My statement of faith

Randy’s statement of faith

·        There is one God unified in three divine persons - the Father, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit.

·        Jesus is the Son of God who entered His creation by becoming human flesh born of the virgin Mary.

·        The Father of Jesus was God, Jesus had no natural Father of flesh but was born of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was 100 percent God and 100 percent man. No man could take Jesus’ life from Him. He willfully laid down His life so mankind could be saved from their sins.

·        The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross paid for all past and future sins of mankind. Jesus became cursed for us on the cross and took our sins upon Himself. Jesus was the Lamb sacrifice whose blood atoned for the sin of the world. Jesus died, was buried and rose from the dead on the third day as the immortal Son of God. Death and His creation could not hold the divine Creator of the universe. All who believe in their heart that Jesus paid for their sins by His sacrificial death on the cross, and believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and confess this truth will be saved.

·        Jesus ascended to Father God and sits on His throne in Heaven until the time appointed by the Father for Him to return to the earth.

·        Jesus will come again in the same way that He left. He will come in bodily form in glory with all His heavenly host and every eye will see Him at His return.

·        There is only one intermediator. between God and man and He is Christ Jesus. Jesus now intercedes for Christians against Satan who continually accuses them before the Father.

·        All who truly believe in Jesus are born of the Spirit into a new creation called the body of Christ.

·        There is one spiritual baptism for all believers; this occurs when they trust in Jesus to save them. In that baptism, the person of flesh dies with Jesus and rises with Jesus into His new spiritual creation called the Body of Christ.

·        Water baptism is an outward sign of an inward act as a witness to oneself, the world, and the angels that you are now in Christ. Water baptism saves no one.

·        All believers born of the Spirit are given spiritual gifts for service to God and the Church. The spiritual gifts are given as God desires and are not natural abilities, nor are they learned. We are to pray to God for such gifts to do spiritual service in the name of God.

·        Jesus will return with all His saints and His angels to establish a literal Kingdom of righteousness on the earth for one thousand years as the prophets foretold. However, Jesus’ rule and His kingdom will be eternal in the new heaven and earth.

·        The 66 books of the Holy Canon of scripture (the Bible) were God breathed to His prophets, apostles and witnesses. Every word will be fulfilled as originally given by them.

·        Any translation of the Bible is not without minor error but all reliable translations contain God’s infallible word for faith and practice.

·        Paraphrases of the Bible may be useful, but they are fallible views of men and are subject to error and should always be used in parallel with a literal translation.

·        Satan is an angel who is called the prince of the air and the ruler of this world age. He is the adversary and deceiver who tempted Adam and Eve to disobey causing sin and death to come into the world. Satan in the end times will establish his Beast kingdom on earth but it will be destroyed by God at the seconding coming of Jesus in power and glory. Satan will be bound during the thousand-year reign. Afterward, he will be loosed to deceive the nations once again for a short season. Satan will then be cast into the Lake of Fire and all those who follow him will be cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity.

·        The Law of God as given in the Ten Commandments is eternal. Jesus did not come to do away with the law but came so that mankind could be changed to comply with it. All the law is fulfilled by loving God and loving others as you would want to be loved yourself. The law of God can only be obeyed by being born of the Spirit and by putting on the nature of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount was the prime example of how I should strive to fulfill the law and this will be the standard for living for mankind during the millennial reign of Christ.

·        All of mankind will appear before God. Those saved in Christ Jesus will give account for what they did in the flesh. This event will occur before the millennial reign of Christ on earth with His saints. These will receive rewards or have rewards that could have been theirs given to another because of what they did or did not allow the Holy Spirit to do while in their mortal body.

·        All souls who take part in the first resurrection prior to the millennial reign will not experience the second judgment or second death but will obtain eternal life with God. All who do not partake in the first resurrection will be judged at the great White Throne Judgment according to the eternal law of God for what they did in their bodies. All those not found in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity. This is the second death and all who take part in it will be eternally separated from God.

·        Demons are disembodied evil spirits that roam the earth looking for someone to possess. They very well could be the offspring of fallen angels that united with women to birth the Nephilim before the flood; their bodies were destroyed by the great flood. The belief in reincarnation stems from experiences by those who are/were possessed by these evil spirits.

·        The true Church of God are all those saved by grace through faith (trust) in the Lord Jesus. Members of the true Church can be found in many denominations but the true Church of God is a minority in most denominations. The true Church of Jesus Christ is a minority of those who identify with Christianity and who call themselves Christians.

