I’ve scattered bits of my story all over my blogs, but I’m gonna pull it all together here, about how I became a believer and some things I’ve gone through and how my faith has been affected. (I’ll include links to posts where I explain things more fully.)
Starting the journey: I became a believer when I was eleven years old. (I am now getting close to 50. I don't know how that happened.) At a Christian camp, on one of the last nights, they gave an altar call. I wanted to go up but was nervous about standing up in front of everyone. But being more nervous about the window of opportunity closing, I felt myself stand up and walk to the front. I knew exactly what I was doing, that I was making a commitment for life. And I meant it. I really meant it. I knelt down, asked Jesus into my heart, and have never turned back. It hasn’t been an easy, carefree journey (as you’ll see), but I haven’t turned back (though I did contemplate it and kinda briefly wished I could've, during one terrible summer).
[It’s so sad that many Calvinist pastors, such as at the church we left in 2019, won’t do altar calls because they don’t believe we can make a choice about Jesus. (They say it’s because they don’t want people to think that ‘walking the aisle’ saves them, but I'm sure it’s because they don’t want people thinking we can make a choice about whether we believe in Jesus or not.) It’s sad that they call “accepting Jesus into your heart” unbiblical and dangerous, while they believe that the true biblical gospel includes things like “God really only loves the elect. Jesus died for just the elect. God predestines who goes to hell, and there’s nothing you can do about it. God ‘ordains’ all sin and unbelief, even child abuse, for His glory. Etc.” (HOGWASH!) And it’s sad that they barely preach on God’s love – they can’t, because they don’t know if God loves everyone in the audience, because Calvi-god only really loves the elect – but they preach over and over again about how sinful and depraved we are. It’s sad. And maybe it’s part of why so many people have left the church and why so many others don’t want anything to do with God. If your future’s already been decided and you can’t do anything about it anyway and if Calvi-god himself controls your every thought and action, why bother caring or trying? If only people knew that Calvinism is NOT the gospel! See "Why is Calvinism so dangerous?" But, I digress …]
Before I became a believer, my mom and step-dad were searching for God, for truth. (He was my second step-dad, the most “dad” I ever had.)
[My biological father never really had anything to do with me. I “met” him for the first time when I was 15, and then I saw him once every few years after that. As I got older, I had almost no significant contact with him. He died in 2015 at his house - with only his other daughter there, watching him take 2 weeks to die - from some medical problem he wouldn't get treatment for. He never even let me know he was dying. And he was buried on his property in a hand-made coffin. And then came my first step-dad - a nice guy, but I eventually lost contact with him after their divorce. (He died at the start of the Covid mess, from Covid - or maybe from being treated with a respirator for Covid.) And then came my second step-dad who was a great step-father for the 20 years he was part of the family (from when I was about 8 to about 28). But eventually things went bad - REALLY BAD - with him and my mom. And he eventually moved far away and got hooked on drugs, ending up in prison for awhile for selling them. I haven't talked to him in over 16 years, and I don't want to anymore. Too much pain. Too much dysfunction. And eventually there would be a third step-dad, but that didn’t last either. In fact, it just ended a couple months ago. I don't want any more fathers. I'm done. But I guess that will never happen anyway now that my mother is ... well, shall I say, "unavailable" from now on, with no chance of parole.]
At the time I committed my life to Christ at camp, I was in a Catholic grade school (then I went to public high school), and I think we occasionally went to Catholic mass (where I once got my elbow wedged into the heat-radiator on the wall and began freaking out and flailing around, and then a kindly old lady across the room came over with some Vaseline to help unstick my arm and set me free - that was fun). Sending me and my brother to Catholic school was an agreement made between my mom and step-dad #1 at the time of their divorce. But my mom always knew something was off about it ever since she was a kid. (When she was young, she once stormed out of the confessional booth and yelled at the priest, saying that she shouldn't have to confess her sins to a priest because she can confess them right to God.) She used to mark up my Catholic religion book with words like "WRONG" and "NOT TRUE," crossing things out and writing in what she believed the Bible really said ... and my teacher would stand over my desk and silently read all the "corrections" during class and then look at me and walk away. It was mortifying, especially for a shy, rule-following introvert like myself. But as a mom myself now who's concerned with my kids learning the truth, I can understand.
