theology

Theology is Good – Article 5

/ christopherstukenberg / Leave a comment

Thursdays are going to be spent working a little Theology (study of God) together – starting with the EFCA statement of faith found here.

The Evangelical Free Church of America is an association of autonomous churches united around these theological convictions:

The Work of Christ

5. We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.

We believe that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah (last week), based on many prophecies given throughout the Old Testament. Let’s take a few minutes to look at what His work accomplished. He is now our representative, the firstborn of the new Creation – the one who speaks for our behalf and represents us before the Father (holy and pure of sin). He is our representative and this is because He is our substitute for our sin. He took the place of all the sins of the world because He was the perfect sacrifice (as He was sinless) and His blood being shed satisfied the wrath of God forever and is therefore all-sufficient. His atoning death is what paid for our sins, His resurrection showed that death and sin have no power over Him. This makes Him our complete salvation – a high priest on our behalf, the sacrifice we needed, a pioneer of God’s new creation, the prophet calling us to God, the very Son of God, the Son of Man, and the Messiah for all who believe in Him.

Theology is Good – Article 2

/ christopherstukenberg / Leave a comment

Thursdays are going to be spent working a little Theology (study of God) together – starting with the EFCA statement of faith found here.

The Evangelical Free Church of America is an association of autonomous churches united around these theological convictions:

The Bible

2. We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

There are a few things here that differentiate us from other denominations here, as well as showing how we are different from other faiths (Mormon, Islam, etc). First, we believe that God inspired the Scriptures through human authors. They are His words – spoken through the personality/writing style of an author. They are God’s words… This may seem logical to some of you, but that is not the case. Many today are looking at the Bible from a secular/literary perspective and not seeing it as His word – we in the EFCA do not. Second, we believe the Bible to be without error in the original writings – and the final words of God (no need for the Qur’an or Book of Mormon, etc). This means you can trust the word – and all the archaeological finds concerning the books of the Bible are supporting this. The Qumran scrolls showed us that the manuscripts used to translate to English and other languages are nearly exact matches. The only differences are minor and there is great work being done to show which is a mistake and which isn’t (like a handwritten “n” looking like an “r” or something like that). This also means that God has protected and sustained His word through faithful writers and scribes for centuries – how awesome is that! 

We also believe that the Bible is the ultimate source of knowledge and that every “discovery” should be judged through the lens of God’s Word first and foremost. This suggests that we believe the Bible and science to not be at odds, but partners. This should give us pause when looking at theories or discoveries so that we assume that the Word of God will win out in the end. This means that we do not believe or follow ideologies that begin with assumptions that are godless or agnostic in their origins. God is there, has spoken, wants a relationship with us and we are merely discovering His mechanisms, plans and design when we “discover” something. Start there, we say, and you won’t be let down! If all this part of the statement is true, then the last part should come as no shock. If God has spoken and told us how to live, we then must believe it, obey it and trust it with our lives/hopes/dreams/problems/situations/etc. God gave us His word that we might have life – read it, learn it, trust it and believe it.