their political activism. Evangelicals are a group, a voting block.

There is nothing wrong with evangelicals becoming politically aware and active. In fact, it is a good sign when Christians are culturally involved. However, we must be careful to never let a political ideology hijack what is essentially a theological word and world.

What I Believe About Salvation

Where to begin on this topic? It would be fairly easy to rely on the “evangelical subculture” and its history of the last 50 years. I could focus on the “Four Spiritual Laws” of Bill Bright and the success of his Campus Crusade for Christ. It would be pretty simple to regurgitate the words and works of a personal hero, Billy Graham, who has devoted his life to getting people to accept the message of salvation. There are literally millions of Christians in the world today because of the work and ministries of these two men.

It would be easy to follow the “Romans Road” or do an exposition of John 3.16 and any of those would be a good view of the doctrine of salvation. Let me give you the basics:

• People are sinful and separated from God. Every human has the natural tendency to sin. We have inherited this from Adam. This is called “original sin.”
• The only way to be reconciled to God is through the initiative of God. You and I are incapable of avoiding or eliminating sin. We need God to take action for our salvation.
• God’s plan includes the gift of his son, Jesus Christ. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we have the opportunity to be “saved.” Through his death on the cross, he took our sins so that we could be forgiven.
• As we commit to live for and with Jesus, we experience salvation in our own lives. This is a personal decision that each of us makes.

Historically speaking, the experience of “being saved” has been a part of the typical church and family experience. However, over the last 100 years or so, things have changed. In the early part of the last century camp meetings across the United States emphasized personal salvation, in a particular way. Altar calls were instituted for the first time. Mourner’s Benches were used for individuals to pray and grieve over their sins. The Sawdust Trail became a metaphor for repenting and turning to God.

In the last 50 years evangelicals have formalized these modifications. In many congregations today the “sinner’s prayer” is required for holding office or assuming any type of leadership. The assumption is that if a person does not repeat a sinner’s prayer, answer an altar call or jump through some other specified hoops, he cannot be truly Christian. I want to help bring a different perspective to this conversation.

I believe that salvation, the act of sinners being rescued and changed, is a completely sovereign work of God. That means that even if you answer an altar call, the saving comes from God. But, we cannot limit God to working only through the sinner’s prayer. It is possible, indeed probable, that God often works without the assistance of a specific set of words. God does not need a formula to save people.

I believe that there are occasions when people get saved without the benefit of a sinner’s prayer. When an individual is seeking truth, trying to live a “good life” and being influenced by God, she may find herself “saved” without ever making a conscious decision. God is bigger than my definition of salvation, or my requirements for it.

What I Believe About the Trinity

If I were to call one specific doctrine of the Christian church the most complicated, most incomprehensible, most confusing and most divisive, it would be the doctrine of the Trinity. There have been a few times in my life when I thought that I understood what the trinity was all about. I felt as though I could not only understand, but also explain the intricacies of the “three in one.” Those occasions have been rare, and short lived.

The gist of the Trinity is this: God exists in three persons whom we call the Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit. Each person within the Trinity is completely God. That means when Jesus lived and walked on the earth, he was not one-third God, he was completely God. Likewise, when I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I have the entirety of God living within me. But the Spirit living in me never diminishes the Holy Spirit (or God the Father, or Jesus) available to everyone else. This mystery is that God is completely engaged as Jesus, and also completely engaged otherwise as well.

I have tried many illustrations to explain this phenomenon. One of the simplest to use is to compare the Trinity to an egg. Initially, this works very well. There are three parts to an egg- the shell, the yolk and the white. However, the illustration breaks down if you look at it too closely. After all, an egg shell, separated from the rest of the egg is only an egg shell. It is no longer an egg. With God this is not the case. When Jesus ministers on earth- essentially separated from the other members of the Godhead- he was still God, completely God.

Another illustration that works a little better is that of the three roles of an individual. For example, I am one person and yet I am a father, a husband and a son. However, this is less than perfect because I am only fulfilling the roles of father, husband and son. God does not fulfill roles or functions. He is completely whole. We refer to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the three persons of the Trinity, not the three functions.

When considering the Trinity, we must always remember some other things that are just as incomprehensible.

• God is omniscient. This means that God knows everything that can be known. He knows our thoughts. He knows our past and our future. God knows every thing, always.
• God is omnipotent. God can do anything and everything. He is all-powerful. There is nothing beyond the scope of God’s wisdom and ability.
• God is omnipresent. This is the thought that is most closely related to our concerns on the Trinity. God is completely present in every place at all times.

A few years ago it occurred to me that I would probably never completely “get” the Trinity. I am still pretty sure of that fact. I am resigned to never- at least in this life- fully understand ‘the three in one.’ Thank God that the Bible speaks so clearly about the value of faith. I love that old hymn, Trust and Obey. This is how I now view and relate to the Trinity.
Trust and obey for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey.

What I Believe About the Incarnation

We just had Christmas. We all know that. In fact, I am enjoying the recovery time that is necessary after Advent and the Christmas holiday. One of the things that is so important after Christmas, and this works in conjunction with the new beginnings that January 1 invites, is a time of reflection. I spend a lot of time reflecting on the last year. Did I accomplish all that I planned? Did I do all that I could? What are my plans for the future?

But one of the reflection areas that often gets overlooked is theological reflection. We say things at Christmas time that we say we believe, but do we understand them? There is the virgin birth, the miracle star, angelic appearances and the most important one, the incarnation, Emmanuel.

Our English word, incarnation, comes from the same Greek root that gives us carnival, carnivore and chili con carne. It means flesh, or meat. When we affirm our faith in the incarnation of Christ, we are saying that we believe that God literally became a human. The implications of this are mind-boggling and not to be forgotten or taken for granted. God, who lives in splendor, chose, of his own volition, to forsake all that glory, and become human. Philippians 2.5-11 gives us a wonderful summary picture of what this meant for God.

This also has significance when we consider the life and ministry of Jesus while he was on earth. We believe that Jesus was completely human, having voluntarily relinquished his claims to the throne of God. But at the same time, he was still God. He had the option at any time to re-claim his rightful position as the Almighty. Thankfully for us, he never did. This thought helps us and confuses us as we consider that Jesus often prayed. If he is God, who does he pray to? If he knows what will happen, why does he pray?

Finally, we need to consider the incarnation as it pertains to the crucifixion of Jesus. The law of the Old Testament makes it clear that sin requires a perfect sacrifice. Being perfect, and being God, allowed Jesus to become that sacrifice. He was able to take all our sins on himself because he was (and is) the holy and perfect God of the universe.

Jesus is God. God is with us. Emmanuel.