What a Squirrel Believes – Theology Proper

What a Squirrel Believes

I believe in one, and only one, true and living God. He is the Triune God; eternally existing in one essence and being, yet three co-equal persons share this same essence and being; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is, by His nature and works, worthy of all glory, honor, obedience, and praise, and God alone is worthy of worship. He is the Creator of all that exists in Heaven and Earth, and His sovereign decrees determine all that comes to pass, and the end of all things glorifies Him. In all of His attributes, God is absolute perfection. He has absolute knowledge, wisdom, and power and is perfect in holiness, righteousness, justice, love, grace, and mercy.

While all of Theology is the study of the things of God, Theology Proper is the study of God Himself; His nature and attributes as revealed in the Scriptures.

The Bible does not try to prove the existence of God.

In fact, the Bible clearly states that everybody possesses the knowledge of God’s existence (Romans 1:18-20). In other words, the Bible says that there are no atheists. Those who deny the existence of God must do so by willfully suppressing what they know to be true (Romans 1:21). While there are many philosophical arguments that set out to prove that God exists, I think that, for the most part, they’re just a waste of time, since it is hard to convince someone of the truth that they already know but are firmly in denial about.

We must also be aware of our own limitations. While we all have the knowledge of God’s existence, we must also accept that we are unable to totally comprehend God. We who are bound by time and space have no frame of reference for understanding that which is eternal and transcendent. In the ultimate sense, God is incomprehensible (Deuteronomy 29:29). We must accept what the Bible reveals to us, knowing that we will not understand everything; indeed, we will not understand anything in full. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

The Trinity:

The Bible reveals that God is Triune, a threefold unity. God is one, yet He exists as three co-equal and co-eternal persons; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christians are not tri-theists, we do not believe in 3 gods.

The Doctrine of the Trinity is a derived doctrine, meaning that it is not explicitly stated in the Bible, but is a conclusion derived from the clear teachings of Scripture. The Bible clearly states that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:6), yet the Father (Matthew 6:8-9; Matthew 7:21; Galatians 1:1), the Son (John 1:1-18; Romans 9:5; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8-10), and the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29; John 15:26; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18) are each identified as God.

The most concise statement in the Bible regarding the Trinity is, I think, Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” In this verse, the word for “name” (ὄνομα [onoma]) is singular, so, in effect, it reads “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the one name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

That the God revealed in the Bible is Triune in nature is a difficult concept to grasp, and it is totally impossible to fully understand. It should be believed, not because it is easy to believe, but because it is what the Bible reveals.

[I will address the deity of Christ and the deity of the Holy Spirit more fully in the posts on Christology and Pneumatology at a later date. For a more in-depth treatment of the Doctrine of the Trinity see James R. White’s The Forgotten Trinity]

The Sovereignty of God:

A sovereign is one who reigns, or rules. God’s sovereignty over His Creation is absolute, total, and independent (1 Chronicles 29:11-12; Psalm 115:3, Daniel 4:34-35). God is the ultimate authority, and all lesser authority is granted by God for His purposes (John 19:11; Romans 13:1). As Arthur W. Pink put it, God is “subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent; God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. None can thwart Him, none can hinder Him.” (Isaiah 46:10; Psalm 135:6)

God, in His sovereignty, has decreed, in eternity past, everything which comes to pass, without exception. While God is not the author of sin, He does ordain the existence of evil, because if He had not ordained evil, evil would not exist (Isaiah 45:7). We have no right to question God’s decree (Job 40:2; Isaiah 45:9).

[For a more in-depth treatment of God’s sovereignty, see John MacArthur’s Answering Big Questions About the Sovereignty of God & Why Does Evil Dominate the World?]

Attributes of God:

An attribute is a characteristic, property, or quality of someone or something. Attributes are what we use to describe things; “The box was 10 inches long and 5 inches wide,” and, “He is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighed 168 pounds,” are descriptions of physical attributes. If we say that someone is “nice” or “honest,” we are describing attributes of character and personality. So, when we speak of the attributes of God, we are attempting to describe what He is like.

God’s attributes are generally divided into His incommunicable attributes and His communicable attributes. His incommunicable attributes are transcendent characteristics which belong to God alone. His communicable attributes are characteristics which God’s creatures may share with their Creator in some limited degree. Where the creature shares an attribute with the Creator, the creature’s attribute is a poor and incomplete reflection of the perfection that is God.

