My Personal Confession (think Westminster only not so awesome)

After studying the Westminster Confession, the Shorter Catechism, and excerpts from the Institutes of Religion by John Calvin, for school, I had an amazingly scary assignment. I had to write my own confession and catechism. So yeah, they are nothing like the Westminster or Shorter, but I really need a post because this blog is dying so here is my confession.

My Personal Confession

Knowing that mankind was unable to find God, even with the signs He placed in creation, God gave to man the scriptures which He inspired men to write. The scripture, being the words of God, are most necessary for man to understand salvation and to be protected from the snares of Satan. Only through scripture can man truly understand God, the universe, man, morality and ethics, evil and suffering, man’s state after death, and the meaning of history.


God
There is only one, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection. His is a spirit, entirely pure, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, completely wise, thoroughly holy, entirely free, utterly absolute. He works all things according to His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory. He is most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. He is the rewarder of all who seek Him diligently. To all men, He is completely just, and terrible in His judgments, hating sin. He will by no means clear the guilty.

God has all life, glory, goodness, and blessedness in and of Himself; and is alone all sufficient, not needing any creature which he has made, nor deriving any glory from them. He instead manifests His own glory in, by, and upon them. He has sovereign dominion over all things, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatever He pleases. He sees all, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent, so nothing is contingent, or uncertain to Him. All His counsels, all His works, and all His commands are completely holy. He is due all worship, service, and obedience from every creature.

There are three persons in the unity of the Godhead, consisting of one substance, power, and eternity: God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is begotten by none and proceeding from none; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holly Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.


The Universe
All that makes up the universe is created by God, out of nothing. All things whether visible or invisible were created in six days and declared good by God. Nothing came about of its own will; nothing was made by any other besides God. Everything God created reflects all that He is. His power, His size, His creativity, all that God is, is reveled to man through his creation. Every aspect of the universe is unique for each part is formed by God to be distinct.



Man
After creating all other beings, God formed Man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls. He endued them with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image. He wrote His law in their hearts, and gave them power to fulfill it. But He gave them freedom under their own will and possibility of transgressing. Beside this law written in their hearts, God also commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. While they obeyed this command they were happily in communion with God. But on breaking this command, they would become separated from God and suffer the humility and pain of this separation.

Man being created above animals was given dominion over them. He ruled over them and protected them. But on disobeying God’s command, this changed. Enmity was put between Man and beast.


Morality and Ethics
God alone is good. He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. He is a faithful God who does no wrong. He is upright and just. He is our only paradigm. To discover what is right and what is wrong, God’s character must be studied for his character is goodness.


Evil and suffering
At the moment of Man’s disobedience to God, everything changed. Immediately separation came into every relationship. Man was separated from God; separated from man; and separated from animal. From that first sin against God, man has been wicked. Though created righteous, man had the ability to sin and he gave into the temptations placed before him by Satan. Evil entered the world with that sin. The perfect world that God had created was corrupted by man’s disobedience. And as a result of this corruption that permeates the world, suffering is everywhere. This suffering could be taken away by God, along with the evil. For the two are inseparable. But the only way to take away the evil and suffering is to destroy all that is living, for evil resides in the hearts of men. So instead God made a different solution. Rather than destroying all that He had created, He paid the penalty for the sin Himself. The suffering and evil are still here, but for those that are saved, there is joy and peace in God.


Man’s state after death
Man was created with an immortal soul. Even after the body dies, the soul lives on. God created two destinations for the souls of men: Heaven and Hell. Heaven is where all those found righteous will spend eternity after their earthly death. Hell is the destination of those found unrighteous. All men, being corrupt and wicked, have the eternal destination of Hell.

God, however, did not wish for men to perish so He made a way for man to be saved from eternal damnation. He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world. After His resurrection on the third day, Jesus ascended back into Heaven to sit at the right hand of God where He acts as our mediator. It is only through trusting in Him that any man can be saved from Hell. For Jesus is the only way to the Father.

Man, however, would never choose to put his faith in Jesus; he sees no problem with himself and desires to be the master of his own life. So there is still no eternal hope for man by himself. It is only through the effectual and divine calling that man will ever come to God. God draws men to Himself and gives them their faith in Christ so that they might be saved. It is in this way and in this way alone, that man can be found righteous in God’s sight. It is not man’s own righteousness but the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

If, however, man is not called to belief, if he lives his life in his own way, doing as he pleases, he will be found guilty in God’s sight. The righteousness of Christ will be found nowhere near him. And he will spend eternity in the burning fire of Hell, where worm does not die, nor is thirst quenched. There is nothing but misery; the gnashing of teeth and weeping of tears.


History
The world is growing gradually worse and it will become no better. We see this in history. The purpose of history is to show us what to expect next. As we look at past empires and nations we can often predict what will happen in modern nations. We see the truths of the Bible unfold in history as well as in the present. And if we have a good idea of the history of the world, we will be well prepared for what will come about in the future.




So yeah, um, that's it. Nothing like the Westminster, I know, but I suppose they had several people to write it and it took them years, so I'm trying to be satisfied with it.