After Catholic church, we went to a Jehovah’s Witness church for a while. Nothing is more boring for a child than a JW's service or being discipled weekly by an old JW's woman who gives kids coffee ice cream when they don't like coffee yet. And there were no chocolate chips in it. Just coffee! (But at least there was a woman who sat behind us in the services who would mumble out loud about all the things she hated, giving me something to giggle about.)
But eventually, my mother realized that they weren’t teaching truth either, and so we ended up at a Baptist church, and then an Evangelical Free church, and then my parents started a non-denominational church in their living room with a few friends which grew bigger and bigger until it needed a building and pastor and staff. (I believe it’s still going, but by a different name.) But we eventually ended up leaving that too.
Growing in the faith: As I got older, I grew in the faith with the help of my church, youth group, Christian friends, family, and my best friend Gina who shared my goofy personality. I was – and still am, to a big degree – a goody two shoes. “Don’t drink, don’t smoke. What do you do?” I always did what was expected of me, and then some. I was a leader in the youth group, on the honor roll in school, captain of the cheerleading squad (which is nothing to crow about because our school considered cheerleaders a joke, but I had fun), had a part-time job in a sandwich-and-ice-cream shop managed by a Christian man from our church, helped my mom a lot with my 5 younger brothers, was never impressed by the bad boys but only by the good guys, etc. I tried to never do anything wrong or break any rules or disappoint people. And so growing up as a Christian was easy for me. I never had a desire to break “the rules” or push the boundaries. Life as a young Christian was easy, stable, and rather vanilla. (But I like vanilla.)
[I think that firstborn children (or maybe even just hurt people who are desperate for approval and acceptance) tend to be perfectionistic rule-followers and people-pleasers. And this can be good in some ways but bad in others, especially when it leads to anxiety and to basing our relationship with God on our performance for Him, on how well we live the “good Christian” life. We can fail to embrace His love because we are so busy trying to “earn” it by constantly polishing ourselves up all nice and shiny, trying to appear as good as we can to please Him - when what He probably really wants is our honest and open hearts, so that He can come into them fully, flood them with His love, and heal us and help us on our way. We don’t fool Him when we polish ourselves up all nice and shiny; we just put up a wall between Him and our true selves, blocking His love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, healing, and help. Why aren’t we most honest with Him, when He already knows it all anyway? Anyway, this has been a huge part of my faith journey, which is why I bring it up.]
Eventually, I ended up marrying my first real boyfriend. And I went to a Christian college and grad school to get my Master’s in counseling psychology. I intended to work for awhile to pay down my school loans, but I ended up getting pregnant four months after getting married, and then again two years later. At that point, I chose to stay home with (and homeschool) our children. We now have four beautiful sons. (Two, almost three, are now adults. And one is a young teen.) And I’m still married to the same man. We’ve been together now for almost 30 years. (Goodness, time flies!)
Confirming my faith: While I was in college, I decided that I needed to have real, well-thought-out reasons for why I believed what I did, why I thought Christianity was the truth and the other options weren’t. I didn't want to just "inherit" my faith or to cling to it blindly. I wanted to know why the Bible is right and everything else is wrong.
[Christianity is not a religion, not traditional rules to be followed; it’s a relationship with Jesus Christ. I once heard something that always stuck with me: The biggest difference between Christianity and religion is that all other religions are about “earning your salvation” … but in Christianity, and Christianity alone, it's about Jesus doing it all for us, and all we have to do is accept it. Jesus paid our way to heaven by dying on the cross for our sins, and all we have to do is believe it, to accept Him as Lord and Savior. "Religion" is our efforts to climb up to God; Christianity is about God coming down to us. “Religion” is about working our way to heaven; Christianity is believing that Jesus made the way for us. I can’t remember who said something like this but… If you find that your faith has become exhausting, it may be because you’ve settled for ‘religion,’ for a big list of do’s and don’ts and hoops you need to jump through. And what you really need to do then is just draw near to the Lord, get to know Him and how much He loves you through His Word, and you’ll start to realize why you love Him, and then faith won’t be such exhausting work anymore. Don't worry so much about trying to climb your way up to God; relax and let Him meet you where you are.]
And so I set out to study the major religions, to see what they believe about God, Jesus, eternity, and how we are saved. I read an abbreviated version of the Muslim’s Koran. I read up on Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, etc..
