Author's Statement of Faith

Just so you don’t think I’m some weird off-the-wall kook out to make a buck on a racy novel, here is a brief statement of my faith. This is what I really believe:

God is Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, mercy, love, and truth. There is only one God, but He has revealed Himself to us as trinity: the Eternal Father YHWH, Yashua (Jesus Christ) His Son, and His Holy Spirit, one in essence and glory, three in function.

Man’s chief purpose in life is to please and glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Since Adam’s fall, man has been utterly bound in sin, unable to please God, devoted to destruction. He cannot save himself and has no hope unless God redeems him. Our sin nature totally blinds us to God, who alone can open our eyes.

Yashua is the Word of YHWH the Eternal Father, the full expression of God into this time / space realm. He has always been fully God. He became fully man at the incarnation, born of the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. Animal sacrifices in the Old Covenant pointed to the perfect sinless sacrifice of Yashua on the Roman cross, which paid the penalty for the sins of all who believe and receive Him. His sacrifice is totally sufficient, once for all time, for all the sins of mankind. No other sacrifices are required in the New Covenant. After His death and punishment for our sins in hell, Yashua was resurrected by the Father. He ever lives to intercede for us, for He is the only mediator between us and the Eternal Father YHWH.

All who will not believe and receive the perfect sacrifice of Yashua must pay the full penalty for their own sin, death. This is not primarily death of the body. This is “soul death,” spiritual torment in hell, assigned by God’s perfect justice in strict accord with their own wicked deeds. Salvation is only by faith in Yashua. But God’s punishment has nothing to do with faith; it is always according to deeds.

The Holy Bible, in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is the inerrant Word of Almighty God, word-for-word inspired in the original languages. Just as the New Testament rests foursquare on the Old with no conflict, so anything which the Holy Spirit says to any of us must rest foursquare on the Old and New Testaments with no conflict, or it is not of God. God did not stop speaking with the canonization of the Bible, yet He will not, He cannot, contradict Himself. I take every word of Scripture literally unless it is clearly intended to be otherwise.

Man’s translations, punctuation, verse and chapter divisions, paraphrases, and interpretations of the Holy Scriptures are not necessarily inspired. Wherever they make the Bible to contradict itself, they are demonstrably uninspired.

The Holy Bible is clouded to those who will not believe. It is clearly understood only by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The proud can read it, pray, and still get nothing from God. The humble repentant heart that is seeking God cannot read the Scripture without getting something from God, for His Holy Word, even with no other human intervention, is totally sufficient for man’s salvation and redemption.

God’s Holy Spirit is sent to live within the soul of each Believer to: convict of sin and encourage righteousness; lead us into all truth; glorify Yashua in us; assure us of our salvation and eternal destiny; and inspire us to live as Yashua lived, in obedience to the Eternal Father and in harmony with God’s laws. Only those who are being led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.

God’s purpose in creating the universe is not to save us from sin! That is just a detour. His purpose is to form, mature, and perfect a many-membered Bride for Himself, and to ultimately bring her (and many others) back to the Father in eternity.

God never fails in all His plans and purposes. Ultimately all in heaven and earth shall see the glorious perfection of His Plan of the Ages. When they do, they will bow in willing submission to Him. Yashua, the only way to the Eternal Father, will then banish all rule, authority, and power among mankind, and will turn over His Kingdom to the Father, that He may be all in all. Thus the many-membered Bride, finally perfected in unity with Christ, will return with Him and with His uncountable multitude of brothers and servants back to the Father in eternity.

God is eternal. The spirit He fathered in each of us, created in His image, is likewise eternal. However, the world, heaven, hell, and nearly everything we know are temporal, with a beginning and an end. Even the Holy Bible and the Kingdom of God are temporal. Yashua is the only way from the temporal back to the eternal.

Satan, the Adversary, is leading the Great Controversy against God, claiming that his own ways of self-serving deception and force are somehow better than (or at least equal to) God’s ways of self-giving love. Satan has already lost. At the end of the ages he, together with everything he “fathered” and all who followed in his rebellion, will be destroyed in the lake of fire. Finally death and hell will also be destroyed, once every penalty for every sin has been paid and every work of Satan has been destroyed. Ultimately only that which God “fathered” will remain in the Universe. Then all shall see that everything Satan did, indeed everything anyone did, only worked out according to God’s perfect plan which He purposed in Christ from the dawn of time.

God is awesome. To know Him is to fear Him, and fear to cross Him! Yet He does not want us to be afraid of Him, but rather to draw near to Him, to develop a love relationship with Him, so that He can live His life boldly in and through us. He actually wants us to live like Yashua did, always led by the Holy Spirit to find and do the Father’s will, thus allowing His power and authority to work through us. Thus the fear of God is the most beautiful, awesome, joyful experience, for in the fear of God we trust, even rest, in His awesome greatness and His infinite love. Those who develop a proper fear of God do not fear man, or nature, or even Satan or demons, for they are all under God’s awesome authority and power. His children can simply walk by His Spirit and do His will, trusting Him for the results.

That is what I’ve tried to do throughout my story. In some cases I believe I’ve succeeded, as I stare in awe at what I can hardly believe I have written. To God be the glory forever for all that He has accomplished through me. In other places I see something that is muddled or unclear. It doesn’t ring with the purity of the Spirit of God in and through me. It is clearly a mixture of the holy with the profane. Though I write with authority as if I know all truth, yet I tremble in my boots, in fear that my own deceitful heart may have somehow misled me. I wrestle with it, but I am just a man. I do not yet have all wisdom and knowledge. I may have somehow accepted a lie somewhere, whether in my interpretation of Scripture, my knowledge or my research of history, or even just my own thoughts and desires. I do the best I can, but I finally realize I cannot fix it - not now. Not until God has worked His perfect work in one more area of my life. Perhaps that part, dear Reader, remains for you to help me clarify, for we need one another. At the very least, I realize that in showing me my weakness, God is keeping me humble, so that He can continue to use me.

So please, dear Reader, enjoy my story, giving praise to God for the good parts and forgiving my weaknesses. I hope and pray that God will use this to complete the Reformation that He began with John Wycliffe and Martin Luther, and prepare the way for the soon returning of Jesus Christ, Yashua haMashiach, for His Bride.