Biblical Themes
1. God is in love. He is passionately in love and intimately involved with the whole of humanity and the created order.
2. God wants to bless us. God’s provision for and blessing extends to everyone and all of creation, yet special blessings attend those who willfully follow him in the pursuit of righteousness.
3. We reflect God. God’s nature – loving, compassionate, purposeful, and engaging – is imprinted on human nature, with humans possessing a conscience and the ability to make moral choices.
4. Man screws up. Mankind repeatedly fails to make right choices, to live righteously, as God intends and requires. Man has a proclivity toward selfishness, arrogance, and evil toward his fellow man.
5. Actions have consequences. The universe is constructed such that moral choices, whether good or bad, have consequences. God’s design holds us all accountable for the moral choices we make, evidenced in our thoughts, words, and actions toward God himself, other human beings, and the creation.
6. Sin merits punishment. God persistently yet justifiably punishes sin and immorality as justice and righteousness demand.
7. Faith rescues us. Faith in God through belief in and obedience to him and his Word is the heart of righteousness, not religiosity or ritual.
8. God is a redeemer. God is infinitely patient and repeatedly provides a redemptive means for humans to escape judgment for sin, that we may renew the pursuit of the righteous life God intends, including a right relationship with him and one another.
9. God loves through Jesus. God’s ultimate act of redemptive love takes place in the life and person of Jesus Christ.
10. God doesn’t need us. God ultimately relies upon himself to accomplish his purposes for humanity and the whole created order.
11. God directs history. God omnipotently employs nature, people, and events to repeatedly steer the course of human history back to his original plan, as exemplified in the Garden of Eden and the Kingdom of Heaven articulated by Jesus.
12. God partners with us. God chooses to give humankind the ennobling gift of participating with him to help establish the reign of righteousness upon the earth that he is bringing about through Christ. He often employs those who are decidedly fallible and commonplace.
13. God demands commitment. God insists on the complete, whole-hearted devotion of his followers – tolerating no other gods or commitments of the heart before him.
14. The Holy Spirit empowers. The Holy Spirit enables us to please God, live for him, and accomplish what otherwise is not humanly possible.
15. God helps the needy. God’s is lovingly and compassionately oriented toward the poor, powerless, and humble and has a propensity to work through them to accomplish his will and thwart the evil designs of the rich, powerful, arrogant, and oppressive.