I’ll be honest, before I started my research, I was a little afraid that I might realize that I had it wrong all along, that Christianity was not the right choice, that one of the world religions had it right. What if something I discovered turned my world upside down and made my faith in Jesus crumble? I was almost afraid enough to not start the research at all. But I knew had to. And I had to do it with a fair, open mind. I needed to know I had real reasons for rejecting the religions out there and for choosing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. My eternal soul depended on it.
And in the end, after all my research, I was so relieved to realize that I chose right, that none of the other options out there has it right, at least not for me. The God of the Bible and Jesus Christ and the promises in the Bible are the only things I can really trust in, the only option that makes real sense, that offers any real answer, hope, future, healing, purpose, meaning, etc.
[Don't be mistaken or naive: Faith in Jesus is not a "blind faith" or just an emotional experience; it's actually got a lot of evidence (if you're willing to see it) to back it up, to verify the validity of the Bible. Watch the 71-minute documentary by Lee Strobel called "The Case for Christ." He was a journalist who set out to disprove the resurrection but ended up believing in it and becoming a Christian instead.]
If the Bible is wrong, then no other option makes any sense to me either. It’s either Jesus or nothing. And since atheism isn’t for me either because it’s so hopelessness, meaninglessness, and pointlessness, then it just Jesus for me!
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve … But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
The Journey Continues: That was a turning point for me, in a way, because it helped me commit to my faith more solidly, to really make it my own instead of just something I grew up with. And I’m glad that it happened before the bigger trials I would face, because it gave me a firmer ground to stand on.
I won’t go into the details here, but click on the links to read about these trials:
About the 4+ months of demonic harassment I went through, which solidified my faith even more and helped me learn to lean on Jesus like never before: "... My story of demonic harassment" (I've started a series on Spiritual Warfare on my other blog, click here to see it.)
A list of significant things that shaped my life and faith, the turning points in my life, for good or bad (I'm not sure if it helped to write this list or if it just hurt me more, but it's there now so may as well leave it.): Where I’m coming from
About my panic attack in 2016 - a major turning point, for bad (I still struggle with almost daily anxiety - for over 6 years now - where almost everything scares me, always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the next punch in the gut): My Panic Attack
About the moment I contemplated if I’d be willing to die with the name of Jesus on my lips: A Defining Moment
About leaving our church because of Calvinism, which started us on a very lonely road, upending our lives, taking away most of our support and friends, destroying so many hopes for my kids' futures, and fracturing our family because we no longer have a church "home base" anymore, no longer attend church all together as a family anymore, and may never again feel the kind of connection we had at the church our kids grew up in over 20 years (breaks my heart - it's not supposed to be this way): "Watching Stealth Calvinism in Action" and "What's the best way to make people agree with your Calvinist views?" and "Letter to our elders regarding Calvinism growing in our church" and "We left our church because of Calvinism (Things my Calvinist pastor said)"
And most recently (from 2019 to early 2022, and I'm still not over it, not sure I ever will be), about having to help put someone I love in prison: “We’ll make it through this together” and “'The Last Goodbye' - A Song for us Hobbits” (Sadly, for me, we left our church a few months before this hardest trial, and so I had almost no support from any church family, except for my husband and my wonderful friend, Leigh. That’s been hard, really hard. To go through such a hard trial but to have very little support for it. It’s part of why I write it all out online. I needed an outlet, a place to pour out and wrestle with the pain, to know that it wasn’t all a waste, that maybe God could use my brokenness and struggles for good in someone else’s life, that maybe someone else won't feel so alone in their pain. I’m hoping I’ll see the good that came from the bad when I get to heaven. Until then, I struggle on. And by the grace of God, I'm getting through it, day by day.)
And then hot on the heels of leaving church and the prison thing is the election scandal and covid mess and political fights between everyone and the world falling apart - the lockdowns, shut-downs, closings, supply line troubles, economic troubles, collusions between high level people and the media to tell one big lie and a whole bunch of little ones which led to "illegal" mandates and to people being fired or forced into taking a “vaccine” they didn’t want, etc. Everybody's angry. Everybody's fighting. Everybody's hurting. ("Stop the world, Lord, I want to get off.")
It’s all hurting my heart so much. Too much. Some days I have to remind myself to breathe. (Great song: Worn by Tenth Avenue North)
[For some suggestions on dealing with anxiety, see "Help for anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts" and "26 tips for dealing with depression/anxiety - the short version". Trust me, I've been there; I understand. You're going to get through it. You're going to be okay.]
