For several months now I have been attending East Hills Moravian Church . I started attending here after a discussion with some friends of mine who were Moravians, in which they related to me a basic motto of their church:
In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love.
I have seen far too much strife within the church, so this motto really struck a chord with me. After attending Sunday morning services for several weeks I enjoyed my time worshipping with them but I was unclear about the line between “essentials” and “nonessentials”. This might seem like a minor detail, but it is actually quite important. If I am going to live by this motto, I must know when I have a responsibility to insist on the essentials and when I can safely agree to disagree.
Several weeks ago I had a conversation with a Moravian congregant in which I discussed my desire to learn the precise Moravian doctrines. This congregant responded that in his experience, the policy seemed to be that if we avoid discussing what the essentials are, then we cannot possibly disagree about them. While this is true, I think it is rather dangerous; if you never discuss the cornerstones of your faith you risk becoming merely a group of people who share a set of morals.
Last weekend I had an opportunity to lead a discussion group at Saturday Night Life, a gathering of interested people at Calvary Baptist Church of Allentown . Although I had already been thinking about this issue myself for some time, I thought it might be an interesting exercise to try to define the essentials of the Christian faith in a community of people of various ages, genders, and denominational backgrounds. We discussed the topic for an hour and a half or so and came to few conclusions other than an affirmation of the difficulty of the problem. We were able to agree conclusively on only a single essential statement — that only in Jesus Christ can God be fully understood.
Having taken some time to think through this on my own previously, I came up with this list:
- There exists a supernatural being known simply as God who by some method created humanity and the entire material world in which we live.
- Every man, woman, and child (with one exception explained below) has committed a sin — a thought or action that conflicts with the personality of God.
- A person who has sinned is separated from God by their sin and cannot exist with Him.
- At some point in history there lived a man known as Jesus who, while entirely human, was also entirely a part of God.
- The Jesus of whom we speak, because He was God, did not sin.
- Jesus died and in so doing paid the penalty for the sins of all people in all times.
- A person who accepts the sacrifice of Jesus may exist in the presence of God despite their sins.
There are many others beliefs that I and most other Christians also hold and think to be extremely important, but that I believe are not strictly essential. Here are a few examples:
- Each section of the canonical Bible is true, either literally, figuratively, historically, philosophically, allegorically, or, quite frequently, in multiple senses of truth.
- Jesus is the Messiah promised to the Hebrew nation through their great prophets.
- God is an active presence in the world who desires to communicate with His creation through prayer.
Any comments would be welcome.
The essential core of Christianity is an area that I’ve actually done a large amount of work on both for class and later on for myself. Personally if someone questions my orthodoxy (which has happened already) I tell them that I affirm the Nicene Creed – pretty much the historic standard of orthodoxy for both the East and the West.
The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Comment by John Grebe — February 21, 2006 @ 10:45 pm
[...] The Blogg is running a good piece on a recent discussion Bloggmiester Chad has been having with some of his friends, myself included. [...]
Pingback by chris cocca » Blog Archive » Essentials — February 22, 2006 @ 11:07 am
Hey Chad good post. I’d hate to think that you believe that most Moravians also think that by avoiding the discussion on essentials we don’t fight about them. There are in fact some clearly defined essentials for the Moravian faith. http://www.moravians.org/Moravian_Library1.html has the Ground of the Unity. This document outlines the basic tenets of the moravian church. There are several other documents on that page which are also worth reading if you’re looking for a better understanding. Pretty much everything else is considered non-essential as I understand it. There are also certain issues which the church is occasionally called to take a stand on (i.e. homosexuals in the ministry, abortion, etc…) these issues are generally discussed at synod which takes place something like once a year. When a decision is reached on these issues they are handed down more as guidelines than hard and fast doctrines. East Hills recently planned a series of meetings discussing this very issue. Unfortunately the first one fell on the morning of a snow storm so I’m not sure if it actually happened or not.
Now all that being said I am not near the theologian that Laura is and perhaps after my comments she will post something a little more cogent than my ramblings here. I would also encourage you to perhaps have a sitdown with Chris or Darrel about this I think they’d be excited to have this discussion with you.
–Mykroft
Comment by Mykroft — February 24, 2006 @ 11:25 pm
I do not particularly feel that i have anything “more cogent” to say, but check out the link that Matt sent you. If you explore the website further, you will definitely see that Moravians are more than willing to fight over what the essentials are. There were, a year or two ago, two major “fights” going on in Moravian theology; one regarding the ordination of homosexuals, and one regarding a pastor who was speaking out against the concept that Christ is the only means by which one can get into Heaven. All of the documented parts of said arguments can be found on the website. Also good to check out would be moravian.org (like the other site, without the “s”), which is the official website of the church. The first site has a more concisely organized set of Moravian documents, but is written by indivuduals within the church, which means that, aside from those foundational documents, you cannot take anything you read there to be the word of the church at large. The latter site is more official, and will give you a better idea of the day to day opinions and workings of the church as a whole. The interesting thing to note about Moravian doctrine, is that what you will read in those two documents (the Foundation of the Unity, and the Covenant for Christian Living, particularly the former) is essentially all there is to it. Most other denominations, particularly the more liturgical, have volumes and volumes. We have about 20 pages.
Comment by laura — February 25, 2006 @ 12:16 am
[...] 2. “Christians claim to be morally perfect but in fact are not.” This statement is patently false. By my definition of what beliefs constitute the core of Christianity, all Christians must believe that they are morally imperfect. [...]
Pingback by The Blogg » Myth #1: Christians Are Hypocrites — March 11, 2006 @ 11:13 am
[...] In response to my On “The Essentials” of Christianity post, one of my good friends from Bethlehem wrote a post in his own blog discussing his own religious beliefs. This is partially a response to him, although I have been meaning to write something similar for some time. [...]
Pingback by The Blogg » A Taxonomy Of Religious Belief — March 19, 2006 @ 4:04 pm