CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY 1 HANDBOOK

Nick Maples

DoctrinalSin The modern day church has come to the understanding that all sin is the same. This statement holds some validity because we are all born sinners and our lying would be no worse than our murder because it would equally receive damnation. However, once we are made new people by the power of Christ we have some ability to do good things in his name. This being said, some sins are much worse inside the body of Christ than others. The sins that are seen as the worst sins in scripture and are made evident through the history of the Church are doctrinal sins. When Paul wrote to the church in Galatia he could not even give any thanks for them existing because they were defiling the name of the Lord. Many people outside of the Church can offend God by saying the church is wrong. It is a much greater problem when the Church begins to be everything that is wrong. When the Church turns into something that God never intended it to be and begins to teach others anything that is contradictory to his word, this is when God is deeply offended and angered. Doctrineand SystematicTheology There have been three primary creeds written that help us remember what every Christian church should believe. These creeds are the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. These outline all of our Christian doctrine through the use of Biblical concepts and language. These creeds can be a base for our systematic theology as well. Systematic theology is a way to understand what the whole Bible says about doctrinal aspects of our faith while applying it to our daily life. It should not be

hard to apply these truths to our lives because doctrine has the power to change lives without ever really needing to know how it is relevant. A true understanding of God will be extremely relevant to any believer and will change his or her life because that believer now has a better understanding of who God is. Studiesof the Trinity There are different studies of systematic theology for each member of the trinity. Here are some of the beliefs and studies for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father 1. One God who created everything and is actively involved in the world. 2. The doctrine of the created order. 3. How the created order came into being. 4. The doctrine of humanity. 5. The justice of God. 6. The doctrine of sin. Son 1. The doctrine of Christ. Holy Spirit 1. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 2. The doctrine of salvation. 3. The doctrine of the Church. 4. The doctrine of the last things or end times.

Hierarchyof ChurchBeliefs There are many disagreements in the Church. Churches today have split into different denominations based on highly important matters of the Bible, and personal beliefs that mean relatively nothing to anyones spiritual health. The level of importance in Christian beliefs has been separated into three categories: dogma, doctrine, and opinion. Dogma is a belief that every Christian should hold to, and if a person does not hold this belief then it would mean that that person does not hold to the Christian faith. A few of these beliefs would be the virgin birth of Jesus, the full deity of Jesus, and the belief in the Trinity. Doctrine is beliefs that are highly important to the

Every Christian believes every dogma, doctrine and opinions may vary

understanding of God, but is disagreed about in the Church and can vary among all Christians. Some of these beliefs are predestination, perseverance of the saints, and women in the Ministry. The least valuable views in the Church are simply opinions. These are beliefs that can make churches look quite different but do not matter one way or another to God. Opinions would be things like drinking alcohol or the way people are baptized. We have to discern in our local churches what should split a church and what should not. Many people have different views about this so I am not saying mine is right, but what is said here is my view on the subject. I believe that dogma should certainly be something that divides a church, and I also believe most doctrinal views should not be

mixed in the leadership of churches. I feel that most people would agree that no one should have dogmatic problems and be in charge of a church, but many do not share that view with doctrine. I feel that if there are a variety of doctrinal views in a church, it could cause a lot of dissension and frustration among the church. I believe that if half the elders wanted women pastors and half did not, the church could be divided and if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand (Mark 3:25). I believe the same could be said about other doctrine such as predestination and eternal security. On the other hand, I strongly believe that most opinions do not matter and no one should leave a church just because that persons pastor drinks wine with dinner once and a while. As I said, this is not a universal view of the Church but it is my view and I feel quite strong about it. HowWeBelieveWhatWeBelieve For a Christian there is only one thing that hold ultimate authority in life. The Bible contains all of our Christian beliefs and any view in life should match up with scripture. This means that the Bible may not contain every truth in the world, but if something is seen as true that contradicts scripture then it is false. This being said, there are many interpretations of scripture and not all Biblical truth can be universally agreed on. While there are some truths that are almost wholly viewed the same among all churches, like extramarital sex and drunkenness are sins, the whole Bible is not always so clear on issues. If we cannot settle a dispute fully within the words of the Bible, sometimes we need to look at other things to answer theological questions. Reason is one way to understand what God wants of us. If something does not naturally

