BIBLIOLOGY
Every ray of Day’s full light,
every inch of darkened Night;
every speck of the expanse called Heaven,
every parsec, atmospheric and stellar;
all dry lands and seas, plants and seeds,
the sun, the moon, and the stars also;
land, sea, and air creatures alive or fossil,
testify to all people, at all times, in all places,
of the only God’s eternal power, Divine Nature.
The work of God’s law is written on the heart,
while, through a function of our immaterial part,
conscience reminds us of our duties.
Though man’s thoughts are useless
this witness leaves us without excuses.
God’s glory is definitely exhibited,
but by these means the content is limited.
So God progressively revealed Himself and His plan;
thus, the mind of God was communicated to man.
What started out as 5 books grew to 39 overtime,
27 more written – every stroke, every letter, every line
carried along by the Holy Spirit in real time,
penned by the mediation and means of men,
writing what will be and what was then.
God used the writing talent (or lack) of apostles and prophets
to breath out all of Scripture for present/future profit
of teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness,
after having led one to faith in Christ Jesus.
The ink left by the quill is God’s revealed will,
the first writings are inspired, and the copies are accurate still;
perfectly inerrant- totally devoid of flaws,
so the Bible is rightly called the word of God.
Scripture is sufficient, complete in its exactness,
it’s the final rule of all doctrine and practice;
God projected His own authentic,
self-attesting, authoritative, majestic word;
when Scripture is read God’s voice is heard.
His word is truth because God is the Source,
it defines reality and comports with its norms.
All things in it do come to pass infallibly;
it is given for the building up of God’s family.
We interpret with Biblical-theological principles,
according to “the rule of faith,” literary style, and simple
distinction between historically covenantal contexts,
while leaning on the Spirit to illuminate the text.
From Revelation looking back to Genesis,
the value, importance, and blessedness
of this book cannot be overstated,
and no other work can be equated.
THEOLOGY PROPER
No other book reveals the Godhead.
God is simple or undivided:
one Nature, one Essence, one Substance or Being,
yet only One God exists eternally in Three…
Three Persons, one in Substance,
one in glory, power, and excellence;
coeternal, consubstantial, and coequal
yet in Persons differential;
the Father and the Son,
and the Holy Spirit – One.
One Being in three Persons, unique from each other,
the Father begets the Son; the Son is begotten of the Father;
the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son,
yet these Three have been, and always will be, One.
At the baptism of Jesus, each Person present,
in the baptismal formula they share equal reverence.
Each with distinct roles to save and create,
in this economy, Son and Spirit are subordinate,
but from eternity each Person has been free
to exercise their attributes independently.
Each Person is designated “God,” thus explaining Him,
but more often the Father is the representative.
God’s attributes are both moral and non-moral,
the latter existential and relational to the former:
God is eternal – without beginning or end
and self-existent (as all creation on Him depends).
He’s sovereign over all things in His dominion,
He’s free, without an outside cause or opinion,
He supplies His own demand,
and nothing can stay His omnipotent hand.
He has all power to do His will unhindered,
and He is omniscient – His understanding is infinite.
Everywhere at once or omnipresent,
He is where He is and where He is “nothing” isn’t.
In greatness and goodness, in all things He’s infinite.
God’s glory is not threatened by the woes of the wicked,
He shines brightest despite the dimness of our vision.
Majesty and grandeur surround the King’s dimension,
unquantifiable and undeniable as angels perpetually make mention.
He will never change because He’s immutable,
not static or inactive, but naturally invariable.
Eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only wise God is purely spiritual:
without parts, but using anthropomorphisms to condescend
our direction to make the infinite sensible;
and even though we spiritually discern the spiritual,
God remains incomprehensible.
Not subject to, or constrained by time in His eternity,
He sees all events simultaneously, perfectly.
Yet, He works within time while remaining unchanged,
from everlasting to everlasting the Lord is the same.
In Himself He takes the greatest of pleasure,
so it’s correct for Him to be glorified forever!
An accurate Self-assessment,
since He is authentic.