The attributes of God are not parts of God, but are aspects of the whole being of God. All of His attributes are always consistent with each and every other attribute. Because one of God’s attribute is His infinite nature, any list of the attributes of God will be incomplete.

Some of God’s attributes are:

Self-existence

God’s existence is not dependent on anything outside of God Himself. (Exodus 3:14)

Infinitude & Eternality

God is completely unbound by space or time (Psalm 90:2; 1 Timothy 1:17; Revelation 4:8)

Immutability

God’s being, nature, and character is unchanging. (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17; Heb. 6:17) God’s unchanging nature does preclude Him from performing different actions. (Jeremiah 31:31)

Self-sufficiency

God does not need anything. He does not need food or water to sustain Him. He needs no air to breath. He needs no one to advise Him. (Psalm 50:12-13)

Omnisapience

God is perfect in His wisdom. Everything He does is wise, and He is never foolish. (Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 11:33; Ephesians 1:11-12)

Omniscience

There is nothing that God does not know. He has perfect and complete knowledge of the past, the present and the future. (Psalm 147:5; Romans 11:34; Hebrews 4:13; 1 John 3:20) God’s perfect knowledge also extends to what might have been; He perfectly knows all possibilities. (Matthew 11:23) (God’s perfect knowledge of possibilities is not to be confused with error of Molinism, as even that which is possible is subject to God’s sovereign decree.)

Omnipresent

God, not being in anyway limited by space and time, is always present everywhere. (Jeremiah 23:24; Psalms 139:7-10; 1 Kings 8:27)

Omnipotence

God is all-powerful and is able to do whatever He wills. (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17; Psalm 115:3; Matthew 19:26)

Love

Love, whether used of God or man, is the desire for and actions taken to insure the well-being of the one loved. (Deuteronomy 7:9; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:8)

Holiness

To be holy is to be set apart. God is set apart by his absolute perfection in all things. (Isaiah 6:3; 1 John 1:5; Revelation 15:4)

Righteousness

God’s righteousness refers to His morality and justice. All matters of right and wrong are a reflection of God’s righteousness. (Genesis 18:25; Daniel 9:7; Revelation 16:7)

Faithfulness

God is a promise-making and promise-keeping God. (Genesis 6:18; 9:9; 17:7; Deuteronomy 4:31; 7:9; 1 Peter 4:19)

Mercy

Mercy is seen most clearly in such qualities as compassion and patience. God’s mercy is expressed by His long-suffering with, and forgiveness of, sinners.(Exodus 34:6-7; Psalm 52:8; Micah 7:18; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Ephesians 2:4; James 5:11))

Grace

God’s grace is distinct from but inseparable from His mercy. Where mercy is seen in pardon for wrongs done and mitigation of deserved punishment, grace is seen in the bestowal of undeserved blessings. (Matthew 5:44-48; Ephesians 2:8-9)

[For a more detailed look at the attributes of God, I recommend A. W. Pink’s Attributes of God.]

God, by His absolute perfection in all things, is worthy of worship, honor, glory and praise (Deuteronomy 6:13; Psalm 2:11; Psalm 96:9; John 4:23; Romans 12:1-2; Revelation 14:7; Revelation 22:9).

What A Squirrel Believes – Bibliology

What A Squirrel Believes

I believe the Bible, consisting of thirty-nine books in the Old Testament and twenty-seven books in the New Testament, to be the written Revelation of God. The Scriptures are fully inspired by God and inerrant & infallible in the original writings. God intends that His Revelation be understood by humanity, and, therefore, normal rules of language should be used in the interpretation of the Bible. The Bible is sufficient for religious instruction, is the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and is of supreme and final authority regarding all matters upon which it touches. In matters not touched upon by the Bible, what is right and true must be assessed in a manner consistent with the teachings of the Scriptures.

Bibliology is that part of theology that deals with the Bible itself; what it is, how we got it, and how it is to be understood.

There is no doubt that the doctrine of God must be at the center of any Christian statement of faith, but the doctrine of Scripture must come first, because only through the Scriptures can we come to know and understand God.

What The Bible Is:

There are two ways in which God reveals Himself; general revelation and special revelation.

General revelation is God revealed in His creation. Creation alone is sufficient so that all men have the knowledge of God’s existence. Paul writes in Romans, “…that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made…” [Romans 1:19-20] So creation alone gives all of us the knowledge that God exists.

In addition to physical creation, general revelation also includes the human conscience. All people everywhere have a sense of what is right and what is wrong [Romans 2:1]. Every culture has rules against murder and stealing and the like. This moral sense is flawed and distorted by sin, but it exists, none the less, and it reveals to all men that God is a moral God. Included in this knowledge is the concept of justice and that wrongdoing requires some sort of reckoning.

