Why We Updated Our Statement of Faith
What Writing “Awakening” Taught Me About What We Actually Believe
This is so exciting. So freeing. So beautiful.
I have to tell you what’s happening. My daughter Bryn used to share the gospel occasionally—and sometimes it landed, sometimes it didn’t. But this beautiful gospel? She’s telling everyone. Friends who never responded to the traditional message are lighting up. People who had no interest in Christianity are leaning in, asking questions, wanting more.
I’ve talked with atheists—technical, detail-oriented, sharp minds—who’ve said, “Oh my gosh, this actually makes sense.” Not because we softened anything. Because we went deeper.
That’s what led to the changes you’re about to read.
When I set out to write Awakening: Restorative Metanoia, I thought I was writing a book about Greek word studies. I didn’t realize I was also going to have to rewrite our Statement of Faith.
But that’s what happens when you spend two years in the original language of the New Testament. You can’t unsee what you’ve seen.
A Word About This Journey
For those of you who know me, you know that writing has become by far the greatest use of my time. When I’m in writing mode, I sometimes wake at 2:30, 3:30, or 4 in the morning—so full of ideas and insight and guidance that I can’t stay in bed. On weekends, when I’m in the flow, it’s often 10 to 12 hours—and when I’m in the flow, I can’t get out of it. It consumes me in the most beautiful way.
This isn’t a lighthearted journey. This is deep immersion into Scripture, into the fascination with heaven and God and oneness, driven by an unquenchable passion for truth and freedom. God has given me certain gifts—an insatiable curiosity, an engineering mind that wants to go back to the source, and above all, a reverence for God and His truth that won’t let me settle for inherited assumptions.
What drove this wasn’t a desire for a softer God. It was the opposite. The more I studied, the more I stood in awe of His majesty. A God THIS supreme, THIS good, THIS worthy of worship… could His plan really be smaller than I’d been taught?
The fear of the Lord drove me deeper. And what I found took my breath away.
What Our Old Statement Said
Our previous Statement of Faith was solid evangelical orthodoxy. It affirmed the Trinity, the authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ, salvation by grace through faith. All good things.
It also referenced the Lausanne Covenant (1974) and the Cape Town Commitment (2010)—two landmark evangelical documents that have shaped modern missions and theology.
I signed onto those documents years ago. I meant it. I respected the leaders who drafted them.
But when I went back to the Greek—when I traced what metanoia actually means, when I examined the verb tenses Paul uses for salvation, when I studied what the early Church Fathers taught before Augustine’s Latin theology reshaped the West—I realized something uncomfortable:
Some of what Lausanne and Cape Town affirm directly contradicts what the Greek text says.
The Problem with Modern Evangelical Statements
Here’s what the Lausanne Covenant says:
“All men and women are perishing because of sin… those who reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to eternal separation from God.”
And the Cape Town Commitment:
“Those who refuse to repent and ‘do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will be punished with eternal destruction and shut out from the presence of God.'”
These statements reflect a particular theological framework—one I inherited and believed for decades. But here’s what I discovered in my research:
The Greek text supports a different anthropology.
Paul doesn’t say humanity is “perishing” as their fundamental state. He says we were “dead in trespasses”—asleep to our true identity, living below our design. And he uses the perfect passive participle to declare that we “have been saved”—past tense, completed action, present reality.
The early Church Fathers taught differently.
The Eastern Orthodox Church—which never stopped reading Greek, never went through the Latin filter—has been teaching theosis (union with God), participatory salvation, and restorative hope for two thousand years. Figures like Gregory of Nyssa, Clement of Alexandria, and Athanasius expressed hope for ultimate reconciliation that Lausanne explicitly denies.
The word “orthodox” itself makes the point.
Orthos (correct) + doxa (glory/belief) = correct belief. The Eastern Church called themselves Orthodox because they believed they were preserving the original, uncorrupted faith. When I align with ancient creeds over modern evangelical statements, I’m not departing from orthodoxy—I’m returning to it.
I’m not saying Lausanne and Cape Town are evil or that their authors weren’t sincere. These documents have mobilized global missions and called the church to justice. But they also codified theological assumptions that the Greek text doesn’t support—and I can no longer affirm statements that contradict what I’ve found in Scripture.
