Essential beliefs of Rivendell House ...
Rivendell House is an evangelical Christian ministry. We affirm and teach the following:
The Person of God: We believe that God is eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, absolutely holy and perfect. There is only One true and living God, who exists in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This one, true God sovereignly spoke the cosmos, earth, and all living beings into creation at the beginning of time, and rules over all the earth as its sovereign Lord. God has revealed himself to us through the glory of his creation, through his Son, and through his written revelation - the Bible.
Jesus Christ: We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternally existing Son of God, the second person of the godhead, who graciously came from heaven to live among us as a man, who was born of the virgin Mary, lived a perfect life, performed countless miracles, willingly died as our substitute and payment for our sin upon the cross, bodily rose from the grave, appeared to more than 500 witnesses, and ascended into heaven. Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father, has sent the Holy Spirit to call, comfort, and empower those whom he saves, is currently interceding for us, and will return some day as sovereign King to judge the living and the dead.
The Bible: We believe that the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are the divinely created Word of God. The Bible is the divinely inspired, inerrant, and infallible revelation of God. It is authoritative and the foundation of our Christian beliefs, and is the authoritative guide for every area of our lives. The Bible is all-sufficient and stands alone as the special revelation of God.
Humanity’s Need for Salvation: We believe that all of humanity is in a state of cosmic rebellion against their Creator and is separated from God by their sin. Since God is holy and just, all of humanity is under the righteous judgment of God and is in desperate need of redemption. But God, because of his great mercy toward us, has provided the means of salvation for rebellious and wicked sinners, by His amazing, undeserved grace.
This grace of God only comes to us through our humbling ourselves and placing our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God as the Savior, which must be accompanied by repentance that worships Christ as Lord of one’s life. That faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ is the only way a person can be saved from their rebellious and sinful condition. It cannot be earned through good deeds; it is a free gift of God, offered to all humanity.
All who choose to ignore and reject their Creator God and Savior Jesus Christ will stand before him at the end of time, be found guilty of sinful defiance against his rightful rule over their lives, and be condemned to hell for eternity.
The Need for Christian Fellowship: We believe that all who profess Christ as Savior and Lord need the community of God’s people, and need to gather with them regularly for worship of Christ through singing, prayer and the teaching of God’s Word. We meet together to honor our Lord, and to also encourage and build up each other as Christians in our most holy faith. Rivendell House gladly provides such a place for fellow Christians serving in our military at Fort Riley.
(For a more comprehensive statement of our beliefs, go to: www.shilohmilitaryministries.org)
Sexuality, Marriage and Family:
Rivendell House does not practice nor affirm the following …
The Person of God: We believe that God is eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, absolutely holy and perfect. There is only One true and living God, who exists in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This one, true God sovereignly spoke the cosmos, earth, and all living beings into creation at the beginning of time, and rules over all the earth as its sovereign Lord. God has revealed himself to us through the glory of his creation, through his Son, and through his written revelation - the Bible.
Jesus Christ: We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternally existing Son of God, the second person of the godhead, who graciously came from heaven to live among us as a man, who was born of the virgin Mary, lived a perfect life, performed countless miracles, willingly died as our substitute and payment for our sin upon the cross, bodily rose from the grave, appeared to more than 500 witnesses, and ascended into heaven. Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father, has sent the Holy Spirit to call, comfort, and empower those whom he saves, is currently interceding for us, and will return some day as sovereign King to judge the living and the dead.
The Bible: We believe that the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are the divinely created Word of God. The Bible is the divinely inspired, inerrant, and infallible revelation of God. It is authoritative and the foundation of our Christian beliefs, and is the authoritative guide for every area of our lives. The Bible is all-sufficient and stands alone as the special revelation of God.
Humanity’s Need for Salvation: We believe that all of humanity is in a state of cosmic rebellion against their Creator and is separated from God by their sin. Since God is holy and just, all of humanity is under the righteous judgment of God and is in desperate need of redemption. But God, because of his great mercy toward us, has provided the means of salvation for rebellious and wicked sinners, by His amazing, undeserved grace.
This grace of God only comes to us through our humbling ourselves and placing our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God as the Savior, which must be accompanied by repentance that worships Christ as Lord of one’s life. That faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ is the only way a person can be saved from their rebellious and sinful condition. It cannot be earned through good deeds; it is a free gift of God, offered to all humanity.
All who choose to ignore and reject their Creator God and Savior Jesus Christ will stand before him at the end of time, be found guilty of sinful defiance against his rightful rule over their lives, and be condemned to hell for eternity.
The Need for Christian Fellowship: We believe that all who profess Christ as Savior and Lord need the community of God’s people, and need to gather with them regularly for worship of Christ through singing, prayer and the teaching of God’s Word. We meet together to honor our Lord, and to also encourage and build up each other as Christians in our most holy faith. Rivendell House gladly provides such a place for fellow Christians serving in our military at Fort Riley.
