What I Believe

The Bible, in its original manuscripts, is the inerrant, divinely inspired Word of God. That's not a line I say because it sounds right. I believe it because it's true. Scripture is not “just interpretation.” It's not a collection of nice ideas that you get to agree or disagree with depending on how you feel. It is objective truth.

When I study a passage, I go back to the original Hebrew and Greek whenever I can. Not because I'm trying to sound smart, but because the English translations, as good as they are, sometimes miss the weight of what's actually being said. The Holy Spirit guides believers into all truth (John 16:13), and I trust that. But I also think God gave us brains and expects us to use them when we open His Book.

I'm a Provisionist. If you've never heard that word, here's what it means in plain language: I believe God genuinely wants all people to be saved. Not just some. Not just a group He picked out before the world began. All. “Whosoever will” means whosoever will.

Christ's death on the cross was sufficient for everyone and available to everyone. But it's only applied to those who repent, believe, and confess Christ as Lord. That's what Scripture teaches. God made the way. We have to walk through it.

I believe in conditional election based on God's foreknowledge. I believe that when the Bible says we were “dead in sin,” it means we were separated from God ... not that we were completely unable to hear Him or respond when He called. A dead man in Scripture is someone cut off from the source of life, not someone who has no capacity to receive it when it's offered. I've laid out the full biblical case for that here.

Faith is what I like to call a beggar's hand. It receives a gift. Receiving a gift is not the same thing as earning it. And I think a lot of theological confusion comes from people who can't tell the difference.

I'll be straight with you. I disagree with the Calvinist/Reformed system of soteriology. I disagree with it firmly. But I try to do it respectfully.

Here's what I believe about predestination. God knew everything that was going to happen because of His omniscience. That included who would and who wouldn't accept salvation. In that sense, the very act of creation predetermined everything that would be. But He didn't determine every action of man. In His sovereignty, He granted us free will ... the ability to accept or reject His offer of salvation. I don't believe the atonement was limited to a select few, and I don't believe human beings are so depraved that they can't even respond to the Gospel unless God overrides their will first.

I believe the passages in Romans that get used to defend those positions are actually about Jewish-Gentile relations, not individual predestination. That's a longer conversation, and I've written about it elsewhere on this site. But the short version is: I think a lot of good people have built a system on passages they've pulled out of context, and I think Scripture, taken as a whole, tells a different story.

I say all of this without any ill will toward my Calvinist brothers and sisters. We disagree. That's okay. But I'm not going to pretend the disagreement doesn't exist.

This is the subject closest to my heart. I wrote a whole book about it ... Forgiving Like God.

Here's what I've come to understand from Scripture. Forgiveness is conditional on repentance. God's offer of forgiveness is open to everyone, but its application requires repentance and faith. The idea of “unconditional forgiveness” sounds beautiful, but it's not what the Bible teaches. I dig into this question in Can You Forgive Someone Who Isn't Sorry?

God actively “forgets” forgiven sins. That's not a limitation of His knowledge. It's an exercise of His power. The Greek word in Hebrews 8:12, mnaomai, refers to active recollection. When God says He'll “remember no more,” that's a deliberate act. And it's a model for how we're supposed to handle forgiveness toward others.

One more thing I'll say here, because I think it matters: true Godly forgiveness cannot happen without repentance. That's the whole theological crux of Forgiving Like God. But since we can't see the heart like God can, He's given us examples in the Word on testing repentance. That's what we dive into in the book.

And “self-forgiveness” ... that's a popular idea, but you won't find it in Scripture. When God has forgiven you, refusing to accept that forgiveness isn't humility. It's pride. Our past sins are part of our testimony. They're not something we need to erase. They're evidence of what God did with someone who didn't deserve it.

I lean toward a pre-tribulation rapture and a premillennial return of Christ, though I hold that position loosely. I can also see a strong case for a mid-tribulation rapture. The crux for me is this: I do not believe the church will go through the “great tribulation.” I believe the prophetic passages in Daniel, Revelation, and throughout the Old Testament are meant to be taken seriously and studied carefully. I'm not one of those people who thinks Revelation is just symbolic language that doesn't mean anything specific.

That said, I believe devoted Christians can hold differing views on eschatology and still have genuine fellowship. We aren't supposed to have a complete picture of future events—Jesus made this clear during His earthly ministry. Prophecy is given to prepare us and point us to Him, not to divide us.

I think we're living in significant times. I think the signs Scripture talks about are visible to anyone paying attention. But I also think date-setting and sensationalism do more harm than good. The point of prophecy isn't to scare people. It's to prepare them and to remind us that God has already told us how this ends.