It's all just making me feel like the future is one great big black hole, like it's just a wall we can't see past or get through, making me afraid that my kids have no future and like I couldn't help/guide them through it anyway because we have no idea what to aim for because everything just keeps falling apart anyway. Most days I feel like I am just hanging on by my fingernails and have no clue what to do about anything anymore, nothing to focus on except just making it through that day, till the next tragedy hits, which then makes me nearly paralyzed with fear, just wishing Jesus would come back now and end it all.
But still I cling, trusting that “falling apart” is really just “falling into place in God’s prophetic plan”. (Amen, come Lord Jesus!)
[I'll be honest here, I'm still not sure where the line is between being honest about our negative thoughts/feelings and being too honest about them. I think it's good to be honest because if we aren't, it eats us up inside. And being honest with God helps us put it in His hands, inviting Him to come into the situation and help us. But it's also possible to speak negative things into our lives and minds, such as if we talk about how hopeless everything feels, it can make us fall into despair, giving Satan a foothold into our lives. Honesty with God, even about the bad things, is important, but we also need to be careful with our words and what we set our minds on. Maybe the Psalms are a good guide here, because the Psalmists pour out their pain and questions and doubts and fears honestly, but then they always bring it back to God, reminding themselves that God has it all in His hands and that they can put their hope in Him and cling to Him and His promises, even when everything looks hopeless. I'm sure I don't do such a good job of bringing it all back to God; sometimes I get stuck in my "O, woe is me" despair, forgetting to bring it all back to God and His promises, to speak His truth into my situation. I need to be more conscientious of that and more aware of the spiritual battle that may be going on, lest I give Satan a foothold in my life.]
I’ve been at some very low points in my life.
[Which is one reason I refuse to accept Calvinism (which is spreading aggressively in the Church) and why I'm so angry with it and fight it so hard. I know what it feels like to hurt badly - really badly!!! - and I refuse to believe that any hurting person is beyond the reach of God's grace and help and healing, that they are destined to hurt forever.
And having hurt that badly and faced hit after hit in life, I understand how it feels to be tempted to think that God is against you, that He doesn't care and isn't helping, that maybe you're doomed or cursed and there's nothing you can do to change it. I understand the desire to want to give up faith and walk away from God because you think it'll hurt less than trying and trying to cling to faith, trying and trying to please Him, and trying and trying to get Him to help you or care about what you're going through. I understand!
And so I can now understand why Calvinists - since they believe in election and predestination - might hurt badly enough that they conclude they must not really be one of the elect. no matter how much they want to be, causing them to walk away from God and faith because it feels like God's against them anyway. Why not just stop fighting it and start accepting your fate, right? It'll hurt less than trying and trying to love and please a God who might not love you anyway, who might have destined you for hell and there's nothing you can do about it. I can understand why Calvinists who hurt really badly would feel that way because of their beliefs. And my heart breaks for them, knowing that their faith is destroyed not because of God but because of a bad belief system about God that they've been brainwashed into believing.
And so if I can help bring down the whole Calvinist system in any way, to any degree, I'm going to try. Because lives, eternities, people's hearts and faith, the gospel, God's character, and God's Word are at stake. And if that's not worth fighting for, nothing is!
As a non-Calvinist, my hope and faith is not in "election/predestination," in a belief that I'm one of the elect but that if I'm non-elect there's nothing I can do about it. My hope and faith is in God's Word, in His promise that He loves all people, that He wants all people saved, that Jesus died for all, and that anyone who believes in Him will be saved. This means me... this means you... this means my neighbor and their neighbor and their neighbor... and on and on, all around the world.
God's promises are for all of us. Hope and peace and healing and joy and eternal life are for all of us. God has chosen everyone to be saved, to be a part of His eternal family - He just leaves it up to us to decide if we want that too. No one is non-elect! No one is hopeless! No one is doomed from the womb, predestined to hell with no chance to be saved! No one is beyond His grace, love, forgiveness and healing! God's promises are for you too, if you want them. And all He asks is that we open our hands and accept them, that we believe Him.
And so when times are tough, we cling to those promises, taking God at His word, trusting that He loves us and cares for us and wants the best for us (even if we won't experience "the best" until eternity). We trust that as long as we did what He said we need to do - put our faith in Jesus, accepting His sacrificial death on our behalf - then He'll do what He promised He would do: save us. And that's a promise He's made to all people. And so no one needs to wonder if they're really "elect" or not. Salvation is an offer God gives to all, and all we have to do is believe Him and accept it.
But once again, I digress...]
And the bottom line I’ve learned is that genuine faith can be messy. Very messy. And sometimes all we can do is cling. When everything’s falling apart around you, cling to the Lord. And keep clinging. And when you feel like giving up and going under, cling some more, trusting that He cares, that He's watching over you, that He will work all the bad into something good someday, and that in the end He wipe away every tear from our eyes and get rid of evil and make all wrongs right again. Jesus didn't die for us so that we could live in bondage to fear and evil; He died to set us free. (For a link to a Christmas sermon that really hit me in the heart, see my post: This one's for you! This one's really stuck with me.)
Remember that this world isn’t all there is. This is just the staging ground. We are living for the future, for eternity. And what you do here matters, even if all you are doing is faithfully doing the daily little jobs God gives you and trusting the Lord to get you through each boring or discouraging day. Someday, we'll be able to rest eternally and it will all be okay, for those who believe in Jesus. Until then, hang in there. And cling.
[See "Learning to praise and trust God anyway" and "Wrestling with God, 2015" (a very long post) and "I SO needed this today - 'Strength in your struggles'".]
My Beliefs - In a nutshell, as briefly as possible. (Ha ha ha, good joke! When am I ever "brief"?) And I’m only listing the main things, not most of the smaller, “debatable” ones:
The Bible is God’s written Word to us. He inspired the men who wrote it, using their hands to write His words. And we should read the different books of the Bible in the way they are intended to be read: If it’s historical, read it as history. If it’s literal, take it literally. If it’s poetic or symbolic, read it as poetry or symbolism. If it’s prophetic, read it as prophecy. Etc.
I like what Dr. David Cooper said about how to read Scripture: “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.”
I think if we read Scripture this way, it would do away with a lot of the confusion we might have about what God says in His Word, and it would help us be discerning about when others twist Scripture or interpret/apply it incorrectly.
God is three co-existent, co-equal beings in one: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit (a person, not an “it”). But all three together make up the one God.
He is good, eternal, and was not created but is the Creator of all things. He is omniscient (knows all, from beginning to end) and all-powerful (but He has chosen to limit His use of power over us in order to give us free-will, the right to choose, because He wants people to choose to accept Him, love Him, and obey Him).
He is sovereign (but not in the Calvinist way, which would be that He preplans, causes, controls everything that happens, even sin and evil and unbelief).
I believe He is sovereign in that even though He allows His creation to have a certain amount of freedom within boundaries, He holds ultimate power over all things, and so everything that happens has to go through Him first. He watches over all things, decides what to cause (but never sin or evil) and what to just allow (or not allow), decides what the boundaries are, decides how to incorporate our free-will decisions (good or bad, obedience or disobedience) into His plans, and He responds to us according to how we respond to Him. He responds differently to us based on whether or not we pray, whether or not we obey, whether or not we are living faithfully, etc. Basically, we affect what happens in our lives and how God responds to us by how we live and what we choose to do (and He knows how to work it all into His plans for good). Not everything that happens has been predestined by God.
[See these posts: "Calvinism: Abusing God's sovereignty to defend its heresy" and "Calvinism 101: 'Free-Will Choice' is not really 'Free-will' or 'Choice'.]
Sin and salvation: We all are sinners, and we cannot work/earn our way to heaven. But Jesus – and Jesus alone – provides the way to be saved, to get to heaven.
Because God is holy, He can’t co-exist eternally with sin, and so we couldn’t go to heaven in our sinful state. And because He is just (justice), He couldn’t overlook sin, and so there had to be a penalty for our sin. But because He is love, He didn’t want us to have to pay that penalty (eternal separation from Him in hell) and so He paid it Himself.
He paid the penalty (death) that our sins required. And all we have to do is accept His sacrifice on our behalf by believing that we are sinners who need a Savior, and that Jesus is that Savior, that He is God in the flesh who came to earth to die on the cross for our sins (and that He rose again, proving He is God) so that we could be forgiven and live eternally with Him in heaven. If we believe in Him as Lord and Savior (and anyone can), accepting His sacrifice for our sins, we will be saved and sealed with the Holy Spirit.
And if we don’t – if we refuse to admit that He is Lord and Savior - then we refuse His sacrifice in our place and will have to pay the penalty for our sins ourselves: eternal separation from God, hell.
I believe God truly loves everyone and wants everyone to be saved. That Jesus died for all people and so all can be saved. But I believe God gives everyone the right to make their own decision about if they want Jesus as Lord and Savior or not. I believe that God calls to all people and reveals Himself (in different degrees) to all people, and so we are all responsible for our response to Him, to the call He places on our hearts and the revelation of Himself that He gives us, whether we live in an advanced nation with churches and Bibles or in a primitive community with no books, no churches, and no electricity but just the nature that He created and the call He puts in all our hearts.
And so I believe that even people in remote, primitive areas who have never had a Bible or heard the name of Jesus can still be saved if they respond to the revelation of Himself that He gave them, as primitive and basic as it may be. [See this post: "What about those who've never heard of Jesus?"]
I believe that children who are too young to understand the gospel and to make a decision about Jesus (and mentally-handicapped people who can’t understand or make a decision) are considered innocent in God’s eyes and will be covered by His grace and go to heaven if they die. [See this post: "Bible verses that support an 'age of accountability'?"]
I believe if we are true Spirit-sealed believers, we can’t lose our salvation. We might backslide and stumble, but we can’t lose our salvation. (But I do believe there are people who think they are saved when they really aren’t. They might fool themselves, but they can’t fool God. And I believe there are Christians who think they've given up their faith but really haven't. Nor could they, if they are Spirit-sealed. But for some reason or other, they've turned their backs on God for a time - maybe they are actually running not from God but from the pressure/judgments of other people or from the harsh "spotlight"; maybe they don't really want to get rid of God but are trying to shake off the strict, suffocating traditions, rules, and restrictions of "religion"; or maybe they are just really, really hurting and don't know who else to blame but God and so they turn away from Him in their pain. Maybe they think they've lost their faith when, in reality, they are trying to find it. Maybe they think they've left God when, in reality, they are trying to find Him as He really is, behind all the misconceptions we have of Him. If they are true believers, deep down, even if they don't feel like it right now, the Holy Spirit will continue to work on their hearts, to draw them back to Him. Hopefully before they make a huge mess of their lives.) [See this post: "Can you lose your salvation?"]
Baptism and communion: I believe that neither water baptism nor taking communion are necessary for salvation.
I believe that water baptism is important (important enough that Jesus did it, and so should we), but it is not something that saves us. It is a symbolic gesture we do to publicly identify with Jesus, to show the world where our allegiance is, the heart change we went through. (Failing to do it - being unwilling to publicly identify with Jesus - may hurt our relationship with God, but it will not un-save us.)
When Acts 2:38 says that we are to "repent and be baptized" to be saved, I believe this "saving baptism" is not water baptism but the "one baptism" (Eph. 4:5) of the Holy Spirit that all believers automatically get the moment of true repentance/conversion (1 Cor. 12:13). I think teaching that water baptism is required for salvation ultimately adds "works" to faith, teaching that we are saved by faith in Jesus PLUS an action we do. And I think this is a distortion of the gospel, adding to God's Word.
I do not believe in infant baptism either. Baptism is for those who made a genuine, conscious decision to follow Jesus. In fact, I think it's dangerous to support infant baptism because it will convince people that they're saved because they were baptized as babies, even if they never made their own decision to follow Jesus.
I believe that taking communion is not a saving work either, but it is something we do to remember the coming of the Lord and be encouraged by it. To say that it's necessary for salvation is adding works to faith.
The future: I believe in a rapture that will happen before the tribulation. I believe that God still has 7 years of prophetic plans left for Israel, which will happen during the tribulation when He takes the Church out of the world and turns His focus back to Israel. I believe that Jesus will come back bodily to earth at the end of the tribulation to reign on earth for 1000 years. I believe that heaven and hell are real and eternal. [See these posts: "Will there be a rapture?" and "The stages of the End Times" and "Hell is a real place".]
Other issues:
A. I believe that Satan and demons are real. And the spiritual battle is real. I believe our actions and choices and words can either roll out welcome mats for demons or they can help us stay under God’s protection. And in order to fight in the spiritual battle the way God intended, we must go to Scripture to learn how. If we try to fight the spiritual battle with “earthly” weapons, in our own strength, we will fail. See "It is written..." and "Using Scripture in Spiritual Battles".
