This series was going to end today, but I got a comment from my blogging buddy Koffijah last night that I need to repost. There’s wisdom in these words. Some of you may not agree with them; some of you may. Next week, I’ll wrap up the series on where I’m at on this issue (I’ve kept my thoughts to myself on purpose): Here are Koffijah’s thoughts–and feel free to comment on them:
I’m not trying to be some kind of a Campbellite, but constructing a list of what is essential to the Christian faith… is essentially the same thing as making a Creed. Now, I know your goal isn’t to create something besides scripture to measure people by, but if by the slogan, “in essentials, unity” we mean we would require people to agree to these set of doctrines, then in essence it is the same thing. And you know what–I would probably agree with everything you come up with.
But here’s the thing… If we believe the Bible is the Word of God, let it be the Word of God. We don’t need to simplify it, summarize it or extract the “essential” things out of it in any kind of dogmatic way. I like the slogan (and I know you’ve heard this one a million times, too), “Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we’re silent.”
I like this approach because it is not a systematic theological approach, but a faith in the Word of God approach. If we make our theology into a system then we are assuming we know enough to make it all fit together. However, I believe that the purpose of God’s revelation is not for us to understand how God and everything in this world works and fits together, but for us to know who God is and enough to get us home to him.
