Thursday, December 14, 2006

What I Believe

Now if you’re reading this that means you probably know me, because not too many people actually read this. But do you really know what I believe? Now that’s the issue.

One of the more disappointing events of my college years was when I went before the DBMD. My classes had told me that the DBMD would grill me and I needed to be prepared to defend and explain my beliefs to “the Gatekeepers.” But my three meetings with the watchmen of my district left me wanting. I was expecting to have to at least flex and in fact I barely needed to stretch. It was like I've spent all this time preparing to come and see if I match up, and they sent the JV team.

Recently, what I have discovered about myself is that I can get pretty dogmatic about things. I have all these opinions about stuff that really doesn’t matter, but I would make them matter to me. Instead of worrying and focusing on what is important, I found myself concerned about debates that maybe I should have avoided.

So I have decided to keep my dogma to a minimum. I want to narrow down my wedge as skinny as possible. So I have come up with six (6) points of dogma. These six points I believe with all my heart and I will die for them. Everything else to me is debatable and everything else just helps explain my top five.

1. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons, that mysteriously are one.

2. Jesus is the only way to God. There is no other way.

3. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan for creation.

4. Jesus’ movement is centered on reconciliation and living a better life.

5. The church, the global community of Jesus’ followers, is God’s plan for spreading this movement.

6. Our lives we live now determine our eternal destiny.

Now I plan on posting some of my lesser beliefs at a later date. What do you think about my top 5? Do you think I’m missing anything? Probably you do, let me know.