Church & Theology

– Where the Bible and the Local Church Meet –

What We Believe

You may be asking what the theological and interpretive orientation of churchandtheology.com is. We endeavor to take the written Word of God at face value, attempting to identify our presuppositions and testing them by comparing them with Scripture. Here are some of the key features of our conclusions from Scripture, along with a few of the texts supporting our conclusions. These do not constitute a doctrinal statement, because Christians should see the whole Bible as their doctrinal statement.

  1. We hold to the verbal, plenary inspiration of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16a), which is (not ‘contains’) the very words of God—indeed his very thoughts. We are able to understand God’s thoughts—to think the same way God thinks—with regard to the information he has disclosed, but we do not know all of God’s thoughts.  
  2. The Christian’s belief system and life should be based on teaching from Scripture, not on experience (2 Tim. 3:16b-17). Sound teaching leads to sound doctrine/theology, which in turn is the basis for acts that please God: Correct teaching > Correct belief > Correct living. Doing the things that please God can never come by accident; they are based on holding to what is true according to Scripture.
  3. The Bible teaches that the local church is the best theological and practical training ground for Christians (1 Tim. 3:15: “the pillar and foundation of the truth” NIV). This is the basis for this web site.
  4. With regard to the meaning and value of the Cross, we are Reformed and Calvinistic and emphasize the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace, a term that means that salvation is in every possible way dependent on God and God alone.
  5. We rejoice in God’s choosing individuals for salvation unconditionally in eternity past (Eph. 1:4) and acknowledge the validity of the difficult doctrine of sovereign reprobation and eternal punishment for the non-elect (Rom. 9:1-24). A person does not become one of the elect by believing, but believes because he is one of the elect (Acts 13:48: “all who were appointed for eternal life believed”).
  6. God’s overall purpose in creating the universe is to bring glory to himself through saving the elect and giving them eternal enjoyment of himself (Rom. 9:22-24). We hold to what some call High Calvinism, or Supralapsarianism. This is not Hypercalvinism, which we reject.
  7. We reject the three associated ideas that God loves everyone, that Jesus died for everyone and that God wants everyone to be saved.
  8. We interpret the so-called TULIP of modern Calvinism as a) total depravity, b) unconditional election, c) limited atonement, d) irresistible grace and e) perseverance of the saints. We hold to all five points. No points of the so-called TULIP can exist without the others: they stand or fall together. A more helpful description of the third point is that God intended the infinite value of Jesus’ death on the Cross to be applied only to the elect. The issue is: What was God’s intention in the death of Christ? We hold that it was to save the elect.
  9. We emphasize the connected doctrines of substitutionary atonement, particular redemption and definite atonement: Jesus died in the place of named individuals (not a hypothetical group; John 10:11 and 15—‘the sheep’) and was designed by the Holy Trinity to actually pay for the sins of those people (Heb. 9:12: “having obtained eternal redemption”). In context, ‘world’ in John 3:16 refers to the totality of the elect.
  10. We cannot agree with the teaching that so-called four-point Calvinism is biblical and Calvinistic, since it holds that God intended the Cross to provide salvation for all human beings and not for the elect only.
  11. God is the ultimate cause of all things (Eph. 1:11—“works all things according to the purpose of his will”). We reject the Arminian idea of free will. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was part of the plan of God, and the Betrayer could have done nothing other than what he did, although God held him responsible for what he did (Acts 2:23; Gen 50:20). God never ‘allows’ things to happen. That idea would make him subservient to a higher power, force or entity and shows a lack of understanding of God’s nature.
  12. We hold that faith is a gift of God (Phil. 1:29; Eph. 2:8) and that regeneration precedes exercising saving faith. All are born with total depravity—every part of our minds and natures is corrupted by sin—and so we cannot turn to God in faith without his first changing our hearts. No one seeks after God (Rom. 3:11). The idea that some people are God-seekers is unbiblical.
  13. We reject the idea of Lordship Salvation, and emphasize that the terms of salvation are centered on giving assent to the truth of the Gospel stated in propositions. No one can be saved without hearing the Gospel (Rom. 10:14).
  14. Satan is a real, living being, committed to being like God. He is, however, under God’s control (Job 1).
  15. We reject classical apologetics and evidentialism and espouse presuppositional apologetics of the type found in the writings of Gordon Clark (scripturalism). We reject the idea that proof of the existence of God can be arrived at through constructed arguments.
  16. God is not giving revelation today and has not since the first century.
  17. The so-called miraculous gifts are not part of God’s program in this age.
  18. We reject the idea that the King James translation best preserves the texts penned by the biblical authors.
  19. We take the length of the days in Genesis 1-2 at face value (24 hours) and hold to recent, 6-day creation and a universal flood. We reject the theories of evolution, the gap theory and the chaos theory.
  20. True Bible-based Christian counseling 1) rejects practices that have their roots in secular psychology and 2) is centered on the ability of believers to counsel each other (Rom 15:14; ‘admonish’ in AV and NASB).
  21. We hold that the New Testament teaches leadership by multiple elders in the local church and reject the ideas of a pastoral office and ordination to such an office. ‘Elder’ and ‘deacon’ are places of service, not offices.
  22. Teaching in the public meetings of the local church is to be carried out by men recognized by believers as having been given the gift of teaching by the Holy Spirit.
  23. We hold to a complementarian position regarding the relation of men and women in the Body of Christ. Men and women are equal in standing before God with regard to salvation, yet have different roles in the local church and the Body of Christ, with men in leadership positions.
  24. We reject the idea that the Bible allows homosexual practices. Both the Old Testament and New Testament condemn them. However, the local church has a ministry to people who wrestle in their own lives with rejecting homosexual thinking.
  25. While we are Reformed with regard to the meaning and purpose of the Cross, we do not hold to so-called Covenant Theology.
  26. We believe that Jesus Christ will return first to take the Church out of this world at the beginning of the so-called Tribulation Period. He will return at the end of that time to establish his 1000-year earthly Kingdom, with his people the Jews at the center, fulfilling the promises made first to Abraham. We therefore reject Replacement Theology and see in God’s plan a future for redeemed national Israel. We see no contradiction in holding to premillennialism and Calvinistic soteriology at the same time.