The Discoveries That Changed Everything
Discovery 1: Metanoia Doesn’t Mean What We Thought
Jerome translated metanoia as paenitentia (penance), and we’ve been stuck with guilt-based “repentance” ever since. But the Greek means meta (beyond, transformation) + nous (mind, perception). It’s not “feel sorry and try harder.” It’s a transformation of how you see—a mind-shift, an awakening.
Discovery 2: Hamartia Is Identity Amnesia, Not Cosmic Rebellion
The Greek word for sin (hamartia) means “missing the mark”—but its deeper etymology suggests living without your God-designed identity, below the blueprint specifications of who you were created to be. We didn’t become bad people who need to become good. We became asleep people who need to wake up.
Discovery 3: Tetelestai Means Permanently Finished
Jesus’ final word on the cross is in the Greek perfect tense—a completed action with permanent, ongoing results. Not “it is paused until you accept it.” Finished. Done. The reconciliation is complete. The victory is won.
Discovery 4: The Kingdom Was Within BEFORE the Cross
This one stopped me cold. Jesus said “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21)—before Calvary, before the resurrection, before Pentecost.
Think about what He was saying. The Kingdom of God is where God is. If the Kingdom is within you, then God is within you. Jesus was declaring union as already true—before the cross even happened.
If we were “born into darkness,” totally separated from God until we “accepted Jesus”—why was Jesus telling people the Kingdom was already inside them?
And why was nobody talking about this?
Jesus didn’t come to CREATE union. He came to AWAKEN us to the union that had always been true.
Discovery 5: Sin and Death Are Dethroned Monarchs
“Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). “Death no longer has the final say. Life rules” (Romans 5:17 MSB).
Sin is a dethroned monarch. Death is defeated. They still exist, but they no longer reign. Their only remaining weapon is deception—getting us to believe they still have authority. Every time we preach a gospel of fear and separation, we’re handing back a crown that was stripped at the cross.
Discovery 6: “Deny Yourself, Take Up Your Cross” Isn’t What Religion Made It
Religion turned Luke 9:23 into endless self-crucifixion—daily dying, constant mortification. But look at the Greek verbs:
- “Deny” uses the Aorist Imperative—”get it over and done with!” One-time decisive action.
- “Take up” also uses the Aorist Imperative—”lift up your cross once and for all.”
- “Daily” connects with “follow”, not with “take up your cross.” The daily aspect is the companionship, not the crucifixion.
- “Follow” uses the Present Imperative—THIS is the ongoing daily action.
And here’s the kicker: After the cross, Paul NEVER tells believers to “take up your cross.” He declares it DONE. “You died” (Aorist). “Your old self was crucified” (Aorist Passive)—something done TO you, not BY you.
Discovery 7: Sanctification Is Awakening, Not Achievement
“By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14). Made perfect forever AND being made holy—simultaneously.
Sanctification isn’t a journey FROM dirty sinner TO clean saint. It’s an awakening from sin-consciousness to righteousness-consciousness. Gregory of Nyssa understood this: “The goal of a virtuous life is not to become like God, but to recognize that we have been made like God and to live accordingly.”
Discovery 8: “As He Is, So Are We”—Present Tense
“As he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Not “as He was” or “as we will be”—but as He IS, so ARE we. Present tense. Right now. You are as blameless in this life as Jesus is.
Discovery 9: God’s Wrath Is Faithfulness to Truth
The traditional view presents wrath as God’s emotional reaction to sin—a temper tantrum requiring appeasement. But Scripture reveals something different.
God’s wrath is His faithfulness to truth—the principle of sowing and reaping built into reality itself. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). This isn’t God imposing arbitrary consequences; it’s reality’s structure. Plant poison, harvest poison. The farmer who ignores gravity doesn’t anger gravity; he breaks himself against it.
His justice is restorative, not retributive. He corrects to restore, not punishes to destroy. Even judgment serves redemption.
The Greek word kolasis (often translated “punishment” in Matthew 25:46) means corrective pruning—discipline for the sufferer’s benefit. And when Revelation speaks of the “lake of fire,” notice what gets thrown in: death and Hades themselves (Revelation 20:14). Evil ceases to exist. God’s fire doesn’t eternally preserve evil for torment—it annihilates everything that opposes life.
