Over the last few days, I've come across a couple of blog posts that featured fresh attempts at a formal Christian statement of belief. In one case, as I recall, it was a certain congregation's faith statement or mission statement or something like that. The other item was described as an emergent-church creed.

Two things struck me about them both. First, they were stated so very well, even beautifully. Second, they had the following in common:

No Abraham. No Israel. No Moses. No Exodus. No David. No Son of David. No Prophets. You get the idea. In these statements, it's as though the first advent of Christ was the genesis of this way called Christianity.

So I was thinking that I should say something like, "Guys, Jesus stood in a tradition! He was the fulfillment of an ancient hope! And all of that's at the center of Chrisitianity. "

In Ephesians 2, for example, it seems clear enough that a gentile has not one but two major problems: First, without Christ, he's dead in transgressions and sins (v. 1). Second, without Christ, he's excluded from citizenship in Israel, a foreigner to the covenants of promise (v. 12).

So then I was thinking, Since that sort of language is all over the New Testament, and since it is integral to the faith that was once for all delivered to the people of God, then why not include it in what Christians say about themselves and the call that the Holy One of Israel has issued to them in Jesus the Messiah? I mean, grafted-on branches shouldn't talk as though they're the tree. To do so is to be theologically out on a limb and historically nuts.

But then I asked myself . . . . On Mars Hill, how many Hebrew Scriptures? Hmm. None. Only pagan poets. Oh, and then there's Philippians and 1st Thessalonians and 2nd Thessalonians, none of which, apparently, contains a reference to the Old Testament. If you find one in there, let me know.

So I decided (and, yes, this is an overly-simple way of putting it), While we Christians are trying to initially reach and teach others, no they don't have to know about Abraham like they have to know about Jesus. But on the other hand, as they grow, we'd be robbing them of their birthright if we didn't teach them the first 78% of the Christian Canon.

P.S. This post has been hanging around as a draft for several days, so I'm sending it out now asking, What do you think?