John Stephenson
On May 10, 2015, John left this earth to meet his maker.
He will be missed.
Biblical Worldview Ministries is a ministry
of John M. Stephenson. He
has taught the Bible in the Sunday School, home groups, and seminars for
many years. He is an ardent student of Bible prophecy. He has written
many papers and two books. He has four married children and 18 grand
children. He is a retired Satellite Communications Systems Engineer. He
has bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering. Being a
systems engineer, he approaches the Bible systematically to determine
God's Plan for history, the spiritual warfare, how we are to live
the Christian life, how we accomplish ministry, and how the endtimes
unfold. He brings resolution to the many prophetic views that have
existed side by side for many years.
His bottom line messages are three: (1) Become a Christian in order
to go to heaven; (2) Become mature in Christ-likeness in relationship
living in order to know and relate to God experientially, both now, but
especially in eternity; and (3) Be warned and alerted that Revelation's
Tribulation beginning with calamity can come at any time.
He is available to give talks, seminars, and/or have general discussions.
Discussion
The Bible, shown from a systematic study of over 40 doctrines and how
the events of Revelation unfold, teaches clearly we, the Church, will
go through the Tribulation and be raptured at its end at Christ's Second
Coming. We will go through the Tribulation because the overall church,
particularly in God's endtimes favored nation (the United States) is
falling away from God's standards. The Church is partly responsible for
the Tribulation coming. God uses the endtimes Tribulation to bring the
termination of human history. Signs now signal this Tribulation can come
at any time. Only God knows the timing.
Our papers show clearly from the Bible of these truths. We must train
our children before the Tribulation comes. They will be taken from their
parents and educated satanically by the state. We will lose the America we
all love and enjoy. We all need to make ruthless self evaluation and make
needed changes to align our lives and ministries closer to God's will.
We need now to have an in-depth and in-breadth applications oriented
training program for our church people and families. It should include
living by great faith and by sacrificial love. The coming Tribulation
will take away our freedoms and the government will make war with the
Church. Be prepared.
Doctrinal Statement
- There is only one God, and He is a perfect person in every
attribute. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. There will never
be another God. God is not made up of the sum of mankind or everything
that exists, and mankind is not and cannot evolve to become a god or
gods. (Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4; 1 Samuel 2:2; 2 Samuel 7:22; 1 Kings 8:60;
Isaiah 43:10; 44:6; 45:5; Mark 12:29, 32; John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6;
Ephesians 4:6; 1 Timothy 2:5.)
- God exists eternally and is a triunity consisting of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
has always existed and will always exist. All things come from God the
Father through the Son and to us by the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 3:16-17;
18:19; John 1:1, 2; 15:26-27; 16:13-15; Romans 16:26; 1 Peter 1:20.)
- God created the heavens and the earth, mankind and angels. Mankind
and angels did not evolve. (Genesis 1:1, 27; 5:1-2; Deuteronomy 4:32;
Isaiah 42:5; 45:12, 18; John 1:3; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16;
Revelation 5:13; 10:6.)
- The Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven to do the Father's
will. He was born of a virgin (Mary) to fulfill prophecy as the coming
Messiah. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in order to have a divine
nature, and not a fallen nature as all mortal men have. (Matthew 1:18-25;
Luke 1:26-35, 38; 19:10; John 3:17; 6:38.)
- In order to go to heaven and be with God, one must obey God's Law
perfectly all their life. However, being born with fallen natures,
all people have transgressed, or broken, God's spiritual laws. Thus,
every person has sinned, has come short of God's glory, and has come
under God's condemnation. They are held under the custody of the Law
and under the power of death until such time God's justice for their
sin is satisfied on their behalf. Thus, all people are born condemned
before God and are destined to be cast into the Lake of Fire for the
satisfaction of God's justice. Left in this state, they cannot go to
heaven to be with God. (Hosea 13:14;1 Corinthians 15:56; Romans 3:9-20,
23; 5:18; 6:23; 8:1; Galatians 3:23; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 20:11-15.)
- God's justice requires a payment (satisfied justice) for people
breaking His spiritual laws (people being sinful) that they cannot
satisfy or make payment. (Romans 3:9- 20, 28; Galatians 2:16; 3:11.)
