A Profession
of Belief, by J. Nathan Carman
Here is what I believe:
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I believe in God.
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I choose the Bible to be the source of defining who God
is, what Gods plan is, and how my relationship with God should be. There are
other texts one could choose (Koran, Veda, book of Mormon, etc…); however, I
don’t believe they have neither the credentials nor the consistency that is
found in the Old and New Testament of the Bible. As such, I will take the
Bible to be the word of God and the truth, even if I cannot explain it.
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I choose the King James Version to be the Bible to study
and be the Word of God. I won’t say that the other versions of the Bible
won’t keep one from having a relationship with God, but I will say they are
watered down and are missing some key words/notions. And the argument that
the English is hard to understand in the KJV is silly, it takes a little more
work in the beginning and soon becomes something you don’t even have to think
about.
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I believe in the existence of Heaven and Hell, as
clearly defined in the Bible
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I believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of
God, that he came for the full purpose to pay the price for sin for all of
humanity.
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I believe that the way to Heaven is through Christ (John
14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me.”)
There is what is called “The
Romans Road to Salvation,” it goes something like this:
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All men and women are sinners
Romans 3:10 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one”
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As such, the relationship between God and man is
tainted, there is a spiritual death that we all inherit, and being tainted, we
as default will not enter heaven, but are destined for hell
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”
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Christ paid the price for our sins, forgiveness is
available to us, should we choose to ask
Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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We can be forgiven, all that is required is we must
believe in Christ, repent, ask forgiveness, and ask for the gift of eternal
salvation
Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.”
Romans 10:10 “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved.”
Believing in Christ and
believing that he is the Son of God is not sufficient. He must be your personal
savior. After all, the demons named Legion that possessed a single man in Luke
chapter 8 fully recognized Christ for who and what he was (Luke 8:28 “When he
saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said,
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee,
torment me not”), but their master and fate aren’t with God and Heaven.
