I noticed something as I was looking through the historic creeds and confessions of Protestant Christianity. Somewhere along the line God lost his place as the first article and was replaced by the Bible. (Compare the Belgic Confession with the current Baptist Faith and Message for an example.) I think there is some significance to this, but I am not exactly sure what it is.
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maybe this is a tangent, but your post reminds me of something I once heard!
about treating the Bible almost like an idol...rather than emphasizing personal relationship with Christ...and relying on our own mind's ability to interpret the Scriptures (and use them for our own purposes?) rather the Holy Spirit for instruction..
and all of that reminds me of when Jesus said that you can diligently study the Scriptures, thinking that by them you possess eternal life, but fail to come to Him...
Posted by: kiki on Friday, January 27, 2006
I don't think your comment was a tangent at all. I wouldn't set up a dichotomy of human wisdom and logic versus the instruction of the Holy Spirit though. They both have their places.
I wonder whether we put too much emphasis on creating our axiomatic system (theology) and ignore the mystery of God. We get caught up in considering the Bible as a source of propositions. Also, as long as we are formulating and declaring foundational propositions in our system, I would rather have the existence of God be the foundational principle rather than the Bible.
Posted by: CJ Costello on Saturday, January 28, 2006
The Westminster Confession of Faith of 1646 is the first creed that I have found that lists Scripture as the first article. Presbyterian and Baptist (by way of the London Baptist Confession) confessions are all descended from this one. The Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican churches all use confessions or creeds that date back to the sixteenth-century. The Methodists derive theirs from the Anglican Thirty-Seven Articles. All of the younger denominations (that I found) that developed in the US also list the Bible first. From this information, it does look like this is a modern development.
I don't know that this fits the flow, but I wanted to record this somewhere for future reference.
Posted by: CJ Costello on Sunday, January 29, 2006