A Faith Statement and the "Jesus Creed"

Last Tuesday, I was talking about two Christian statements that I'd come across. I really liked them, but also wondered about them. Aside from one reference to the Old Testament, were they a little too Marcionite?

[Historical aside: Marcion was that guy in the second century who wanted to get rid of the Old Testament, and didn't like most of the books that we now call the New Testament, mainly because they seemed so Old Testament.

When you realize how close Marcion's movement came to overwhelming orthodoxy, you're a little more sympathetic to episcopal-type church government. At least some of those people were thinking, "Let's put one orthodox guy in charge of a church or churches, and then we can rest easier. " I know, I know, Jesus said that the gates of hades would not prevail against his ecclesia. But when has that promise ever kept well-intentioned believers from doing what they thought was necessary to "save the church"?

Sorry if this kept you from getting to what you really wanted. But like most preachers I have this expository demon, and it had to be fed].

I decided, No, these weren't bad (I should note that the former actually goes out of it's way to speak of both Old and New Testaments).

I think that it's very normal for Christians to want to summarize the cognitive faith. I also think that that's a hard thing to do, especially when it's by and for a group.

Anyway, you can see the Highland (Abilene, TX) Church of Christ's "Foundations of Faith" statement here

You can see the emergent-church "Jesus Creed" written by Brian McLaren, here

Thanks for your great comments on the earlier post. Now, if you want, go take a look at these two statements and come back to tell me what you think.

Recent Christian Creeds and the Old Testament

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?