This is wrath as the outworking of love against everything that destroys life. God’s fire doesn’t destroy people—it destroys what destroys people.
What Changed in Our Statement
Here are the key shifts:
1. Creedal Basis
Old: “We hold to the basic tenets of Christian Orthodoxy as articulated in the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds and the recent summaries of Christian Doctrine as formulated in the Lausanne Covenant & Cape Town Commitment.”
New: “We hold to historic Christian Orthodoxy as articulated in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds—the foundational statements of faith that have united believers across traditions for nearly two millennia.”
Why: The ancient creeds are broad enough to encompass awakening theology. The modern evangelical documents are not. I can affirm Nicaea. I can no longer affirm Lausanne’s explicit denial of ultimate restoration.
2. Anthropology (View of Humanity)
Old: “We willfully rebelled against Him and rejected our original purpose to glorify Him.”
New: “Humanity believed a lie about our identity. We forgot who we were—and this forgetting manifested as turning from God, resulting in a distorted self-perception, separation consciousness, and the entrance of sin, sickness, death, and judgment into the world.”
Why: The Greek word hamartia (sin) suggests living without your allotted form—below your design specs. We didn’t become fundamentally different creatures. We fell asleep to who we already were.
3. Salvation and Reconciliation
Old: “Through His death and resurrection, God ultimately reconciled believers to Himself.”
New: “We believe that God, in Christ, has reconciled the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19). Note carefully: reconciled—past tense. The world—not just believers.”
Why: That’s what the text says. I didn’t make it up. Paul says “the world,” not “believers.” The reconciliation is accomplished, not pending.
4. Repentance
Old: “Those who submit to His Lordship through repentance, belief, and obedience to Jesus are restored to right relationship with the Father.”
New: “The Greek word metanoia, traditionally translated ‘repentance,’ means a transformation of perception—a radical shift in how we see God, ourselves, and reality. It is God’s kindness that leads us to this metanoia (Romans 2:4).”
Why: Jerome translated metanoia as paenitentia (penance), and we’ve been stuck with guilt-based “repentance” ever since. The Greek means something more beautiful: a mind-shift, an awakening.
5. Sanctification
Old: “You are a sinner saved by grace. Jesus paid the price for your sins, but you are still in a process of sanctification—gradually becoming holy and righteous through spiritual disciplines, obedience, and effort. You won’t be fully sanctified until heaven.”
New: “We believe sanctification is not a journey FROM dirty sinner TO clean saint. It is an awakening from sin-consciousness to righteousness-consciousness… You’re not climbing toward holiness. You’re awakening to the holiness that’s already yours in Christ.”
Why: Hebrews 10:14 says we are “made perfect forever” AND “being made holy”—simultaneously. This changes everything about how we approach spiritual growth.
6. God's Justice and Wrath
Old: “God’s holiness and justice required that His wrath against sin be satisfied. Because we could not pay the debt ourselves, Jesus bore God’s wrath in our place on the cross (Penal Substitutionary Atonement). God’s anger toward sin had to be appeased before He could forgive us.”
New: “We believe God’s justice is restorative, not retributive. His ‘wrath’ is not a temper tantrum but His faithfulness to truth—the principle of sowing and reaping built into the fabric of reality itself… God’s fire doesn’t destroy people—it destroys what destroys people.”
Why: The traditional view of wrath as divine rage requiring appeasement isn’t what Scripture reveals. The cross was not God punishing Jesus to satisfy His own anger—it was God in Christ absorbing the consequences of sin and defeating death from within. Wrath is the outworking of love against everything that destroys life.
7. The Enemy and His Defeat
Old: General reference to spiritual warfare.
New: “Sin is a dethroned monarch. Death is defeated. ‘Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’ (Colossians 2:15). Their only remaining weapon is deception.”
Why: We need to stop speaking as if the enemy still has power. Tetelestai means it’s finished. Stop handing back crowns that were stripped at the cross.
8. The Holy Spirit
Old: General affirmation of the Spirit’s work.
New: “The Spirit doesn’t create union—He reveals the union that always existed. He flows FROM within, not TO you from outside.”