- The Lord Jesus Christ lived a perfect life on earth without sin. He
fulfilled (obeyed) the Law perfectly. His perfect life demonstrated
that He was qualified to die as a substitutionary sacrifice for all of
mankind's sins. (Isaiah 53:5, 10, 12; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 5:8-9;
1 Peter 1:18-19.)
- Christ's Death on the Cross for sin, His burial, and His bodily
resurrection from the dead on the third day, only according to the
Scriptures (the Holy Bible), completely satisfied God's justice for
everyone's sin. No one was left out. Thus, Christ on the Cross established
the New Covenant in His blood for salvation. His blood purged out sin
so that it no longer exists. In effect, it was covered over, never to
be seen again. This is the Gospel of Christ. Christ's work on the Cross
was completely efficacious. Man cannot add anything to it. God rejects
all of man's works because they are as filthy rags. Man is without
righteousness. Christ had to die physically to place the New Covenant
into effect. (Isaiah 64:6; John 1:29; 3:16; 6:33, 51; Acts 20:28; Romans
4:24-25; 5:6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21; Colossians 1:20; 2:13-14; Titus
4:10; Hebrews 2:9; 9:16, 22; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 2:2; Revelation 5:9.)
- God's satisfied justice is applied to individuals from His
Grace and only by their faith in Christ's Gospel, as they exercise
their will and choice by some action that activates their faith (to
become living-faith). This happens as God works in them and draws them
to Himself. Based on the Scriptures then, a person needs to accept
or receive Christ's Gospel as a free gift (without works) by faith
activated by an action of the will, heart, and choice. This acceptance
of the Gospel allows God to place His satisfied justice by the Cross to
one's personal benefit so that one receives salvation.
Salvation is based only on the person of Christ and what He did on the
Cross and in His death, burial and bodily resurrection. This is the Gospel
of Christ. God saves people only on the basis of their living-faith in
what Christ did on the Cross; the Gospel. There is no other way, person,
book, or name under heaven by which we can be saved. He does not save
people on the basis of their works (or any action) or what people do or
on what people know. The Bible allows prayer, confession of the Gospel
before men, and/or water baptism as a public confession and witness
of faith in the Gospel, as an action to demonstrate and to activate
living-faith. Normally one is water baptized after one believes and
becomes a Christian as public witness that one is a Christian and now
plans to live for Him. (Mark 16:16; John 1:12; 3:16; 6:44; Acts 4:12;
16:30, 31; Romans 1:16 with 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 6:1-13;10:9-10,
13; Ephesians 2:8-9; James 2:26; 1 John 4:15; 5:14.)
Once a person is saved, he or she remains saved forever with eternal
security in God. Believers can never lose their salvation. God continues
to work in the believer throughout his lifetime. At salvation, the new
believer is changed into a new person or creature by regeneration. By
means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the new believer is placed into
Christ, is co-crucified and dies with Christ on the Cross, is buried with
Christ, and is risen from the dead with Christ. As he is raised from the
dead, he receives a new creation and divine nature. This new nature now
legally represents the new believer. It does not and cannot sin. The
believer uses it to gain maturity in Christ-likeness. This gives the
new believer eternal security in Christ. As such, the believer dies to
the jurisdiction of the Law. The Law no longer has power over him in
regard to eternity. The believer cannot be changed back to his previous
old condition. The believer still retains his sin depraved nature. It
no longer legally represents him. The believer sins when he uses it and
is restored to fellowship with God as he confesses his sin. The Holy
Spirit permanently indwells the believer. God seals the believer at
salvation by His Holy Spirit as a promise for the believer to be with
God in eternity. God continually leads the believer throughout his life
by His Holy Spirit. We are filled by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit leads
us and God's Word richly indwells us as we obey God's commandments. This
results in us experiencing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and we sing in
our hearts and give thanks to the Lord. (John 6:37, 39, 40; 10:27-29;
Romans 6:1-13; 8:14, 28-29; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 1:13-14; 2:8-9;
5:18-20; Philippians 1:6; 2:11- 12; Colossians 3:16-17; 1 Peter 1:3-5;
Jude 1:24; 1 John 1:2, 9; 5:11-13.)
- After His death, burial, and bodily Resurrection, Christ ascended
into heaven and received all power in heaven and in earth, over all
principalities and powers. In heaven, Christ acts as our only mediator
between God and man. This power gave Him the legal authority, because
God's Justice for sin was satisfied, to translate or call out all
believers, including those dead, from the Dominion of Satan under his
eternal control into the Kingdom of God, under Christ's eternal control,
as legal citizens. This called out assembly is called Church. Thus,
biblically, one does and can not go to church, but instead the Church
assembles for worship and study. (Matthew 28:18; Acts 26:18; Ephesians
1:20-23; 4:8; Hebrews 2:8; Colossians 1:13-14;1 Timothy 2:5; 6:14-15;
1 Peter 3:22.)
- The Church is the Body of Christ and is made up of all and only
those people whom God has saved by believing the Gospel. As such, she
includes all people who have been called out of Satan's Dominion into
God's Kingdom having had God's condemnation removed from them. People
who have not believed the Gospel and/or add works to be saved, remain,
as unbelievers, under God's condemnation. Those not having believed
Christ's Gospel are not a part of Christ's Church, even if they attend
or minister in a visible church, group, or worship service, and attempt
to do good works such as attempting to keep or obey God's commandments,
including the Great Commandment. No person is justified before God by
keeping the law or by obeying God's commandments. One is only justified
by activated faith in the Gospel. Once a person is justified before God,
one is no longer under condemnation to go to the Lake of Fire. (Acts
26:18; Romans 3:19- 30; 5:1; 8:1; Galatians 2:15-21; Colossians 1:12.)
The Church's main objective or purpose is to bring her people to live
holy lives, become mature in Christ with high skill of walking with
God, and to know God. This is accomplished through the activities of:
(a) exalting God worshiping, glorifying, praising, knowing, pleasing,
obeying, seeking, and honoring Him; (b) living godly lives by faith, love,
and hope in authoritative head-subordinate relationships patterned after
the Son's walk with the Father in the midst of trials and testings; and
(c) accomplishing God's work by evangelizing people with the Gospel,
planting churches and discipling people to live godly lives to become
mature in Christ. God's work also includes building godly families,
training faithful people to carry out God's ministries, and reaching out
to the needy with support and God's truth. Believers are to be thankful
and rejoice in God and what He has done for them. (Psalm 85:6; 97:1;
148:1-14; 149:1-9; 150; Isaiah 61:10; Matthew 22:37-38; 28:16-20; Mark
16:15; Luke 24:46, 47; John 4:31; 14:15; Acts 1:8; 5:29; Romans 12:1;
1 Corinthians 6:20; 10:31; Ephesians 4:12-13; Philippians 3:1; 4:4;
Colossians 1:10, 18; 2 Thessalonians 4:1; 2 Timothy 2:2, 4; 1 Peter 1:2,
4, 8.)
- The Lord Jesus Christ will come again at the end of the Church
Period to resurrect, rapture, and reward His Church for her works of
faith-obedience. He will take her to the new Jerusalem to be with Him
forever. (John 5:28-29; 6:39, 40, 44; 11:24; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58;
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 10- 12; 2:1; Hebrews 9:28;
1 John 3:2; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 11:18; 21; 22.)
- The Lord Jesus Christ will come again to resurrect, and judge
unbelievers for their works of disobedience at the Great White Throne
Judgment and cast them away from God into the Lake of Fire to suffer
eternal punishment in order to satisfy God's judgment for sin. They
will go there because God's satisfied justice by the Cross will not
have been placed to their personal account through living-faith in the
Gospel. Unbelievers go there because they refused to accept God's love
in His giving of the Gospel and work of Christ on the Cross. Unbelievers
are without excuse in the judgment because they knew of God through His
creative power. (John 5:28-29; Romans 1:18-23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9;
Revelation 11:18; 19:11- 21; 20:11-15.)
After reading this brief doctrinal statement along with
the listed Scripture passages,
read this
Expanded Doctrinal Statement.
