Challenged Accepted:

I was recently challenged by a fellow Pastor to see if I could combine all of my beliefs in theology into one easy to read paragraph. I wrote, re-wrote, deleted and shortened everything I believe into one paragraph. Here it is...

I am a follower of King Jesus. I believe in the Triune God of the Bible. I believe that God the Father sent God the Son to live a perfect life and die a justice-satisfying death in my place. I believe that the Son rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father. I long for the day when he returns to judge the living and the dead, casting his enemies into hell and ushering his people into his kingdom. I believe the Spirit of God is poured out and into all who are born again. I believe that all people must repent of their sins and turn towards God through faith in Jesus. In other words, we are justified by grace through faith, having our sins charged to the account of Jesus and his righteousness charged to ours. In short, we are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And I believe that Spirit-filled followers of the King bow to the authoritative Word of the King as they seek to carry out the Great Commission of the King. Finally, the mission of the King has a church. The church, tangibly expressed in local congregations, seeks the joy of all peoples and the fame of the name through the proclamation of the gospel and in loving service to their neighbors. And we do this until Christ returns or calls us home.

Do you agree? Disagree? Parts you would change? I challenge you to write down everything you believe about theology into one paragraph.