Generous Orthodoxy

NOTES

• Take Home Points

  In standing FOR something, at what point do we start standing ON someone?

  Live true to your convictions, as an act of worship … because they are between you and God.

  While we’re to live fully convinced in our own minds, we’re not to judge others based on our convictions.

  In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.

  Since the Creeds centre on the Godhead, they demonstrate that we have more in common with other believers than what we don’t, and what we have in common has far greater substance than what we doesn’t.

  Our common faith is centred on the Godhead. Period.

  The Great Commandments call us into a love relationship with God that fuels our love for our neighbour. The Great Commission keeps this love flowing out of our communities and neighbourhoods to a world still in need of loving.

  Unity is not fostered by uniformity or adherence to doctrinal agreement. It’s nurtured and maintained through a Christlike attitude.

  The PART is precious and significant, but it only finds its full meaning and purpose in its relationship to the WHOLE. Thus, our church communities are precious and significant but only find full meaning and purpose in relation to the wider Body of Christ.

  Reason from the whole to the part, then work your part back into the whole.

  Balancing our love for the ekklesia in all its expressions is vital if we are going to uphold the Message of Jesus. Keeping the unity of the Spirit is critical if we’re going to repair our collective integrity to a sceptical world.
• What is the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed?

  The Apostles’ Creed (in circulation by at least AD 180) and the Nicene Creed (AD 325) help us summarise what we hold in common as believers. As they centre on the Godhead, they demonstrate that we have more in common with other believers than what we don’t, and what we have in common has far greater substance than what doesn’t.

  While the creeds do not hold the authority and weight of Scripture, they help clarify what is essential in terms of doctrine.

  The Apostles’ Creed

  I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
  Creator of heaven and earth.

  I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
  who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
  born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
  was crucified, died, and was buried;
  He descended to the dead.

  On the third day He rose again;
  He ascended into heaven,
  He is seated at the right hand of the Father,
  and He will come to judge the living and the dead.

  I believe in the Holy Spirit,
  the holy church, the communion of saints,
  the forgiveness of sins,
  the resurrection of the body,
  and the life everlasting. Amen.

  The Nicene Creed

  We believe in one God,
  the Father, the Almighty
  Maker of heaven and earth,
  of all that is, seen and unseen.

  We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
  the only Son of God,
  eternally begotten of the Father,
  God from God, Light from Light,
  true God from true God,
  begotten, not made,
  of one Being with the Father.

  Through Him all things were made.

  For us men and for our salvation
  He came down from heaven:
  by the power of 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 to judge the living and the dead,
  and His kingdom will have no end.

  We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life,
  who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
  With the Father and the Son He is worshipped and glorified.
  He has spoken through the Prophets.

  We believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
  We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
  We look for the resurrection of the dead,
  and the life of the world to come. Amen.

  SOURCE

  The Nicene Creed was originally adopted in AD 325 and then revised in AD 381. The version used above is the 1975 International Consultation on English Texts (ICET) version. Today several versions exist and while they differ slightly in the words they use to translate the original creed, they do not differ substantially in any way. The reader can do a Google search to read the various versions available.

  One and only one clarifying comment is probably necessary. The word “catholic” in the final paragraph of the Nicene Creed does not refer to the Roman Catholic Church; rather, the word means, “universal”.

• What about the 10 Commandments and other absolutes? [Includes Diagram 2]

  What about the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17)? As absolutes, aren’t they essentials, too?

  Good question.

  However, let me ask you a few questions in response:

  • How do you keep the Sabbath, the fourth Commandment?

  As a literal seventh day of the week, a promise fulfilled in Jesus or a metaphor for the rest we find in relationship with the Father?

  • How do you apply the fifth Commandment, to honour your father and mother?

  There’s no prescribed application of this commandment and we all apply it based on our interpretation of the subject.

  • What about the sixth Commandment?

  Does it mean you shall not kill in any circumstance (not even in self-defence) or does it apply explicitly to murder?

  • What about the tenth Commandment?

  How far does coveting go? Where is the line between coveting and setting a goal to buy something you really want, for example?

  • And what about the third?