(For a more comprehensive statement of our beliefs, go to: www.shilohmilitaryministries.org)
Sexuality, Marriage and Family:
- Sexuality: We believe that God created humanity as distinct sexual beings, and as male or female only. Gender or sexuality is not a fluid or dynamic personal preference, but is permanently defined and established by God as male or female at conception. (Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 139:13-16) Sexual relations are to be enjoyed within the covenant of marriage only. All other practices of sexual behavior are not biblical and are a moral perversion of God's clearly mandated instructions. (Hebrews 13:4; Galatians 5:19-21)
- Marriage: God instituted the covenant of marriage for all of humanity at the beginning of time, and that marriage is to be fulfilled within a sacred, lifelong union between one man and one woman only. (Genesis 2:22-24; Mark 10:2-12) All other deviations from this God-mandated marriage model are a perversion of the marriage ideal.
- Family: Within the God-decreed covenant of marriage (see above) the family is born, which is by God's design, definition and commanded intention, as directed in God's Word, the Bible. (Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-9; Hebrews 13:4)
Rivendell House does not practice nor affirm the following …
- "Positive confessionism," or the positive faith movement belief that God can be commanded to heal or work miracles according to man's dictates or commands, or that our spoken words - either negative or positive, possess power to intrinsically alter one's reality for good or for evil. This is not biblical. Humanity has no authority to command anything of God. God does, however, invite us to pray in faith for our physical and material needs, and God does still provide divine healing and miracles today. But God answers our prayers according to his goodness and sovereign will operating over our lives, not according to man's commanded will or "positive" declaration". (Job, James 4:13-17; Hebrews 9)
- "Prosperity theology," which falsely advocates it is God’s will that Christians should never experience any sickness or poverty or suffering or failure; and to experience these things is allegedly due to a lack in one's personal faith. This teaching is blatantly inconsistent with the entire testimony of God's Word, wherein we see God lovingly and sovereignly using times of trial, hardship, suffering, poverty, failure and even death in the lives of his people for their personal good, and for the advancement of his heavenly kingdom. (Col 1:24; Rom 8:17; Phil 3:10-11; 2 Cor 1:5; Heb 11; 1 Pet 4:13)
- "Human prophecy" wherein people claim to have a "special revelation" directly from God. This claim wrongly elevates one's "prophesy" to the equivalency of divine inspiration on par with the authority of the Scriptures. Although the Old Testament prophets and New Testament era apostles did have this special prophetic ability, this is not the case today. (1 Corinthians 13:8-9) We do affirm that the Lord does personally guide his people, but we believe God's Word is the supreme authority by which one learns of God's direct revelation to humanity today. Everything must be subjected to the authority of God's Word for validation. If one wants to "hear a word form God," then read the Bible. (1 John 4:1)
- An overemphasis on spiritual gifts or experiential signs and wonders for validation of one's faith. We are not against the miraculous, as Jesus Christ is a miracle-working God. But Jesus said that a seeking after supernatural signs for confirming one's faith is born out of unbelief, not faith (Matt. 12:38-39). The mature, biblical Christian walks by faith (trusting in God's promises articulated in his Word) and not by sight (or by requiring experiential/sensationalistic proofs from God in order to have faith in him). Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
- "Baptismal regeneration," or the persuasion that water baptism is essential for conversion and salvation. This is not what the Bible teaches. We believe the biblical teaching is that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ plus nothing else. (Ephesians 2:8-9; Gal. 2:16) We do believe that baptism is an important ordinance of the Christian faith, and was commanded by Jesus and his apostles for his followers to obey for the purposes of making a public confession of one's faith in Christ, but not as an essential component for one's salvation.
- "KJV Bible Only" advocacy, or the erred opinion that the only valid English translation of the Bible for use is the King James Version, and that all other English translations are uninspired, flawed and untrustworthy. There are numerous good English Bible versions for use today that are reliable and faithful translations of God's Word and make God's Word clear and easily understandable for today's English-speaking generation. Some examples of these good English translations are the NIV, the ESV, the NASB, the NLT ,and the CSV. We do not discount the KJV as a legitimate translation for use if one so desires; it is simply not the only one that is true, reliable or trustworthy. That view is scholastically indefensible, confuses people as to what actually is "inspired Scripture," and is highly divisive within the Christian community.
- "Universalism," or the belief that all religious faiths are equally valid paths to God, and that Christianity is just one of many legitimate ways to reach God. Quite to the contrary, the Scriptures declare there is only one true God and one mediator between God and humanity - and that sole mediator is God's Son, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:3-5). Jesus himself clearly stated, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father except by me." (John 14:6) Jesus also said, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (John 18:37) As Christians, we do not pride ourselves on having the only way to God, in an arrogant sense. Rather, we are grateful to God for providing a way at all for humanity, since we do not deserve his love and salvation after our cosmic rebellion against his rule over our lives. We happily proclaim this good news (the gospel) that God loves the world and has provided us with a means to be restored back to right relationship with Holy God - and that one and only way is through his Son, and our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the non-negotiable message of the Christian faith.