From general revelation, all men know that God is, that He is vastly powerful, and that He is moral. But that is all that general revelation reveals. The only way we can know anything else about God is if He tells us; and that is where special revelation comes in. Special revelation is God’s telling us about Himself, and it is found in the pages of the scriptures we know as the Bible.

Why only the Bible? Why not the Buddhist writings, or the Book of Mormon, or the Hindu Vedas, or the Qur’an? The simple answer is found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. My reasoning is this:

• Jesus said that He is God [John 8:58];


• Jesus proved that He is God by rising from the dead [1 Corinthians 15:3-8];


• Jesus confirmed the Jewish scriptures (what we know as the Old Testament) [Luke 16:31]


• Jesus hand-picked the writers of the New Testament [John 15:16].

While all religious writings claim divine origins, none but the Bible can offer any kind of objective evidence to support the claim.

How We Got the Bible:

Many view the Bible just like any other book, as simply the work of men, but it is much more then that. While it is true that the Bible was written by men, it is also true that God spoke through these men. Peter tells us, “…no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” [2 Peter 1:21] And Paul writes [2 Timothy 3:16-17], “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” So, all of Scripture is from God through men moved by, or “carried along” by, the Holy Spirit.

When I say that I believe that the Scriptures are “inerrant & infallible in the original writings,” I mean that the copies we have are, well, copies. We do not have any of the original writings. For many people, this is quite a problem. “If we don’t have the originals,” they say, “how can we know that what we have is what was really written so long ago?” That is a very important question!

The facts are that we do not have the original writings of any ancient works as old as the Bible. Before the printing press, making copies of a book was a difficult and labor intensive project, as everything had to be copied by hand. And, for many writings, few ancient copies remain. We have only 10 ancient copies of the writings of Julius Caesar, and they were made 1000 years after he penned the originals. Aristotle fares better; we have about 50 copies of his writings, but the earliest of them was made 1400 years after the originals. Homer’s Iliad does much better, with 600+ copies, and the earliest of these were made only 500 years after Homer first wrote it.

How does the Bible compare to these other ancient documents? For the New Testament of the Bible, we have more then 5800+ Greek manuscript copies, and the earliest date to less than 100 years after the New Testament was first written. The Bible was also translated into other languages very early in its history, and we have thousands of other ancient manuscripts in other languages, such as Syriac, Aramaic, Coptic, and Latin, that can be studied also. By comparing all these old copies, scholars of textual criticism endeavor to weed through the mistakes that occurred during the copying process to reconstruct the original words of the text. These scholars say that they are 99%+ sure of the original text, and that the parts that they are unsure of, less than 1%, do not materially affect the meaning of the text. It is pretty clear that the text of the Bible that we have today is an accurate representation of what was originally written. (Most good modern translations have footnotes that explain the different textual variants, and Greek critical texts, such as the Nestle-Aland 27, or “NA27”, will have vast footnotes that describe all the textual variants.)

How We Understand the Bible:

Because God used language to reveal Himself to people, it stands to reason that He desires that His Bible be understood by people. Therefore, it makes sense that the normal rules of language should apply to the Bible. This is called “grammatical-historical” interpretation. Grammatical-historical interpretation simply means that we look to understand the Bible by using the rules of grammar while taking into account the historical & cultural context that existed at the time it was written. In other words, we should take a literal approach to understanding the Bible, trusting that God has said exactly what He meant.

In the Bible, God tells us all that we need to know in order to find salvation in Jesus Christ and to prepare us to serve Him. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 says, “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” So, the Bible is sufficient, and this is the heart of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura.

Scripture must be our final authority in everything. When the Creator of everything tells us how things are, what is left to be said? Scripture must stand above science and philosophy and human reason. The only correct understanding of anything is the understanding that is in accordance with the clear teachings of the Bible.

What A Squirrel Believes – Technical Difficulties… Please Stand By

I’ve long collected statements of faith. I’ve got a file on my computer containing about 35 orthodox Christian statements of faith, everything from Grace Community Church’s 19 page What We Teach, to Truth for Life’s short What We Believe; and, of course, the 1925, 1963, and 2000 versions of the Baptist Faith & Message of the Southern Baptist Convention. A personal favorite is the Articles of Faith of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches.