seem right or we can find by thought that something is wrong, that means it most likely is. Experience can also help any many situations as long as it is backed by scripture. Many people use their experiences as equally authoritative and this can be incredibly damaging in the body of Christ. When we put things like pit of the stomach feelings or chills in the category of Spirit movement, we can easily stray from the truth. Tradition and orthodoxy can also be things that help us understand practices better. If the beginning churches did something and almost every church has since then, it is probably a tradition that all churches should practice. In the same way, if the church saw something as wrong or right from the very beginning and it has stayed the same through time, it is probably not something we should change. InspirationOf Scripture There are many views of how the Bible was inspired and how much of it was inspired. A lot of Christians have the idea that the Bible is exactly what God spoke word for word using humans to pen what He said. This view is a very easy thing to believe but does not have a lot of scriptural backing. It would be great to know that exactly what we read in the Bible is exactly what God said, but this does not make sense for a few reasons. The first is that no one spoke English when the Bible was first written. If English was not spoken when the Bible was written and all the languages it was written in are significantly different than English, there is no way the Bible could be translated in English for us to read today. If the Bible was copied word for word from God, it would be heresy to put it into another language where words can change through translation. The much more likely view of the inspiration of scripture and my view of inspiration is a

dynamic inspiration. This is the idea that God breathed every part of the Bible but every human used to write scripture was able to use his own writing ability and writers voice. This makes much more sense in understanding the canon because of how different each writer is in the Bible. If God wrote every word then none of the books would sound any different then any other one. Another part of the inspiration of scripture is how much is inspired. There are three views on this subject: the Bible is fully inspired and absolutely flawless, the Bible is fully inspired but varies in many places to get a point across, and the Bible is only partially inspired but the gospel is still perfect. The middle view is referred to as irenic inspiration and this is what I hold to. There are clearly differences in stories and writings but every point that God wants to make in the Bible is made without fault. DivineOmnis It is well known that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Almost any Christian would agree that God is all-powerful, where we

God is all powerful,

disagree is in the definition of what all-powerful means. A popular question among Christians is if God is allpowerful can He sin? I believe that God cannot sin. How does it make sense that a perfect God could possibly sin? If he had the ability in his nature to sin, the very thing that is sin would know longer be considered sin because it is a part of God. I would say that God can do all things that is of Him. He cannot lust because lusting is

He has the power not to sin and therefore annot! He wo"#d not $e a##%powerf"# if He o"#d!

completely contrary to Himself. I think that saying God can sin and chooses not to takes away from who God is. God is also all knowing. Before the beginning of the earth He knew how every situation in life would occur. We cannot fool God or do anything outside of His will. He is never surprised by any of our actions. God is also present everywhere. Each member of the Trinity is living inside of you, is at your work, is at your home, and even in Hell. There is no place where God is not present. There are however, some places where God is present in different ways. God is present in church different than he is on the Basketball court. He is with a congregation of believers in a different way than He is when we are just living our daily lives. This is part of what makes church very important. PrimaryAttributesof the Trinity There are three attributes of the Trinity that are very important to know. First, God is uncreated. God has existed for eternity and will never cease to exist. Some will say that the Father has existed for all of eternity but the Son or the Holy Spirit was created later by Him. This is heresy, and would mean that the Trinity is not God but that only the Father is God. Since God is uncreated. Second, each part of the Trinity is always united. We can often forget this attribute of God when we say that the Holy Spirit is living in each believer. It is true that the Spirit resides in every member of the Body of Christ, but the Son and the Father do as well. If the entire Trinity was not present everywhere together, then they would not all being omnipresent and they would not all be God. The third attribute is the infinity of God. God is not confined to the space or time that human beings live in. While we are only a part of the here and now, God is in the

past, present, and future. He is also not confined to any earthly laws. He can heal diseases that could never naturally be healed. He can make water come out of a rock and allow an entire nation to cease to be thirsty. He does not only live in the time that we live in and does not only work in the ways that we are forced to work in. My WesternTrinityAnalogy One of the best analogies I know of for the trinity is the western view of God is like an egg. There is the shell, the white, and the yolk. Each part of the egg is equally the egg and without each part it would not be a full egg. However, each part of the egg has its own function and is distinct from the other parts. In the same way, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all equally God. If you take away any three then they are no longer God. However, each part of the Godhead has its own function and purpose within the trinity. GodsProvidentialwill This is another issue that is debated widely in the Church today. Almost any educated Christian will believe that everything that happens in life is part of Gods will. Some may say that God does not have any say in some areas of life, but that is a weak view of God. Many arguments will start when we discuss what we mean by everything is under Gods will. My belief is that there is a will that God desires, and a will that He decrees. Everything in the Bible shows that God desires humanity to be perfect beings. The laws that He puts in place for all of his followers are perfect laws. He tells us not

