What do we believe?
In the 1990’s, the trend for businesses was to have a company “mission statement” to clearly state what your overall mission was, as a corporation. I always considered it somewhat silly. The company I worked for had executives spend time summing up what we did in politically correct corporate jargon. Instead of simply saying, “We sell widgets,” a company’s mission statement becomes, “To provide the highest level of customer service by providing outstanding products at a reasonable price.” Isn’t that stating the obvious? Shouldn’t everyone do their best at their work to move the company product?
The same holds true of the church. Every denomination has its own statement of faith. Down through the ages, many creeds and documents have been issued stating what various groups of people believe. Many local churches have statements of faith, and it is even popular now to write a personal statement of faith. It is usually a summary of what a group believes, particularly on key points. I am not saying there is anything inherently wrong with this. It is just that, like a mission statement, it should be obvious what the church believes: the Bible.
God’s provision: the Bible
We do have to pause here to explain what we mean when we say we believe the Bible. It means that we take the Word of God literally and believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of Scripture. Now there’s a statement of faith for you in technical jargon! But all this means is that the Bible is God’s inspired Word, that every word is inspired, and it contains no errors. It also means that we take it seriously.
The Bible is the Christian’s handbook from God through the men that He moved to write it. In 2 Timothy 3:16f we read, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works.”
Peter looked to the Word of God as his sole source for truth. In 2 Peter 1:3, he says, “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”
Peter is saying that God has given us everything we need through “the knowledge of Him.” Where do we get the knowledge of God? In the Bible. Peter goes on to say that the Scriptures are the surest thing we have, even more certain than his own personal experience with the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 19). This is because the Scriptures speak of Christ, and the prophecies concerning Christ corroborated his own experience.
I realize that this is being somewhat simplistic, but that is the point. If we claim to be Christians, then that means we are followers of the Lord Jesus and His teachings. Where do we go to learn all about Him and His teachings? The answer, of course, is the Bible.
Other belief systems
Everyone has his own belief system. What matters is what that belief system is based upon. The foundation must be reliable. The world prompts people to develop their own system of beliefs, but it does not encourage them to look in the right places. It tells them to look within themselves, which is a bad place to start. Paul says in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.”
The only source of truth we can rely on is God, and the place we find His truth is in His Word, the Bible. But a difficulty arises when various people see things in Scripture differently and meet based on those differences. Sadly, some even add to what is found in Scripture and incorporate these additions into what they officially believe. This leads to their statement of faith becoming a statement of their personal belief system. The end result is many different denominations and gatherings of believers that meet around their common belief systems. This is why formal denominations often have titles: the believers have a common belief system and meet under a name that identifies it. Don’t get me wrong. There are many good believers in denominational churches. But this ought to prompt us to ask ourselves some important questions: what is our statement of faith and under what name do we meet?
Our beliefs
We can get used to saying that we meet in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our statement of faith may even reflect the fact that we seek to solely meet based on the principles found in the Word of God. But, often, we start to boast of the fact that we try to follow the New Testament pattern, and we shift the emphasis off our Lord and onto our way of meeting. Or we start to consider ourselves as being part of the Plymouth Brethren or the Assembly movement, and can even become proud of that. When we do this, our non-denomination becomes its own denomination. To some degree, we have stopped following Christ and the Bible and started following men and their belief systems.
Our basis of meeting is Christ. Our statement of faith is the Bible. We, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, should look to Him only as our Head. We should seek answers in His Word alone. This only happens when we earnestly seek Him through the Bible; when we let the Scriptures speak to us and conform us to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). We must not look to the Word of God to bolster our own personal beliefs, and we must avoid the trap of taking pride in a position we hold.
We need to follow Paul’s admonition in Colossians 3:16f: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”
Let us allow God’s Word to live in us and through us. It is our statement of faith. We need to let it make its statement upon us.