Personal Doctrinal Statement

A Confession of Faith, Anchored to the Position Papers

Bruce Mitchell

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Preface

This is my personal confession of faith — a fuller account, doctrine by doctrine, of what I believe and why. It is not a new theology but a summary of convictions I have argued at length in my position papers, to which the notes below refer the reader for the exegesis, the historical witness, and the careful reasoning that stand behind each affirmation. I hold these truths as the teaching of Holy Scripture, which is our final authority. Where the Bible speaks plainly, I speak with conviction; where faithful believers have long differed, I hold my view firmly while extending the right hand of fellowship to those who differ. My aim is not novelty but faithfulness — to confess “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), and to give God the glory.¹

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I. The Holy Scriptures

A. Revelation

I believe that God, infinite and otherwise beyond our reach, has graciously made Himself known. In general revelation He discloses His power, wisdom, and glory to all men through the created order and the human conscience, leaving every person without excuse (Psalm 19:1–6; Romans 1:19–20; 2:14–15). Yet general revelation cannot save; for salvation God has spoken in special revelation — in His mighty acts, through the prophets and apostles, supremely in His Son, and now in the inscripturated Word (Hebrews 1:1–2).²

B. Inspiration and Inerrancy

I believe that the Scriptures were given by inspiration — “breathed out” by God (2 Timothy 3:16) — the Holy Spirit so carrying along the human authors that what they wrote, in their own styles and settings, is the very Word of God (2 Peter 1:20–21). This inspiration is verbal (extending to the words) and plenary (extending to all of Scripture). Being God’s own Word, the Bible is inerrant and infallible in the original autographs, wholly true in all that it affirms.³

C. The Canon

I believe that the canon of Scripture comprises the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, neither more nor fewer. These books are canonical because they are inspired; the church did not confer their authority but recognized the authority they already possessed. The canon is closed and complete, and God now gives no new revelation to stand beside it — the Spirit illumines the Word He has given rather than supplementing it.⁴

D. Interpretation

I believe the Scriptures are to be interpreted according to their plain, intended sense by the grammatical-historical method — attending to grammar, context, and historical setting, comparing Scripture with Scripture. I read the Bible literally, that is, according to the normal sense of its language and genre, which yields a consistently dispensational understanding of God’s unfolding plan and a real, abiding distinction between Israel and the church. The Scriptures are sufficient and finally authoritative for all faith and life — sola Scriptura.⁵

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II. God: The Holy Trinity

I believe in one living and true God, who exists eternally in three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — the same in essence and equal in power and glory, yet distinct in person (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). The Persons are neither confounded nor divided; each is fully God, and there is but one God.⁶

A. The Attributes of His Greatness

I believe God is, in the attributes of His greatness, self-existent, deriving His being from none (Exodus 3:14; John 5:26); eternal and unchanging (Psalm 90:2; Malachi 3:6); omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent (Psalm 139; Jeremiah 32:17); infinite, simple, and incomprehensible — yet truly knowable in what He has revealed of Himself.⁷

B. The Attributes of His Goodness

I believe God is, in the attributes of His goodness, holy (Isaiah 6:3), righteous and just (Psalm 145:17), good, gracious, merciful, faithful, and true, and that God is love (1 John 4:8). These perfections are never at war within Him but are united in His one perfect and undivided being.

C. God the Father

I believe in God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, from whom are all things, who in love ordains, sustains, and accomplishes His eternal purpose, and who is Father to the Son and, through the Son, to all who believe (1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 1:3–6; John 1:12).

