Welcome!

I want to start by thanking my wife Sandra for encouraging me to do this. And thank you for visiting!

Let me be up front about myself. I admit I don't have any formal education. I don't have any college degrees, and I'm not a professional scholar or theologian. I have not been to seminary or Bible school. I'm just a Christian who cares about his loved ones and wants them to understand Christ and the gospel. I just want my loved ones to be saved and not self-deceived. So although I will address some very deep things here, it's all coming from a regular everyday person. I want every reader to carefully consider the things I say here and always check it against scripture. I'm a flawed human being with limited understanding. I do not have everything figured out. There are certainly things that I'm wrong about.

I'm very aware of how serious this issue is. I'm making declarations about God. I take this extremely seriously. James 3:1 says "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." When I stand before my Master, I will be judged for the things I've taught other people about Him, and I will be held accountable for my errors if I lead anyone astray. That's enough to make me not want to do this, but I can't keep myself from it. I've already been doing it for years in one form or another, this is just the next step.

The purpose of this ministry is to share biblical Christian theology with my loved ones. I know a lot of people who call themselves Christian but are absolutely ignorant. I know people who would say they've been a Christian their entire life but have no knowledge of the gospel, salvation, scripture, even the most basic tenets of Christianity. This literally keeps me awake at night. I'm afraid some of my loved ones are deceived about their eternal status. There may be some who think they're Christians but they're really not. When you call yourself a Christian, yet have no knowledge of the God of Christianity, you're really just making up your own imaginary god. If you are believing in an imaginary god, you can't be a real Christian. Do you see how dangerous it is for a Christian to ignore the Bible? You end up being a Christian only by title, but not actually believing in Jesus in any meaningful way.

God has spoken, and His words are recorded in the Bible. He has revealed Himself in the pages of scripture and nowhere else. It's incredibly foolish to ignore the things that He has said about Himself and just believe whatever you want to believe instead. I simply want to place scripture in front of my Christian loved ones and show them what God has said about Himself. Christian beliefs about God are supposed to come from the Bible, not from our own imaginations, and not from our church's traditions, which would ultimately be from someone else's imagination if it's not biblical. I'm calling this my ministry because that's really what it is. I'm reaching out to my loved ones so that I can minister to their needs.

God has allowed me to go through some interesting religious phases in my life. I was raised Catholic but by the time I was a teenager I was an atheist. I got saved in a non-denominational church at 18, but it didn't take long to realize there were some biblically inconsistent practices happening there. God used that church to introduce Himself to me, and I will always have fond memories of it, but I wanted consistency. I started looking for genuine Christianity in my 20's. Over the years I examined numerous theologies and religious philosophies. Sometimes I would become discouraged and stop looking for a while, but God would prompt me to start searching again. It took me many years but I know that I've found true biblical Christianity. It's called Reformed theology, but also known as Calvinism, or sometimes called the doctrines of grace. Calling it Reformed is more precise because it's the theology of the Protestant Reformation. It's simply what Protestantism originally was before it splintered into what we have today. The Reformers wanted the Church to return to the teachings of scripture and abandon the unbiblical traditions that Roman Catholicism had been developing over the centuries.

The Christian gospel is simple. We're all sinners who deserve hell, but God is gracious and merciful. Anyone who believes in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins will be saved. We're saved by grace, through faith in Jesus, not because of anything that we do. Every other form of religion tries to tell you that you have to earn your way to heaven by doing things. Biblical Christianity says the work is done already, just believe in Christ for your forgiveness and don't try to earn salvation. But the Bible also teaches that we will do good works. We will produce good fruit for the Lord. Faith without works is a dead faith, not a saving faith. Christians will grow in the Lord and become closer to Him as we age. We will live a life of repentance. We will struggle against our sinful nature and we will persevere in the faith. We will have the desire to grow in knowledge, and to discard our unbiblical beliefs. We will desire to have Christ over us as our Lord and Master. We will do good deeds because we're saved.

A Christian who doesn't know anything about Christ, doesn't know the gospel, doesn't care about the things of God, doesn't study His word, has no interest in Christ, isn't interested in doing good works, is a foreign concept in scripture. There is no such thing. Calling yourself a Christian doesn't make you a Christian. Going to a church that calls itself Christian doesn't make you a Christian. You can go to church your entire life and still go to hell when you die. We're saved by grace through faith in Jesus, not because of our deeds. The more you think your deeds are saving you, the further you are from salvation.

On this blog I will say things that many people won't like. I know this already. But even if my loved ones reject it, maybe strangers will find this ministry and God could use it to help them with something. I'm just trying to do my part while I'm here. Life is very short, and I'm trying to do something that really matters. I'm trying to help my loved ones, but God will use this for His purposes even if everyone I know rejects it. I cannot change anyone. Only God can do that.

skubalon.ministries@gmail.com

facebook.com/skubalon

Thanks for reading. God bless.