God decrees all things, but He does not force everything

to lie. He does not tell us not to lie most of the time, but He tells us not to lie all of the time. Gods desires for us are perfect, because if He desired anything less than perfection for us, He would not be God. It would never be a part of Gods desires for us to only sin less than other people, but to be free from sin. However, this is not the law that God decrees. God knew that when we were created in the garden we would sin. He had complete knowledge of His creation and knew that we would stray away from the will the He desired. He could have forced us to never have sinned, but it was part of His plan to allow us to sin. Now this means there are two sections of the will that God decrees. There is the will that God forces, and the will that He allows. God saw and knew from before we were created, that we would sin. He did not force us to sin, but He allowed us to sin for His plan. This does not make it in any way different than the will that God decrees. Just because He allows something to happen, does not mean He has no part in it. He could have simply stopped Eve from being tempted by Satan and the original sin in the garden would have never happened, but He didnt, therefore He decreed it. There is also a will that God forces. For example, I believe that God forces who He wants to become members of the body of Christ. I also believe that Jonah was forced to be eaten by a fish. I do not believe that this was simply God allowing something to happen, but God forcing it to happen supernaturally. God can do whatever He wants with His creation whenever He wants. With my view of Gods will, and what I believe is Biblically sound doctrine, it is obvious that the will that God forces and the will He allows are not very different at all. If God can allows something to happen when He could force the opposite to occur, it is not incredibly different than forcing it in the end.

God is not the author of sin, so He could never have forced the sin in the garden, but because He allowed it to happen, it is equally a part of the will that God decrees as my own salvation is. I believe that there are also times when God will force something bad to happen because of His perfect will. I believe that God could force my parents to be killed in order to bring me closer to Him. I believe He could also use that killing to bring the murders closer to Him as well. While the murders would be sinning when killing my parents, I believe that God is not forcing the sin, rather forcing His glory. I believe that God forcing our original sin is different than forcing sin to happen in our already sinful nature. Earthquakes and cancer would not have entered the world without the fall, but now that they have He uses them to bring Glory to His name. GodsGeneraland Special Providence

Gods providence also has two categories of general and special providence. General providence can be confused with miracles, but miracles are only things that are a part of special providence. However, this does not mean that general providence is any less amazing than special providence. Gods general providence is seen everyday in life in a variety of ways. Gods general providence is seen in His preservation of life. We can see this when we breathe, when the sun warms us, and when trees give us oxygen. Without God, these things would not happen. General providence is also seen in when he allows or enables things to happen in

Genera# pro&iden e an $e e'p#ained with reason( on#) so*ethin+ s"pernat"ra# an e'p#ain spe ia# pro&iden e

life. This could be seen if you could not breathe because you were, and then were made able to breathe because someone does the Heimlich maneuver on you. It could be amazing that anyone was with you while you were choking, and was able to get the food out of your throat, but because God used normal situations in life to help you breathe, it is still a part of general providence. The last way general providence can be seen is when God uses normal life circumstances to lead to a greater ending. This would happen if you told the man who saved your life all about God and he became a follower of Christ. God can use all kinds of general providence so that He uses His means to get to His ends. As I said before, special providence is reserved for miracles. These are things that can only be explained by supernatural power. If someone cut a

persons ear off, and another person came and put it back on your head with one touch, that would be a miracle. There is no way an ear can be attached to a body in one second by human power. God can be seen in general providence just as much as special providence, but if special providence had never happened, we would not have as much faith in general providence. TrinitarianHeresies There are many different heresies concerning the trinity, I will try to describe a few here. One of the most common things Christians misunderstand is that while each member of the trinity has distinct roles, they are not separate. Many will find themselves worshipping three separate gods, which would make Christianity a polytheistic religion. While the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit need to be distinguishable, it needs to also be understood that they are inseparable and all make up only one God. There are also some who believe that the son was either adopted by the Father, or was created by the Father and is the most favored part of the Fathers creation. This makes the terms Father and Son make more sense in our earthly minds, but does an injustice to the deity of Christ. If Christ is not eternal, He is either less God than the Father, or not God at all. This would once again create a separation between the members of the Trinity. There are other heresies that consider the Son, the Spirit, or both as simply characteristics of the Father. This makes it easy to understand the oneness of God, but it completely regards the whole Trinity. The Bible does not support this, especially when Christ talks about the Father and Son as clearly not being the same person as himself. While all of