Holiness is His only attribute repeated thrice in one sentence,
it is the perfection best expressing His preeminence:
cut off from everything that isn’t Himself,
in His own category, otherly from all else.
Completely pure from any taint, in all senses, morally,
set apart from any sense of “mundane” and “normal,” He
is sanctified and what He touches becomes holy,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.”
God’s love, mercy, grace and patience,
goodness, wisdom, wrath, justice and faithfulness,
all these are seen and come together at the cross,
where Jesus died for sheep that were lost.
Being that we’ve offended God’s holiness,
we sinners are at the receiving end of wrath in hopelessness.
Yet beforehand, God, in love made a covenant of redemption,
waited patiently in mercy without question.
Faithfully, and at the right time, according to His wisdom
He sent His own Son to seal prophecy and vision.
Messiah was cut off, the Just for the unjust,
suffered relentlessly under weight of God’s justice.
Grace poured from His wounds in blood and water;
God’s goodness to sinners most manifested in His slaughter.
This also shows His providential control and activity
within the realm of creatures who fulfill His will, actively.
What God, in His infinite wisdom, ordains from eternity
is carried out by the will and hands of men perfectly.
This has to do with predestination
and it encompasses all things within God’s creation;
actively willing and doing what we at the time want to,
while feeling no outside determination or constraint thereto.
Yet, God’s eternal purpose is thereby unfolding,
and we, in our roles, play our parts without knowing.
And none can say to the Potter, “Why have you made me thus?”
or that the Judge of all the earth is acting unjust.
The implication of this doctrine
is that “our” reality was never an option,
it is exactly how God has defined it,
not just the-best-of-all-possible-worlds: He designed it.
This is not calling good “evil,” or evil “good,”
the problem of evil is real, yet God is still good.
ANGELOLOGY
Whatever comes to pass is a part of His plan,
wherein a high ranking angel would fall and tempt man.
This angel, like all others, is a creature;
they are spiritual beings, vast in number, with varied ranks and features.
Designed for the purpose of worshipping God and serving Him,
acting as His agents to fulfill specific missions.
Sent out by command, they obey His holy word,
but one set himself in opposition to the Lord.
So God cast him out and then the angels who rebelled,
he’s destined for destruction, but he’s not yet in hell.
How he fell is not that explicit, don’t be curious,
such interpretations of classic texts are spurious.
Satan is the tempter – murderer from the beginning,
the father of lies induced man to join him in sinning.
The one called the Serpent is doomed to be crushed,
and at the cross the death blow was dealt, made to eat dust.
He and his angels are evil (the unfallen, elect),
all are immortal, incorporeal, so have some healthy respect!
Though mighty in power, God alone deserves worship.
To God alone the elect angels reserve worship.
ANTHROPOLOGY/HAMARTIOLOGY
And for His glory, God created man as a whole,
dust plus the breath of life equals “a living soul.”
Man, made in God’s image, to reflect, represent
the Maker to whom he owed his very breath.
A personal, moral, intelligent, sexual being,
with different parts per gender for married pleasure and offspring,
male and female, no other, get to leave father, mother,
covenant for life to join and live for the good of the other.
Man was made to know he was created by God and enjoy that relationship
if he would just maintain his original righteousness.
This righteousness was untested… until external temptation,
and man, through sin, bowed the knee to the Satan.
Consequently, Adam and all he represented as head of humanity,
fell into a lost state – total depravity.
The whole of man, both body and soul is corrupted,
such has been our lot since Adam transgressed the covenant
on our behalf, as our federal head; if we do the math,
we see that, by nature, we’re all children of wrath.
God, in His justice, imputed Adam’s guilt to us,
death comes with sin, the full wages that suit us.
Through our corrupt nature we think, will, and choose;
so, “freewill” is vernacular we shouldn’t use.
By nature we’re enslaved to sin and Satan,
manifested by our thoughts, deeds, and communication.
We’re not merely sick but dead in trespasses and sins;
from birth we hate God, wanting nothing of Him.
We lack ability to please Him even if we wanted to;
we’re totally depraved – sinful through and through.
