First Principles

A “first principle” (sometimes referred to as a bias) forms the basis of all your reasoning and is a lens through which you interpret the world. A first principle is like a map that you use to survey the landscape in order to choose the best path to your destination. The accuracy of the perspective governs the precision of the route. Differing conclusions are often reached from the same source of information when different first principles are employed. I challenge you to identify your own first principles and then evaluate them in light of the whole of Scripture. These are my first principles. Scripture references have purposely been omitted. View my complete profile and email me for Scripture proofs.

1. The Living God exists.
2. He has revealed Himself to us in the Bible.
3. The Bible is the story of the Sovereign Lord imparting to mankind the knowledge of His name, power, and glory. Jesus Christ is the preeminent revelation of this knowledge.
4. God put “enmity” between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, not between Himself and the seed of the woman. Note how God immediately remedied Adam and Eve’s dilemma by unilaterally reconciling them to Himself rather than alienating them from Him. This is grace.
5. Obedience to a law has never been the criteria for justification or everlasting life. God's calling and election in Christ establish that criteria.
   
6. God’s law need not be kept perfectly in order for one to be said to have kept the law.
7. If you want to inherit the promises, you must abide by the conditions or others will inherit the promises. The condition is faith in Jesus.
8. God does not lie nor change His mind. Meaning that if you stay in the course God marks out for you, then He delivers on the promise He makes to you.
9. Adults need to be converted and be like children—not the other way around.
10. (T)he issuing of authoritative commands is not the only way God has of revealing His mind and will; nor,…is it even the first and most natural way of doing so. E.g. Sabbath, marriage, sacrificial worship
11. The revealed Word of God alone may bind the conscience.
12. Bible language as we receive it in the Scriptures takes precedence over slogans.
13. A rigid adherence to the text (of Scripture) is the way of safety.
    
14. Whatever man can plainly learn from the revelations God gives of Himself, to be in accordance with the divine mind and will, that is of God, and it is man’s duty to believe and act accordingly.
    
15. The story of God’s revelation is progressive (is alive and growing) from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22.
16. The Old Testament and the New Testament speak with one voice. The difference is the clarity.
17. Any truth that relies primarily on the New Testament must be able to be established at least in “seed form” in the Old Testament if it is to have abiding authority.
18. The Bible interprets all secondary standards.
19. Secondary standards must not contradict Bible truth if they are to have any true authority. e.g. the Trinity, the divinity and humanity of Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit, etc.
20. By faith God’s word of command imparts the power and responsibility to obey.
21. What man himself does in time and in history is of eternal consequence for good or bad.
22. Our Heavenly Father will not forgive us if we do not forgive others.
23. The intended response to grace received is the duty to obey out of thankfulness.
24. One possible response to grace received is to turn away and to be worse than not having received grace.
25. At Mt. Sinai God entered into a marriage contract/covenant with Israel. This was a gracious act on God’s part.
26. The Old and New Testaments are essentially united with respect to salvation and sanctification.
27. The family, as biblically described, is by divine appointment the fundamental principle of organization of human life.
28. Presumption has to do with believing not enough (the curses are real)…or too much of what God says ( adding to God’s words –making Him say something that He doesn’t).