Recently, I was asked to give a summary of what I believe and what we at Come And Reason Ministries teach. I responded with a bullet list of beliefs but thought it might be helpful to make this into an index of sorts, not only listing our beliefs but also providing links to resources that further explore these truths. It will be a great place for people who are new to Come and Reason Ministries to start their exploration of our material, but it will also be a helpful resource for you when a source is needed to expand on a certain topic. You can quickly access this list using the “Click Here if you’re new to Come And Reason Ministries” button at the top of the home page.
- God is love.
- For more, see our blog God Is Love—All the Time.
- God is Creator.
- For more, see our blog Creation, Evolution, and Evidence-Based Thinking.
- God exists in a triune perfection of love.
- For more, see our blogs Trinity: Bible Truth or Human Fiction? and Trinity—More Questions.
- When God creates, He creates perfectly—without defect, without sin.
- For more, watch our The Power of Love video In the Beginning—An Accurate Diagnosis of the Sin Problem.
- God’s creation is built by Him to operate in harmony with Him and His law, which is an expression of His character and the operational protocols He built reality to operate upon.
- For more, read our blogs The Design Laws of God and The Parables of Jesus—The Overarching Theme and watch our Power of Love videos The Law of Liberty and The Law of Worship.
- Sin is the transgression of or the breaking of God’s law—breaking the protocols life is built to function upon.
- For more, watch our Power of Love video In the Beginning—An Accurate Diagnosis of the Sin Problem.
- The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23); sin, when fully grown, brings forth death (James 1:15); those who sow to the carnal nature FROM THAT NATURE reap destruction (Galatians 6:8).
- For more, read our blog The Truth About Hell or watch our Power of Love video The Truth About Hell.
- Sin takes one out of harmony with God and His law, which is the set of protocols life operates upon, and without divine intervention, sin results in death.
- For more, read our blog The War Between Chaos and Order: Why Our World Is Descending into Disorder.
- When Adam sinned, he broke God’s law of life and became terminal, dead in trespass and sin.
- For more, watch our Power of Love video In the Beginning—An Accurate Diagnosis of the Sin Problem.
- We are all born in sin, conceived in iniquity (Psalm 51:5); we have the terminal sin condition that we did not choose but that we inherited from Adam.
- For more, read our blog My Sin Is Not as Bad as Your Sin.
- Ever since the Fall, no human could fix the terminal sin condition caused by Adam’s sin; nothing we can do can cure it; we cannot save ourselves. Therefore, God promised in Eden that Jesus would come and destroy the sin problem and save humanity (Genesis 3:15).
- For more, read our blog Israel and the Promised Land Today and see our Power of Love video Explaining the Old Testament Through Design Law.
- No human could have been saved without Jesus having come as our Savior; His life, death, and resurrection were a requirement for salvation.
- For more, see our blogs Bible Texts Reveal Why Jesus Had to Die and Penal Substitution Versus Design Law—What’s the Difference? and watch our video What Jesus Accomplished at the Cross.
- It was in the humanity of Jesus that the human species was saved. Because Jesus became a real human and lived a sinless life, overcoming Satan, sin, and death, there will always be a human being who lives—the species was saved in the person of Jesus.
- For more, see our Power of Love video Atonement—The Reality and Satan’s Mass Fraud and our God and Your Church videos Growing Up in Christ—The Seven Levels of Moral Decision-Making and Becoming a Spokesperson for God.
- But Jesus also provided by His life, death, and resurrection what was necessary to save any other human being who trusts Him. It is only through Jesus, by faith/trust in Him, that we can be saved.
- For more, read our blog Justification by Faith.
- God created human beings in His image with the capacity for reason, comprehension, understanding, and love. He wants our faithful, loyal trust and friendship (John 15:15), and this is achieved only as we are fully persuaded in our own minds (Romans 14:5). We are to mature from new babes in Christ to mature Christians who have developed the ability to discern right from wrong (Hebrews 5:14).
- For more, see our video Growing Up in Christ: The Seven Levels of Moral Decision Making.
- God has provided three different threads of evidence that reveal His truth. If we separate those three threads, we are vulnerable to deception.
- When we trust in God, we open the heart and the Holy Spirit takes the victory of Christ and reproduces it in us. We get a new heart and right spirit, are reborn, have the law written into the heart/mind, and become partakers of the divine nature, such that it is no longer us, the old sinner, living but Christ living in us. This is salvation, healing, renewal, regeneration, which only comes by faith in Jesus.
- For more, read our blogs Victory Through Intimate Love, What Is God’s Grace?, and God Sacrificed Jesus so that We Can Live Victoriously.
- Through Jesus, not only is humanity saved from sin, but the unfallen angels are secured in their loyalty.
- For more, read our blog The Timing of God in Sending His Son and What Angels Saw at the Cross.
- Christians can live victoriously only through intimate connection with Jesus.
- For more, read our blogs Victory Through Intimate Love, Peace and Victory When Evil Abounds, and Our Two Natures: Gaining the Victory!
- God’s judgment is not a legal finding but an accurate diagnosis of what is. His judgment does not determine who is saved or lost but confirms who chose to be saved or lost. When the Judge separates the sheep from the goats, it is because sheep are sheep (having trusted Jesus) and goats are goats (having rejected Jesus); the Judge doesn’t cause them to be other than they are.
- For more, read our blog The Four Judgments and our magazine The Final Message of Mercy to the World: The Three Angels and watch our Power of Love video The Judgments.
- Prior to Jesus’ return, God purifies His people to prepare them to stand in His presence. This is the cleansing of the bride (the church) and was taught as an object lesson in the Old Testament sanctuary service.
- For more, read our magazine The Wedding of Christ to His Bride: Preparing the Church for the Second Coming and watch our three-part Sanctuary and Feasts Days Seminar.
- Humanity is mortal and receives the gift of immortality through Jesus Christ. One day there will be a bodily resurrection of the saints who will receive eternal life from their Savior.
- For more, watch our Power of Love video Death and Resurrection and read our blog Why Resurrect the Wicked?
- Satan’s final attack is through beastly systems. In Scripture, all human governments are represented by ferocious beasts because such animals dominate by force and killing, just like human governments govern by force, coercion, war, and killing their enemies. Jesus is represented by the gentleness of a lamb because He governs by truth, love, and freedom. The beastly systems advance through coercive force in their pursuit of justice, whereas Jesus advances through winning hearts to loyal love.
- For more, see our magazine Unmasking the Beasts of Revelation 13 & 17.