Our Beliefs
Whenever you consider acquiring curriculum that is going to guide the hearts and minds of impressionable children, it's important to know from what lens and belief system the content was developed. Answering the question of 'What is mainstream Christianity?' unfortunately becomes complex with all the varying beliefs and doctrinal stances from denominations. Further, the infiltration of secular and new age ideas, the blending of biblical concepts with pagan and secular ways and practices has led to a hybrid form of Christianity that is less focused on traditional teachings. We also recognize how the influence of left-wing politics and "Wokism" as well as NAR philosophies in the name of love, grace and universal acceptance of all has not only diluted the clarity of Scripture, but it has effected and infected what is being taught from the pulpit.
One of the main reasons we set out to develop kidTOUGH was to combat the secularism that is showing up in even the most widely known and used children's curriculum in today's churches. We hope our Statement of Faith will bring clarity and help you in your decision-making, and though there are doctrinal areas that will always be controversial and debated, our teaching stays as close to traditional mainstream as possible, focusing on the Christology of the Bible (Old and New Testament all points to Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith).
Christology
Who is Jesus Christ?
This question marks the starting point of Christology, a major branch of theology that studies the nature and being of Jesus.
Christology has had a prominent role in Christian history, helping to shape major areas of doctrine. Perhaps most notable is the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451, which rebuffed several controversial beliefs undermining either the human or divine nature of Jesus. The council’s findings became a point of reference for future contributions in Christology, as found in the thought of theologians such as Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Today, mainstream Christianity agrees that Jesus is the incarnate God, one person with two complete natures, human and divine. This foundational statement in Christology, rooted in Scripture, holds unparalleled practical and theological significance.
What Is Christology?
Christology is primarily concerned with the identity of Jesus. Because Christianity asserts that Jesus is human and divine, the discipline asks how both of these can exist in one person.
Christology also investigates how this relates to the life and works of Jesus. How and why did the incarnation and resurrection occur? Why is salvation offered through Christ? These questions and topics lead to a greater understanding of who Jesus is, what he did and what all of this means.
Significance
Christology is linked to several theological disciplines. Soteriology, or the study of the doctrine of salvation, requires an understanding of Jesus’ nature. The same is true for subjects such as ecclesiology, or the study of the Christian Church, and Trinitarian theology, or the study of God in the Trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit).
Christology relates to many areas of theology, but most important is its place in the life of the believer. Recognizing who Jesus is, what he did and why — these are essential to knowing him. Only then may someone believe in Jesus and have eternal life (John 3:11-21).
Statement of Faith
The Scriptures
We believe the Old and New Testaments to be the full record of God’s self-disclosure to mankind. Different men, while writing according to their own styles and personalities, were supernaturally moved along by the Holy Spirit to record God’s very words, inerrant in the original writings.
2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:20–21; Mark 13:31; John 8:31–32; John 20:31; Acts 20:32
The Triune God
We believe in the one living and true God, eternally existing in perfect unity as three equally and fully divine persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, possessing precisely the same nature, attributes, and being, and is equally worthy of the same glory, honor, and obedience.
Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:21b–22; John 17:3; Matthew 3:13–17; Matthew 28:19; John 1:1–4; Acts 5:3–4; Colossians 2:9
God the Father
We believe God the Father eternally exists as the first person of the Trinity. In this role and relationship, he has planned, directed, and is absolutely sovereign over all of creation and redemption, having decreed for his own glory all things that come to pass. God the Father is an invisible spirit, yet personal and relational. As Father of his redeemed people, God sent his Son to save people from sin and death. All who come to him through faith in Jesus Christ are adopted as his children, making them fellow heirs with Christ and recipients of his fatherly love and discipline.