I like orthodox statements of faith. I like to know where a person, group, or organization stands on the doctrines of the Christian Faith. As I said when I first broached this topic last week, I can’t understand why anyone would obfuscate their beliefs, except for nefarious purposes. And, as I said last week, I’m working on composing a statement of faith for A Squirrel In Babylon.

Well, like most things, writing a statement of faith is harder than it looks. Oh, it isn’t that I don’t know what I believe, or even that I can’t put what I believe into words. No, the problem is that I’m finding it hard to be concise in putting my beliefs into words. I have a new admiration for those who wrote all the statements of faith that I’ve collected. It’s hard to be brief and comprehensive at the same time!

All of this is just to say that it’s taking me a little longer then I’d planned to get the first article posted. Please be patient, and stay tuned…

The Calvinist Menace In Our Midst

It seems that, like mice in the kitchen, the Calvinist vermin are infesting Southern Baptist churches in Tennessee. What is to be done about this plague? Earlier this month, Tom Ascol blogged on a memo that was being circulated amongst Southern Baptist Churches in Tennessee advising on how to discover, and get rid of, Calvinists in the pulpit.

While many of the “Red Flags” outlined in the memo are absolute distortions of the Calvinist position, some are quite laughable.

Such as: “Use of the ESV Study Bible.” (Whew! I use an NASB MacArthur Study Bible!) -Or- “Look for the men they quote in their sermons: do they mainly quote Calvinists such as John Piper, R. C. Sproul, James White, Jonathon Edwards and others.” (Can I still quote Calvinists such as C. H. Spurgeon, J. P. Boyce, Alistair Begg, or John MacArthur?) –Or- “Tendency toward a highly logical systematic theology…” (As opposed to a highly illogical systematic theology?)

Others are self-contradictory, like: “Moving the church to become under Elder Rule.” -And- “Tendency to use their pastoral authority against any member that questions their reform theology or their direction.” Well, which is it? Are they looking to share power with other God-gifted men, or are they pushing to be dictators?

Some are just plain silly, like: “Adding other belief statements or confessions to what their church believes, such as: 1st London Baptist Confession (1689), 2nd London Baptist Confession (1644), New Hampshire Confession, and Abstract Principles.” (Yes, I noticed the dates, too…) Oh, please! The Abstract of Principles was the first statement of faith adopted by Southern Baptists in 1858! Are we never to look at what Southern Baptists believed in the past? Are we to ignore all history? There seems to be an ongoing effort to deny any and all traces of Southern Baptists’ Calvinist heritage, and this is wrong.

All of this is troubling, but, what troubles me the most is the assertion that Calvinist pastoral candidates will have a “Tendency to be evasive about their theology during the pastor search process. They will say things like: ‘I believe and preach the historic doctrines of Southern Baptists just like many of the great Baptist preachers of the past.’ Many laymen will be satisfied in hearing the statement, ‘I believe and preach the Bible.’ Without more intense questioning, the committee will not be fulfilling the sacred duty their church entrusted to them.”

The memo was even accompanied by a “Belief Statement and Pastor’s Pledge” to be signed by the pastor, the chair of the pastor search committee & the chairman of the Deacons:

“I, (pastor), state that my theological beliefs and practices are in accord with _____ Baptist Church. I wish to state that I do not hold to a reformed or Calvinist doctrine and the Pastor Search Committee has questioned me comprehensively in this area of concern.

“With integrity of heart, I have heard the statements of the Pastor Search Committee and can say with certainty that if my theology ever changes to a Calvinist doctrine, I will share with the Deacons my new beliefs and work with them and the personel (sic) committee in transitioning me and my family to a new place of ministry that is more in line with my new theological stance.”

I could never sign such a document, as I would never hide from any search committee any of my theological positions & I agree wholeheartedly that every pastor search committee should thoroughly question every candidate, especially those under serious consideration. No pastoral candidate should ever be anything less than totally up front about any doctrinal position which he holds. Of course, I have no way of knowing how pervasive this “evasion” of search committee questions really is. And, as delusional as the rest of this “red flag” list is, this “evasion” may just be another delusion. However, the point remains that every man of God should be of sound and open doctrine.

With that in mind, I have decided to include a Statement of Faith here at A Squirrel in Babylon. I will be building up this Statement of Faith over the course of several, if not many, weeks in a series of blog posts. That way, I can expand upon each doctrinal statement, providing both my reasoning as well as scriptural proofs. I have no intention of writing a full blown systematic theology, but I never want to leave anyone in any doubt as to exactly what I believe, or why I believe it!

Stay tuned…