CREATION
In the beginning, the eternally existent, all-sufficient, and triune God created all that exists, visible and invisible. On the sixth and final day of creation, God created man in His own image, unique in value, in identity, and in purpose within the creation. God made man male and female, which are distinct and different expressions of God’s image that only together fully make up the image of God. Man was also responsible to rule over the creation and bring good from it as an expression of God’s image. The first man and woman walked with God in the garden in perfect relationship with Him and one another.
All that God created was “very good,” and the original world was void of sickness, suffering, conflict, and death. At the culmination of His creation, God instituted marriage – the lifetime covenant relationship between one man and one woman – as a divine institution through which man is to express the love, unity, leadership, and servanthood found within the character and Trinity of God. God decreed that a man should unite with a woman for life and so be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and develop it.
THE FALL
Man, as originally created, was a perfect expression of the character of God and lived in a perfectly united relationship with God. But the archangel Lucifer lifted himself up in pride, rebelled against God, and became the evil Satan. Many of God’s angels followed him in rebellion, becoming demons. Satan tempted the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, who doubted God’s goodness and love, disobeyed God, and so joined the rebellion. As a result, Man lost the perfect state that had given him relationship with the Creator. This alienation was so severe that God described it as death, though the man still had physical life. The creation was also radically alienated from its original state as decay and death became part of it.
Because man was created in God’s image as an eternal creature, the alienation from God had eternal consequences as well. This alienation changed the course of human history, as all human beings have been and are born with an alienated nature, without the spiritual life that comes through relationship with God. Both the inherited alienation from Adam and each individual’s own sin leaves every person in a state of separation, without relationship, and deserving judgment from God for sin. Yet at the time of this separation, God promised redemption and mercifully continued to bless His creation, reveal His goodness, and pursue a restoration of relationship.
THE FLOOD
After Adam and Eve’s fall, their offspring began to multiply on the earth. Because human life was now born without connection to God and His Spirit, it was bent toward selfishness, sin, and evil. Although humans still bore the likeness of God, that likeness was significantly twisted and marred. Human culture rapidly became corrupt, until the earth was filled with violence and evil. In grief, God judged such evil by flooding the entire earth and its inhabitants with a world-wide flood, while saving land animals and eight people in a ship constructed by Noah, a righteous man.
PROMISE & COVENANT
From Noah’s descendants, God chose Abraham. God promised that He would bless him, would make his grandson Israel’s descendants a great nation, would give them the land of Canaan, and would bless all nations through them. Through the ministry of Moses, God redeemed the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, gave them the law, and gave them the land as an inheritance. God promised blessings to the nation if they would believe and obey, and He threatened curses if they rebelled and served other gods. Many years later, God anointed David as Israel’s king and promised to set one of his descendants, the Messiah, upon the throne of Israel forever.
BLESSINGS & CURSES
Throughout Israel’s history, spanning from Abraham until Jesus came (a period of almost 2000 years), God interacted with His chosen people—giving His Law, speaking through the prophets, dwelling within the temple, and blessing the nation according to their faith and obedience. But Israel treacherously spurned the Lord, again and again turning to idolatry. In the end, and in accordance with His warnings, God nearly destroyed the nation, exiling the survivors to Assyria and Babylon. After seventy years, God brought a remnant back to the land, yet Israel never fully regained its sovereignty, remaining subject to foreign domination and devoid of a king sitting on David’s throne.
JESUS & THE KINGDOM
In the climax of His plan to remove the alienation that had entered through Man’s first sin – to reconcile the world to Himself – God sent His Son, Jesus. Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God and fulfill God’s promises of redemption and reconciliation to Israel and to the world. Jesus was a descendant of David, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Eternally pre-existent, Jesus was fully God and also fully man. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit, and through a season of ministry lasting approximately three years, He worked mighty miracles. He cast out demons and healed all diseases and infirmities, thus authenticating His claims to be the Messiah—the King of Israel and Judge of the world.
As the exact representation of God and the perfect human, Jesus lived a life without sin, though He was tempted in every way. Living a fully human life, Jesus brought to God what Adam and all others had failed to do. Jesus lived the perfect expression of what God has created human life to be – a loving, honoring expression of the image of God before the Father. As part of this obedience to His Father, He allowed Himself to be crucified – without sin of His own – in payment of the sins of Israel and of the world. In this way, both Jesus’ life and Jesus’ death were an essential part of God providing what was necessary for our reconciliation with Him.
