I feel I have to start with my religious beliefs as I genuinely feel that these define the rest of my ideology. I think I’ll proceed in a simple list, explaining only where I feel like it. This is not an apologetic, nor an attempt to prove my beliefs; this serves, rather, to outline what I believe.
1. There is higher power outside of humanity. I believe this power is God, the one true God described first in the Old Testament of the Bible.
2. Mankind, one of God’s creations, failed and continues to fail to comply with God’s instituted law. This brings the prospect of eternal separation from God – hell, or true death, as it were.
3. God, loving his creation, provided a means of reconciliation. He sent a part of Himself – His Son, Jesus Christ – to Earth. Jesus came to Earth as both fully human and fully God simultaneously so He could experience the same temptation and pain as people. Jesus lived sinless on Earth before being killed, and in so doing, substituting His life for our own lives, if we believe and depend on Him as the only means back to God.
4. I believe that dependence on Jesus to take our place is the only way back to God. Apart from Jesus, the only Hereafter is separation and death, which sounds like Hell to me.
5. God loves His entire creation and wants us to care for it.
6. God commands us to love Him first, and each other second, treating one another as we would ourselves. Since we are His creation, we should care for each other.
7. I believe the Bible is God’s Word, and describes through direct narrative, poetry, allegory, and prophecy, His intentions, instructions, and interaction for and with His creation.
This is probably incomplete, but contains the gist of my religion. I will state that I am, based on what I described above, a Christian.