D. God the Son

I believe in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, true God of true God, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, taking to Himself a complete human nature, so that He is one Person in two natures — fully God and fully man, the natures unmixed and undivided (John 1:1, 14; Luke 1:35; Colossians 2:9). I believe in His sinless life, His penal and substitutionary death for sin, His bodily resurrection, His ascension and present high-priestly intercession, and His personal, visible return in glory (Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Hebrews 7:25; Acts 1:11).⁸

E. God the Holy Spirit

I believe in the Holy Spirit, fully God and the third Person of the Trinity, who inspired the Scriptures, convicts the world of sin, regenerates and indwells every believer, baptizes us into the body of Christ, seals us unto the day of redemption, fills and empowers us, distributes spiritual gifts, and works our sanctification (John 16:8–11; Titus 3:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:13–14; 5:18; Galatians 5:22–23).⁹

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III. The Works of God: Creation and Providence

A. Creation

I believe that God created the heavens and the earth and all they contain out of nothing, by His word, and pronounced His finished work very good (Genesis 1–2; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 11:3). I hold to a direct, historical reading of the Genesis account and to the special creation of a real first man, Adam, the head of the race — holding the age of the earth as a matter of conviction and not a test of fellowship (Romans 5:12–19; 1 Corinthians 15:22).¹⁰

B. Providence

I believe that God continually upholds and governs all that He has made, working all things after the counsel of His own will and ordaining both the ends He purposes and the means by which He brings them to pass (Psalm 103:19; Ephesians 1:11; Proverbs 16:9). He is wholly sovereign — even over the free acts of men and the existence of evil — yet He is never the author of sin, and men remain fully responsible for their deeds (Genesis 50:20; Acts 2:23).¹¹

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IV. Angels, Satan, and Demons

I believe that God created a great company of angels, holy and mighty spirits who worship Him and minister to His people (Hebrews 1:14; Colossians 1:16). A portion of them fell into sin with Satan, who is a real and personal being — the adversary, the accuser, the deceiver — already judged and defeated at the cross and destined, with his demons, for everlasting punishment (Jude 6; Revelation 12:7–9; John 16:11; Revelation 20:10).¹²

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V. Man

I believe that God created man in His own image, male and female, the crown of His creation, a being of unique dignity and worth, fashioned of a material body and an immaterial nature — body, soul, and spirit (Genesis 1:26–27; 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). This image, though defaced by the fall, is not erased; and human life, bearing that image, is sacred from its conception (Genesis 9:6; Psalm 139:13–16).¹³

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VI. Sin

I believe that man, created upright, fell by willful disobedience in Adam, so that the whole race is now born guilty and corrupt, with a nature bent toward evil and unable of itself to please God or to save itself (Genesis 3; Romans 3:10–23; 5:12–19; Ephesians 2:1–3; Jeremiah 17:9). All have sinned and justly stand under the wrath and condemnation of God apart from His grace.¹⁴

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VII. Salvation

I believe that salvation is wholly of grace, from first to last the work of God, grounded in the finished work of Christ and received through faith alone, apart from any merit or work of our own (Ephesians 2:8–9; Titus 3:5; Jonah 2:9).

A. Regeneration

I believe that the natural man, being dead in sin, must be born again, and that regeneration is a sovereign and monergistic work of the Spirit, imparting new life and a new heart, which precedes and produces faith (John 3:3–7; Titus 3:5; Ezekiel 36:26).¹⁵

B. Election

I believe that God, before the foundation of the world, in love and according to the good pleasure of His will, unconditionally chose a people for Himself in Christ, and that He effectually calls them in time (Ephesians 1:4–5; Romans 8:29–30; John 6:37, 44). Election magnifies grace and in no way nullifies the sincere offer of the gospel or the responsibility of man.¹⁶

C. Justification

I believe that God justifies the ungodly who believe — declaring them righteous, once for all, not on the basis of their works but on the ground of the imputed righteousness of Christ, received through faith alone (Romans 3:24, 28; 4:5; 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:21). With justification comes adoption into the very family of God.¹⁷

D. Sanctification

I believe that all whom God justifies He also sanctifies — setting them apart decisively at conversion and progressively transforming them into the likeness of Christ by the Spirit, through the Word, prayer, and the means of grace. In this work God labors and we labor; it is neither passive nor self-made, and it is completed only in glory (1 Corinthians 6:11; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 2:12–13; 1 John 3:2).¹⁸

