Christine,
Is it not true the Nicean Creed came about because of the gnostic heresy?
Church leaders across the world were concerned about splinter groups (we
know them as cults today) that distorted scriptural teaching. In order to
clarify the distortions the creed was developed.
Is it not true that the creed is *not* "in addition to" the scriptural
teaching. It is a re-statement of scriptural teaching.
Dave C
PS
I'd be very wary of anybody who denied these creeds yet declared he was
proclaiming some form of Christian-like "truth" because it is essentially
an anti-Christian stance with an element of confusion and perhaps deception
at play. Well, Hitchens and Dawkins are anti-Christian, but they are right
up front about it. There's no deception there. They don't believe in truth
in the same sense that Nancy Pearcy does (because they don't think an
ultimate truth exists) and they don't claim that sort of truth. They
claim a form of objective reality.
On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 6:07 PM, Iain Strachan <igd.strachan@gmail.com>wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 10:04 PM, Christine Smith
> <christine_mb_smith@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm sorry if this sounds too exclusive, but I just feel the need to say
> this (I can't believe that I have to!?): If you reject the Nicene Creed, you
> are not a Christian.
>
> To my mind complex creedal statements that are not (after all) part of
> the Bible, complicate matters.
>
> John 3:16 states:
>
> For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
> whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
>
> It seems to me that this is sufficient alone. You can argue for ages
> and write down complex legal definitions about what is meant by
> "whosoever believes in him", but to my mind you'll never have a
> rigorous definition. If you believe in your heart in Jesus as God's
> Son, given that we may have everlasting life, then you are a
> Christian. [ And also that you're not going to cease to exist after
> your physical death].
>
> All other stuff (e.g. were Adam and Eve literal? was the talking snake
> literal?) are superfluous. They are there to teach us spiritual
> wisdom but it isn't necessary to accept them as literal history. I
> was quite shocked on attending a Christian group at the Oxford Science
> Park, where my firm was located. Most of the group were staunch Young
> Earth Creationists. I mentioned John 3:16 without quoting it because
> I assumed everyone knew the verse as one of the most important ones in
> the bible. I was taught when memorising Bible verses that it wasn't
> worth knowing a girl unless you knew her telephone number! I even
> learnt it at Sunday school in a cheesy chorus that was set to the tune
> of "O Danny Boy"! To my surprise the leader of the group asked me to
> say what was said in John 3:16 - he didn't apparently know the quote!
>
> Iain
>
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Received on Sat Sep 19 00:21:26 2009
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