  What does taking God’s name in vain mean for you? Is it using “Yahweh” or “Jesus” (because the word “God” is obviously not His name) in casual conversation or in an outburst of anger … or is it claiming to speak on behalf of God when He’s in fact not speaking (that is, to misrepresent Him)?

  You get the point.

  Even many of the ‘crystal clear’ absolutes of the 10 Commandments are subject to interpretation and personal conviction.

  Perhaps a way to view the 10 Commandments (and other absolutes) is to view them as straddling the line between essentials and non-essentials. That is, as a commandment or principle, they are essential, but the interpretation (and application) falls into the non-essential domain.

  

  And recall, non-essential does not mean unimportant. The non-essential domain is important: our convictions are expressions of worship. However, we offer grace to others in terms of how they interpret and apply non-essentials, even as we ask for grace from others in terms of our convictions.

• What about shared values and working together? [Includes Diagram 3]

  As mentioned, true unity doesn’t mean we agree with each other on everything or even most things. Our common faith is centred on the Godhead.

  However, it’s also true that unless we share the same values, it will be difficult to function effectively together in ministry and mission. If our convictions or priorities clash on core issues, we’ll probably do more damage than good if we try to work together on a common project.

  As with Paul and Barnabas—whose clash over John Mark was so significant, they chose to work separately (Acts 15:36-41)—missions or ministries based on shared values are more effective. In Paul and Barnabas’ case, one effective apostolic team became two effective apostolic teams.

  However, it goes without saying that reasoning from the whole to the part keeps us from idolising our part over the whole.

  Perhaps it may be helpful to represent Values as follows:

  

  The limitation in this diagram is that the Values circle may be viewed as a boundary of exclusion; that is, we only respect those inside the value circle. However, these circles do not refer to people; they represent our beliefs, convictions and priorities. Love governs how we relate to all people.

  Thus, in a spirit of self-giving love, we must work hard to heed Paul’s words, counsel that applies to both individuals within a local community or team and communities and teams within the wider Body of Christ:

  If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?”

  (1 Corinthians 12:15-19)

• What about the restoration work of the Spirit over the last 500 years?

  In advocating for true unity in this article, am I in danger of dismissing the restoration moves of the Spirit? Am I advocating for a spineless lovefest that’s passive and indifferent to the truths God has restored over the centuries?

  Anyone who knows me, knows my fondness for history and my appreciation for the restoration moves of the Holy Spirit that have brought us from entrenched Catholicism and the corrupt union of Church and State to the liberty we enjoy now—a freedom that allows us to continue to push the envelope, so to speak. (These restoration moves of the Spirit are briefly covered in the article Kingdom Communities, What is Wrong with Institutional Church?).

  However, in all true restorative moves of the Spirit, the restored truth eventually becomes embraced in mainstream Christianity. And the pioneers of the restored truth, if they survived the persecution, often tragically end in error—either doctrinally or in persecuting the next move of God.

  For example, right out the gate, Martin Luther—having freshly sparked the first wave of restoration by bravely defying the might of papal Rome—denounced the next wave pioneered by the Anabaptists. Luther called them “satanic agents”, arguing that all Anabaptists should be “hanged as seditionists”.

  The old wave first persecutes the new wave. Then when the old wave finally embraces the new wave, the new wave tends to fizzle out (but not before persecuting the next wave). It’s not a pretty history. As the saying goes, it’s nigh impossible to teach old dogma new tricks.

  I’m of the persuasion that we live in one of the most blessed generations in church history. The truths restored by the Holy Spirit through the courageous exploits of reformers past and present have brought us back to the beginning. We’ve dismantled the man-made instructional constructs of Christendom and we’re able to throw ourselves back into the likes of the Creeds, the Commandments and the Great Commission, free of the clutter of religion. Never has a generation of Jesus-followers enjoyed such widespread focus on the true Gospel of the Kingdom message and its implications as we do today.

  Am I suggesting that there’s nothing left to be restored? Not at all. I think the Father is actively at work restoring all things to Himself and there’s much heart surgery and mind renewal ahead.

  But a big part of this current work of the Spirit is getting to grips with what the unity of the Spirit means and how this translates into a more healthy, functioning ekklesia that balances the Church Universal, Local and Communal well. An executive body, alive with restored truth, through whom the Kingdom of God can advance in restoring all of creation!