|
What
Should Christian Students Believe? Understanding Doctrinal Statements ( including the
UCCF Declaration of Belief ) Written by The Revd Dr Stephen Laird Anglican Chaplain and Honorary
Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies, Click
here for details of Christian and other religious societies a Kent University
NB -
December 2006: For more about Christian Unions’ disputes with Students’
Unions at http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/united_we_stand_report.pdf NEW! Click here to read all about TECHNICAL
TIM and INTUITIVE IAN …and their adventures with Christian groups at the
‘ |
[NB: There is an academic bibliography at the end of this
page: if you are seriously interested in finding out more about some of the issues
addressed below you are strongly advised to consult the books listed. Included
are works by renowned Anglican scholars Canon F
Jesus criticised some of the religious leaders of his day because they
were making it more difficult for ordinary people to live good lives and
worship God.
In particular he
accused one group, the Pharisees, of introducing new laws and beliefs, and then
insisting that other people should keep them. Jesus said that these leaders
were piling on ‘burdens hard to bear’ (Matthew 23.4) which, if the truth were
told, even the Pharisees themselves couldn’t cope with! The Pharisees’
behaviour often ended up being in direct opposition to what Jesus said lies at
the heart of a life of true religion - loving God and your neighbour.
Even today
there are some Christian groups who seem to be imposing ‘burdens hard to bear’
on their members.
It seems as
though, in spite of Jesus’ teaching, there are people around who like to put
‘added extras’ onto the Christian Faith. They may think that their groups are
consequently more ‘correct’ than other Christians who also live lives of faith,
love and obedience to God, but who don’t (or won’t) take on board these ‘added
extras’.
What,
then, are the basic essentials of Christian belief today?
The core of
Christian belief is set out in special summaries of basic teaching called
Creeds. The Creeds are important because they are ancient, dating back to well
before the 4th Century AD; and because they express the AGREED
OPINION of the
The Christian Creed: a united voice
In the first few
centuries of its existence the Church was not divided up into different
traditions and factions as it is today. In those days leading Christians from
all over the world, representing Churches which Jesus’ own Disciples had
founded, were able to meet together and came to a single mind about the
essential content of the Faith. Perhaps what they agreed to can be said to be
‘the mind of Christ’, as Christians believe that the Church is his body, doing
his work here on earth today. The Church can only express itself fully as
Christ’s body if it speaks with a single voice.
The Christian Creed: an authoritative voice
The Nicene Creed
is revered by all Churches throughout the world. It is important because it
still sets out the agreed position of the
To be a Christian you need to respond to the Christian
message, be
baptised, belong to a Church community, try to live according to its Christian standards and
accept the teaching set out in the Creeds - nothing more and nothing less!
But
some Christian groups still insist on ‘added extras’…
IN STUDENT LIFE
you may well encounter lively groups of Christians who accept the teachings of
the Creeds, but also have their own additional
‘ doctrinal statement ’ or ‘ declaration of belief ’, which sets
out extra teachings to which they expect their members to subscribe.
They may ask people to sign a form to indicate that they agree with one of
these extra statements, saying that to do so "is just signing up to
what Christians believe".
These
statements and declarations can contain teachings that some
Christians may believe, but which are not found in the Creeds. The statements
may contain new emphases and ideas, which many Christians
find strange, outmoded, ignorant and sometimes even offensive!
Statements and Declarations of
Belief : are they ‘what all Christians believe’
…or ‘what some
Christians believe’ ?
Read on and then make your
own mind up!
Why
is it that some Christian groups still like to have their own declarations of
belief?
The reason for
this is lengthy and complicated. At times, certain groups of Christians have
felt threatened - threatened by what they see as ‘liberal’ teachings about
moral or doctrinal matters; or threatened by new scientific developments or the
study of the Bible by historians and archaeologists. ‘Doctrinal statements’ and
‘ declarations of belief ’ are among the ways some people have (over?-) reacted
in response to what they think are the ‘errors’ of others!
|
Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution: An example from recent history A classic moment of reaction from
some groups of Christians came in the middle of the 19th Century when The theory led many Christians of
the time to defend themselves by asserting more strongly than ever that the
biblical story of Adam and Eve is historically true. This was even though,
from the earliest times of Christianity, there had always been people who
were happy to accept that this story was just a myth! People who insisted
that the Bible was ‘true’ found themselves boxed in by their own prejudices. Wiser Christians were prepared to
make a more reasonable judgement. They took time to reflect and then adapted
their beliefs to the new situation.
|
EXAMPLES
OF DOCTRINAL STATEMENTS AND DECLARATIONS OF BELIEF
A famous doctrinal
statement called The Westminster Confession was put together in 1646-7:
it was an extreme, Puritan reaction against the national Church of the day.
