James' Statement of Faith

 Rev. James W. Jordan

Personal Statement of Faith*

SCRIPTURE:

The Scriptures consist of the sixty-six books that are the canon of Protestant Christian tradition. These are the authoritative written revelation of God to humanity. The Scripture is inspired by God and came into history through His chosen human authors and in their circumstances. Scripture reflects the character of God. Each and every part of Scripture is important, and none can be slighted for the sake of another. Personal experience can never be placed above or on par with the Word of God. These Scriptures are the final authority for all religious controversy among all humanity. They are the reference and rule for the church and for Christian living. Therefore they inform us; we do not inform them. The Scriptures are written so that they may be read carefully, thoughtfully understood and applied to life. These sixty-six books are a unified whole, and are not to be divided up as if they were separated by anything other than chronology.

GOD:

God is the only eternal Spirit. He has always existed as He is and always will exist as He is. He is wholly different than we are, and His attributes are many and varied. He knows everything, He is always everywhere, He sees everything, He can do anything that He desires. He is the only being in existence who has no needs. God exists as a trinity: He is so perfect that His highest good is to behold Himself. Therefore, the Father has begotten the Son. The perfection and joy of their relationship is so strong that it is a third person, the Holy Spirit. This one God is therefore a personal being that exists in three centers of consciousness which are all co-eternal.

The person of the Father functions at the top of the authority hierarchy within the trinitarian existence. This hierarchy is based on function, not essence. The Father is uniquely revealed in the Son, who voluntarily submits Himself to the Father. The Father has revealed Himself using male imagery, which is not optional in referring to Him. The Son and the Sprit will bring us into the presence of the Father at the consummation of His kingdom.

The person of the Son has become incarnate as a human, and is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, born approximately 3 B.C. of the virgin Mary, who was crucified, dead and buried, and who rose again from being dead. He miraculously ascended into heaven approximately 33 A.D. Jesus is both God and human. His complete humanity does not limit His divine essence, and His complete divine essence does not limit His humanity. His mission on earth was to announce the coming of the Kingdom of God. By offering Himself up to die under the judgment of God even though He was sinless, He took the wrath that should have fallen upon all of humanity. By this He covered up the sins that we have, do, and will commit. He reconciled us to our Creator, He redeemed us from the slavery to our sins and to death. He justified us before the Father.

The person of the Holy Sprit proceeded forth from the Father and the Son. This fully divine person secures us within the joy of the glory of God that exists between the Father and the Son. He was given by the Son to His church, in order to comfort us and remind us of all that He has said in His Word. He testifies to the Son. He distributes gifts that are to be utilized for the edification and building up of the glory of God. Those who use these gifts also possess the fruits of the Spirit, which are the outward evidences of the life of people who are truly God's.

Through the Holy Spirit, God may still work in miraculous ways, with hearings, gifts of tongues, and other miraculous manifestations. However, it is not the expectation of God's people to see or experience the miraculous manifestations, but to expect God to sustain them through until the coming of Christ. We are to expect miracles very, very rarely. The people of God are not to seek these gifts, they are to seek to endure with perseverance until the end. The Holy Spirit is not to be quenched, nor is He to be presumed upon and blasphemed.

CREATION:

All that exists was created by God out of nothing. He spoke the universe into existence by the Word of His power and by virtue of His perfect will. He created the universe single-handedly, and sustains it in order to ultimately magnify His glory in and through it.

ANTHROPOLOGY:

Humanity was created to reign as king over the kingdoms of earth that God had created. In this, humanity was to reflect the rule and reign of God, which is to say that humanity was created in the image of God. Humanity was also created with the ability to sin or not to sin. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, did not trust in God, and broke the covenant of which God had made with them. For this reason, all of their descendants (all of humanity) are born into a state wherein they can only sin. Sin is unbelief, and is manifest in rebellion against God. This state separates us from God. All of our thoughts, words, and deeds are stained by sin. We sin by choice and by chance, by doing things and by leaving things undone. We are broken and self-destructive, only deserving eternal punishment in hell because of the eternal damage we have done to God's glory in Christ if we do not turn from our sins and trust Him.

Our reason is therefore stained by sin, and is in need of redemption and salvation. As such, our reasoning process is only employed for sinful purposes against God if we remain unregenerate. As regenerate beings, our faculties of reason are redeemed, and are then not to be used for sinful purposes, but for the glory of God.

SALVATION:

Salvation is the escape from the judgment of God upon our sin. This escape is completely dependent upon the activity of God Himself, and is not dependent upon the efforts and attributes of the object of the salvation. God has chosen those for salvation based upon His mercy and grace. His saving grace cannot be resisted by the sinful person, and God will transform those whom He has chosen into persons who desire His glory and believe in, trust in, and cling to Him. All of those whom God saves will endure in this belief and trust until the end of their earthly life.

CHURCH:

The nature of the church is the priesthood of believers. As such a priesthood, it is holy, is unified around the rule of God, and propagates sound and true doctrine. We are made of those who are God's people through the work of Christ, and indeed have Christ Himself as head of the church. The church is the assembly of the people of God. These persons who belong to God are to be about the task of worshipping God; everything they engage in should come as a subset of this supreme activity of worship. Therefore, the church is to be seen as an outpost of the Kingdom of God, and is to be busy proclaiming the rule of God (the gospel). The most fitting mode of government for the church is the congregational method, which models most closely the Biblical idea of the local church functioning in cooperation with others. Each church is to appoint officers, which are elders and deacons. Every believer is to join with the church.

By keeping sound and true doctrine, the church is to be engaged in educational ministry which is constant in its duration and consistent in its content. This includes a commitment to a statement of faith accompanied by a catechism, which is drawn up within that local body of believers.

ORDINANCES:


The two things that Christ has commanded the church to administer are Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and is to be administered by immersion in water. By definition, it is to be administered only to those who profess repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord's Supper is a memorial of what Christ has done on the cross. In it the church partakes of elements which represent His body and blood. It is to be practiced with bread and wine, which remain bread and wine before, during, and after their use in the Lord's Supper.

THE FUTURE:

At an appointed time Jesus Christ will return bodily to earth in order to consummate His Kingdom and to display the glory of God in the earth. He will return after the unprecedented tribulations and before His earthly rule. There will be two judgments, in which He will judge all persons, bringing all to account for all things which they have done upon the earth. In so judging, Jesus will provide His people with eternal life before His earthly rule, and provide those who are not His people with eternal judgment after His earthly rule is complete. After Jesus' earthly rule is completed, the earth will be recreated. 

*This document was first written as part of formation courses at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1992.  It survives with only slight revision.