Today in Portsmouth, Ohio. I gathered with band members of different Corps Bands and played as we kicked off the beginning of the kettle season. It was a fun time, with a local radio station and even the fire department coming out to help with the effort.

Salvation Army Chapter 2: Creator of Heaven and Earth, The God We Worship. "We believe that there is only one God, who is infiintely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all thingsm and who is the only proper object of religious worship." Topics in this episode are Christian monotheism, comparing to monotheism of other faiths, The Character of God: why we say he is holy, jealous, faithful, merciful, and true. How is God Perfect in Wisdom, Power, and love? Did God Create Everything Out of Nothing? The Problems of Evil, and Suffering. The dangers of idolatry, and more.

The Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine. Chapter 1 is entitled Word of the Living God and subtitled The Source of Christian doctrine. This chapter and episode discuss the first Article of Faith for the Salvation Army. That article says "We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine Rule of Christian faith and practice." Some of the topics that are discussed that help with our understanding of this Article of Faith are: A Word in Time, What is Canon and how did those things canonized get included in the Bible, The Testaments, The modes of Revelation (in other words, how did God reveal himself to us at different times and why is it important to know this?), What do we mean when we say the Bible is given by inspiration, what is the authority that a Christian should listen to, what is pluralism and why is it not good for a Christian to become pluralistic. In the section called Essentials of the doctine, we'll look at Revelation through the Bible, Relationship in the Bible, The inspiration of the Bible, The authority of the Bible, Confirmation of the biblical witness, and more.

Getting started with learning about the Salvation Army, and it's handbook of doctrine.For Salvationists (that's what a member of the Salvation Army is called), belief and action have always been intertwined. Our faith and practice are rooted in the Bible, personal experience and the CHristian heritage. Salvation Army doctrine is part of that heritage, and it too is built upon the foundation of the biblical text as interpreted by the people of God. Listen to this trailer to learn a little about why this handbook of doctine is important to us.