these heresies give a good picture of some attribute of Christ, they disregard many other aspects of the Trinity. Purposefor Humanity There is one primary purpose for humanity with which all other purposes branch from, and that purpose is to form relationships. We form God honoring relationships by doing what He commands us to; to love Him and love others. If we love God with all that we have, we will love his law and live in accordance with his will. This will make us want to love others as well as we can. If we are constantly focused on loving God and others, our selfish ambitions will not get in the way of seeking out Gods plan for our life. Lets look at a few other things that we are commanded to do and see how they are tied back to loving God an others. We are called not to have sex outside of marriage. This is not a command that God has given us because He does not want us receiving pleasure as often as possible; it is because He knows that extramarital sex will hurt our view of other people and will negatively affect many aspects of life. So, if we love God and other people as much as God empowers us to, we will not seek to have sex outside of marriage. We will not want to hurt others by getting too close to them only to one day leave them, and we will also not want to hurt God by disregarding what He tells us. God also demands us in the Ten Commandments not to steal. If we love God and love others we will not seek to take from anyone else in order to make our own lives better.

O"r Chief +oa# is to #o&e God and #o&e others in order to +#orif) God with o"r entire #i&es!

Our hearts will be bent away from ourselves and be focused on how we can best glorify God through our care for people. GodsCreation There are three important things to understand about Gods creation. The first is that God created out of nothing. He did not use a speck of dust or a big bang; He used absolutely nothing in order to make the whole world. This is important to know because it takes away the possibility of any other theory of creation and because it discredits pantheism. If God created out of nothing, then Darwins theory of creation or the big bang could not be true. These are only some of the theories of creation that it disproves. It also explains that God did not create out of His own substance. If God was all that was in existence before the creation of the world, then without knowing He created from nothing you would have to assume He used something of Himself to create the world. This would mean that the whole creation is part of God, which would completely change the Christian faith. When it is stated that He created from nothing, we understand that God used nothing of Himself to create the Earth and that nothing on the Earth shares the same substance as Him. The second thing to understand about Gods creation is that He created out of freedom. I remember when I was young, I was taught that God created because He was lonely and needed more in His life. This is simply not what the Bible teaches us. God needs nothing and is dependent on no one. He is completely self-sufficient and certainly did not need to create us because He was bored. His creation was simply out of His free will in order to express his eternally perfect love. This brings us to the third point of creation, which is that God created for a purpose. He did

not create because He had nothing better to do; He created in order to express and portray His great glory and love. Creationof Humanity Gods creation of humanity was different and more significant than the rest of His creation. He goes into detail about why He created humanity and what humanity has that no other creation has. Humans are made in the image and likeness of God. Trees and water are not made in the image of God, but human beings are. This gives us the ability to form a relationship with Him. He also claimed that we were created very good, and we are the center focus of the created order. If we would have been created before food, or light, or land, then we would not have been able to survive. Just by the order in which God created, we see that His focus was on us. He also gives us dominion over the rest of creation. He gives us the ability to eat meet, and fruit, and vegetables. We are not in any way equal to the rest of creation because everything is under submission to us. We are also given a body and a soul. While other parts of creation are given bodies, no other creation has a soul. We are the only part of this world that Christs death was for. He gave us a soul so that we could be in fellowship with Him. He also created us male and female and demanded that we reproduce in order to populate the Earth. He wanted us to fill the Earth and enjoy everything that He has created for us to have. He made man and woman equal and wants every human to benefit from creation and glorify Him because of it. Misconceptionsof Christ

Christ was fully human, however there are some beliefs about His humanity that simply are not true. Many believe that because Christ was fully human and we are fully human, he was just like us. This is not true because it would set Christ as equal to us. If we believe He has a divine nature, we cannot believe that Jesus is just like us. The primary proof of this is that He never sinned. Every single person other than Jesus has sinned, making Him unlike us in a major way. Some will also go far enough to say that not only was Christ like humanity in every way, but that He was also like every single person in every single way. Many believe that because Christ had human experiences, he had an experience that compares to every situation we will ever be in. Christ lived a fully human life for thirty-three years, which means He could not have been put into every experience on Earth. For example, Christ was never a husband or a father. He was also never a football player or a member of a band. While He may have spoken about how to handle almost all situations in life, but that does not mean He actually had those experiences. Also, the experiences He had are still applicable for every human. If Christ went through something in His life, it is still very much applicable to us today.

