More Theological Convictions of Mine

A repost with expanded topics!

                Reformed Theology (Five Point Calvinist) - God is the author of salvation.  He moves and acts in ways that are a mystery to us.  He saves us without merit on our own.  We cannot save ourselves.  

                Regulative Principle in Family Life, Church Government, Worship, and Ethics - God governs our practices as well as our teachings.  

                Intellectually Engaged - Faith is coherent.  

                Historical-Grammatical method of Hermeneutics - The historical-grammatical method is a Christian hermeneutical method that strives to discover the Biblical author's original intended meaning in the text.
                Spirit Led; Spirit Empowered - All Christians receive the Holy Spirit at regeneration.  He teaches them and enables them for service.  

                No Small People - Regardless of social position, talent, ability and aptitude God has made each person we meet special in some unique way.  

                Cultural Mandate (Neo-Calvinism) - All of life, both things commonly counted as sacred and things counted as secular, are to be approached from a Biblical world view by the Christian.  It is not an evangelism experiment but living life. 

                Great Commission Focused - God has blessed all nations through his chosen one the Messiah.  We are to declare this good news.  

                Multigenerational Blessing of the Covenant - God sanctifies families.  The covenant is to be passed from one generation to the next.  

                Application Oriented, Expository Preaching - We are to preach the Bible and not our own ideas.  Since the Bible puts an emphasis on being a doer of the Word and not just a hearer, the preaching must be clearly focused on application.  

                Church as Elder Led - The pastor is called several things in the NT; overseer, shepherd, and elder.  The elder speaks how the shepherd is one of the flock, not clergy above the flock.  The elder is one of the group.  There is an inherent parity among elders too. 
                   
                Church Trained Elders - While seminaries are a great blessing to the church, ministry is learned in the church.  Churches need to examine who from within their midst is already doing the work of ministry and help them get the further training they need to be the shepherd.  

                Church as Congregation - While the church is a called out people, this does not mean called out from the world, it is called to a congregation, a gathering.  Church models that neglect the gather model are lacking that bit of Scriptural component of a true church.  

                Complimentarian Who Honors Both Genders - Those who hold to a complimentarian view of men and women sometimes appear to dishonor women.  We must go out of our way as complimentarians to honor women.  Ladies first!

                Ethics Based on the 10 Commandments - The 10 Commandments is the bases of the Christian ethics however the logical conclusion to the 10 Commandments are the virtues as seen in Jesus words in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount.  

                Ex Nilo Creation - God created this world by speaking and it was done.  

                Simultaneously Optimistic and Pessimistic regarding Eschatological Issues - God will pour out his Spirit in the last days but at the same time the world will rebel more and more against God.  The pouring out of the Spirit may not have a lot of worldly glamour, it might be the birth of a church in a slum in Brazil.  It might be a young preacher in India preaching on the streets in a megacity.  These simple things will bring glory to God.

             Covenant Theology - God has revealed himself in a progressive revelation of successive and related covenants in the Bible starting with a covenant with Adam and finishing with the New Covenant.  

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