Why: Jesus said the Kingdom was within people BEFORE Pentecost. The Spirit makes evident what was already true.
9. Eternity
Old: “We believe heaven and hell exist. Those who are lost will be sent to eternal death. Those who are saved through Jesus Christ will have eternal life.”
New: “We believe in the reality of destinies beyond this life. We recognize that the Greek word aionios (often translated ‘eternal’) can mean ‘of the age’ as much as ‘endless’—and we hold our eschatology with humility while affirming that God’s nature is restorative love.”
Why: I can no longer state with certainty what Lausanne states with certainty. The early Church Fathers disagreed on the scope of restoration. I hold my eschatology with humility now—while affirming that God’s nature is love, His justice is restorative, and evil itself ceases to exist.
What I’m NOT Saying
I’m not saying our old statement was heretical. It was mainstream evangelical orthodoxy. Millions of sincere believers affirm those words.
I’m not saying Lausanne and Cape Town are worthless. They’ve mobilized global missions and called the church to social action. There’s much good in them.
I’m not saying I have everything figured out. The new statement explicitly says “we are still in process—awakening progressively to truths we haven’t fully grasped.”
I’m not saying everyone must agree with us. We hold our convictions with confidence and our limitations with humility. You’re welcome here even if you’re still working through these questions.
I’m not saying sin doesn’t matter. It matters more than religion told us—because sin destroys life, not just breaks rules. Sowing and reaping is built into reality’s structure. The consequences are devastating and real. Awakening theology takes sin more seriously, not less.
I’m not saying there’s no human response required. A gift unacknowledged remains unopened. Awakening begins when we receive Jesus, when we acknowledge Him as Lord. You must consciously respond. This is not universalism—it is invitation awaiting response.
What I AM Saying
The Greek text supports what we now affirm.
This isn’t theological innovation. It’s excavation. Every claim in our new statement can be traced to Greek grammar, early Church Fathers, or Eastern Orthodox teaching that predates the Latin West.
Our orthodoxy is ancient, not modern.
We’re rooted in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds—documents that have united Christians across Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions for 1,700 years. That’s a broader and deeper foundation than any 20th-century evangelical statement.
This statement reflects where we actually are.
I couldn’t keep affirming words I no longer believe. Integrity required updating our public confession to match our actual convictions. This is what we now teach. This is the gospel we now preach.
And here’s why this matters beyond theology: this gospel actually scales.
I used to wonder how the great harvest could happen—billions coming to Christ—through the traditional model of one sinner at a time. But awakening theology changes everything. When people discover they were already complete in Christ before the foundation of the world, everything accelerates. Sanctification isn’t a sinner slowly becoming holy through performance—it’s a son or daughter awakening to seamless union and living from that identity.
The beautiful gospel arouses the heart because it’s rooted in the infinite love of God. It doesn’t need fear tactics. It doesn’t need guilt manipulation. It simply needs to be told—and something in the human soul recognizes it as true.
The waters are rising.
The Journey Behind This
Writing Awakening: Restorative Metanoia took me deeper into the Greek text than I’d ever gone. Over 1,000 Scripture references. Extensive word studies. Studies of the early Church Fathers. Hours of wrestling with what I’d been taught versus what the text actually says.
What emerged wasn’t what I expected. I thought I’d find support for what I already believed. Instead, I found a more beautiful gospel than I’d ever been taught—one that was there all along, buried under centuries of Latin translation choices and Western theological assumptions.
The book forced me to reckon with my own theology. And that reckoning produced this new Statement of Faith.
I’m not asking you to agree with every word. I’m asking you to consider: What if the good news is actually better than you’ve heard?
Go Deeper
Awakening: Restorative Metanoia releases February 2026—with over 1,000 Scripture references, extensive early Church Father studies, Greek word analyses, and a comprehensive glossary.
Free on our website. Lowest price on Amazon for hard copies.
[Read our full updated Statement of Faith →]
[Explore the Awakening Glossary →] Greek word studies that unlock the original meanings.
[Read the Gospel of the Kingdom →] The beautiful gospel, summarized.
This isn’t departure from Christianity. It’s homecoming to its original language.