Dropsafe

by Alec Muffett

Wow: @CompassionUK’s Statement of Faith. Deserves sharing:

From here, my italics:

Compassion’s Statement of Faith

Compassion adheres to the statement of faith established by the World Evangelical Alliance.

We believe in:

The Holy Scriptures, as originally given by God: divinely inspired, infallible, entirely trustworthy and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

One God, eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, His virgin birth, His sinless human life, His divine miracles, His vicarious and atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension, His mediatorial work, and His Personal return in power and glory.

The Salvation of lost and sinful man through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith apart from works, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the believer is enabled to live a holy life, to witness and work for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Unity of the Spirit of all true believers, the Church, the Body of Christ.

The Resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life; and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.

A Catholic acquaintance skimmed the site and noted: They publish on their website a set of ‘Christian’ principles that are far from mainstream – and I would agree, not just in the phrasing (“Jesus Christ: Mediator”) – but also the “faith apart from works” which awkward phrasing comes across ambiguously, but would seem to reject (say) Catholic confession.

And the last paragraph? Well, damn.

⊞

Comments

13 responses to “Wow: @CompassionUK’s Statement of Faith. Deserves sharing:”

  1. Melanie Rimmer

    That last paragraph doesn’t sound awfully compassionate to me.

    Reply
    1. alecm

      Mel: yep, and the whole thing is not very ecumenical either; I was right about the “apart from works” thing:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_fide <- fascinating

      Reply
  2. Joe Henegan

    Hi. Me again.

    – This statement of faith is the same statement of faith as the Evangelical Alliance, which Compassion is a member. This makes the statement of faith very orthodox/mainstream.
    – The apart from works means separate from works. This means that there is nothing we can do (works) to inherit eternal life but we are wholly dependant on Jesus Christ’s works on our behalf. Our faith in his works is what saves us.

    Hope that helps

    Reply
  3. Joe Henegan

    I’m not sure why you’re comparing this to a Catholic view. Compassion is a protestant evangelical organisation, thus they believe different things to the catholic church

    Reply
    1. alecm

      Simply, I wondered whether the job specification’s requirement for a “personal commitment to the Christian faith” might actually be even narrower than advertised.

      Reply
  4. John Wilson

    According to articles of the Protestant faith they cannot be redeemed by good works but only by faith (articles 10-14 are relavent to this – article 14 is a doozy). They seem perfectly orthodox in this respect.

    They’re dotty, of course, but they’re dottiness is within the error bars of Protestantism.

    Reply
    1. alecm

      John: Does that work for Mormons, too ?

      Reply
  5. Nick

    Two points. Catholic confession works by faith, so technically talking about salvation by faith is not contradicted. It’s because just as we are saved by Christs grace, so we are forgiven. But asking for forgiveness is an act of faith, not a work. Trust me, it’s logical…

    Oh and Joe, being aligned to the EA means being outside the mainstream / orthodox. Let alone the majority (Catholic) and Orthodox!

    Reply
    1. alecm

      Nick: That is one of the most impressive pieces of Catholic theology I’ve ever encountered. It makes transubstantiation sound mundane.

      Reply
  6. Nick

    John: can you post a source for that list please? The EA basis of faith only had 11 on their website.

    Alex: /sarcasm? Although we do have a few doozies tucked away. I’ve heard tell of an argument that a duck is a fish. Means you cn eat it on a Friday…

    Reply
  7. John Wilson

    Alec,

    You can find all the articles of the Anglican Religion in the Book of Common Prayer. It should really be added to the Bible and the Complete works of Shakespeare as a given in Desert Island Disks. The language is very lovely.

    Reply
    1. alecm

      My father was a great fan; alas we had to read the NIV in school.

      Reply
  8. Simon

    Surely asking a Catholic about justification by faith is just opening old wounds needlessly 🙂

    I don’t know much about theology, but I do like the Reformation Polka.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4TeJJmQJqU

    The question of theological beliefs is irrelevant to the question that was being discussed.

    Protection of religion beliefs under the law are not generally dependent on how logical, self consistent, or likely to be right those beliefs are.

    Thus if a group said everyone has to pray together to get things done and thus must have faith, for example, a court would note other religious charities manage to maintain ethos and get stuff done with employees of other faiths or none.

    In this sense courts do rule on theological questions at times. Most commonly where those beliefs come into conflict with anti-disrimination or criminal law. Thus it is legal to believe cannabis is a gift from god, but you still can’t import it and smoke it.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts