What's Next?

So God worked in your heart and you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. What’s next? You have lived your life according to the world and now there’s something different; the world seems different, your friends seem different, and you want to learn everything you can about this wonderful God who called you to be His own. You may have accepted Jesus apart from a church, and that’s great, but you need to be part of a fellowship of believers to grow and help you on this new path. That is the reason why I wrote this book; for those who God is working on their heart, and those who God has called only recently. This is not a “systematic theology” book, but a guide to what the basics of Christianity using biblical concepts and common words to explain the doctrines of the Church. This is also not a “Christianity for Dummies” book because I find that offensive. God has made you in His image and called you to be His, so you cannot be a dummy; you are blessed, but like everyone new to something there is a steep learning curve. The Bible and the concepts about who God is do not pop into your head when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and Christianity is not a religion for the mindless. God puts into our hearts a hunger to learn about Him and His Word.

In Part 1, we will look first at the Bible; how it is divided up, how we got the books that we have, and why this book is the final authority on faith, doctrine and conduct. When I first became a Christian, I couldn’t tell my Old Testament from my New Testament and why there were two; how was it written, and, can we trust it. I think this is the biggest obstacle in a new Christian’s life; they see a book that is comprised of sixty-six books with various literary styles, and the first thing that we are told is to read it, and then memorize some of the verses! If you’re lucky, someone will guide you as to where to start, but most of us are left on our own. Without a guide you can get discouraged and give up, missing out on the wonders of who God is and the plan that He has for you through His Word!

In Part 2, Who is God follows. That may seem like a huge undertaking to understand who He is but God gives us everything we need to know about Him in His Word, the Bible. We will also see who His Son Jesus is, and the meaning of His sacrifice. The Holy Spirit, the third person in this Triune God will be examined; the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts that He gives.

On the other side of the holiness of God is the Nature of Man. Because of the Fall of Adam we have inherited a sinful nature. Man is unable, without the help of God, to not sin. It’s not in our nature, so we have to examine first what the Fall was all about and the consequences of that Fall. Then what actually is sin? Is it a deliberate act, an act of omission, or just falling short of the glory of God? The good news is that God has a plan for our salvation through Jesus. This plan called the order of salvation contains all those doctrines that we are hit with before we can understand a need for them.

Part three looks at Death, and the life after, the Church, and the End Times; all of which have more questions than answers, but we will try to break down these concepts using Scripture. Much has been written recently about Hell, its reality and severity, as well as the misconceptions about Heaven, with much of the misconception brought about by Medieval literature and old wives’ tales. (Hint: we will not be all playing harps!) The Church has been around since Jesus ascended into Heaven, and has not changed its basic job description in two thousand years; preaching, teaching, praying and caring. But all good things come to an end with Jesus returning for His bride (the Church). The end times theme has become part of Christian literature and movies but has also confused more people than not. Pre-Trib, Post-Trib, Rapture, and Millennium will be defined and explained.

At the end of each chapter there are study questions which will help you to better understand the concepts of that chapter, such as, “What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?” “What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?” or “What are the Sacraments of the Church?” These are questions that have concrete definitive answers but also included are questions that will make you think about the material, maybe force you to search your Bible, and ask yourself what it means to you.

Finally, in the last chapter there are the basic Creeds and Confessions of the Christian Church. These historical documents were put into place to combat the heresies that were, and are plaguing the Church. At the end of each chapter there will be a short discussion of the heresies that these Creeds and Confessions addressed. Each doctrine of God, Jesus, Man, the Bible, and others have at one time or another been attacked by non-biblical thoughts. This book can be used as a self-tutorial, but the best way is to have someone to walk with you through this material. They can answer the immediate questions that come up and be a blessing to you and believe it or not, when you ask someone to help you, you become a blessing to them. There is nothing that a “seasoned” Christian enjoys more than to share the excitement that they have for Christ and His Church.