What I believe, by Matt Slick

1. God is sovereign (1 Tim. 6:15), good (Psalm 86:4), loving (1 John 4:16),  Holy (Isaiah 6:3; Rev. 4:8), and righteous (Psalm 7:11).
2. Every unregenerate person is a sinner (Rom. 3:23), dead in his sins (Eph. 2:1), possessing a deceitful heart (Jer. 17:9), is full of evil (Mark 7:21-23), unable to understand spiritual truth (1 Cor. 2:14), does not seek for God (Rom. 3:11), is a slave to his own sin nature (Rom. 6:14-20), is hostile in mind and deed to God (Col. 1:21), and naturally and rightfully are objects of God's wrath (Eph. 2:3).
3. Because of their sinful condition (Rom. 6:14-20), the unregenerate do not and cannot freely choose to believe the gospel (Rom. 3:10-12; Rom. 6:14-20) and that they cannot come to God unless it has been granted to them from the Father (John 6:65) who appoints them to eternal life (Acts 13:48) and grants that they believe (Phil. 1:29).
4. God in His love and mercy and out of the kind intention of His own will  (Eph. 1:5), from before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), elected (Mark 13:20; Rom. 8:33), chose (2 Thess. 2:13-14), and predestined (Eph. 1:5,11) some of the lost to salvation and left the others to go their natural way, to damnation (Eph. 2:3).
5. God's sovereign predestination was not based upon God looking into the future to see who would pick Him (this would mean that God learned) for no one would pick Him because they are slaves to their sinful natures (Rom. 3:10-12; 6:14-20), full of evil (Mark 7:21-23), enemies of God (Rom. 5:10), with nothing good dwelling in them (Rom. 7:18), hateful, disobedient, and enslaved to their lusts (Titus 3:3).
6. The elect's believing is based solely on the grace of God (Eph. 1:7; 2:8), not the will of man (John 1:13; Rom. 9:13), and not based upon any foreseen goodness in man (Rom. 9:11-13).  If God elected based upon the foreseen goodness or choice of someone, then God would be a respecter of persons since He would be showing favoritism based on something in the sinner.  God's decisions are according to His own will, according to His own purpose (Eph. 1:5), because God is not a respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11). 
7. Furthermore, those who receive Christ (John 1:12) are justified by faith alone (Rom. 5:1), through grace alone (Eph. 2:8), in Christ alone (John 14:6).
8. God loves the world (Matt. 5:43-48; John 3:16), not just the Jews (John 7;35; Rom. 1:16; 2:10), and gave His Son as a propitiation (1 John 4:10), not only for the Jews to whom the Son was sent (Matt. 15:24; Acts 13:46), but also for the whole world (1 John 2:2), both Jews and Gentiles (Rom. 1:16).
9. As many as receive Christ (John 1:12) do so because they have been appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:48), granted that they believe (Phil. 1:29), granted that they repent (2 Tim. 2:25), and caused to be born again (1 Pet. 1:3), not by their own wills (John 1:13).
10. The atoning work of Jesus who is God in flesh (John 1:1,14; Col. 2:9), who became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21), who bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24), who died, was buried, and rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:3-4), in the same body that He died in (John 2:19-21; Luke 24:39; John 20:27), whose sacrifice was sufficient to save all, but was intended only for the elect and therefore, Jesus only bore the sins of the elect (John 10:11,15; Rom. 5:18; 2 Cor. 5:14).
11. God first regenerates the hearts and minds of the unsaved so that they are then able to respond to the gospel message and then, by faith, they receive Christ as is evidenced in the fruit of the Spirit (Eph. 5:22-23) and that they are born again not of their own wills, but of God's will (John 1:13) who has caused them to be born again (1 Pet. 1:3).
12. Because the salvation of the elect is completely grounded in Christ, they cannot fall away (John 10:27-28; 1 John 2:19).

    Finally, in short, I am a five point calvinist, amillennial, post-trib rapture, peudobaptistic (not for salvation), non-cessationist, and covenantal.

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   Note:  I will periodically polish this piece with modifications.

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Copyright by Matthew J. Slick, B.A., M. Div., 1998-2006
I welcome your comments via E-mail at matt@carm.org