Psalm 90:2; Genesis 1:1–31; Psalm 24:1; 103:19; Romans 11:36; Revelation 4:11; Isaiah 46:9–10; John 1:18; 4:24; 1 John 4:7–12; Psalm 102:25–27; Job 37:16; Romans 16:27; Isaiah 45:19; Numbers 23:19; Psalm 36:5; Psalm 100:5; 1 John 4:8; Romans 5:8; Leviticus 19:2; Isaiah 6:3; Deuteronomy 32:4; Romans 1:18; Isaiah 63:16; Romans 8:14; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Ephesians 1:3–6; Romans 3:24–25; John 1:12; Romans 8:15–17; Hebrews 12:5–9
God the Son
We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, moved by love in accordance with the will of the Father, took on human flesh. Conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the virgin Mary. He, being fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life and sacrificially shed his blood and died on the cross in our place accomplishing redemption for all who place their faith in him. He arose visibly and bodily from the dead three days later and ascended into heaven, where, at the Father’s right hand, he is now head of his body, the Church, the only Savior and Mediator between God and man, and will return to earth in power and glory to consummate his redemptive mission.
John 1:1, 14, 18; Luke 1:35; John 14:8–9; Hebrews 4:15; 7:26; John 10:15; Romans 3:24–25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24; Matthew 28:6; Luke 24:38–39; Acts 2:30–31; Romans 1:4; 4:25; 8:34; 1 Corinthians 15:20; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24; 1 John 2:1; Acts 1:9–11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; 1 Timothy 3:16
God the Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that he does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ during this age. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He draws the unredeemed to repentance and faith, and at salvation imparts new spiritual life to the believer, bringing that person into union with Christ and the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit sanctifies, seals, fills, guides, instructs, comforts, equips, empowers, permanently indwells at salvation, and bestows spiritual gifts to the believer for Christ-like living and service.
John 16:8, 14; Titus 3:5; Ephesians 1:13–14; Romans 8:9–17; 12:4–8; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 3:16; 12:4–5, 11–13; Galatians 5:25; Hebrews 2:1–4; 2 Corinthians 12:12
Mankind
We believe that God created mankind—male and female—in his own image and likeness, free of sin, to glorify himself and enjoy his fellowship. Tempted by Satan, but in the sovereign plan of God, man freely chose to disobey God, bringing sin, death, and condemnation to all mankind. All human beings, therefore, are totally depraved by nature and by choice. Alienated from God without defense or excuse, and subject to God’s righteous wrath, all of mankind is in desperate need of the Savior.
Genesis 1:26–27; Isaiah 43:6; Psalm 16:11; Genesis 3:1–6; Romans 3:10–19; 6:23; Jeremiah 17:9; Ephesians 2:1–3; Isaiah 59:2; Romans 1:18, 32
Salvation
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as the substitutionary atonement in our place, and that salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ. At salvation, each person is made a new creation by the Holy Spirit, declared righteous before God, and secured as an adopted child of God forever. Genuine faith continues in obedience and love for Jesus Christ with a life eager to glorify God and persevere to the end.
1 Corinthians 15:3–4; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:29–30; Ephesians 1:3–14; Isaiah 55:7; Romans 10:9; Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 8:37–39
Baptism and Communion
We believe that Christian baptism is a public declaration of the believer’s salvation in Christ, identifying with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection symbolized by immersion in water. The Lord’s Supper is the united commemoration by believers of Christ’s death until he comes and should be preceded by a careful self-examination.
Acts 2:41; Romans 6:3–6; Acts 8:26–40; 1 Corinthians 11:17–34
Things to Come
We believe in and expectantly await the, visible, personal, dispensational premillennialism rapture of the church, beginning a 7-year tribulation period, followed by the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign for a 1000 years. The blessed hope of his return has a vital bearing on the personal life, service, and mission of the believer. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost. The lost will be raised to judgment and experience eternal wrath in hell. The saved will be raised to eternal joy in the new heaven and new earth in the manifested presence of God.
Titus 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; 1 Corinthians 15:51–53; 1 Thessalonians 4:15–5:11; John 5:28–29; Matthew 25:31–46; Romans 8:10–11; Revelation 20:15