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As Baptists CAN We Even have An "Official Position" On Cal/Arms?
- Thread starter JesusFan
- Start date
There is no official Baptist position on anything. There is no unified "Baptist" church.
Reply to Jesusfan
I disagree, to have an "official" position is not against the historical baptist distinctive of local churches being Congregational and autonomous, i.e the opposite of the top down polity of the Anglican Church we separated from.
So an "official" position could be authorized by an "authority" meaning a constitutional amendment addressing "what we believe" that adopts what has been determined by a plurality of Elders to reflect the actual message of God, and adopted by each local church, after study, prayer and discussion.
But as long as we defend our initial view by bad mouthing those who hold a differing view, we will not restore our lost unity in the faith.
We divide along the lines of the historical view or views and the modern view or views. Do we rely on the TR or the CT? I say we rely on the CT! But if you look at the threads that discuss this issue, all you see is turf war, with no one agreeing they were mistaken.
Perhaps I am naive, but I believe actual Christians who study and pray together will arrive at a common understanding of the text. But if we think tradition trumps true, we will get no-where, as this forum demonstrates time and again.
I disagree, to have an "official" position is not against the historical baptist distinctive of local churches being Congregational and autonomous, i.e the opposite of the top down polity of the Anglican Church we separated from.
So an "official" position could be authorized by an "authority" meaning a constitutional amendment addressing "what we believe" that adopts what has been determined by a plurality of Elders to reflect the actual message of God, and adopted by each local church, after study, prayer and discussion.
But as long as we defend our initial view by bad mouthing those who hold a differing view, we will not restore our lost unity in the faith.
We divide along the lines of the historical view or views and the modern view or views. Do we rely on the TR or the CT? I say we rely on the CT! But if you look at the threads that discuss this issue, all you see is turf war, with no one agreeing they were mistaken.
Perhaps I am naive, but I believe actual Christians who study and pray together will arrive at a common understanding of the text. But if we think tradition trumps true, we will get no-where, as this forum demonstrates time and again.
That would be our "distinctive" strenght...
On same staff, can have an Arminian and Calvinist, along with a tongue and a non togue speaker!