First and foremost, I am a Christian.
WHAT THIS MEANS: This means I am a sinner and a wretch and all my righteousness is filthy rags. It means that I have a date that I got saved – that I prayed to ask Jesus Christ to be my Savior. I didn’t do anything to deserve the grace bestowed on me. I was saved by grace through faith alone. This means I am a beggar just like every other human being on earth. It also means that I have found the Bread of Life and will willingly help anyone else find Him too. If you are expecting me to be perfect, then you are going to be disappointed. I didn’t do anything to deserve grace and I certainly can’t be good enough to keep myself saved.
WHAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN: I am NOT perfect (yet). I am not even close. I am still a sinner (although saved by grace). Practically I can act just as wretched as the next sinner. The only difference between me and the next person is that I have the Holy Spirit to guide me so I should look different from the world. If I don’t look different, then there is something wrong with me. I would love to tell you that I have arrived and am sinless, but the Bible says that if I say that I have no sin, the truth is not in my (1 John 1:8).
I believe the Bible.
WHAT THIS MEANS: This means that I believe the Bible – ALL of It. I trust God’s Word. I love it. In cases that I differ from the Bible in any way, I am wrong – not the Bible.
WHAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN: This does not mean I know all the Bible by heart. It does not mean I can find every verse that I want to quote. It does not even mean that I have mastered every part of the Bible. I wish I knew more of it by heart. (I am working on that.)
Note: I suppose in this day, I need to define what the Bible is as well as just say I believe it. I believe that the Bible is the Textus Receptus. The text makes a difference. I don’t hold to a text that did not exist before 1881. I cannot trust a watered down text that did not exist for hundreds of years. The Word of God existed through the centuries. God did not concoct His Word through a couple of men through an eclectic method putting texts together as they pleased. If this is the first you have read about this, please take some time to do some research. There is plenty of information out there on the Internet.