Christ was 1,,*an( $"t did not

Importanceof ChristsDivinity

e'perien e 1,,- of e&er) *an.s e'perien e!

If Christ is not God, then the entire Christian faith can be thrown out. If Christ is not God, then there is no way He could be our redeemer. He would be just like another thief on the cross. Actually, if Jesus is not God, then He was hung on a cross for all the right reasons. The religious people of those days want Him to die because they believed He was blaspheming by claiming to be God. If He was not God, then they would certainly be right! He would have no power to forgive sins on Earth, or to the whole world through His death. His Divinity is the very thing that keeps us from the gates of Hell. Also, without Christ being God, we can have no real knowledge of who God is. God would just be a mystical figure that we talk about, but never have any real knowledge of. Since Christ is God, we know more about who God truly is. It also gives further examples of how set apart He is from us. Another thing about Christs divinity is that just as the faith would be wrong, so would the worship of Christ. Even if Christianity was relevant without Christs life and death, the Church would have been worshipping Him for two thousand years incorrectly. We would have been committing idol worship for almost the entire existence of the organized Church. Finally, Christs divinity makes sacrifices to God inappropriate. If He is not God, He does not take away the use of

sacrifices, and we have all been disobeying the law our entire lives. It is quite evident that Christs divinity is incredibly important to every Christian. CouldJesusSin? There has been an ongoing debate in the Church over the topic of Christs ability to sin. Both sides of the argument have legitimate points for their reasoning, but I do not think that believing Jesus could sin holds up as well as believing he could not. Believing that Jesus could sin makes his temptations much more relevant. It is clear that Jesus was tempted in many of the same ways as we are today, but why would that be significant if He could never sin? This is a tough question, and it is also a question that I do not have an answer for. I think that Jesus experienced many human temptations because He was fully human, but I do not believe He could have ever given into them. I believe because He experienced temptation, He understood as well as anyone what a human being goes through in life. However, this is not an answer that will convince everyone because it still makes His temptations sound less difficult than ours. Another argument for Christ being able to sin is that He would not have free will if He could not choose to sin. I think this is an odd view of the word free. What is free about having the ability to sin? I think this is one of the weakest points for believing that it was possible for Christ to sin. I believe that the ultimate free will is where sin is not an option.

If /es"s o"#d
Here are the reasons why I believe that Christ could not sin. First, it just makes sense that Christ could not sin. How could God ever have the ability to sin? If Christ could do

sin( then how o"#d he $e God0

anything, wouldnt that make it not a sin? If everything that God does is done with perfection, how could sinning ever be one of those things? If He ever lied, our conclusion would have to be that He was not God, or that lying was not a sin. This would have to be the same even if He never sinned, but was given the option to sin. If He could sin, He would have the ability inside Him to be the opposite of who god is. I do not believe that there was ever evil and good living inside Christ. Second, Christ was in constant communication with the Father and was always under the will of His Father. If the Fathers will is perfect and Jesus never sinned, then it could never have been a possibility for Christ to sin. We all sin because it is a part of Gods will that we sin. Therefor, if Christ never sinned then it was never a possibility for Him to have sinned. If we were to say that it was a possibility, then we would have to assume that the Father was not in control and sovereign over Christs life. We would also assume that He is not in control of our own lives, and that we have the ability to live a life without sin. These points make me believe that Christ never could have sinned. The officesof Christ Christ held the offices of prophet, priest, and king during His life on earth. Through these three offices we can learn everything that Christ did for us, is doing for us, and what we need to do because of it. When Christ filled the role of a prophet, He showed us the way we are to act. He did this by everything that He did and everything

that He taught. He gave many sermons throughout His time on earth, all showing us how to live in accordance with the will that God desires for our lives. However, not only does Christ preach about the way we are to live, He also lives it out for us. As we read the gospels, we read about the life of a perfect prophet. Christ gives a perfect example of how we are to love, forgive, discipline, and anything else in our daily lives. He does not actually experience every situation as we do, but we can look at the way He lived and what He preached in order to find out how to handle every situation. For example, Christ was never married so He would not have a lot to show us about loving our wives. He does show us and tell us what perfect love is though, and through this we can learn how to love our lives and to love every other person we form a relationship with. Jesus role as a prophet is much like the modern day role of a pastor. Pastors are called to preach the Bible faithfully, but they are also called to living a life that represents what they are preaching. What pastor would be taken seriously if He preached about not having affairs and not lying, but did both on a consistent basis? The difference between Christ and any other pastor is that every pastor does live in hypocrisy to what He preaches. We can never live up to everything that God desires for our lives because we are sinful beings. If we preach the scriptures accurately, there is no possibility that we can live up to them. Pastors are still called to be set apart from the rest of the world and to practice what they preach, but this can never be done to perfection. Jesus is the only one who will ever be able to preach what God has to say and live it out perfectly. Without Christ holding all oh His offices, then none of his offices would have mattered. Christ held the role of a priest during the time of his suffering and death on a

cross. This is vitally important because just as an Old Testament priest would have sacrificed animals as a sin offering, Christ offered himself as a sin offering for the entire world. This allows us to leave behind parts of the law that Christ paid for us in full. Finally, Christ held the office of king through His resurrection and life after death. He conquered death to show us his power over this life and the life to come. Through His resurrection we have assurance that death does not bring an end to our life. We see that we can have hope during any situation if we just follow our king. ChurchFocusesof the Offices Churches can be quick to focus on one of Christs offices and neglect the others. Many churches recently have focused on the office of Christ as priest and choose to focus less on His prophetic role. Our churches put a strong view on evangelism and reaching the lost, but do not do well at teaching a proper way to live. Many churches have alter calls at the end of each service; this can be a great example of seeing people come to faith in the Lord, but it might be a sign of the way our churches put too much emphasis on a one time conversion with no sanctification. This can be extremely harmful because it does not give new believers an understanding of what it means to become Holy like Christ was holy. If we search to reach the lost but never seek to grow the saved, we will end up with weak Christians who look like the rest of the world. However, many churches in earlier generations, and some still today, lean towards the prophetic office, which can sometimes take away from Christs role as priest. While looking at what Christ lived and preached will help us live out the will of God better, it can take away from the truth behind what Christ preached. Just living morally can make

Ea h offi e of Christ is i*portant( and a pri*ar) fo "s on one an #ead to a *is"nderstandi n+ of the +ospe#!
us think God only wanted us to be good, and not know Him better and see everything He did for us. This can cause us to have a human centered Gospel and not a Christ centered Gospel. Some churches will also put an emphasis on Christs role as king, which can also make the priestly role less significant. By viewing Him as king over all the Earth, we can tend to get caught up in why we stray from His desire for our life, and not acknowledge what He has already died for. To be clear, I am not saying every church sticks to one of these three views. In fact, the church I attend now does a very good job of implementing all three teachings into the worship and preaching. Many churches will also use at least two of these teachings and only leave out the third. It is easy for a church to leave out some parts of Christs ministry, and some days preaching on deeds are more important than teaching about the resurrection. However, all of these teachings should be used regularly in any Body of Christ. Viewsof Atonement

It is quite common for many people to look at Christs death on the cross in a variety of different ways. Some see his death as a way to be free from the slavery of sin. While we are sinners, we can do nothing but sin; but when He reaches down and pulls us from our sin, we are able to be loyal to Him. Others choose to look at His death as a way to free us from the guilt of sin. We all live lives full of sin, and once God works in us, He shows us that He has power over sin. This helps us recognize that while we will still sin, God is in control. There are also people who will view Christs death as atoning for the ignorance we have before we are reborn into the body of Christ. Before God comes into our lives and saves us, we have no understand of what true good is. We do not understand everything our lives are meant to be without understanding Him. Through His death, He is able to bring us an understanding of what He did for us, and who we are because of it. The final view of Christs atonement is that He died on the cross because there had to be a payment for sin. Without His death, there could be no eternal life. This does not focus on our lives as much as it shows everything that He did for us. I want to point out that none of these views are wrong. Some may go through life and have different experiences that see Christs death differently. I personally view Christs death from the first view. I see how sinful I was before I knew him, and how much He brought me out of sin. I see that without His death, I could never be freed from the bondage of sin. I also see the last view a lot. In the same way I see that without Him, I could be the best person in the world and still inherit eternal damnation. LimitedAtonement