Still, God’s image in us isn’t destroyed, but marred greatly,
and if it is to be restored… it needs remaking.
CHRISTOLOGY
Praise God the Father that He has provided
His only begotten Son with His perfect timing!
In fulfillment of the first gospel promise,
the Seed of the women came in times ominous.
God the Son united His Divine Nature to a Human One,
not one nature but two, not two persons but One.
The Holy Spirit procured the Son’s sinless conception
in womb of a virgin by a creative act beyond comprehension.
He arrived, He had come! Without sin, original or actual,
Jesus, the God-Man, came by virgin birth – historical and factual.
Two Natures united in One Person,
the hypostatic or Personal union.
Jesus is the human name given to define His mission,
“the Lord saves,” so, He came to save His people from their sins.
Jesus is the Christ, the long awaited Anointed One,
not only very Man but also very God, the Son.
The epitome and antitype of prophet, priest and king,
three offices fulfilled in the Servant of suffering:
As Prophet He’s the Messenger and the Word itself,
as Priest, for His people He offered up Himself,
as King He rules devoted subjects in His realm,
so He confirms the promises made to Israel.
A Prophet like Moses, Priest like Melchizidek,
King like David but to an infinite extent.
Jesus’s life and mission fulfills Israel and the exodus,
taking His people out of bondage by His life and death.
We behold the Man standing like a Lamb freshly slain,
risen victoriously as the conqueror of the grave.
In His death He died to save all ordained to eternal life,
because, by His blood, He paid the sum of an eternal price.
The Eternal God paid for an eternal sentence,
thus the atonement can be stated with definiteness:
Christ died for all the world, as His people in every nation,
He is the Second Adam of the new creation.
Representing all in and under Him,
the benefits of His obedience are thus limited.
When “all” is acknowledged in relation to His death,
there’s an obvious exclusion – namely, the non-elect.
Jesus was resurrected bodily on the third day,
not specter or spirit, but with a body not subject to decay,
He is the first fruits of the end resurrection,
the glorified Lord ascended into heaven,
there to sit down at the right hand of God the Father,
presenting Himself as the sacrifice outdoing every other.
His wounds pour effectual prayers of intercession,
pleading for His people’s pardon and for their restoration.
There He is seated as the Head of all the church,
and from there, in the same way He ascended, will return.
From thence He reigns and from thence to return again,
from thence He poured out the Holy Spirit onto men.
PNEUMATOLOGY
The Holy Spirit is God, Third member of the Trinity,
and it’s obvious from Scripture He’s a Person, He’s a He.
He has a will for choice, a Name, and speaks verbally,
no mere “force” could do such things, so He is ever worthy;
worthy of worship, and of praise, and acknowledged as Deity.
Both Testaments testify to these sentiments,
and the fruit of the Spirit is the evidence;
it’s His work in renewed hearts, a change entire,
not onomatopoeia or strange fire.
All sign gifts have ceased to be
since the purpose for them was complete at AD 70,
and the completion of the canon in AD 95,
The Spirit is the Author of the books on which we thrive.
Through Him we see the Son exalted in His ministry,
always pointing out the Second Person of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit wisely gifts the church just as He wills,
for education and up-building as He Word-centeredly fills;
prompting love, good works, worship, and godliness,
in the midst of the world’s hostile populace.
He’s sanctifying each member of Christ’s body collectively,
He mortifies our flesh, which He opposes diametrically.
Praise the Spirit who is God without question!
Praise the Agent in the application of redemption!
SOTERIOLOGY
Such redemption was determined in eternity
in the mind of God involving each member of the Trinity:
The Father foreknew, or set His love upon individuals,
marking each one out despite their obstinate wills.
He chose them unconditionally in Christ for blessing,
that the end would be glorification and thus He predestined –
to life and glory, chosen out from among their equals,
sinners in the mind of God who ordained all details.
Those left non-elect are thus reprobate,
facing the destruction they, of their own accord, await.
The logical (not chronological) order of decrees in question
is to create, then permit the fall, then elect-reject, then provide the elect’s redemption.
