Dick Fischer wrote:
> .............................................................................
>
> The one common denominator for all ASA members is that we are
> professing Christians and hold to certain essentials of the faith:
> the prophetic announcements, the virgin birth, that Christ was
> without sin, that He performed miracles, vicarious atonement, shed
> blood for remission of sin, the resurrection of the dead, and the
> second coming (we probably vary a bit about that). We beat each
> other about the head and ears on non-essentials. Did Adam have a
> navel? Was the flood global or local, and blah, blah, blah.
.............................................................
It is important not to overstate (or understate) what is
required by the
ASA Statement of Faith. (I would encourage anyone who hasn't seen it
or is hazy
about it to look at it on the ASA web site.) This statement does not
explicitly
set out the doctrines listed above and does not, e.g., exclude from membership
someone who interprets the accounts of Jesus' conception in Matthew and Luke as
something other than historical and biological fact. I am not saying that such
an opinion is correct, nor am I trying to start a debate about virginal
conception (though I probably will). But we shouldn't give the impression that
the requirements for ASA membership are more restrictive than they in fact
are.
Shalom,
George
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