E. Security

I believe that those whom God truly saves He will surely keep, so that not one of them shall ever be lost; they are guarded by the power of God and will persevere to the end — a ground not of presumption but of assurance and of holy living (John 10:28–29; Romans 8:38–39; Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:5).¹⁹

F. Separation

I believe that the saved are called to holiness — to be in the world but not of it, separated unto God from sin and worldliness, yet engaged with the world in love and witness rather than withdrawn from it in isolation (2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1; Romans 12:1–2; John 17:15–18). Our separation is first unto God, and only thereby from evil.²⁰

G. Human Responsibility

I believe that God’s sovereignty in salvation does not cancel man’s responsibility; the same Scriptures that proclaim election command all men everywhere to repent and believe and hold them accountable for their response (Acts 17:30; John 3:18, 36; Joshua 24:15). Both are true, and I bow to both.²¹

H. Evangelism

I believe that the church is charged to proclaim the gospel to every creature, and that the certainty of God’s electing purpose is the great encouragement, not the enemy, of evangelism and missions (Matthew 28:18–20; Romans 10:13–17; Acts 18:9–10). I count myself bound to make Christ known.²²

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VIII. The Christian Life

I believe that the saved are created for good works and called to a holy life, lived not under the Mosaic law as a covenant but under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21).

A. The Law of Christ

I believe that the believer’s rule of life is the law of Christ — the whole moral will of God as it comes to us through Christ and His apostles, fulfilling rather than abolishing the law (Matthew 5:17) and supremely shaped by cruciform love (John 13:34; Romans 13:8–10). It is received before it is rendered: we love because He first loved us, and we obey from grace, not for it.²³

B. Prayer

I believe in the privilege and duty of prayer — communion with God offered to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. I believe that God answers all the prayers of His children, with “yes,” “no,” or “wait,” and that prayer is meant to align us with His will rather than to bend Him to ours (Philippians 4:6–7; 1 John 5:14; Luke 22:42).²⁴

C. Spiritual Gifts

I believe that the Spirit sovereignly gives gifts to every believer for the building up of the body of Christ. I hold that the sign and revelatory gifts served to found and confirm the apostolic age and are not normative for the church today, while affirming that God remains free to heal and to work as He wills, and that no gift may rival the sufficiency of His completed Word (1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12:6–8; Ephesians 2:20; Hebrews 2:3–4).²⁵

D. The Believer in the World

I believe that God’s people are to live as salt, light, and sojourners — upholding marriage as the covenant of one man and one woman and the only sphere of sexual union, the sanctity of life from conception, and the two sexes as God’s good design; doing justice and loving mercy; engaging the culture with truth and grace while awaiting the city that is to come (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4–6; Micah 6:8; Matthew 5:13–16; Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 13:14).²⁶

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IX. The Church

A. The Nature of the Church

I believe that the church is the body and bride of Christ, composed of all the redeemed of this present age, indwelt by the Spirit, and made visible in local congregations gathered for worship, the Word, prayer, fellowship, the ordinances, and the Great Commission (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:22–23; Acts 2:42; Matthew 28:19–20). The church is distinct from Israel in the program of God.²⁷

B. The Ordinances

I believe in two ordinances given by Christ to His church: baptism, the immersion of believers as a confession of union with Christ in His death and resurrection; and the Lord’s Supper, a memorial of His death in which, by faith and the Spirit, believers truly commune with their Lord, though He is not present in the elements. I hold an open table for all who truly trust in Christ (Romans 6:3–4; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26; Matthew 28:19).²⁸

C. The Order of the Church

I believe the church is to be led by godly, qualified elders (overseers) and served by deacons; that the lead pastoral office is ordinarily that of qualified men, as a principle of created order and wisdom rather than an inflexible absolute; and that women are fully and honorably engaged in the broad service and ministry of the body (1 Timothy 3:1–13; Titus 1:5–9; 1 Timothy 2:12).²⁹

