I am very grateful for the journey God has had me on over the last 32 years of mainly traveling ministry because I have spoken in about every kind of church and ministry you can imagine. I have learned something from all of them and have found error in every one, because we are ALL wrong about something. I have had people for years ask me what I am and what I believe, so I am going to try to list that for you in the next paragraphs. Just know these are subject to change and not all inclusive lol.
I am a partial Catholic, because I believe in the church universal and love to read the early church fathers who canonized what we call the bible and how they struggled and came to their conclusions. I am partial Orthodox because I love the apostles creed as well as their atonement views and emphasis on the Resurrection and Jesus conquering death and giving us life. Especially Eastern Orthodox thought which is very different then the West. I am a partial Lutheran because I believe that the just live by faith, also a partial Presbyterian because I embrace a local eldership and a post millennial mindset. I am also a partial Methodist because I embrace the holiness of God and the taking of the Gospel out of the four walls of a building. A partial baptist because I believe in water baptism and the security of a believer as a son.
I am also a partial Calvinist because I believe that God is sovereign and the Earth is His and all who are in it, but do not believe He is in control nor predestined some of His kids for glory and some to burn. This would also make me a partial Armenian who believes that we have the power to choosel and activate what Christ has done at the cross by grace through faith and are co-laborers with the Holy Spirit who is NOT the "doer" but the helper. I believe that the World was reconciled = brought into favor, at the cross, but yet still needs to be saved = sozo, made whole, healed, delivered, prosperous, complete, by faith and that salvation is not a Heaven issue but an Earthly one. I am also a partial Pentecostal because I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is for today as well as tongues as a prayer language that builds us up and prophesying is for all that have the Spirit.
I am also a partial Charismatic because I believe that all of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit are for today and I love the mystics and spiritual revelation and I have seen my angel a few times and have encountered demons.
I am also a partial dominionist because I believe that God placed Mankind here to rule but not through violence and power but love and serving others. I am partial word of faith because I believe in the power of the tongue to release life or death and that healing is for today. I am a partial preterist because I believe what history has already recorded as done is not opinion or theory but documented historical fact, and yet a partial futurist because I believe there may be some things yet to come. I embrace that the bible was NOT written "to" anyone in 2022, but was written "for" us, so we interpret it through the lens of history, covenant, and especially Jesus. I also believe that the bible contains The Word of God and that it points to Christ who is THE Word.
I am also a apostolic, prophetic, sonship, finished work, radical grace, amazing agape, new covenant, gospel of the Kingdom preacher, who believes that our message is Jesus' message which is the Kingdom of Heaven invading the Earth and not trying to get the Kingdom of Earth to Heaven. I also believe as well that the gospel is about peace, non violence, and the loving of enemies. The afterlife is His business and so our message like all 18 or so in the book of Acts is about Jesus, forgiveness, salvation, reconciliation, resurrection, and living in a new Kingdom with a new King and under a new government for Jew and Gentile alike. I believe there is a biblical place called Heaven and a place called hell (grave & Gehenna) and who is in and who is out is up to the only one that has the power to judge, and who has the keys, and that is Jesus period.
I rejected eternal conscious torment along time ago, because it looks NOTHING like the Abba/God revealed in Christ, nor the heart of a good Father, and most of those scriptures are eschatological and referring to the Jews and the destruction of Jerusalem that was coming on that generation. My job is to get people to Him and to bring sons to glory (Greek=honor, value, worth, and approval) so that they have boldness on judgement day to not fear punishment 1 John 4:18&19. I also believe that every human carries the image of God (imago dei) and are ALL God's offspring=Genos, family, kind, child, (Acts 17). Also that He is The Father of every family named in Heaven and Earth and every human is His child, but until they believe it they do not enjoy it, so they live in the pigpen like an orphan as an enemy of God in their minds (Col 1). Our message is what Paul called a mystery hidden from the ages, which is Christ IN you the hope of glory. So we preach to the Son in them and not the sin in them.
As you can see I am a theological mish-mash and mutt lol, but it is because I have received from all of these streams truths that I believe God has given to His church and have chosen to not stay stuck at any of them but have the mindset of the reformation which was reformed and always reforming.
So keep on learning and keep on growing and don't stay camped in one stream for there are many streams and yet one river and the problem is each stream thinks they are THE river. Also please holster that finger because what you fight in one season like Paul on the Damascus road you just may embrace in another, and above all, love for there is no higher calling or law. Love you all! #keeplearning #stuckisneveragoodplace #Iamamuttandproudofit