Hills worth dying on.

Part 2:  What Essential Tenets are NOT...


Before I jump into trying to explain my convictions behind a statement of Essential Tenets of the Reformed faith, I want to say a little about what such a statement should NOT do.  This is important because there has been considerable resistance among Presbyterians regarding the idea of a list of Essential Tenets.  This has been surprising to me.  But as I've thought about it, it seems to me that much of the resistance comes from misunderstandings about what such a list would do.

1.  Some will say that we cannot identify a list of the essential tenets of the faith because God alone is Lord of the conscience.  This is an historic phrase from our tradition and it is a good one.  Certainly, it is God and God alone whom may bind our theological conscience in terms of what we should believe.  We can fully affirm this statement, especially as understood in its full context.  John Calvin believed that there are primary (non-negotiable) matters of theological conviction, and secondary matters.  The primary principles related to (1) the proper worship of God and (2) “the source from which salvation is to be obtained.”  Other matters (such as church government) were secondary.

In response:  Essential Tenets do not bind the conscience where it ought be free.
It is precisely in matters of faith and worship, where the scriptures have spoken clearly, that we are BOUND by the scriptures and are not free.  In every area that is NOT an Essential, then yes, God alone shall bind our conscience and our beliefs.  In terms of the Essentials, these are the convictions that we have held as true and non-negotiable throughout our history.

2.  Others oppose a list of Essential Tenets out of a fear that they will be used as an exclusionary list of required beliefs.  This is often refered to as a subscription approach.   One must “subscribe” to every thing we believe in order to be a part of our fellowship.

In response, Essential Tenets are not a subscription document.  They are not an attempt to identify what every Presbyterian ought to believe about every issue.  Essential Tenets are not an exhaustive checklist of required beliefs.  Essential Tenets will never be used as a criteria for membership.  Prospective members will still be asked only if they trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, turn away from sin and rely on God’s grace, and will be active participants in our covenant community of faith.

In terms of identifying people for ordained offices in the church, however, Essential Tenets could and should serve as a useful guide for committees to use in determining if a person’s beliefs, regarding the foundational truths of the faith, fall within the orthodox boundaries of our Reformed Christian tradition.

3.  Those who are opposed to any effort to identify a list of essential tenets will often insist that such a list diminishes the Confessions.  As Presbyterians, we place great significance on our Book of Confessions - the historic documents that explain our faith.   We believe that these Confessions are “authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do.”  Opponents of any list of essential tenets will say that it is enough to be familiar with the Confessions and to be guided by them.

In response:  Essential Tenets are NOT a replacement for the Confessions.
Richard Mouw suggests that we have fallen into a historical museum approach to understanding the Confessions.  We use words like “guided by” or “look to”.  You go into a museum and spend some time looking at the exhibits.  Perhaps you pick up an aesthetic sensitivity to the items being displayed.  You walk out feeling as if you learned something.

It seems to me that this is actually the most likely way to diminish the Confessions.  As Reformed Christians, we are after something more from our interactions with and reliance on the Confessions.  If they are “authentic and reliable expositions of Scripture,” then we ought to engage the Confessions with a sense of humility and a desire to be taught, shaped, even transformed.  Perhaps we engage the Confessions in the same way that we engage a sermon we listen to on Sunday morning.  

Essential Tenets does not diminish the Confessions in any way.  Instead, the Confessions are simply a summary of the foundational convictions that are embedded throughout those very Confessions in the first place.  Should one enter into a study of the Confessions with a list of the Essential Tenets in hand, that person would discover, on virtually every page, why these Tenets can and should be called “Essential.”

4.  Essential Tenets are not the end of the story.  They are not enough.  They don’t say anything about alot of things that are critically important.  These Essential Tenets are not an attempt to say everything that ought to be said about what we ought to think or do.  They are, instead, an attempt to identify the foundational convictions (the center pole if you will) around which we will build (in our Spirit led, covenant communities) our life together as people of God.


Next - my list.

Hills worth dying on.

The Essential Tenets of the Faith - An introduction.

"Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith..."  That is #3 in the list of 9 questions that make up my ordination vows.  I answered gladly, "I do."

But the bigger question is...what did I actually say yes to?  There is no official list of what those essential tenets actually are.  There have been many attempts to develop such a list.  Some presbyteries have adopted official statements on what they believe are the essential tenets of the faith.  But in many other presbyteries, and on the denominational level, any movement towards identifying the essential tenets of the faith has been  met with significant opposition.  At my very first Presbytery meeting here in Southeastern Illinois, we were divided into groups to talk about a motion to adopt the Essential Tenets document that was put together by San Diego Presbytery.  In our group, I took a risk and spoke up first to say that I'd always found it strange that I was asked in my ordination vows to sincerely receive and adopt a set of beliefs that no one will actually identify.  I spent the rest of the meeting listening to the group bash the idea of trying to tell someone what they ought to believe.

It has been suggested that our current approach leaves us in a position similar to that of the European Union.  The nations of the EU have a shared currency (the euro) but each nation has been allowed to develop their own fiscal policies.  Each nation in the EU has taken different approaches to how they understand and implement the use of their shared currency.  They have the same currency, but don't use it in the same way.  And this has significantly undermined the stability of the EU, from a financial perspective.  How can they grow when their own perspectives undermine each other?

Presbyterians suffer from a similar problem, though with a bit of a twist.  Though we, in theory, have the same currency (Jesus Christ), we have very different perspectives on how we understand the implications and underpinnings of faith.  The bigger challenge is that we cannot even agree on our "currency," which is to say our core convictions about Jesus Christ.

Our inability or refusal to identify the core, shared content of our faith makes it increasingly more difficult to move forward together (as churches, as presbyteries, even as a denomination) in terms of working out how we connect with and support one another and even moreso - how we share in mission together.  (Side point - when I say "share in mission," I'm not remotely talking about mission projects or sponsoring missionaries.  I'm talking about shared understanding of the mission of God and how we are to be people of that mission.)

Presbyterians often use the metaphor of a "Big Tent" to describe our denomination.  It is big enough to contain many different perspectives and opinions.  I genuinely believe that is one of the strengths of our denomination.  However, if we cannot identify and agree on the poles that hold up that tent, then we are not under a tent at all.  Instead, we are all wallowing around under a great, suffocating blanket of confusion.

I have come to believe that we desperately need to be able to identify the essential tenets of our faith.  Theology matters.  The content of our faith matters.  Not every theological expression is appropriate or acceptable.  There are some core convictions which support the big tent of our faith.  To be sure, within the bounds of those core convictions, there is tremendous room for different perspectives.  But I've grown to believe that it is precisely those essential tenets that create the room within which we can have the other hard conversations in the first place.

Over the next 2 weeks, I'll be blogging my thoughts on these Essential Tenets.  I hope you'll feel free to chime in.  I don't pretend to have final answers to these questions.  In fact, tomorrow's post will talk about what a list of essential tenets is not, and what it cannot do.

Peace