Another, from 1909, called The Fundamentals (from where we get the term
‘fundamentalism’) was a reaction by some conservative Christians against
evolutionary theories and the academic study of the Bible. The group who put
together The Fundamentals wanted to separate themselves off from the ‘error’ of
Christians who accepted evolutionary theories.
A
‘declaration’ which is quite closely related to both of the ones just mentioned
is used by an organisation called UCCF - Universities and Colleges Christian
Fellowship. UCCF probably supports and encourages a Christian Union on your
College or University campus.
At
first sight the UCCF
Declaration of Belief looks
very similar to one of the historic Christian Creeds. But closer examination
and comparison with the Nicene Creed (use the links as directed) reveals that
it contains at least two new themes.
THE UCCF DECLARATION OF BELIEF: TWO 'ADDED EXTRAS'
The first of
these new claims is about the status of the Bible. Clause 3 of the UCCF
declaration reads:
"The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired and infallible Word
of God.
It is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and
behaviour".
You
will find nothing comparable or parallel with this assertion in the Christian
Creeds !
It has always been
the case that different Christian groups have held different opinions about the
authority of the Bible: some Christians say that they ‘take it literally’,
claiming that it is the ‘Word of God’.
Other Christians
stress that the Bible is a collection of ancient documents which carry great
authority through their use by the Church but which, nevertheless, need to be
studied intelligently. They say that Bible teaching must be applied cautiously
and with an up-to-date scientific and historical awareness to situations in the
modern world.
Yet
the UCCF declaration actually adopts a very extreme position in relation
to the authority of scripture, using the words ‘infallible’ and ‘supreme’. Look
at this chart:
|
If the Bible is ‘infallible’ and ‘supreme’, then: The
world was created in 6 days (Genesis 1) Snakes
could once talk to humans (Genesis 3) Bats
are birds (Leviticus 11) Homosexuals
are condemned (Romans 1; I Cor 6) Governments
are put there by God - if you rebel against one you oppose God (Romans 13; I Peter
2) Wives
should submit to their husbands and obey them (Ephesians 5; Titus 2) This is what the Bible says when you 'take it literally' …but do you really agree with
all those things ? …surely we also need to use our powers of reason, and look at the way
the Church has adapted its moral teaching and outlook to meet new situations
in history, as well as read the Bible.
|
It
looks as though the UCCF Declaration of Belief could have the effect cocooning
some Christians from the real challenges of science, recent Biblical study and
positive social change. Is this is a good thing?
AND THERE IS A SECOND DIFFICULT IDEA IN THE UCCF
DECLARATION OF BELIEF
It is surprising
that an organisation like UCCF which claims to encourage students to understand
and be alert to Biblical teaching is, in its very own declaration, seems
to be rather out of line with what the Bible actually says! This is most
famously the case where Jesus’ death and the process of our redemption is
described.
Clause 6 reads:
"Sinful
human beings are redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through
the sacrificial death once and for all time of their representative and
substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God".
Here, the UCCF
statement actually owes more to one of the more extreme of the 16th Century
reformers, John Calvin. It was the lawyer Calvin who, obsessed with human
notions of justice and punishment, first stressed the centrality of this
particular theory of how Christian people are redeemed through the death of
Christ. Basically, Calvin said that mankind is wicked and fully deserving of
God’s punishment. But, on the cross, Jesus ‘took the punishment’ which we
deserved. As a result, anyone who responds in faith to this saving act is ‘let
off the hook’. This is sometimes called ‘the penal substitutionary theory of
atonement’: for more about this see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitutionary_atonement
and the links provided.
If
Calvin had read his Bible more thoroughly it is unlikely that he would have
come up with such a narrow and biased explanation of how our salvation was
achieved through the saving work of Jesus Christ! The reason for this as
follows:
It is very clear
is that the New Testament offers very many different explanations for
Jesus’ death and the process of our redemption (almost as many explanations, in
fact, as there are New Testament authors!).
Paul
writes that
Jesus’ death and resurrection allows people to enter (through baptism,
and ‘participation’ in Jesus’ death) a new kind of humanity (Romans 6; see also
John 3.4). And don’t forget that Jesus often forgave people their sins during
his life (Matthew 7.6). Our forgiveness and redemption by God is centred,
then, on the whole process of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (not
just one moment on the cross).
Luke’s
gospel
contains no suggestion that Jesus Christ’s death was ‘a sacrifice for sins’.
Instead it is portrayed as an ultimate act of obedience by Jesus to God, an
example of the obedience which we, as Jesus’ disciples, are called to follow.
