Map & Lamp

What we believe

Map & Lamp teaches from inside historic Christian faith. This is the frame every episode is made from, so you know where we stand before the first map comes out.

  1. One God in three persons.Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each fully God, one God.

  2. Scripture is God’s Word.Inspired, true in all it teaches, and the final authority. We teach from the 66 books of the Protestant Bible.

  3. God made everything.He created all things from nothing and governs all things.

  4. People bear God’s image, and all have sinned.Every person has worth because God made us in his image, and every person needs rescue. We read Adam and Eve as real people and the fall as a real event, as the New Testament does.

  5. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.The eternal Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

  6. He died for our sins and rose again.His death was a sacrifice in our place, and he is the only Savior. He rose bodily on the third day, ascended, and intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand.

  7. Salvation is by grace through faith.It is God’s gift, received by trusting Christ, not earned by what we do. Faith shows itself in obedience.

  8. The Holy Spirit is a person.The third person of the Trinity, who convicts, gives new life, lives in believers and gives them power.

  9. The church is Christ’s body.Sent to make disciples of all nations.

  10. Christ will return.Personally and visibly. The dead will be raised, God will judge the world, and he will make all things new.

  11. Marriage is between one man and one woman.We rarely stop on it. When a passage raises it, we teach it as written.

  12. The Bible is one story that leads to Jesus.Every episode shows where its book sits in that story. When we point out a connection the New Testament itself makes, we say so; when it is a connection Christians have drawn, we say that instead.

  13. What the Bible tells as history, we teach as history.The patriarchs, the Exodus, the kings, the exile, the life of Jesus and the early church.

Where we stay fair

Faithful Christians who share everything above still disagree about a good deal: baptism, the Lord’s Supper, God’s sovereignty and human choice, whether salvation can be lost, spiritual gifts, the end times, Israel and the church, how churches are led, and the roles of men and women in church leadership. When a book raises one of these, we name the main views, give each its best case and its evidence, and don’t pick a side.

The same goes for scholarly questions a book-by-book channel can’t avoid, such as the age of the earth, the date of the Exodus, who wrote certain books, and when Daniel was written. Where critical scholars hold a different view, we describe it accurately and say how others answer it. When an episode has to tell the story from one view, it says which one.

Scripture is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible. Questions or corrections are welcome at hello@mapandlamp.com.