There are some who believe Christ died for every single person on earth. I am not one of these people, and I believe that He only dies for whoever He elected to receive salvation. Many will say that John 3:16 is enough to prove this wrong, but I do not believe so. I believe that Christ did die for the entire world, but not everyone in it. I believe that He does not withhold salvation from any country or people group, but He does keep it from plenty of individuals. If Christ died for the entire world, then that would mean every person would be going to Heaven. How could His salvation be so weak, that even if He did die for someone, they did not receive eternal life? Or, if it is said that whomever he dies for is saved, would that mean that Hell does not exist? If anyone believes in predestination as meaning Christ saves whoever He chooses to save, then it would not make any sense to believe that Christs atonement was given to all. If Christ saves certain people, His death could only be for the forgiveness of some peoples sins. SpiritsDivinity The Holy Spirit is never specifically called God, but it is clear by reading the Bible that He is definitely a member of the trinity. One way we know He is God is through His attributes. The Holy Spirit is proclaimed to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. The Father and Son are explained as being all-powerful, all knowing, and everywhere at once. These attributes are also given to the Spirit. It is also said that He has existed for eternity along with the Father and Son. He is worshiped in many ways throughout the Bible as well. He is specifically mentioned in baptism and in prayer throughout scripture. He is also credited with divine works such as creating, sanctifying, and giving life. The last proof to the Holy Spirit being God is that it is unforgivable to blaspheme His name. If

the Holy Spirit were not God, why would blaspheming against Him be any different from blaspheming against Abraham? It is evident throughout Scripture that the Holy Spirit is placed on a level that is only equal to the Father and the Son. BiblicalMisunderstandingsof the HolySpirit There have been many errors made while trying to explain who the Holy Spirit is, here I will briefly explain a few. Some see the Holy Spirit as being simply an attribute of the Father. However, why would the Bible be very specific in using separate terms for each member of the Trinity, if in fact they are all the same? While this could give a slight explanation to why the Holy Spirit is never mentioned as God, it takes away the importance of the roles of each member of the Trinity. Some also believe that the Spirit is just a highly exalted creature created by the Father. It does not even make sense to mention Him if He is just another creature. If the Holy Spirit is simply created, then He is not God and did nothing on Earth. As all of these errors to the Spirit consist of Him not being God, there is also the error of making the Father, Son, and Spirit separate gods. The Father, Son, and Spirit all have clearly distinct roles, which is why it may be easy to think of them as also being separate individuals. This would cause Christianity to be polytheistic and would not make sense when compared with all of the Scriptures that tell us we worship one God. The final error, and one of the most popular errors, is believing that the Spirit will ever tell a person to do something that contradicts the Bible. This is what I have seen most in the lives of people around me. I have seen a lot of people support the view of women pastors by saying that the Spirit called them to the ministry. I understand that there may be biblical support for women pastors, but saying the Spirit

called them with no biblical backing is not a proper way to treat the Spirit. I have also had many friends tell me that they were called to date a non-Christian or drink with all of their friends. Both things can be clearly viewed as sins and using the Spirits name to justify it is taking His name in vain. ResurrectedBodies The resurrection shows us a lot about what life will be like after death. One thing it shows us is what our bodies will be like. We know that the bodies that are raised up are physical bodies and not just spiritual bodies. God made us as individual persons and will not take that away from us when we die. He will perfect our bodies, but they will still be the bodies that we have on Earth. The physical laws of this earth will not bind it. Even though we will have our bodies, they will be able to be risen and do other things that our /earthly bodies cannot do. For example, we will be able to see Gods glory more fully than we ever could on Earth. Also, our bodies will not be recognizable as ourselves, but they will still be recognized as human. When Christ came back, even His disciples could not recognize Him. They did not think of Him as a creature they had never seen before, they just thought He was a random stranger walking along the road. We know our bodies will be like all of these things because Christs was. His resurrected body is the evidence of what we have to look forward to in the future.

We know what our

WhatMakesa Church?

resurrected bodies will be by seeing what Christs is like.

There are five primary things that make a church a part of the Body of Christ. The first thing that is needed to be a church is the correct teaching of the Bible. There is no way a congregation can be considered a church if it does not preach the word of God. The second thing that is needed in a church is a biblically correct administration of the sacraments. The two sacraments that churches recognize today are Baptism and Communion. There is not actually a set of rules about how these things should be done, but they do need to be done with thought and seriousness. This can look different for every church. Some churches require and ordained pastor to administer the sacraments, a baptismal for Baptism, wine for Communion, and only the members of the church can partake. Other churches allow different members of the church to be administers, Baptize in a pool, use grape juice for Communion, and allow anyone in the church to partake. Neither of these churches are necessarily wrong, as long as neither of them administer the sacraments flippantly and with no prior meditation on what the Lord requires of them. Another important part of a church is having members that are committed to one another. This is extremely important and can be lost in our seeker friendly churches. Many will seek to go to church to be filled up, but do not seek to give

back to the Church and invest in other peoples lives. The Church needs to be a place where everyone is involved in each others lives and are seeking to grow as a community in the Lord. The final two things required of a church are branches of the first three. Through the first three requirements, we are also called to worship God and to do missions for others. Worshiping God can be seen through community, preaching, and the sacraments. We worship and glorify God with every relationship we have in the church, we worship God through listening and speaking the word of God, and we worship through taking part in the Communion and Baptism. It is also important to be a church that is reaching out into the world and making disciples of all nations. We need to grow the community of believers and serve God by serving His sons and daughters. Baptism Baptism is taken seriously in most churches today, but many churches vary in their believes of what Baptism is. I believe that Baptism is a way for Gods grace to come down onto His followers. I do not necessarily know what kind of Grace He is shedding on us through Baptism, but I do not believe it is a regenerating grace. I do not believe that we are reborn through baptism because I think that it is possible to have a new life in Christ without Baptism. I believe that Baptism is a part of gods sanctifying grace, although I cannot be certain. If we are reborn when Christ reaches into our lives and brings us to a realization of Him, then I think Baptism is a part of Gods process of sanctification. I also believe that it is comparable to the Old Testament law of circumcision. I believe that Baptism is a mark that sets Christians apart from the rest of

the world. Through Baptism we recognize Christ as completely sovereign and we dedicate our lives to Him. Holy Communion I believe that when we take Communion, Christ shows up in a different way than He does anywhere else. I believe that it is quite similar to the way He did Communion with the disciples before His death. I do not believe He was ever claiming to literally be the elements or be in the elements, but that He was represented by the elements and remembered with the elements. I believe that He is with us as we take Communion just as He was with His disciples. I do not believe that it is only something to remember Him by, but I certainly think that is part of it. However, I believe it is more than that because I can remember Christs death at any time I would like. I believe that Christ comes into our lives in a more meaningful way through a congregation of believers partaking in the Holy Communion. EndTimes Christ died, went to the dead and resurrected, but He also still has work to do. Christ still has to carry out a second coming, final judgment, and bring life everlasting to all who follow Him. The only problem with understanding what is still to come is that it is not clearly stated in Scripture. There is going to be a second coming of Christ, but when will it be? I believe that the Millennium is already happening right now and that there is no literal thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth. This would mean that one day Christ will come back, but it will not be any day that we can know. I do not believe there will be a literal thousand-year reign because that would mean Christ would have to return three

times. I believe that the Church is bearing fruit for the Kingdom here on Earth, but while on Earth there will always still be evil. If there was a literal thousand-year reign, I believe it would be wrong to say that this life is ever going to be free from evil before Heaven. WhyAll This? The reason this all needs to be said is because it is very important. Many will try to say that knowing what you believe does not matter, but that is simply not true. The truth about God is found in the Bible, and without knowing God we cannot truly know ourselves. All of this information is important because it is some of the most practical and applicable things you will ever learn. The study of systematic theology is not only an account of everything that Christians believe, but also a handbook on how to live life. The

So"nd theo#o+) is app#i a$#e and ne essar) for a## of #ife!

only way we will understand this world is by understanding its author and creator. There is a vital importance to studying theology because once you understand who you are and who God is, everything else falls into place.