Memes seem to be like busses, you don’t see one for ages, then two come along at once. Lingamish has tagged me with another meme asking me to produce a basic Christian creed in 140 characters or less.
I don’t have time to really explore this at the moment, but I’ve been pondering the relationship between orthodoxy (believing the right stuff) and orthopraxy (doing the right stuff). David’s challenge states:
If someone sincerely confessed this creed you would:
- Consider them to be a brother or sister in Christ.
- Believe that they are true believers and inheritors of eternal life.
But I’m not entirely sure that any statement of faith would fully convince me of these things. I would want to see evidence of their faith worked out in actions too – by their fruits you will know them. I realise that this seems to go against the Evangelical view that salvation is by faith alone, but equally I believe that faith will produce concrete actions. So with all due respect for my esteemed colleague, I’m going to forgoe this meme till I can work out what my thoughts are on the subject. Sorry, David.
Update. Today’s cartoon from ASBO Jesus might have something to add to the subject – or it might not, but it is funny.
It’s funny how much trouble those 2 clauses gave people. And I laughed out loud at “esteemed colleague.” That was the standard preface from our director when our monthly reports were late.
Two words: dynamic tension. So many things in the Christian faith are held in dynamic tension: faith and deeds, engaging the world and escaping its evils, contextualizing the Gospel without modifying the gospel.
Regarding orthodoxy and orthopraxy, the Bible is clear on one thing: faith comes before deeds, so orthodoxy still has its place. I think the only place I would disagree with Mr. Ker might be on its role in identifying other brothers and sisters in Christ.
I’m with you entirely on this Nick. I think that David actually shot himself in the virtual foot by putting in the suggestion that this was how we should identify a brother or sister in Christ. If he’d asked me simply to sum up my own faith in 140 characters I’d have been forced to give another answer.
[...] creed, that is, one that was only 140 characters in length. I attempted it, as did a few others. But more interesting to me, were that some of these people refused altogether, or objected [...]