REPORT: TOL Statement of faith

Nathon Detroit

Nathon Detroit

LIFETIME MEMBER
LIFETIME MEMBER
There is one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

There is one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.

Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven: by the Holy Spirit He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried.

On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory.

With His saints He will judge the living and the dead. And His kingdom will have no end.

There is one Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son He is worshipped.

He has spoken through the prophets and through the Scriptures.
God established the Body of Christ into which the Holy Spirit baptizes every new believer.

God offers salvation by grace through faith alone in the resurrected Christ.
The Bible records the true history of man including that God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them in six literal days; only eight people survived a global flood; through great wonders God delivered Israel from Egypt; the prophets, Christ, and the apostles performed many miraculous deeds.

The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in their original state, are the inspired Word of God. God legislated morality out of love for His creation.
Men who reject God will suffer eternal damnation.

Christ commands His followers to rebuke and to judge with righteous judgment and to forgive those who repent. One day God will resurrect the dead, punish the unbelievers, and reward those whom He has justified with the life of the world to come.
Amen.
 
Catatumba

Catatumba

New member
I guess it will fly alone..
It does have a couple of tricky parts or staments.
1."...true God from true God, of One Being with the Father."
2."...and His Kingdom will have no end."
Am I supposed to know what begoten means???
 
nanonator

nanonator

New member
nothing like resurrecting an old thread, is there? BUT ......... seeing as how Knight referred me to it [I was looking for something really cooking around here :)] I figured, what the heck, so here goes ;)

actually, I wanted to zero in on a part of the statement of faith of TOL that was not addressed on this thread, but I also know it's been debated to death and probably on TOL, especially by KJVO advocates - and I just wanted to make a quick comment.

I really like the statement of faith overall. It was actually a relief considering what I have run into as far as the over all "christian" idea of what is Biblical truth ;) [it seems my second "career" in apologetic research has been reading statements of faith by the truck load :help: ]

the statement is this: "The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in their original state, are the inspired Word of God." My thoughts are aimed at the phrase "in their original state". which would imply "only" when they were actually spoken by God as given by the Holy Spirit to the original author/writer.

please consider this. The OT was originally written in proto canaanite, hebrew, aramaic. We have no originals, so it seems a bit contradictive to say that we "only" believe that inspiration would be the "originals" when no one knows what that would be.

There is the statement in Psalm 12:7 made by God that He would preserve His Word forever. This is reiterated in the OT by Isaiah, and in the NT by Peter [I am aware of the controversy surrounding the psalm text]. Obviously, trust and faith in God's ability to do this is mandatory.

Inspired means to move, be guided by, influenced by the Divine [per Webster's]. As the word inspire does not appear in the Bible, we are stuck with that definition. I am aware of "God-breathed" per 2 Tim 3:16, which can be incorporated into the definition.

As Paul noted, the Word of God is understood by the spiritual man, not by the natural man. If we do not believe that the Bible is inspired, as we hold it in our hands, then we do not have the very Words of God and we are all deceived. Even though the Word has been mistranslated, errors abound, modern translations skewed and tilted, the basic fact is that one can be saved by reading the Gospel in the Bible - that makes it "inspired" by the thought and intent of God. It is a Living Word that transcends actual words and speaks to the spiritual man.

Yes, it would affect how one develops spiritually and theologically due to bias of translators or paraphrasers [some of the versions are downright demonic], but if God is Omniscient and Infinite, and we have a hunger and a love for God's Truth, He will lead us righteously. This means we have a duty to check out the translation we are using. Far too many christians are content to allow men with unclean hands to mess with the Word so it's "easier to understand". As someone I know once said - you mess with God's Word, He messes with your mind ;)

did I open up a can of worms? :doh:
 
A

Anoetos

New member
Interesting that you combine an Eastern Orthdodox version of the creed with specifically Protestant soteriological tags...
 
Aimiel

Aimiel

Well-known member
webmaster said:
There is one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

There is one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.

Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven: by the Holy Spirit He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried.

On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory.

With His saints He will judge the living and the dead. And His kingdom will have no end.

There is one Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son He is worshipped.

He has spoken through the prophets and through the Scriptures.
God established the Body of Christ into which the Holy Spirit baptizes every new believer.

God offers salvation by grace through faith alone in the resurrected Christ.
The Bible records the true history of man including that God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them in six literal days; only eight people survived a global flood; through great wonders God delivered Israel from Egypt; the prophets, Christ, and the apostles performed many miraculous deeds.

The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in their original state, are the inspired Word of God. God legislated morality out of love for His creation.
Men who reject God will suffer eternal damnation.

Christ commands His followers to rebuke and to judge with righteous judgment and to forgive those who repent. One day God will resurrect the dead, punish the unbelievers, and reward those whom He has justified with the life of the world to come.
Amen.
Click to expand...
Amen!!! :thumb:
 
Aimiel

Aimiel

Well-known member
I didn't see OSAS described in the statement of faith. Is it in there? If it is I missed it. :idunno:
 
G

godrulz

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
Nick M said:
You just said you are opposed to this in another thread. That you learned it here in fact.

Denial of OSAS is works based salvation.
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This is a lame Calvinistic understanding. If you read Arminius, you would not be saying this. We are saved by grace through faith, the kind of faith that is ongoing, not punctiliar, continuing, not ceasing. There is no mention of saved by works or continuing in works, so it is a non-sequitur to say denying OSAS is works salvation (your accusation would be true if we claimed that we are saved by works vs faith and continued works vs continued faith...big difference since faith is NOT a work nor is continued faith).

The issue is conditional vs unconditional salvation/security (you see a conditional element or you would be a universalist). Both Calvinists and Arminians are in the grace by faith camp (justification), yet differ on perseverance of the saints, another issue that is not identical to justification (glorification...not uncond., causal chain).

The issue determinism vs free will, not faith vs works (evangelicals should all reject works for justification and perseverance).

Try being more sophisticated and less simplistic in your theological acumen.

The majority of Open Theists (you one?) also reject OSAS because of free will theism. You are being inconsistent to adopt it.

Oh, and synergism vs monergism (Calvinistic) is the other issue.
 
G

godrulz

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
Knight said:
No arguing in this thread. Please stop, or infractions will follow.
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What are the parameters for this thread? Can we interact with the statement of faith (pro/con)? What is the line between discussion/debate and 'arguing'?

What can we talk about relevant to the thread without infractions?:help:
 
Jacob

Jacob

BANNED
Banned
Charity said:
John 16 28 I come forth from the father , and am come into the world AGAIN, I leave the world and go to the father .
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John 16:28 "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father."
his deciples said unto him, Lo speakest no proverb.
Now are we sure that thou knowest all things,
and needest not that man should ask thee by this
We believe that thou camest forth from god.
Jesus answered them, Do ye NOW believe?
Other interesting verses He whom god rose from the dead man have taken and hung on a tree,
Though we preach God rose christ from the dead we are found to be false witness and our preaching is vain,
Dont tell anyone of the vison untill the son of man be risen from the dead AGAIN ,
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Matthew 17:9 As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."
 
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