faith

I am a Reformed Christian, baptised in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Caution: My beliefs may cause you discomfort (because true Christianity is not about you, but about God). You have been warned.

How did I get like this? Read my personal testimony

#1. The Holy Bible is TRUE.
Every word of it. It is absolutely the inspired, infallible Word of God, written with many hands, but with one Author. It is God's revelation of himself, and His analysis of Man. We need to align our thinking with what the Bible actually says, instead of trying to make the Bible say what we want. If you and the Bible disagree, then YOU are the one in error.

Any of the so-called "errors" or "contradictions" that can be found in the Bible are basically misinterpretations and out-of-context extractions. They are also usually the result of a man-centered (read: deeply flawed) understanding of what the Bible "must surely mean", rather than simply accepting the black-and-white facts it presents. The writers of the Bible knew what they wanted to say, and they said it quite plainly (and most of them were killed for it). There is no "secret code" to understanding the Bible.

In order to be intellectually honest, evidence for a Biblical "error" must result from a comprehensive exegesis of the text. That is, fully explain and understand in total what is being said, who is saying it, to whom is it being said, why is it being said, and what are the circumstances surrounding what is being said. The most common places people claim to find Biblical contradictions are among the four Gospels. The fact that they each contain seperate details does not logically mean they contain errors. Each account is included in the Bible for a reason, and the details they each include are relevant to their purpose. Anyone can take out-of-context phrases from the Bible and make a wispy little case that it contains contradictions, but it makes no sense intellectually to argue such a point without first fully understanding the text itself. To do any less is a short cut to thinking. Be careful if you think you've found something in the Bible that contradicts itself. It has been studied and explained before, so all you need to do is a little research to discover the truth.

We must remember that a contradiction only occurs when one statement excludes the possibility of another, and this NEVER happens in the scriptures. The Bible does not contradict, confuse itself or make errors.

#2. God is in control of EVERYTHING.
Including all world events and YOU. Whether you are a Christian, an Atheist, a Hindu, or whatever, you are living out God's plan for your life. Either you will come to worship Him in this life, or you won't. It's all a part of His absolutely sovereign will for the people of this world. Nothing happens that God doesn't decree. Nothing. You will either accept this now, or you will accept it later. There is NO third option. God has all the power, all the choice, all the will. We have NONE. We are in God's hands. For the believer, this is truly GOOD NEWS!

#3. The more significant God becomes, and the less significant I become, the cooler and more amazing my Christianity becomes.
When you realize that Christianity is not about YOU and your activities. Rather, it is about God and His electing GRACE which brought you to him despite your sinfulness, that's AMAZING GRACE indeed! If you happen to believe, it's NOT because you made a choice. It's because you were CHOSEN by God BEFORE the world was even created, and the Holy Spirit was placed inside you for the purpose of insuring your salvation! How incredible is that?!

Now that you know where I'm coming from, read on ...