"the Christian movement at its inception was not just a way of life in the modern sense, but a way of life founded upon a message. It was based, not upon mere feeling, not upon a mere program of work, but upon an account of facts. In other words it was based upon doctrine...Paul was not interested merely in the ethical principles of Jesus; he was not interested merely in general principles of religion or of ethics. On the contrary, he was interested in the redeeming work of Christ and its effect upon us."
-J. Gresham Machen. Christianity and Liberalism. pg 21, 25
2 comments:
Terrific!
Creeds (and to a lesser extent...deeds)!!
Amen! We discussed this a couple of weeks ago when we covered the Anabaptist tradition in Sunday school. As Buschart points out they disavowed theology and the magistrate due in no small part because they were very aware of who was persecuting and killing them. “Books take time from acts of service”, yuck. The message is the foundation of our service! But interestingly enough there has been a development of theology finally in the Mennonite tradition of late, but I do not know if it is any good. While they still do not like creeds some have begun to embrace confessions as a legitimate way to give a voice to the “democracy of the dead”. It has taken almost 500 years but theology is starting to see a role in that tradition. Amazing how long it can take to overcome a bad start. One of my favorite parts of Buschart’s book is when he got a Mennonite reading “The Institutes” as part of his daily devotionals, and he liked it! Now I call that progress!! Ha!
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