Understanding Your Christian Faith: This Book is Written for New Christians, and for Those Mature Christians who Desire to Know More About Their Christian Beliefs.

By Bishop Dr. Jasper Parke

Understanding your Christian Faith is written for New Christians, and for Those Mature Christians who Desire to Know More About Their Christian Beliefs.
Bishop Parke is currently serving as the National Bishop for the Triumphant Church of God in Canada, and is also the Senior Pastor at the headquarters church in Toronto, Ontario.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Mar 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9780228801474

Bishop Dr. Jasper Parke

BISHOP PARKE is currently serving as the National Bishop for the Triumphant Church of God in Canada, and also the Senior Pastor at the headquarters church, 1 Elrose Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.Bishop Parke obtained his bachelor's degree in the Electrical Engineering from Ryerson University, later he obtained his M. Th. and P.HD in theology from Wiltshire University in 1994 and 2003 respectively.He held various positions in the electrical field including teaching electrical engineering, project engineering, and various managing positions Bishop Parke was called to full time ministry in 2005, he served as Presiding Bishop for over 10 years and resigned and continue his work as Senior Pastor and National Bishop.Dr. Parke a renown conference speaker, travels extensively to Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean. Married with four children, Andrae, Lorraine, Maurice, Matthew, and one grandson Liam.

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Understanding Your

Christian Faith

This book is written for new Christians,

and for those mature christians who desire to know more about their christian beliefs.

by: Bishop Dr. Jasper Parke

Understanding Your Christian Faith

Copyright © 2019 by Bishop Dr. Jasper Parke

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-0-2288-0146-7 (Paperback)

978-0-2288-0147-4 (eBook)

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: What Does It Means To Be A Christian?

CHAPTER 2: Baptism

CHAPTER 3: THE BIBLE: The Word of God

CHAPTER 4: GOD THE FATHER: First Person of the Trinity

CHAPTER 5: GOD THE SON: Second Person of the Trinity

CHAPTER 6: GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT: Third Person of the Trinity

CHAPTER 7: God In Three Persons

CHAPTER 8: SATAN (DEVIL): The Great Deceiver

CHAPTER 9: HEAVEN: The Christians’ Final Home

CHAPTER 10: HELL: The Final Home for Satan and his Followers

CHAPTER 11: The Church

CHAPTER 12: Stewardship

CHAPTER 13: Why Attend Church On Sundays?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writer acknowledges and would like to extend his deepest appreciation and gratitude to Talia Johnson, my Assistant Administrator, for her help in putting this book together. Also, thanks to Stacy Carson for her assistance in reviewing the contents of the book.

PREFACE

I am very pleased that you are now the owner of this precious book, Understanding Your Faith.

I was in the grocery store some years ago and I overheard an unbeliever challenging an elderly woman about her Christian faith. The older woman could not defend the reasons for her beliefs. She responded to her challenger by saying, over and over, I know what I believe.

It is good that she knows what she believes, but what is extremely important, is for her to be able to articulate why she believes what she believes.

Peter wrote to Churches in Asia Minor in 1st Peter 3:15 (AMP)

But in your hearts set Christ as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.

Again, in 2nd Timothy 2:15 (AMP), Paul encourages Timothy to study the word of God because workmen who are unlearned in the Word have need to be ashamed:

Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.

This book, Understanding Your Faith, will help you understand the essentials of the Christian faith. It begins with the fundamentals of becoming a Christian, and then moves on to the advanced study of the Trinity, and why we worship on Sundays. It has been written to help new Christians, but in fact every Christian, whether you are newly saved or have been saved for many years, will find it particularly helpful. Every Christian should have this book in their library.

Pastors and ministers will find this book a beneficial text for training new disciples for Christ.

INTRODUCTION

The intent of this book is twofold: to assist new converts in obtaining a better understanding of their newly found faith, and to enable existing believers to acquire a greater understanding of their beliefs.

The Church has a responsibility to encourage its believers to go out into God’s vast universe and make friends with everyone, in order to win them to Christ. It is also the believers’ responsibility to tell their unsaved relatives, neighbors, co-workers, and anyone else with whom they come in contact, about Christ.

As the Church expands, people of various cultures, nationalities, and religions will be unified within the Church. This is what God expects, and as such, His expectation must be honored by the Church. People of different cultures and religions may not have a basic understanding of who Jesus is and His relationship to the Holy Trinity. Considering that the Christian faith serves only one God, what are the relationships among the three? What does the Holy Bible say about the Holy Trinity?

This book will assist pastors, ministers, and Christian’s laities to teach the gospel of Christ to new convert on the basic Christian beliefs; and to make them Disciples of Christ.

CHAPTER 1

What Does It Means To Be A Christian?

Who is a Christian?

A Christian is a person who has committed his/her life to Jesus Christ. It is someone who has gone through the process of repentance and has received forgiveness of his/her sins. In addition, a Christian is someone who has developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to be born again?

To be born again is to be regenerated by God. This terminology is found in St. John 3:3 (NLT). Jesus replies, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, (spiritual rebirth) you cannot see the kingdom of God."

These are Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, a noble Jewish leader who is seeking the truth. In this quote, Jesus conveys to Nicodemus that one must go through spiritual rebirth to become a child of God and become one of His disciples.

John 1: 12-13 (NLT) reads, But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn; not with a physical birth as a result of human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. To be born again means you must go through the process of repentance, that is, to acknowledge your sins and ask for forgiveness. In order to come to God, you must repent and renounce your sins. You must first acknowledge that you are a sinner and need salvation. Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance

This spiritual birth morally transforms the new believer, since no one that is born of God continues into sin.