Acknowledgements
It is my sincere hope and prayer that this book will be a help to the Christian layperson.That it will be a means of equipping the saints for the work of ministry. I felt the need towrite this; mainly because of my experiences as a pastor in which I found that manyChristians could not give a reason for what they believe, nor did they even know or understand what their beliefs were. In America many a person claims to be a Christiansimply because he or she was born a United States citizen. Others claim to be Christianssimply because their mother and father were Christians. While others still claim that theyare Christians because they were baptized in water. This clearly shows a lack of Biblicalunderstanding among confessing Christians, at least in the U.S.I have tried to write this book in a way that the common layperson can easily understandit, and though it is not an exhaustive systematic theology I have tried to cover as many of the bases that I could, without getting too bogged down in theological lingo andterminology. I must stress that this book is only intended to be an aid to Christians, ameans to assist in the study of God’s word, in theology, and apologetics. And as it iswritten by a fallible human, it should not be considered gospel or without errors. There isno doubt that Arminians will disagree with much of it, as will liberal theologians, as maysome evangelicals.I have written it in two sections, the first dealing with theology and doctrine, and thesecond with apologetics. The first is in the form of a summary as it would take severalvolumes of books to lay out the entire Christian Theology in book form. The secondsection I have tried to give brief backgrounds to the most common non-Christianreligions and teachings and then refutations to those religions, cults, and false doctrines.Having earned my degree in History I have chosen to use the Turabian (Chicago) style of footnoting and bibliography simply because I am more comfortable with that style.Some thanks are in order. I would first like to thank my father, Ken McKinley Sr. whosereturn to the Lord was no doubt a major influence in my coming to Christ. He has beenand continues to be a great inspiration of faith to me. I would also like to thank my wife,MariJo McKinley, whose patience and understanding allowed me to stay up late nightswhile writing this work. (
I love you honey
). I owe a great deal of thanks to my uncle,Gary McKinley who has helped me get this published. I must also thank the numerous pastors, evangelists, apologists, Bible teachers, professors, and theologians who haveinfluenced me throughout the years in so many ways; men of faith past and present, greatis your reward. Most importantly, I must thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whosaved the worst among you, when He saved a wretch like me. Without Him I could donothing.To my daughters, Leslie and Gabriel
Study to show yourselves approved workers that need not be ashamed Rightly dividing the Word in Truth
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