The book of Romans is laid out so that there are 11 chapters of doctrine BEFORE one word of living the Christian life. Believing precedes doing or the doing can become our undoing. So, it's critical that we know our core beliefs and stand firm in them so that no one can dissuade us from the Truth of the Gospel.
I've added a permanent page to both our Gathering websites that is not only for visitors, but for each of us, entitled What We Believe.
Here is what it says:
The essentials of what we must believe are summed up in the trinitarian formulation of the Apostle's Creed. However, the Apostle's Creed does not deal with many critical doctrines that are still essential, such as the Doctrine of Scripture, the Doctrine of Justification by Faith, and many more. I thought about writing my own confession, but God's Spirit persuades me that anything I would write would certainly not be as comprehensive or as thoughtful as those written in times past by many of the Reformers.The Gathering is an independent house fellowship not affiliated with any denomination or movement. We come from various backgrounds and religious traditions to study the Bible, encourage one another, and worship in simplicity the presence of Christ.
As to essentials, our beliefs mirror the Apostle's Creed.
As to other Christian doctrines, our teaching generally conforms to The Reformed Baptist Confession of 1689.
Our teacher, Dr. David K. Barnett, is an ordained Baptist pastor who has taught the Bible to pastors and church people for more than 30 years.
After studying many of the historic confessions of the Church, I have decided that the statement that most closely reflects my understanding of Scripture and permits me to be faithful to my ordination is The Baptist Confession of 1689. Don't react to the word Baptist (as many Texas Episcopalians have been conditioned to do). These weren't Southern Baptists. These were English Christians who disagreed with the over-wrought authoritarianism and hyper-sacramentalism of the Church of England. This is the faith of John Bunyan (the guy who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, not the guy with the blue ox) and Charles Spurgeon. I encourage you to read and study this confession for I think it provides a wonderful summation of Reformed faith. There are Scripture references for each of the statements to help guide your study. Please ask questions. The purpose of the creed is not to shut off dialogue, but to clarify what we believe and why we believe it.
One of the key differences between this and so many other historic confessions is the affirmation that no one in the church can make you conform to any practice, obligation, pronouncement, or human tradition that God instructs your conscience is contrary to His written Word (Section 21.2). Spiritual liberty is what typified the early dissenters to Anglican excess, and this seems to me to best represent at least the origins of our fellowship.
This confession is not and cannot be a loyalty oath, since it was written by men; but it is a historical guide. One statement in particular I think does not conform to my best study of God's Word: Chapter 29 on Baptism, specifically 29.4 "(Immersion, or dipping the person in water, is essential for the proper administration of this ordinance."). The early church did whenever possible immerse; in fact, the word baptism comes straight from the Greek word, baptizo, which meant immerse.
This statement is talking about the ceremony of baptism, not the theological truth of baptism. When possible, immersion probably does best symbolize the meaning of baptism -- our dying and being raised to new life with Christ. But if you were baptized as a child, or sprinkled, this does not mean you need to be re-baptized by immersion. My best study of Scripture is that the believer is baptized only once, and it doesn't matter how you are/were baptized. True baptism isn't primarily something the believer does; baptism is a symbol of something God has already done for the believer and is meant to provide a comfort that we belong to Christ. That the symbol of our unity should be used to fragment the Church is shameful. That the symbol of our comfort should be used to undermine the assurance of the believer is vile. It's not how much water that matters, for that would make baptism an empty "work" rather than the out-pouring of grace in Jesus. In summary, we should not count the mode of baptism as an essential of the faith, making a symbol mean more than the substance to which it points.
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Dr. David K. Barnett
The Gathering
214-264-7117
Dr. David K. Barnett
The Gathering
214-264-7117
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