Eternal Life Starts Today
John 17:3
3. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Salvation is transformation, not fire insurance.
God is more concerned with your character and how you are growing to treat others better than a decision you made at youth camp. We do not call anyone to make a decision for Christ, but rather invite all to follow Christ just as Christ himself offered.
He seeks to transform us from mindless sheep, to servants, to friends.
John 15:15
15. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
Isaiah 53:6
6. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
God wants us to stop seeking to be like him in power and glory, and instead be like him in character.
God is not an angry God saving us from his wrath, rather he is a loving God saving us from ourselves.
He seeks our good and our benefit as a loving parent does.
God is full of life and offers to share his life with us
John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
We define faith and belief as such: a relationship with God defined by mutual trust and shown through our actions. Its about knowing God, not knowing about God.
Cognitive capability and other knowledge have little if anything to do with it.
A priority of knowledge can be shown:
Knowing God personally
Knowing who God is, maybe required to trust him
Knowing about God, most of theology fits here and is not very important.
We affirm the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus
1 Corinthians 15:3-5
3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
4. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
5. and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Room for ambiguity
Anything else about history or science we believe is secondary, personal, and not important. We cannot know the answers to these questions, and they do not affect our spiritual journeys. At the end of all theories of existence, simulation, multiverse, etc, either there is a source or there is not, and either that source has a personality or is an ambivalent force. We believe God is the source of all and his personality can be seen most clearly in the life of Jesus the Christ.
Furthermore we are fine with paradoxes and holding things in tension. Most theological questions are distractions and excuses for bad behavior. We will not dwell on them. The aim of our charge is love.
1 Timothy 1:3-5
3. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,
4. nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
5. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
We believe in absolute truth, but we also understand it is far more complex than we could ever imagine.
There will always be mystery with God.
There is white and black, and also shades of grey. God asks us to learn to discern which is which.
We believe life is a journey, and seeking truth in love is more important than claiming to have all the answers. The only answer we will claim is what was claimed already, that true life is only found in Jesus the Christ.