I want to thank my friend Mark Driscoll and the leadership of Mars Hill Church for penning the following that so identifies our church and for holding to biblical orthodoxy in an age of easy-believism and pragmatism. VIVIT (He lives)
1. We are not liberals who embrace culture without discernment and compromise the distinctives of the gospel, but rather Christians who believe the truths of the Bible are eternal and therefore fitting for every time, place, and people.
2. We are not fundamentalists who retreat from cultural involvement and transformation, but rather missionaries’ faithful both to the content of Scripture and context of ministry.
3. We are not isolationists and seek to partner with like-minded Christians from various churches, denominations and organizations in impacting culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. We are not hyper-Calvinists who get mired down in secondary matters, but rather pray, evangelize, and do good works because we believe that the sovereign plan of God is accomplished through His people, in the church.
5. We are not eschatological Theonomists or Classic Dispensationalists (e.g. Scofield) and believe that divisive and dogmatic certainty surrounding particular details of Jesus Second Coming are unprofitable speculation, because the timing and exact details of His return are unclear to us and not specifically revealed in Scripture.
6. We are not egalitarians and do believe that men should head their homes and only men can be elders/pastors in the church. They should lead their churches as bondservants of the Lord Jesus Christ.
7. We are not Open Theists and believe in the sovereignty and foreknowledge of God in all things. That God not only rules over all His creation, but that He has determined that all aspects of His creation exist for His glory, by His counsel and will, for His purposes, and for His delight and eternal pleasure. He knows all things of every one of His creatures that have been, that are and that will be and is not learning along with His creation.
8. We are not religious relativists and do believe that there is no salvation apart from grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
9. We are not nationalists seeking to simply improve one nation, but instead, ambassadors of the King of Kings commissioned to proclaim and demonstrate the coming of His kingdom to all nations of the earth.
10. We are not moralists seeking to help people live good lives, but instead evangelists laboring that people would become new creations in Christ.
11. We are not relativists and do gladly embrace Scripture as our highest authority above such things as culture, experience, philosophy, and other forms of revelation.
12. We are not Universalists and do believe that many people will spend eternity in the torments of hell as the Bible teaches.
13. We are not naturalists and do believe that Satan and demons are real enemies at work in this world yet subject to God.
14. We are not rationalists and do believe that not everything can be known but that God calls us to live by faith with mystery and partial knowledge regarding many things.
15. We are not evangelical feminists and do believe that God reveals Himself as a Father and is to be honored by the names He reveals to us without apology.
16. We are not embarrassed by the bloody death of Jesus Christ and do believe He died as a substitute for the sins of His people in selfless love. AND, that Jesus bodily rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, and now lives, reigns and rules as Sovereign Lord and King.
17. We are not ashamed and do proclaim a loving gospel of grace which sounds like foolishness and offensiveness to the unrepentant while also saving multitudes with ears to hear good news.
18. We are not polemicists who believe that it is our task to combat every false teaching, but are passionate about preserving the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
