Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Mon, 25 Jan 1993 01:40:00 -0500
From:         Kerry Stephenson <KSTE@PURCCVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Seeking input on confession of faith

Hi, Folks:

  I may have passed this by you before, but in light of the crisis in
the church I currently attend, I had reason to refer to it again
tonight, and I wanted to get any comments, suggestions, or re-direction
fellow Christians might find it appropriate to offer.

  This is my personal confession of faith, which I wrote in December
of 1991, while trying to figure out whether the church I was in at
the time was an appropriate place for me to be.

                     I CONFESS

I confess that the LORD my God, the LORD our God is one.  I
confess without equivocation and even unto death that Jesus
Christ was and is the Son of that God, even as He is God
Himself.  I confess that Jesus Christ, my Savior and my Lord,
fully God and fully human, came to Earth when man was
contemptible in the sight of God and had made of God a travesty,
a magic box, and a tyrant.  I confess that Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, was born of a virgin, to fulfill the prophecy of
the Book, and that His generation was of the Holy Spirit of God,
the third party of the Blessed Trinity.  Thus was He the Only
Begotten Son of God and the Son of David, the Lion of the Tribe
of Judah, and the promised Prince of Peace.

I confess that the life He lived--of preaching, teaching, healing,
and all of this in love only--is a model to us, one that we know
we cannot live up to, but one that we must die in emulation of,
if need be.  I confess that, having fulfilled every jot and tittle
of the law and the prophecies, the Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of
the World, died on the cross at Calvary, humiliated, tortured,
spat upon, and publicly rejected even by those He most loved.

I confess that, in accordance with the ancient prophetic wisdom,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with His blood and with His death,
parted for all time the curtains of eternity, dividing time and
defeating the Devil.  I confess that His blood was shed for all,
for it is not in accordance with the will of God, but by the
stubborn and sinful will of man, that any should perish.  I
confess that with His death He took upon Himself all the sin of
mankind, past, present, and future, including my own, which would
have rendered me unfit to bow before the throne of Heaven, unworthy
ever to stand in the presence of the Most High God.

I confess that after three days lying in a borrowed tomb, Jesus
was raised by the power of God--His power, His Father's, and
that of the Holy Spirit--and by some mystery that the three
are one.  I confess that He won from Satan the keys of Hell and
set the captives free, that all who call upon the name of the
LORD in righteousness and sincerity shall be saved.  I confess
that there is none righteous, no not one, none deserving of any
future but the fiery agony of separation from the Most High for
all of time.  Yet the blood of Jesus covers every sin of those
who belong to Him.  Thus, though it is appointed to man to die
once and after that, the Judgment, the Holy and precious shed
blood of Christ is the means by which we who deserve only agony
for the evils of our human hearts shall be miraculously pardoned
in the Judgment, judged not by the harsh and rigid legalisms of
man's judgment, but by the mercy and love of God's righteous and
holy judgment.

I confess that by the acceptance of the shed blood of Christ,
of His substitutionary atonement on the cross for men, of His
Lordship, and of the free gift of salvation He offers, a human
being is extended the undeserved privilege of drawing near to
the throne of grace and calling the Almighty LORD "Father,"
"Abba."  I confess that in the absence of that acceptance, there
is no salvation, no pardon, and no hope of eternal life for a
human being.

I confess that the Lord Jesus Christ returned after death, walked,
talked, and fellowshipped with His human followers, and made manifest
His true nature as the Son of God.  I confess that, after a time,
the Lord ascended in full view of witnesses and sits now at the
right hand of the Father, interceding for those who belong to Him,
without ceasing and until the time when He shall return to Earth
to rule and reign (of which time no one knows but God Himself).
I confess that the Lord is fast returning and has left us, His
stewards, to be the messengers of the gospel, to preach the Good
News of Jesus Christ and the message of repentence to every
tongue, tribe, people, and nation, and that the true Christian,
if he will offer himself as a living sacrifice to the Lord, will
burn with the fire of the Holy Spirit, breathing in the Word,
and breathing out evangelism.

I confess that the Bible is the Holy Word of God, His message
of instruction, letter of love, manual for living, and history
of the world from beginning to end, given in holy love for His
people.  I confess that the Bible is true and reliable in every
respect, and is profitable for preaching, teaching, reproof, and
instruction in every aspect of human life.  I confess that there
is no private interpretation of the Bible possible, but that the
Holy Spirit of God illuminates the meaning and purpose of the Book
to all who are submitted to Christ and fervently seek His will.