The goal is to praise His grace and justice, and exalt the Son of God,
with whom this covenant was made and enacted by His blood;
that precious blood spilled to atone for the world’s guilt,
the foundation on which our salvation is built.
The Holy Spirit works in and through the message,
the gospel as the Father draws those dead as fossils,
wooing us to the Son, convicted of sin, righteousness and judgment,
enlightening us to see our need to escape just punishment.
He leads us to the cross, calling effectually,
an invocation from the Father respectively.
This call cannot be resisted, or revoked,
issuing in regeneration which we cannot provoke.
This is our new birth, brought about from above,
our birthright in the kingdom of the Son of Father’s love,
our ugly heart of stone is taken away
and a new heart and Spirit is given with a new way,
turning us from sin, granting repentance unto life,
changing our mind to believe in the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Saving faith being the consent to an accurate understanding
of the gospel of Christ and trusting Him alone for a right standing
before God on the basis of Christ Jesus’ sacrifice,
His resurrection guarantees this promise to we all,
to those who upon the name of the Lord will call.
We give up works; give up hope of our own to merit – a cessation.
A repentant faith in Christ is evidence of regeneration,
and faith is the means of justification:
God accounts to us by the righteousness of Christ;
the merit of His passively obedient death and actively obedient life;
God imputes this to us through the means of faith,
while the word of God is our means of grace.
The newly justified believer is indwelt with the Spirit of God
a temple where the glory never departs, never “Ichabod!”
Like a wax seal under signet is the Spirit upon our heart;
we don’t wait, but receive the Spirit from the start.
So it is for every saved one, making a child of God, a son,
crying out “Abba! Father!” because of the Spirit of adoption.
There is an initial set apartness to God, positionally,
giving way to a life of sanctification, though with difficulty;
blood, sweat, tears; the breaking of bread, prayer, the word and fellowship,
increasing in love and good works as per His workmanship.
The poem God wrote in eternity,
created in Christ to be carried out permanently.
Christ likeness is the goal whether dead or alive,
the aim upward will never be acheived in this life.
But come hell or high water the saints will persevere,
because God’s power keeps us having faith like fire,
though Satan casts water there to extinguish it,
Christ puts oil secretly so the flame never diminishes.
So, we’ll never suffer the fate of that angelic being gone wrong,
for “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day,”
and we’ll be glorified when earth and sky flee away,
presently, in this body of humility… yet, at the same time,
ECCLESIOLOGY
in the glorious body of Christ which we’ve yet to define.
The singular yet diverse people of God in Christ,
we are the blood bought bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Jesus Christ is the Seed promised to crush the serpent,
the One to whom we flee when we repent.
He rebuilt and rules David’s house at present,
true Image of God, He truly represents
all under Him of the new creation,
with dominion over all, granting the blessing of justification
even to the nations.
Christ composes the true Israel with the people of the Spirit,
those whom Hell will never hear of,
the children with one heart and one new way,
who know and fear the Lord and who will one day
be fully536 brought into the new heavens and the new earth.
The pinnacle creation showcasing God’s wisdom is the church!
The mystery of Jew and Gentile, equality in one body,
by virtue of the cross ending law’s hostility. beginning a new policy.
“New” in it’s expression in Jesus, but as “old” as the Letter,
the law of Christ is love in a covenant every way better!
“Love as Christ loved” is the church manifesto,
not “walking in” but “fulfilling the law” as the text shows.
The Lord has ordained two offices for the churches,
that of elders and deacons, overseers and servants.
The former have charge of shepherding the souls,
the latter care for bodies, and together make a whole;
they both stave off the two-pronged attack of the enemy,
the former false-teaching, the latter persecution, essentially.
Ever since the Lord’s resurrection and ascension,
men hold these offices by elder led, congregational election
provided they are faithful to maintain the qualifications
under Christ the Head – the Head is not a denomination.
The church is one of three spheres that God’s ordained
for good to proliferate and bad restrain,
each responsible to govern its created section
side-by-side with limited intersection,
the church has been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom,
the state has the sword to protect the church and family’s mission,
the family has the rod and duty to raise godly children,
each needed, neither fusion, nor utter fission.
