What If “No Creed but the Bible” Is Unbiblical?
folks, I’m going to wait on y’all to chime, in on this goodie.
Hoping to shed more light than heat..
Reading the linked article, which is short, you find the author included an indorsement from C J Mahaney. Now, given the current evangelical climate, and Mahaney’s past history, combined with the recent tribulations and the downfall of Joshua Harris, is it a good idea to promote a commendation from C J Mahaney?
sorry. I didn’t even look at the dates thinking this was fresh! I see now it was published in 2012. And wait, the SI posting is from 2012?
Josh P- maybe warn people that you are dredging up a 7 year old post, man! I thought Trueman was wack for having a commendation from Mahaney in 2019!
And as for Harris, people are basically saying that he was brought in to Mahaney’s circle into a kind of cult… if that doesn’t turn you off, at least as a connection, then I don’t know what will. Especially given that Harris is now rejecting the Christianity he experienced and pastored.
The book looks interesting…
As for me, I have been thinking that a weakness of Baptists is the lack of a common set of clarified beliefs, a creedal statement if you like. I have been teaching an adult Sunday School class lately that is made up of the mavericks and renegades, if you like. They prefer to not be in the bigger and more popular classes. The reason is they are all “odd” in their beliefs and experiences. One man is a walking cliche machine of Baptist beliefs. He uses the same KJV Bible he was given at his baptism 60+ years ago, so you can tell how much use it gets! So, his “theology” is not biblical, but cliche driven. Things like “God hates the sin, not the sinner.” To which I reply, “ok, but if you die apart from Christ what good does God’s love for you do?”…
Another person antagonizes every little thing. And I mean every little thing. She’ll complain about the way I wrote something in the handout. Not grammar by the way, just her preference. We got into a lengthy disagreement in class over chabod coming with the idea of “heavy” and what that meant about “glory.” She insisted that to her “heavy” was negative so she rejected that idea wholesale based on her personal experience.
My point is, it would be nice to have a clear set of beliefs that every member went over and agreed to. This would help clear up unbelief and misplace belief.
But, to many Americans their “independence” and “free speech” translates to their theology as well.
[josh p]One of the problems Spurgeon faced during the Downgrade Controversy is that the Baptist Union refused to adopt a strong evangelical creed. When they finally did adopt a creed, they took they teeth out of it by basically saying these doctrine were only suggestions,Yeah I do wonder if this is more of an American problem. It may also be just the post-modern ethic making inroads into the church or some combination of the two and possibly some other things. I once did a Sunday school and quoted a large portion of the church’s doctrinal statement. No one had any idea where it came from.
Baptists are creedal. 1833 NHCF all the way, for me!
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
Don’t forget the infamous NBC resolution from the liberals in 1922 (?) that the NT should be the basis of their faith and practice! That’s too vague to be of any use …
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
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