Confession/Statement of Faith

Sigh. I was not. :BangHead:

 

You know, I realize you think you are without error even when you are supposedly speaking for the other persons beliefs or intension. This is a perceived observation in light of interaction with you as well as reading your posts over varied threads, at least this is the presentation of yourself I have seen. However you have not only been found, repeatedly false and untrue, but you stay in the land of wishful thinking supposing somehow you still must be correct, specifically with respect to this.

Jerome did not at any time comment on the post given and thus any intent you presume that is not what he has stated, by your own definition, is a lie whenther you mean it or not. I understood the quote for what it was to mean as it directly reflected the OP. It was speaking to the danger creeds and confessions can become NOT that they should never be used. You were reading into it, intension and misrepresentation and that is YOUR fault and to continue on as you are, shows you are the one willfuly bearing false witness against a brother in Christ.

ALL creeds (including Dort, and WCF) are nothing more than man's view of what scripture is saying and thus they ALL stand equally on this ground. Now some can be better in line with scripture but none should be defending to the extent many do in place of the scripture because they place it the same AS the scriptures.

I personally find it a sad commentary on a person within these discussion boards to find people repeatedly posting creeds and confessions and tell people to go back and look at them, as much or more than scripture itself. It shows they study and read their creeds/confessions more than their scriptures because they can not give an argument for what they believe. They have to refer back to what another believes.

 

A doctrinal statement can be used to instruct younger believers and older believers who lack knowledge.

Cults claim to believe the Bible.

When a church does not practice what it teaches in its doctrinal statement then the doctrinal statement can be held up as a guide.

 

This is a good summary of why a church need a statement of faith.

 

This reminds me of a story of an American Indian's comment after hearing a long sermon.

"High wind. Loud thunder. No rain."

Again you have proven your written verbosity but have not dealt with the actual issue at hand. The "proven false" accusation against me? That is perhaps your opinion, but unproven.

IF Jerome wanted to do what you stated, then he could have simply said that along with Spurgeon's quote. But by letting it stand alone, he allowed a false impression to be portrayed.

 

Then you could stop all the misunderstanding by simply stating it. Throwing up quotes on a forum without the stated reason for such does nothing to help you put forth an argument.

If you wanted to say there is a danger in holding to Creeds at the expense of a living relationship to Jesus Christ and possessing a regenerated heart and mind, then say so, and use CHS to bolster your opinion.

But doing what you did, simply give the impression - whether intended or not - that CHS was against Confessions of Faith. And that is simply not true. He was an ardent believer in their value, and said so many times.

And the OP was really about the value of a church having a Confessional statement as opposed to just saying, "We believe the Bible". To be precise, the OP was not about the danger of trusting in Creeds in place of the new birth, which is what Spurgeon was saying in his sermon you quoted from.

You have done this several times in different threads. If it is unintentional, then, consider this as a free piece of advice as how to better make your point.

But in either case, if a false impression is left, and we do nothing to correct it, we have become part and parcel of promoting a falsehood. To say, it was not my intention does not mitigate the fact in the first place.

Let me give an example:
For many years, Christians were saying that Darwin recanted his theory of evolution on his death-bed. I've even heard preachers say that. But the story has been proven false. Verifiably so. Now, I do not for a minute think it was the intention of everyone who told that story to deceive others and to lie about events. But they still were guilty of passing on false information. And they are still accountable for doing so without checking the facts.

We are not just accountable for what we say, but the perception with which it is received.

Now ... back to the OP and the value of Confessions of Faith.

I still maintain, (along with Spurgeon:laugh that they are of great value for the church.

 

Nothing wrong with statements of faith, so long as they accurately stem from the Bible, and reflect what the church, as a whole, and not just the pulpit, believe in and adhere to.
I would rather a church is not a member of an association, since most of the time, associations tend to dictate on its memberships who they can fellowship with and who not, or most of the time a church is hesitant if not downright afraid to make its own decisions since these decisions may not sit well with the association.

 

Pardon? Maybe that is true where you are, but no association I've been associated with tells a church who they can associate with? If they did, they are unscriptural. In Baptist life, the local church is on the top of the pyramid over any association.