I confess that the Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity,
present from the beginning and existent to the end, and that it
is impossible to know and serve God fully without submission to
His perfect will.  I confess that the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit is accompanied by observable signs, outworkings of the
inward transformation of human beings as they die to the flesh
and are resurrected in the Spirit, as Christ died and was
resurrected.

I confess that every true Christian, submitted to the Lordship of
Christ, washed in His blood, filled with the Spirit, a son of the
Living and Holy God, is a member of the true Church, by whatever
name he may call it.  I confess that the duty of the church is
to provide place and purpose for its members, the place a place
of refuge, and the purpose to call the world around it to repentence
and to preach, teach, and spread the Gospel as given by the Lord
Jesus Christ through the Holy Bible, God's unchanging Word.

I confess that the local church is charged with providing for
its members training and opportunity for service to the Lord,
and with calling them to accountability to Him and to the church
universal.  I confess that true church leadership is a holy
and precious office, from which those so annointed by God are
empowered to recognize the gifts of their members, preach, teach
and preserve the Holy Bible, the commands of Jesus, and the word
of the Holy Spirit.  I confess that any church whose primary
mission is not to enlarge the Kingdom of God through evangelism and
submitted service is not a true church and stands in need of
repentence, confession, submission, and revival.

I confess that I as an individual am charged with following my
Lord Jesus Christ as He commands me through His Holy Bible, His
living example, and His Holy Spirit.  I confess that, though the
apostle Paul called himself chief of all sinners, every one of us
is equally flawed, sinful, and damned, without Christ.  I confess
that my sin, my personal list of sins, may be long or short in the
eyes of man, but, as with all who know not Christ, the boldest
entry--and that which equalizes all sinners--is the unjust murder
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and my personal rejection of His
offer of salvation.  Alongside this, no petty theft, adultery, or
murder--no mundane sin of the world I can imagine--has meaning or
import.  I confess that salvation is a work of grace, of God's
grace only.  I confess that there is no good work by which any can
earn his way into the eternal presence of the Almighty God, for it
is in the nature of man, inherited from the original sin of Adam,
to sin.

Yet joyfully can I confess that, when I received Christ, all my
sins were washed away, the small as well as the great.  In that
moment when I dedicated my life to the service of the Lord, even
my rejection was forgotten by God.  I gratefully confess that the
blood of Jesus covers me, obliterating for all time my every sin,
commission and ommission.  I tearfully confess that the blood of
Jesus and the Spirit of the Lord speak for me when I have no
words worthy of the Father's ear.  I happily confess that as I
live to Christ I die to the world, caring nothing for the things
of this world, caring only for the Word and the work of the Lord,
asking only that I might be used of Him.  And in repentence I
confess that I die to the world not once but daily, and that I
require the constant prodding of the Holy Spirit to call me
to repentence.

I confess that the Christian walk is a joy and a trial.  I confess
that my imperfections far outnumber my virtues and that salvation
does not carry with it righteousness in man, but makes available
to man the righteousness of God.  I confess that it is the operation
of the Holy Spirit that works sanctification and that sanctification
is a sometimes long and wrenching outworking of the inner work
of salvation.

I confess that no Christian leader is worthy to be followed unless he
follows Christ.  Every individual must know where his salvation lies--
in Christ and in Him alone--and follow no other except by the divine
intersection of the will of Christ and the desire of man.  I confess
that a faith built on personality, leadership, and doctrine, rather
than the person of Christ, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and the
authority of the Bible, is destined to collapse.

Finally, entirely of myself, I confess that I covenant my life
to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whatever means or
method He shall choose to require of me.  I confess that I will
serve and love Him as my Master and my Lord, though it mean a
lifetime of poverty, solitude, or persecution, or a painful and
premature death.  I confess that I deserve nothing more than
that which my Lord desires of me, and that I must do nothing
less than that which my Lord requires of me.

Praise be to God, the LORD Almighty, who was and is and is to
come.  Praise to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, to whom
belong all glory and honor and praise.  Blessed be the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed that I might live to
make this confession of faith.  In His name I make this confession,
and to His service I pledge my life.

Amen.

I would very much appreciate any reaction anyone would care to
make.

Thanks.

Love INC,
         --Kerry
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU