My Beliefs

I’ve copied this statement of faith from Aletheia Baptist Ministries which was founded by my dad, Dr. Rick Shrader.  It is helpful to you to know what my core beliefs are as you read my articles.

Statement of Faith

The following is our statement of faith. For each doctrine we give a brief but direct statement of what we understand the Bible to abundantly teach in that area. Verses are included for reference and are not intended to be exhaustive but exemplary of the Bible’s teaching.

Section 1 – The Bible

We believe that the Bible is God’s only written revelation to man (1 Cor 2:9-10); that it was supernaturally inspired by God’s Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21) and, therefore, is the perfect and infallible rule for doctrine and practice (2 Tim 3:16-17).  We believe that the Bible is to be interpreted literally (2 Peter 1:20), or normally, in its grammatical and historical context. We believe that it is inerrant and infallible in all subjects it addresses (Heb 4:12).

Section 2 – God

We believe there is one and only one true and living God (Deut. 6:4). He is the eternal Being who, being completely separate from the world, created the world and everything in it (Eph. 3:9). He has made Himself known to His creation as God the Father (Eph. 4:6), God the Son (John 14:9-10) and God the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:4,9), commonly called the Trinity. He is not three gods in one but one God manifested in three persons.

Section 3 – Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God (Jn 10:30) and has existed with God throughout eternity (Mic 5:2). He is the second person of the God-head who voluntarily laid aside the prerogatives of His position (though not His divine essence) for the sake of incarnation (Phil 2:5-8). He was born of a virgin (Isa 7:14), lived a sinless life (Acts 3:14), died and rose again bodily for our redemption (Acts 3:15). He ascended back into heaven and is now seated at God’s right hand (Heb 10:12) making everlasting intercession for the saints (Heb 7:25).

Section 4 – The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit is fully God (Acts 5:4, 9) and exists as a divine person in the God-head (Rom 15:13). His unique job is to convict the world of man’s sinfulness, God’s righteousness, and the world’s coming judgment (Jn 16:8-11). He is the regenerating agent for salvation (Jn 3:5-7), the baptizing agent at salvation (1 Cor 12:13), and the intercessor in salvation (Rom 8:26).

Section 5 – Human Beings

We believe that man was created directly and immediately by God in His image and likeness (Gen 1:26-27). Man, therefore, unlike any other creature, is created to find his life’s fulfillment and fellowship in God (Acts 17:28). By man’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden, he forfeited that fellowship and became a sinner separated from God’s favor (Rom 5:12). Because man is an eternal being, possessing a soul made in God’s image, he will live eternally (Rev 20:12).

Section 6 – Spirit Beings

We believe that God created spirit beings called angels (Psa 68:17). From among these holy ministers of God, some fell into sin following Satan as their head (Isa 14:12, 2 Peter 2:4, Rev 12:9). We call those that remained holy “angels” (Rev 5:2) and those that sinned “demons” or “devils” (Rev 16:14). These beings, good and bad, are the only created beings that exist in purely spirit form without the need of a body (Heb 1:14).

Section 7 – Sin

We accept the fact that Adam and Eve were real persons (1 Cor 15:45-47). Their transgression was in direct disobedience to God’s command (Gen 2:17) and by that disobedience, death, including physical, spiritual and eternal, came upon them and all of their posterity (Rom 5:12). All human beings, therefore, are conceived carrying Adam’s sinfulness and are thereby sinners by nature (Psa 51:5). Man’s present state without Christ is one of being spiritually dead in that sin (Eph 2:1).

Section 8 – Salvation

Salvation is provided by the person (deity) and work (bodily resurrection) (Rom 10:9-10) of Jesus Christ for any sinner (1 Tim 2:1,4,6) who will repent of his sinfulness (2 Cor 7:10) and trust Christ as his Savior (1 Thes 1:9). This trust is not a work that man can do of his own merit (Eph 2:8-9) but is rather an act of acceptance of the work already done on his behalf by Christ (Titus 3:5). When a person has received Christ as Savior, it is God’s will for him to live a holy life (1 Thes 4:3). We believe that once a person has received Christ as Savior he is eternally secure in the keeping power of God (Jude 24).

Section 9 – The Church

The Church is God’s unique plan for this dispensation of grace (Eph 3:2, 3, 10). All those who have been saved since the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ have been placed into Christ’s body by Holy Spirit baptism (Jn 14:20, Acts 1:5, 1 Cor 12:13). It is God’s will, therefore, that every believer assemble together with other believers in a local church body (Heb 10:25, 1 Cor 5:4) and practice the ordinances of baptism (Matt 28:19-20) and the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:23-26). The church must take accountability for its members to keep them from falling back into a life of sinfulness (Matt 18:15-17).

Section 10 – The End Times

We believe that the next event in biblical prophecy is the imminent rapture of the church (1 Thes 4:13-16) in which those who are saved will escape the Tribulation (1 Thes 5:9). After the rapture, the seven year tribulation period will take place on the earth (Rev 7:14) in order for God to judge those left in unbelief (Rev 6:17). At the end of the seven years, Jesus Christ will return to the earth with the redeemed (Rev 19:11-16) to bind Satan (Rev 20:2) and to establish a thousand year kingdom (Rev 20:3-7) promised to saints of all ages. After the thousand years, God will judge the lost of all ages at the great White Throne judgment (Rev 20:11-15). The lost will be tormented forever in the lake of fire (Rev 20:14) and the redeemed will then live forever in heaven, the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:2).

Section 11 – The Eternal State

We believe that the Bible teaches a literal heaven (Rev 21-22) and a literal hell (Rev 20:14-15) and only those two destinations for the souls of all mankind. We believe that both are real to the senses and that both last forever (Matt 13:42-43). The New Jerusalem is equated with heaven (Rev 21:2) and will be the eternal abode for the righteous (Rev 22:1-6) while the lake of fire will be the eternal abode of the lost (Rev 22:18-19).