Creekland Farm - Our Religious Values

We admit God commanded wars in the Old Testament, but have seen no evidence for that
in the New Testament. Further, we cannot ever see Jesus being a member of any armed
forces in His life, even if He lived now. The idea of Jesus, or any of His followers,
threatening to kill in order to get their way is contradictory to the teachings of the New
Testament. Christians live in virtually all countries in the world. When at war, Christians
are now often on both sides and it isn’t right for Christians to fight each other. Anger can
be just, violence against others is not.

We believe the Bible and Science are compatible and have extensively studied the
arguments for and against Creation and Old vs. Young Earth. While we understand many
different views and previously held some of them, the scientific evidence and theories
better support our current beliefs in our opinion.

We believe in the Christian Bible - preferring the New International Version for private
study. Salvation is from God - it is nothing we gain by the “good” we do. We have a
personal relationship with God and Jesus (God’s Son and also God) and wouldn’t trade
that relationship for anything in the world. This relationship is necessary for salvation for
those that have the opportunity to know about Jesus. For those that truly don’t, we don’t
pass judgment ourselves, but leave it for God to decide.

It is against God’s law as is any out of marriage sexuality. The practice is a sin, but is no
“worse” than any other sin. All sin is out of the will of God. Even when you hate the sin,
you should love the sinner.

Some say they don’t attend church because of all the hypocrites there. All of us are
sinners no matter how hard we try in this life. It is important to strengthen our spiritual
life by having fellowship with other believers. Without it, true growth is very hard. No
church is perfect and the best quote I’ve heard is “if you find a perfect church, don’t join it
- you’ll ruin it.” I wish I could remember who said it to give proper credit...

"... We must obey God rather than men!" Acts 5:29

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” James 1:19-20

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” Mark 8: 35-36

We believe family is supposed to be man, wife, and kids all together. A family should be
the second most important thing to it’s members (God is first). Good relationships here
on Earth are the best thing in life. Churches should have activities families can do together
and not just stress men’s, women’s, and kid’s activities. To have the best marriage and
parenting possible, a good study of personalities and traits is important to best understand
each other. Children should be raised in the way “they should go,” not the way we want
them to go. Parents should recognize their kid’s strengths and likes and not push them in
directions the parent wishes they had gone.

We have attended many different churches over our lifetime and have found good ones in
several denominations. What matters is how someone relates to God and Jesus - not what
name is on the church they attend. Currently we are members of Community Evangelical Free Church, a local church which we really enjoy. A good church should preach the truth regardless of public sentiment, have caring people in it, and should inspire the members to grow in their faith.

Becoming a Christian does not require any good deeds or a previous good life, nor does
living a good life automatically make someone a Christian. Anyone can choose to follow
God. That decision is not to be taken lightly though. God expects His followers to love
and serve Him (faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. - James 2:17). In
other words, you don’t become a Christian by what you do, but people should be able to
convict you for being a Christian based on what you do afterwards. For a Christian with a
good relationship with God, this serving is not hard, but enjoyable.

We are conservative believers in the Bible meaning we believe it to be true and inspired
by God - essentially God wrote it, using people. There may be some small copying errors
from the original manuscripts, but overall, it is true as written. This means we believe the
Earth is young - within 10,000 years or so, we believe in Noah’s flood, the virgin birth, the
resurrection, and other sometimes questioned events recorded in the Bible.

We believe baptism was meant as a show of faith by a believer. This means it is for those
who have chosen to follow God to express that decision publicly. It is not a requirement
for salvation, nor is it meant for infants. Method is optional to us - meaning is what is
important.

Killing an innocent life is always wrong, except perhaps in legitimate self defense (mother’s life is in real jeopardy if she were to continue the pregnancy).

It is our belief that everyone is free to choose for themselves what they believe, and it will never be our policy to discriminate based on someone’s differing beliefs. We use Romans Chapter 14 for the basis of this belief. We would love if everyone we came in contact with believed as we do, but see no need to distance ourselves from those who choose not to, nor do those who believe differently sway our beliefs...

To sum up religious beliefs in one page is nigh onto impossible for those who have deep beliefs on many diverse areas within the main subject... We shall try to do our best in a short format. We believe very similarly, so the views written are jointly held. Those who would like more information or to converse concerning any of these ideas are welcome to write...