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X. The Covenants and Last Things

A. The Covenants and Dispensations

I believe that God has unfolded one plan of redemption progressively, through a succession of covenants — Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and the New Covenant — and through distinguishable dispensations, maintaining throughout a real distinction between Israel and the church, and never replacing or annulling His promises to Israel (Genesis 12:1–3; 2 Samuel 7:12–16; Jeremiah 31:31–34; Romans 11:1, 25–29).³⁰

B. The Return of Christ

I believe in the personal, premillennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hold that He will first come for His church in the pretribulational rapture, that a seven-year tribulation will then come upon the earth, and that He will afterward return in glory to reign upon the earth for a thousand years (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; 1 Corinthians 15:51–52; Revelation 19–20). I hold this with conviction and with charity toward brethren who read the prophecies otherwise.³¹

C. Resurrection, Judgment, and the Eternal State

I believe in the bodily resurrection of all the dead, the judgment of all men — the redeemed before the judgment seat of Christ, the lost before the great white throne — the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved in the new heavens and new earth, and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost (John 5:28–29; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:11–15; 21–22).³²

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A Closing Confession

These are the articles of my faith, confessed not as the achievement of my own understanding but as a debtor to grace. I am persuaded that the God who gave me this faith will keep me in it to the end, and that He will be glorified in His church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations (Ephesians 3:21). To the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — one God, blessed forever — be all the glory. Amen.

I am not my own; I have been bought with a price, and I belong — in life and in death — to my faithful God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Notes