·        Unity in Christ cannot be achieved by departing from sound biblical doctrine to obtain it. I reject ecumenicalism that is based on the belief that all religions worship the same God when the doctrine of the religion, denomination, or sect denies the Son of God and God as He is revealed in the Bible.

·        The Pope does not speak for the Church of God on earth, nor does any other Christian leader or any group of leaders. The Bible is the word of God for believers and it speaks for itself. The Holy Spirit is in the Church and speaks through Christians only as He wills.

·        The institutional church is never inerrant. Traditions of men and doctrines of the church often conflict with God’s revealed word in the Bible. The only reliable authority for men to live by is the Bible.

·        The great commission of the Church is to preach the Good News of the Risen Savior for salvation to all who will believe.

·        The Bible does not teach that the Church will Christianize the world before the return of Jesus; it teaches the world is heading toward judgment. I reject Dominion/Reconstruction/post millennial theology. I reject any humanistic doctrine that establishes a physical kingdom of God on earth before the physical return of Jesus Christ in glory.

·        The Church has not replaced or superseded Israel. God will fulfill all physical earthly promises that He made to the natural descendants of Israel. These promises are not to be allegorized and spiritualized to the Church. God will fulfill all covenants to the descendants of Israel after they acknowledge their offense and they accept the Messiah that He gave them.

·        I reject preterist, amillennial, and post millennial doctrine as being unbiblical heretical views. I believe that true believers that hold this theology are still brothers and sisters in the Lord.

·        I believe the Bible teaches a pretribulation rapture of the Spirit born Church; the rapture occurs before the wrath of the Lamb and the wrath of God.

·        I believe that a great harvest of souls for God will take place after the rapture and during the great tribulation.

·        I believe that God will allow a great deception or delusion to come for all those who will reject the truth. This deception will come by way of the Beast Antichrist incarnated by Satan.

·        I reject all doctrines that teach that man can be saved by good works or through his own merits.

·        I reject that all supernatural experiences come from God. We are to test the spirits. All spirits that depart from the teaching of the Bible or that deny the Son of God are not of God. For that reason, I reject non Christian religions as containing any path for salvation of the soul. I reject any appearances of saints, angels, or prophets, that deliver a message that in any way conflicts with the revealed word of God. This includes the popular Mary apparitions with messages that contain a salvation by good works theology as well as much blasphemy.

·        I believe there will be many forms of apostasy from the truth in these last days and wolves in sheep's clothing are and will be leading many astray.

·        I reject all latter day movements said to be of the Holy Spirit that appeal to the flesh and that are clearly fostered by those with unsound minds.

·        I reject the teaching that God has special anointed gurus in the Church that are above reproach or correction. I all must be like the Bereans and examine all teachings of all men in the light of scripture.

·        I will not be classified as either Calvinist or Arminian. I find truth and error in both views. If you think that is a contradiction, so be it. I believe that man’s knowledge on the nature of God is imperfect, since man is severely limited by his brain and the four dimensions that he lives in.

·        No ordinances of any church denomination are required to be followed to receive salvation or for one to stay saved.

·        The Bible teaches the doctrine of eternal salvation for all those who truly believe that Jesus is the risen Lord.

·        God is quite able to discipline His children if they are living in sin but He does not disown them. The ultimate discipline in the flesh is death of the body so the soul will be saved. Psalm 91:4 says ‘He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart’. I believe He will retract His wings to destruct flesh to save a believer from returning back into the world.

·        Those who deny the Son of God also deny the Father and they thus cannot know God or have any kind of a personal relationship with the God of heaven.

·        Not all humans are children of God. Only those who come to the Son of God to be born from above are God’s children. Those who do not come to the Son of God are dead in their sins and separated from fellowship with the Holy Father God who cannot dwell among sin.

·        God does not make up all of creation. God transcends creation. A perfect God cannot dwell in imperfect sinful creatures. We are not part of God, nor are we now gods in any way. However, God did provide a way for mankind to become His children by trusting in the finished work of His only begotten Son at the cross (Jesus).

·        The study of end time Bible prophecy (eschatology) is not a distraction or a diversion. The prophetic scriptures were given to be understood and were given so the Day of the Lord would not come upon Christians and Jews unaware.

·        I reject any watering down of the gospel in order to make Christianity more appealing to the masses. Salvation comes by hearing the word of God and believing it.