Jim Peet's Doctrinal Statement
Comment: This is not the doctrinal statement of my ordination. That's on a 5¼ floppy some where. That one was written with Super-Scriptsit on a TRS-80 and printed out on an Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer.
I've been meaning for some time to write a statement of my beliefs. I drafted this today borrowing heavily from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and Grace to You. My statement may be viewed online here. Feel free to leave a comment
I've not yet done it, but I think I'd borrow heavily from yours in my own. I think I'd add something about music as well--that seems to be one of the places where there is brutal, un-Godly dissention in the Church as well. I might also add something about the dangers of anti-intellectualism, which I'd define (partially) as the belief that somehow the fundamental believer has something to fear from book-learning.
ReplyDelete(yes, leaving a certain church is having the VERY GOOD effect of showing me some of the massive dangers of hyper-fundamentalism......)
Bert ... I think you did the right thing. We continue to pray for you.
ReplyDeleteI think that whatever "next church" (say if we move to Tennessee) we go to, I'm going to show the Pastor of any prospective church my D/S and see what he does with it. It might be a short conversation!
At the very least, a good look at the church constitution and the books available in the foyer would be a good start.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, if a pastor isn't willing to read and compare his doctrinal statement with yours, that might also be a clear sign that the church isn't for you--that "anti-intellectualism" thing that is death to preaching the Word.
The two toughest questions for a Pastor and why:
ReplyDelete1. Explain Romans 8:29-30. How the Pastor answers will tell you right away how tolerant he is of the doctrines of grace.
2. Jesus turned water into wine (John 2). Was it super good grape juice or something else. How a Pastor answers this will tell you a lot about his hermeneutic approach. Alcohol abstinence is impossible to prove from the NT. One can make the case that abstinence is better, etc. But to prove total abstinence is impossible for the honest interpreter of the Scriptures.
Am I being dense in that I'd simply say "predestined means predestined, and wine means wine"?
ReplyDeleteSometimes it seems to me that the nastiest fights in Christendom are the ones we start because we simply won't believe His Word at face value!
"...predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son." Do you believe that every Christian is predestinated to be like Jesus, or that because of God's foreknowledge he was predestinated to be saved?
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteYes, I believe every Christian is predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ: Romans 8:29, "predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son"
AND
Yes, I believe that every elect sinner is predestined to be saved. Romans 8:29-31
For a good read on this consider The Golden Chain