1. This statement summarizes convictions argued more fully in my position papers, to which these notes refer. I hold each as the teaching of Scripture, our final authority, and I distinguish throughout between matters of settled conviction and tests of Christian fellowship.
2. General revelation (through creation and conscience) renders all men without excuse but cannot save; special revelation, culminating in Christ and inscripturated in the Bible, is necessary for salvation. See my paper on Bibliology.
3. Inspiration is verbal and plenary (theopneustos, θεόπνευστος, 2 Timothy 3:16); inerrancy attaches to the original autographs. See my paper on Bibliology.
4. Canonicity rests on inspiration, not on the church’s decree; the church recognized rather than conferred it. The canon is closed, and the Spirit now illumines the Word rather than adding to it. See my paper on The Canon of Scripture.
5. I hold the grammatical-historical method and a literal (normal-sense) hermeneutic, which yields a dispensational reading of redemptive history and an abiding Israel/church distinction; Scripture is sufficient and final (sola Scriptura). See my papers on Hermeneutics and Dispensationalism.
6. One in essence (homoousios, ὁμοούσιος), three in person; the Son eternally begotten, the Spirit eternally proceeding; against modalism, Arianism, and tritheism alike. See my paper on Trinitarianism.
7. With the older divines, I distinguish the attributes of greatness (the incommunicable perfections — aseity, eternity, immutability, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence) from the attributes of goodness (the communicable — holiness, justice, love, faithfulness), held together in the simplicity of God’s being. See my paper on Theology Proper.
8. True God and true man in one person, the two natures unmixed and undivided, per the Definition of Chalcedon (A.D. 451); His atonement penal and substitutionary. See my paper on Christology.
9. The Spirit is a divine Person, fully God and co-equal, not an impersonal force. See my paper on Pneumatology; on the gifts, see Section VIII.C.
10. I hold a young-earth, historical reading of Genesis and a historical Adam (necessary to the argument of Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15), while treating the age of the earth as a matter of conviction rather than a test of fellowship. See my paper on Creation.
11. Providence comprises preservation, concurrence, and government; God ordains means as well as ends; His sovereignty and man’s genuine responsibility are compatible (compatibilism), and He is not the author of sin. See my paper on Providence.
12. A portion of the angels (not “all but one”) fell with Satan, who is a personal being, not a mere principle of evil, and is already a defeated foe awaiting final judgment. See my paper on Angelology.
13. Man is the image-bearer of God, of material body and immaterial nature; I hold a trichotomist view (body, soul, spirit) while respecting the dichotomist reading, and I affirm human life from conception. See my paper on Anthropology.
14. Adam’s sin is imputed to his posterity, who are born in original sin and total depravity — a total inability to save themselves, not utter wickedness in every act. See my paper on Hamartiology.
15. Regeneration is sovereign and monergistic; the new birth precedes and produces faith. See my paper on Soteriology.
16. Unconditional election, grounded in God’s good pleasure, with an effectual call; it establishes rather than undermines the sincere gospel offer and human responsibility. See my paper on Soteriology.
17. Justification is a forensic, once-for-all declaration on the ground of Christ’s imputed righteousness, received by faith alone, and is accompanied by adoption. See my paper on Soteriology.
18. Definitive (a decisive break with sin’s reign at conversion) and progressive (lifelong growth); the engine is the blend of God’s work and ours — “dependent diligence” — rejecting both legalism and passivity, and short of perfection in this life. See my paper on Sanctification.
19. The truly regenerate are eternally secure and will persevere; the warning passages summon to perseverance and expose false profession, but do not threaten the loss of true salvation. See my paper on Eternal Security.
20. Separation is first unto God, and only thereby from sin and worldliness; it is holy engagement, not monastic withdrawal (John 17:15–18). See my papers on Sanctification and Humanity in Culture.
21. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are both taught in Scripture and both to be upheld; I affirm them together without dissolving the mystery in favor of either. See my papers on Providence and Soteriology.
22. Election is the warrant and encouragement of evangelism, not its enemy (Acts 18:9–10); the church is bound to the Great Commission. See my papers on Soteriology and Ecclesiology.
23. The believer’s rule is the law of Christ — the moral will of God as it reaches us through Christ and the apostles, fulfilling rather than abolishing the law and shaped by cruciform love. See my papers on Christian Ethics and The Law of Christ.
24. God answers every prayer of His children — “yes,” “no,” or “wait” — and prayer is meant to align us with His will rather than to bend Him to ours. See my paper on Prayer.
25. A “soft” cessationism held with openness: the sign and revelatory gifts were foundational to the apostolic age and are not normative now, yet God remains sovereignly free to heal and act; this rests on the foundational and confirmatory purpose of such gifts, not on 1 Corinthians 13:10. See my paper on Spiritual Gifts.
26. Marriage is the covenant of one man and one woman; life is sacred from conception; biblical justice is to be distinguished from secular ideologies that rest on a rival worldview. On divorce and remarriage: Scripture permits divorce for sexual immorality, desertion, and severe abuse — physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual — and permits remarriage in such cases; divorce and remarriage are not the unforgivable sin, and the divorced and remarried are not second-class Christians. See my paper on Humanity in Culture.
27. The universal church comprises all the regenerate of this present age, expressed in local congregations; it is distinct from Israel in God’s program, with no replacement theology. See my paper on Ecclesiology.
28. Two ordinances, not seven sacraments: believer’s baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper as a heightened memorial (a true communion with Christ by faith and the Spirit, though not a presence in the elements), with an open table for all professing believers. See my paper on Sacramentology.
29. Elders (overseers) and deacons; the lead pastoral office is ordinarily that of qualified men, as a principle of created order and wisdom rather than an inflexible absolute, alongside the broad and honored service of women throughout the body. See my paper on Ecclesiology.
30. One redemptive plan unfolding through the covenants (Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, New) and dispensations, with an abiding Israel/church distinction and no replacement theology. See my papers on The Covenants and Dispensationalism.
31. Premillennial and pretribulational, held as a conviction and with charity toward those holding other millennial and rapture views, in the tradition of dispensational eschatology. See my paper on Eschatology.
32. The bodily resurrection of all; the judgment seat of Christ for believers and the great white throne for the lost; the new heavens and new earth; everlasting conscious blessedness for the redeemed and everlasting conscious punishment for the lost. See my paper on Eschatology.

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