In relation to the world, the church must evangelize.
To the state, the church must submit if not compromised.
To itself, the church is God’s family growing in love and faith,
sharing in the sacraments on the Lord’s day:
washed in water, baptized to demonstrate
commitment to Christ and burial into His work by grace,
yet no need for a tank with a special drain –
the ark wasn’t no submarine! –
and like it a household baptism,
see 1 Corinthians 10, the exodus included their children.
Resurrected and washed as a sign and seal of union,
and with bread and wine sharing Passover communion –
coming together worthily,
partaking of Him spiritually –
a spiritual feast, recalling His death, awaiting consummation,
the new covenant supper pointing backward and forward in elation
as the church awaits her Lord through trial and sacrifice,
loving one another to death because He paid the greatest price.
ESCHATOLOGY
As time comes to a close according to Revelation,
the church will persevere – even through great tribulation…
since we look for only one, single second coming,
the blessed hope of a glorious appearing: the summing-up
and uniting of all things in Christ (in heaven and on earth),
from east to west He will be seen and the last trumpet heard.
“Apocalupsis,” and “epiphany,” and “parousia” all describe
how Christ the Lord will descend from on high.
It will be a “revelation”; not secret. An “appearing”; not eerie.
It will be a “coming” rather than a half way disappearing.
Paul says in the air, the Lord we’ll “meet;”
the word he uses describes a group going out to greet
an approaching king and continue the same way as he,
so we’ll go up and then back down immediately,
which is what the angels said He’d do in Acts 1:11.
In fact, until the restoring of all things, He’s contained in heaven.
The church is in Revelation as in all the Bible:
mentioned 13 times, the same of the saints (that’s vital);
The church isn’t promised full-exemption from this.
2 Thessalonians 1:6 and 7 show us God’s justice,
repaying evil to evildoers while confirming His people;
this was the way of God’s dealing from tabernacle to steeple.
The church will see and be persecuted by the man of sin,
as 2 Thessalonians 2 says we’ll see his rise and destruction
which will come to pass with Jesus Christ’s return in holy glory,
gathering to Himself His own, then unleashing wrath – so gory.
Wheat gathered, chaff burned, separating sheep and goats,
good fish kept, the bad discarded without a hope;
no entrance to His kingdom (flesh and blood cannot inherit),
corruption can’t inherit incorruption – that’s apparent.
Romans 8 and 2nd Peter 3 are remind us we wait for the curse lifted;
a new heavens and new earth as the church is gifted
with the view of Christ that makes us instantly transformed
with glory, a spiritual body like His – beyond the norm,
capable to be forever with and worship God, the Trinity.
But the wicked will be fitted for the Lake of Fire, eternally.
Right now the beheaded, yet living, saints reign,
reign with Christ during Satan’s spiritual restraint.
This is brought about by the conquest of the cross,
as He rescues the nations from endless loss.
Rescued from wholesale abandonment; the devil needs some bandages,
because the gospel has infinite advantages.
His reign is A-, or better, Intermillennial,
inter- indicates inter advent, not ten-times-centennial,
and in the intermediate state, there from heaven
taking over the world like three measures with leaven.
Not just Russia and China – all will, against the church, rebel,
and every unbeliever will be swiftly cast into hell.
Hell and heaven are two states:
the temporal leads to the eternal and consummates,
when the judgment is rendered by the Lamb
– eternal conscious torment, or enjoyment by His hand.
The present evil age has run its course,
so, one day, riding on the war horse,
we’ll see the Lord of hosts come to judge both living and the dead,
bringing His reward with Him – filling wicked souls with dread.
Filling His servants with reverence, sobriety and joy,
making them like a purified alloy,
ready for display at the Great White Throne
when He judges the world and angels with His own;
us as assessors, amening His adjudication,
judging the twelve tribes in the regeneration,
rising up and condemning those who rejected the truth,
testifying to and then rewarded for what we’ve been through.
So, we press on in making colonies of heaven,
waiting for the trumpet and a better resurrection.
What’s the end of this dispensation?
God’s fame in judgment and salvation.
