Description
“Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His Who sent Me. If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God, or I speak from Myself” (John 7:16-17 MKJV). Skip to Our Statement of Doctrine Until now, we have not posted a “statement of faith” for several reasons: One, “statements of faith” are misnamed; they have nothing whatsoever to do with faith. They are rather statements of doctrine (usually of religious affiliation) that often smack of partisanship. “We believe such and such, so we are so and so...” or, “We are Baptists, so we believe....” Two, few if any ”statements of faith” say it all, and those that say much, doctrinally, say nothing about the faith of those who post them, except about their want of it. One does not state the true faith of Christ, he lives it. The reason there are so-called statements of faith is because those who publish them don’t have true faith, therefore not knowing the difference between doctrine and faith. Three, we suspect there will be those who prejudge us by a doctrinal statement and thus do themselves injustice, robbing themselves of substance we offer, because they focus on the doctrinal titles or statements. Four, many place their faith, not in Jesus Christ, but in presumed Biblical or religious doctrine, some about Him, some not - indeed much quite contrary to Him. There are many who believe that if they believe certain doctrines, they have favor with God. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Pharisees had many accurate Biblical doctrines according to the letter. They believed in one God, the Messiah to come, the authority of the Scriptures, the Law of Moses, the resurrection and afterlife, and the existence of angels; they gathered together for instruction and fellowship, studied the Scriptures, tithed, fasted, gave alms, prayed, bore witness to others, distinguished between clean and unclean meats, and kept the Sabbath and the Sabbath feasts. The blaring lack of faith declared by their lives, however, altogether drowned out any claim of truth, no matter how accurate or perfect the doctrines. Their fruits said it all. And when the Messiah came, not only did they not recognize or receive Him, they killed Him as a blasphemer and heretic. To add insult to injury, they insisted the Romans clear away their Messiah’s corpse, lest they should defile the Passover they were rightly preparing to keep according to the Law, in the Name of God. So what good did their “statement of faith” do them or anyone else? Five, our entire website declares what we believe; our doctrine is everywhere in our site, fully available for sincere investigators. While there are many who would want it spelled out to them, we recognize that if they were seeking truth, they would receive a spiritual witness as to whether our doctrine is of men or of God. Those who demand a doctrinal statement are faultfinders, at worst, or only seeking agreement on their own doctrines and perhaps some association with like-minded people. In such cases, they serve themselves, wittingly or otherwise; they are not after truth and do not love the Lord Jesus Christ as professed.