During his earthly life, Jesus promised that He would bring an eternal Kingdom that His followers would reside in forever. This Kingdom is in a new creation where the present alienation is completely gone. In this Kingdom, there is no more mourning or crying or death or pain.
RESURRECTION, COMMISSION, ASCENSION
Three days after His death, Jesus rose physically from the dead, forever substantiating His claims to be Israel’s Messiah and Savior of the world. For forty days, Jesus repeatedly appeared to His disciples, proving His resurrection to them. He announced to His followers that all authority in heaven and earth had now been given to Him, indicating that this present time was now a transition to the Kingdom He is bringing. In preparation for what is to come, He commissioned them to take to all nations the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God, of the forgiveness of sins, and of His resurrection from the dead. After this, He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. He is awaiting the appointed time for His return to exercise judgment on every human life and to complete the establishment of His eternal Kingdom.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
On the day of Pentecost, ten days after His ascension, Jesus poured out upon His followers the Holy Spirit, whom He had received from His Father. The Holy Spirit is fully God, is the third Person of the Trinity, and is a personal being, not a force. Previous to Pentecost, the Holy Spirit had actively worked in the world, primarily through Israel’s kings, prophets, and priests. Since Pentecost, He has indwelt every true believer in Jesus, male and female, young and old. The Spirit convicts people of their sins, draws them to Christ, gives them new life, gifts them for service, and empowers them to do God’s will. The Spirit is sealed in every believer so that he will be protected and preserved by God and will persevere in faith until death or until Jesus returns. On the day of Pentecost, thousands believed and, in obedience to Jesus’ command, were baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah, a practice that is to continue throughout the ages.
THE CHURCH
Since Jesus, in His life, death, and resurrection, fulfilled the Law of Moses and made it obsolete, the barrier between Jew and Gentile has been removed. After Jesus ascended, His apostles preached the good news that people are now justified before God through repentance and faith in Jesus and His work. Their message to all people everywhere was this: Reconciliation with God is offered by Him as a gift through His own freely given grace, and it comes to people through faith, apart from any actions that merit that grace. Faith consists of both believing that God, in His love for those He has created, has provided all that is necessary for reconciliation though Jesus; and of choosing to receive that gracious gift from God and thereby enter an eternal relationship with Him.
The people of God now include all who truly believe in Jesus the Messiah, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor—people of all ages and races—whom God is bringing together into His church. Those who come to Christ become part of His church and should devote themselves to God’s family and its mission – representing Christ as a light to the world.
THE BIBLE
The Bible claims to be the communication given to man by the Creator God, who has done these things in history. For thousands of years, certain writings have been given within the flow of that history which claim to be from God and have been acknowledged in the world as being so. In the centuries immediately after Jesus lived, died, and rose again, the church recognized the writings that had been passed down from the apostles, men whom Jesus had appointed to proclaim the Kingdom and lead the church. These New Testament writings and the Jewish scriptures of the Old Testament make up the 66 books of the Bible and are uniquely, verbally, and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit. They reveal their supernatural nature through verifiable prophesies that span centuries of time. The Scripture also reveals its divine nature through the scope of its subjects, the accuracy of its history, the nature of its communication, and the witness of the Spirit in human hearts. As a communication from an infinite, loving God, we can know it was written without error in the original manuscripts and passed down to us with great accuracy. God’s authority over His church is mediated through the Bible, and in this way, it is the supreme and final authority for faith and life in this age, superseding all other sources of human knowledge.
KINGDOM CONSUMMATION
In the future, King Jesus, the same man who died, rose, and ascended into Heaven, will physically return to earth. He will then consummate His kingdom; rule the earth with absolute authority; abolish injustice; usher in an eternal age of peace, prosperity, and happiness; and fulfill all of God’s promises to Israel and the world. Death will be abolished, pain will be no more, and sadness and sorrow will flee. Those who have believed in the God of Israel and in Jesus and who have loved righteousness will be physically resurrected to live as children of God, with Him forever. They will inherit an eternal Kingdom prepared for them and enter into the joy of God’s family. All others who have refused to believe and have loved wickedness will remain in alienation from God. They will be physically resurrected and banished forever from the presence of God into hell, a place of eternal suffering.