And forgiveness of sins, in one of Peter’s speeches in Acts of the Apostles,
comes from the risen and exalted Christ, not the crucified Christ:
"by his own right hand God has now raised him (Jesus) up to be our leader
and Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins through him to
Israel" (Acts 5.31).
This
may all sound rather complicated, and it is quite specialised stuff. But,
experts agree, Clause 6 of the UCCF Declaration is far from being a fair
summary of the Biblical teaching about Jesus’ death, and our redemption.
One or two
suggestions of the view in Clause 6 are to be found in the New Testament
(Mark 10.45, Romans 3) but these are not crystal-clear in themselves, nor do
they tell us the whole story!
Doctrinally
speaking, Jesus’ death is like a many-faceted jewel: there are a number of
lively and interesting interpretations of this great historical moment in the
New Testament, but the UCCF declaration has clearly ‘short-changed’ us.
The UCCF claims
to advocate the supreme authority of Scripture, but Clause 6 seems to owe more
to John Calvin! The UCCF has presented us with only one facet of
the teaching of the New Testament about Christ’s death and our redemption, and
even this has been strongly flavoured by the opinions of Calvin. Oh dear! A
Declaration of Belief seems to have let us down !
People
can to sign up to any statement they want if they fully understand and accept
the teachings it contains. But they should not if there is anything they are
uncertain about, or unhappy with.
There
is no requirement for Christians to sign the UCCF Declaration - it is not
a statement of ‘what Christians believe’. Instead it is only a statement of
what some Christians believe!
Generally speaking, doctrinal statements…
…divide
Christian communities from each other
(remember how the Pharisees divided themselves off from other Jews in Jesus’
day). Jesus prayed that as Christians we should all be ‘one’ (John 17.20), not
separate ourselves off into cliques;
…are
‘burdens hard to bear’, encouraging people to believe things which are
difficult or unnecessary;
…are
not true to the teaching of the Creeds of the
…stifle
intelligent enquiry and intellectual development among those
who have signed up to them, or ‘feel that they should’;
…encourage
hypocrisy if people sign them when they don’t really believe or
understand some of the new teachings they contain;
…prevent
the healthy sharing of fresh and different viewpoints within the
(often young) communities using them.
If, after
reading this, you still agree with a doctrinal statement similar to the ones
discussed, perhaps this web page has helped you to engage with some of the
important issues that the statement raises, and left you with stronger
convictions than ever.
If
you are now concerned about doctrinal statements and declarations of belief,
then don’t sign one! If one is put in front of you, then tell the people who
are hoping you will sign it why you refuse, and show them this web page.
Did you find
this essay ‘aggressive’ towards your own Christian standpoint? If so, have you
ever thought that Christian people who do not feel the need to hold onto
a defined doctrinal basis or declaration (like the ones described here) feel
that those who do insist on others signing or agreeing to doctrinal statements
are also being ‘aggressive’? If you think my essay is a ruthless piece of
polemic, then don’t forget that so was much of the preaching of the Protestant
reformers… (the root of the word ‘Protestant’ is ‘protest’!)
Christian people everywhere, whether ‘liberal’
or ‘conservative’ need to realise that in today’s difficult world (where
practising Christians are in the minority) they should dwell on the things that
UNITE them rather than the things which divide them. It is only in this way
that we can set a good example as a united people, and that our energies can
properly be directed towards what we ought to be doing, which is showing the
love of Christ to the outside world.
Below is some useful additional reading.
These are very good books, written clearly by recognised experts. John Barton
is Professor of the Interpretation of the Bible at
You may also wish to view the UCCF’s (recent,
new) commentary on their Declaration of Belief: see their own website. I
suspect their pages of explanation of their Declaration of Belief were, to an
extent, written as a response to my essay here, which has been on the web for
many years and has won both popularity and notoriety! There is a lot on the
UCCF page about why they have the declaration; but no real response to
the specific doctrinal issues I have raised here.
Easy:
J Barton, Making the Christian Bible (DLT 1997)
D R Ord & R B Coote, Is the Bible True
? (SCM 1994)
D Tomlinson, The Post Evangelical (Triangle/SPCK
1996) – this book is good at explaining the ‘social atmosphere’ of certain
Christian groups we may encounter or be part of today.
Harder:
J Barton, People of the Book (SPCK
1988)
F W Dillistone, The Christian
Understanding of the Atonement (SCM 1984) – see especially p195f.
The
author of this web page is always happy to discuss any of the points raised
here,
especially
with leaders and members of University Christian Unions
who
may be having some kind of ‘trouble’ over a doctrinal basis.
My E-mail is: s.c.e.laird@kent.ac.uk