Jim Eisele wrote:
> George writes
>
> >>I should have been more precise. Given a person's background, we may
> indeed wonder in what sense a person is accepting the Statement of Faith.
> Furthermore, I see nothing wrong with frank discussion among members of
> theological differences in light of the creeds. But I don't think that the
> ASA as an organization should be investigating the theology of applicants
> for
> membership if they accept the Statement of Faith unless there is obvious
> evidence of dissimulation.
> As I said earlier, the ASA is not a Church and its Statement of
> Faith
> is not a condition for church fellowship. I think there are serious errors
> in
> the theology of the Unification Church & that's true in varying degrees for
> some other churches whose members are represented in ASA. There are strong
> and weak points in having a relatively broad statement of the type we
> presently have but I think the strengths outweigh the weaknesses.>>
>
> Hi George. What is the ASA's position on being born again? I
> believe that Christ considered it a necessity.
The Statement of Faith (which can be found at the ASA website
www.asa3.org) is as follows.
1.We accept the divine inspiration, trustworthiness and authority of the
Bible in matters of faith
and conduct.
2.We confess the Triune God affirmed in the Nicene and Apostle's creeds
which we accept as
brief, faithful statements of Christian doctrine based upon Scripture.
3.We believe that in creating and preserving the universe God has endowed it
with contingent
order and intelligibility, the basis of scientific investigation.
4.We recognize our responsibility, as stewards of God's creation, to use
science and technology
for the good of humanity and the whole world.
This says nothing explicit about being "born again." It also says
nothing explicit about the doctrine of justification, Baptism, Eucharist, the
nature of the church, the ordering of ministry, eschatology, and a lot of other
important topics.
Being "born again" is a good illustration of the problems we could get
into if we started to fine tune our theological membership requirements. E.g.,
I would point out that being "born again" (or "born from above" in Jn.3) is
generally connected with water baptism in the NT ("born again of water and the
Spirit"). I know that some Christians and some ASA members would dispute
this. We could have a fine theological discussion about this (which I'll be
happy to engage in with anyone off list) but it would hardly be helpful to the
primary purpose of ASA either to make a specific understanding of this a
requirement for membership or to spend a lot of time as our organization
debating it. That is the kind of thing that ecumenical dialogue is involved
with. ASA is not an all-purpose theological organization.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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