Answering 01: I Believe

Sometimes it helps to reduce the shock for others if you can say something that shows you aren’t entirely outside all familiar Christian doctrine. As always, you are supposed to recognize that this is just my own beliefs in my own words. The idea is that you see beyond the particulars and strive to express your own beliefs. However, to the degree yours and mine coincide, you are welcome to use my words for your own. By hanging around this virtual parish, this is what you’ll get from me. At any given time, I might say it differently based on the context, but for now, this should help indicate the flavor of my soul.

I believe that there is only one God, Creator of all things. The commonly accepted English name for Him is Jehovah; you can call Him whatever you like. The whole point is that we do call on Him as our God. I believe His Person is rooted outside our universe.

I believe that all of humanity suffers from a native tendency to ignore our duty to Our Creator. We are born with an instinct to place our own reason above His revelation and refuse to connect back to His divine character that has been woven into all of Creation. I believe that Creation itself calls to us to acknowledge Him as Our Maker and we are unable by ourselves to engage Him as He demands. The initiative for resolving this conflict lies in His hands alone.

I believe that Jesus Christ was His only literal Son and our Savior. Jesus lived without sin by His own Father’s reckoning, utterly fulfilling the purpose of all the Law Covenants. He died unjustly in our place, murdered by human sin and absorbing the penalties for all such sin. He arose literally from death by His own moral authority over life and death. He lives now in another realm of existence so that we can all commune with Him regardless of our space and time limitations. However, we can commune with Him only on the grounds that we embrace His death in our place, and so offer Him the life we have left. I believe that this communion resolves the conflict between us and Our Creator.

I believe that every human soul is designed for redemption but that most simply will not. I am utterly convinced that no living human can comprehend just how it is God chooses and redeems some of us, but that apparently the majority of us will miss out on this gift of grace. Those of us who find ourselves aware of His redemption in our lives owe Him our very existence and so have no other purpose for living in this world other than to reflect His glory. I am utterly certain we cannot possibly comprehend what fate awaits those who die unredeemed.

I believe that someday this whole universe will be redeemed, that our space-time continuum will be utterly changed so that we will be unable to distinguish it from total destruction. The changes will affect both this and the higher realm which is our ultimate destiny, so that they are somehow merged, which is most certainly not the case now. In some sense, it will restore the original design God had for us and all other things.

I believe that our just response to all of this is not found in trying to change this doomed existence, but to change ourselves by His power into the likeness of His Son. We can surely enjoy some measure of His intended peace for us now, because Creation is not fallen, but suffers the limitations of our sinful nature as His stewards of this world. Our struggle to rediscover His glory in us serves to restore some measure of communion with His divine character in Creation, but the broader sweep of human history and human future is not ours to understand fully nor to alter.

(Hint: You could as easily substitute any of the classical Christian Creeds from Church History if they express your beliefs.)