[However, fyi, I am not comfortable in charismatic churches that sensationalize the spirit world and the spiritual battle or that "exercise the gifts of the Spirit" like speaking in tongues, raising the dead, handling snakes, "holy laughter," or casting out demons with practices that go beyond prayer, God's Word, and saying something like "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave." I think it's far too easy to go off-the-rails in these types of churches, to substitute emotional experiences for true faith and to rely on human power/ideas instead of on God and His Word. Be careful and discerning about these kinds of churches.]
B. I believe in a young (round) earth and that God created the earth in 6 days just like He described in Genesis. I believe that much of what atheistic scientists see as “evidence” for millions of years can far more easily and accurately be interpreted as evidence of a world-wide flood in Noah’s day, just like the Bible says. I believe that trying to mash evolution (the Big Bang, millions/billions of years, one animal changing into another, etc.) into God’s Word ultimately undermines the reliability of God’s Word.
If we read the very first verses of Genesis as symbolic or poetic (reinterpreting them according to man's ideas), then at which verse in Genesis do we stop doing that and start reading it literally, as history? If we explain away Genesis as poetic or symbolic, when it's clearly written as history, then what's to stop us from reinterpreting all other clearly-historical books as poetry or symbolism? If we can't trust that God said what He meant in Genesis (clearly historical, not poetic), then how can we trust anything else He says, such as that Adam and Eve were real or that Jesus came to earth to die for our sins or that the spiritual battle is real or that Jesus is coming back for His people or that there is a heaven and a hell and that someday we will face the judgment seat? (Can we really wonder why so many kids eventually leave the Church when we've been telling them it's okay to reinterpret God's Word according to man's ideas, convincing them that it's smarter to not take what God said seriously, the way He meant it to be taken?)
See "Starting the new school year with Creation vs. Evolution". (To me, theistic evolution is kinda like Calvinism. Both are huge cancers in the Church, destroying it from the inside out by causing people to doubt what God clearly said in His Word, to not take what God said at face value or in the way He meant it, and by encouraging us to reinterpret the Bible to fit man's ideas, making man the authority over God, thereby undermining the reliability of God's Word and hurting people's faith.)
C. I believe that there are many, many other things (besides evolution and Calvinism) that are out to destroy the church nowadays, to get it to compromise on God’s word, such as the LGBTQ worldviews, over-elevating social justice issues, yoga and Hinduism, redefining Jesus and His mission, redefining God, the prosperity gospel, religions that require you to jump through hoops that are not in God’s Word, overly-strict churches that makes rules on things God didn't, etc..
[See "God is love, but love is NOT a god" ..... "Some current heretical teachings" ..... "Jesus wasn't always 'nice'" ..... "Is yoga ok for Christians? (Here's a hint: It's not!)" ..... "How Christians are led into accepting homosexuality" ..... "Yes, Christians are supposed to judge" ..... "Prayer is just 'name it and claim it', right?" ..... "Why is Calvinism so dangerous?" ..... "When Calvinism's 'bad logic' traps good Christians" ..... "12 tips [updated to 14] on how to think critically about Calvinism."]
We have to be in God's Word regularly, knowing it well for ourselves, asking God to guide us and show us truth, in order to be discerning about all the lies out there. A lukewarm, lackadaisical approach to our faith, to Scripture, will make us easy prey for being led astray by one of the many false teachings out there seeking to pull us away from biblical truth. (But be patient with yourself. You don't have to know everything right away. Faith is a journey where God leads us day by day, step by step, truth by truth. Be patient and keep learning and growing a little every day, following Him in whatever "next step" He puts in your path today.)
D. I believe there are, scientifically, only two genders – male and female – and it’s in your chromosomes and determined by God and at conception. If you want to call yourself the other one, that's up to you, but don't except me to deny scientific reality by saying there are more than two genders or that "gender is just in our heads" or that we can change our genders on a whim.
[See "More Gender Nonsense" and "Don't tell me how to live my life!"]
E. I believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman. And that abortion and homosexual behavior are sins (but forgiveness is available). And that women should not be head pastors/elders. (Wow, did I just step on some toes with all these points or what!)
F. I believe that the Bible is the greatest book ever written (technically, it's 66 books written by over 40 different authors over 1,500 years, all telling one story - the story of God relating to mankind, reaching out in love to save us - see "Support for Jesus and the Bible")... and that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy are the next greatest ever written. (And I'm addicted to C.S. Lewis!) And all of these should be read over and over again.
Well, that about covers the main things, about what I believe in and the faith journey I’ve been on.
Thanks for reading. For letting me share my story, my writing, with you. God bless!
